Catching Up With Danielle Meder

Danielle Meder of Final Fashion has set off on an adventure to London. She is currently living, working and traveling around Europe. I thought it would be great to catch up with her and talk a bit about her latest fashion discoveries and experiences abroad! Check out her website at Final Fashion.

A: Have you been attending fashion events? What are the differences?

D: I've been lucky to attend a few fashion events, though not enough to be able to give a definitive list of differences. I am very much an unknown quantity here, and scoring event invitations is tricky. I'm sending out requests for London Fashion Week now, and I've never had to deal with such a high ratio of rejection before. So far, my impressions are: what I do is not remarkable or unique here - there are tons and tons of great bloggers, creative illustrators, image makers and independent creatives. Its inspiring and humbling. Its not that different than Toronto in a lot of ways, people are kind and fun and its easy to make friends. There is a much more international, less provincial flavour here of course - because cities are so much closer together, its common to meet many people from many different places. It is hard to tell if the scene is even that much larger just because its still so novel to me.

A: Where have you visited so far?

D: I've been lucky enough to go to Berlin and submit coverage to FLARE.com. I went to see the Dr. Martens factory. And of course, I've been thrilled to enjoy a lot of exhibits and museums.

A:

Favorite café or place where you are inspired

D: I like to sit in my room at night with the lights out, and daydream at night while looking over the lights of East London. There is a place in a park by my house, where there is a terrific view of The City skyline, and on sunny days I like to sit there. I enjoy picking up a filter coffee at Brick Lane Coffee and sipping it while wandering around my neighbourhood. Everywhere I go I meet new people and see new things. The whole experience of landing in an unknown city is inspiring.

A:

Where do you want to go next?

D: While living in London, I'm planning on making trips to Paris, Istanbul, Glasgow, and hopefully Berlin, again. There are so many exotic (to me) places within easy reach. I'm already thinking about other cities where I would like to live for a while as I am in London... I'd love to live in Montreal for a while, and of course someday soon I'd like to see how long I could hack it in New York City.

A: Danielle can you include one of your latest sketches and tell the story behind it?

D: I've attached a sketch I did at a live drawing session which was part of an event by an organization called All Walks, held at the National Portrait Gallery. It was a great little class with a big surprise at the end of it - one of my heroes, and this century's greatest living fashion illustrator, David Downton, came and offered his comments to the class, and specifically pointed out and complimented this illustration. It was truly a life highlight.