Hi All,

Well winter holidays have come and gone and the next term is about to start...tomorrow in fact. Bittersweet feeling personally as I have now realised that this is my last winter holiday as a student. However as melancholic as I’m feeling right now, I know this feeling is short-lived. I am graduating in plus minus four months. I am literally bursting at the seams with excitement as I know my life is about to start, in a real way. I do not want to wish the next few months away though...so I will remain focussed on the subject at hand.

My end of year collection was leading in a direction that I couldn’t quite keep up with. I lost sight of my end goal and I felt as though my collection disappeared from anything that represented me. After interning with the one and only Colleen Eitzen (www.colleeneitzen.co.za just do it, trust me) I found the motivation to adapt my collection to perhaps the new me?  I feel now as though I can present a true piece of myself when the time comes in my final months at Fashion College.  If there was any advice that I could perhaps lend to a struggling designer such as myself, it is to not forget who you are, and what you choose to represent as this. I learnt a very valuable lesson through Colleen that went something like this “you have missed a fundamental part of the design process and that is to design what you can achieve yourself.” With this vital lesson, I have chosen to start again and produce a line that I am proud of and represents all that is MADELEINE.

Wish me luck x

Colleen Eitzen-SA Fashion Week 2012-Spring Collection