Last week I mentioned about my goal to convey the differences between the American and British way of learning (if there are any). I am beginning to believe that these so-called differences are merely stereotypes. I’ve heard the British learning system is harsh, rigorous with high education quality that would leave you extremely intelligent. However, I haven’t encountered this yet. If anything, the British learning system is similar to my studying in America. Of course, I’m only speaking from only two weeks of experience in one class (The London Look) that is a fashion course. Perhaps when starting my second class, I would see more rigor or “British” learning, being it’s a Psychology class.

  Not only am I finding British learning similar to American learning, I’m seeing that it also is more relaxed! This week, Tuesday, the tutors and the class embarked on another field trip; this is the second in two weeks! We visited both the Royal Pavilion and Brighton Museum in order to analyze deeper into the architecture, politics, and art that influenced dress. I found it brilliant to study fashion outside the classroom and the textbook. It was a very great experience in the end because I had an opportunity to view fashion “alive” and “in person”, as if I was there. I had a deeper knowledge of not just dress, but also setting and context of dress.

 First, we went to the Royal Pavilion. There, we looked at the architecture of the building. We couldn’t quite enter it, but the outside was enough for one to become excited about.  It resembles the Taj-Mahal with an Indian look and is cream-colored. According to one of the tutors, it was being built in late eighteenth century and early nineteenth, but the design was actually out-of-style during that time period. Therefore, these architects were attempting to revive an old style–very similar to what fashion does. The Pavilion was a building in which the wealthy class could attend its events, mingle,  enjoy balls and dance parties. The outside of the building was absolutely my favorite part of it. From the look of it, it seemed to captivate the attention of  people. This is perhaps why the wealthy took to liking it; it had a “wealthy” look to it. What a beautiful sight!

 

   Next, we went to the Brighton Museum. We looked at furniture/art that influenced dresses as far as pattern and design. Then, we saw portraits of women from different time periods in dresses. The Art Deco was my favorite. It was a  period that influenced fashion greatly with its geometric shapes of triangles, rectangles and circles and bold colors such as orange, black, red and brown. This inspired dress patterns and earring designs with shapes on them. These designs are still seen today. We then looked at portraits of dresses, seeing dress in a different light. Art was hugely important throughout history, and it showed in the paintings. I saw dresses from the 1600’s, 1700’s 1930’s and ’40’s. But aside from that, I saw the settings in which these women would wear the dresses, the hairstyles they would fix to go with the dresses, and also different types of shoes. The amazing difference between viewing a bunch of dresses in a book and the museum is that I can see the full context of a dress and gather all of that information together. It was the best way of learning.

   So far, the British learning is more relaxed than the American. I feel that if I were in an American classroom learning about historical fashions, I would be staring in a book for the most time. And they call the British harsh!

Location: Brighton, England