“Patch With Love”
Simple patching and embroidery techniques, why complicate things?
“Patch With Love”
Very excited! TheLinaHellgrenCreative. x CRISIS Muswell Hill is dropping in store on Monday!💙
Been altering and up cycling garments since I was a little kid, mostly for myself and friends, so feel privileged to have had the pleasure to put some love and elbow grease into a denim-based collection for the very cool CRISIS Muswell Hill . The collection is a beautiful potpourri of donated garments, multicultural fabric swatches, yarns, threads, pieces of jewellery and light social commentary
The team in the shop is amazing, kind, knowledgeable and truly invested in their mission💙
CRISIS support collaborations with local artists and designers on a regular basis in various branches, find out more in a store close to you if curious💙
Come see, come shop and join us in a free workshop ( click link to book ) on Wednesday 4th Dec 2.30-5.30pm!💙
I'll share easy patching and simple embroidery techniques to mend holes and rips in your clothes. Limited spaces so book early!
Come see me at TheLinaHellgrenCreative. VINTAGE POP-UP Saturday 27th July!
Fancy some evergreen outfit additions to your wowsa repertoire? Come see me and plenty of vintage goodies at my Pop up 27th July!
Print and Pattern inspiration for industry creatives and more!
Hosted by Barnet Furniture Centre, 4 Queens Parade Close, Friern Barnet, N11 3FY.
Will be lovely to see you there!
“THE COLOUR OF BITTERNESS” A fashion tale from a collection of short stories
A colourless woman.
Let’s talk about colours. The true colours of certain characters and the colour of emotions, betrayal and love.
As a creative woman working a lifetime in fashion, I’ve had plenty of long and colourful serpentine years to reflect on what colours I like and the tones that makes me shine. I’m drawn to a plethora of hues that lifts your spirit.
I’ve happily worked my way through a glorious career full of curiosity for connecting mood and personalities with colours.
My daughters are fresh out teenagers as I write this, and I’ve watched them shift from a pleasant baby blue to a full blown tone of angry purple. Experienced mums around me calms me with the knowledge that this headstrong screaming tone will soften when they’re about 18.
The little unsullied rosebud me mostly mused about the scarcity of cotton candy coloured pink platform sneakers and matching imaginary red hot polka dot stick ponies jumping in the backyard. Or how to escape mum’s sturdy hands frantically washing my tousled self-styled and mushed black berry home dyed hair at bathtime and sleepy bedtime tales about mini-Coco Chanel in sharp black and white twin sets.
At the end tail of a very frosty blue cold February 2023, I encountered the ugliest looking shady shade in my life, never had I laid my eyes on such an unflattering colour. After the chocking discovery of this dreary colour, I spent time, plenty a terrible time that is, to ruminate, examine and cry over other human’s poor taste and badly coloured behaviour.
I’m forever sworn not to utter any gory details the colour mix ; The Godfather blood red horse head in the bed style, but oh boy, am I often dreaming about clever ways of painting my horror story to the world, how to loudly express it to all the beautiful women I know.
As a movie buff I liken what was to happen as ‘The Devil Wears Prada darkest of dark’.
Telling a story, when your voice is stitched up; I call it “speaking in paint”, drawing pictures that says it all, without any words. I call it fashionable grieving in conversations to my husband, I say “dress yourself like a rainbow, don’t be influenced by shiny looks with ugly and muted colour combos” to my daughters.
The chilling discovery of the shade of bitterness occurred without any pre-fit or foreboding.
A call to a meeting, on teams.
Like a colourless slap in my face, sharp as a scissor, I was about to be thrown into the dark gaping landfill,
‘You’re old season darling!’
The slap was delivered by a woman I thought was my friend and accompanied with an absence of care and taste. Perhaps I’m making this bit up; but I’m almost sure she wore a greyish snake skirt, a prison bar striped polo neck jumper and steel blue clawlike perfectly manicured nails for the occasion. Her face like a wall of grey dried up cement, with icy steel button like eyes hiding behind her Anna Wintour wannabe dark sunglasses. Words coming out of her jagged mouth, mechanically and frosty.
The news of the impending landfill dump made my face a pasty white, and quickly spread a chill that crawled deep inside my heart.
Suddenly I was little again, the smallest I’ve ever been, no cotton candy coloured pink platform sneakers or red-hot polka dot stick ponies carrying me on the catwalk of life. I was deeply hurt and unsure as of why the news of this awful thing was thrown at me with avalanche force, burying me deep under in silent heavy darkness.
Had I not been the best, the most bright, creative and trusty hue in the palette, just a moment ago?
Could it be, that I, as of lately, had put my heel down, for the first time in decades, and not participated in the woman’s tincture mixing, in her latest dark soap opera episode she cunningly conducted behind shady closed curtains? I will never know.
Small and vulnerable, gutted and raw, a dropped chunk of dirty and gritty nothingness, messy threads, cut up and discarded pieces of fabric, left in a gutter somewhere, in desperate need of mending.
Besides feeling black and blue, with invisible bruises and cuts, my whole being took on an unflattering tone of bitterness. This ugly shade insisted to dress me every day, from morning to noon, wherever I went, whatever I did. I cried bitter tasting tears, I mourned the decency of mankind’s evil colour ways.
This colour did not look good on me. It was not a colour I deserved.
Bitterness is dulling, it overtakes all the beautiful colours and patterns that brightens your soul.
Bitterness makes one want to disappear in the starless depths of empty drawers, it erases the rosebuds on your cheeks, and God forbid you try to wear it anywhere else but, in the pitch-black inner wardrobe of your mind.
Time moved on, leaving the distance longer between me and the woman. With loving tenderness and support, from friends close to me, more than willing to soothe and clothe me in warm pink hugs, a very skilled psychotherapist, always donning cute flowery dresses, and a superhero dapper husband, somewhere in the deep orange twilight late last Summer and the cerulean clear promising skies of Autumn, the black and the blue and the colour of bitterness slowly started to fade.
The memory of the betrayal from the woman still lingers deep in my invisible scars, I’m forever a soul of kintsugi now, but I’m grateful she showed me her true colours, and that I no longer have to endure her wicked games.
The colour of love has reintroduced itself to my wardrobe, dressing my heart with joy and I’ve welcomed it with open arms, blush pink lipstick and high heels.
Short non-fiction story: “TWATS – The Women’s Association Togetherness Society”
Sandy, a woman on the phone.
Please note names have been changed as the synopsis of this common story comes through anyhow.
With computer in my lap, sitting in the garden, I was going through my mail, enjoying a moment of silence, the kids where at a friends house, and my husband was watching football. A ping, new mail:
”Hello Ms. Hellgren,
I hope all is well and you are having a nice day. I wanted to reach out and follow up on the application you submitted to join The Women's Association Togetherness Society. Our records indicate that you spoke to one of our membership coordinators a while back and they approved your application. Congratulations! However, it's noted that you did not yet complete the membership enrollment process.”
The other week a colourful and graphically pleasing advert on instagram caught my eye.
”Are you a female solo entreprenuer seeking support from a global professional network of likeminded women? Apply today for membership to our womens only network and enjoy free exclusive benefits, workshops and learning programs”
Oh, sounds good, I thought and scribbled down the details. I felt happy, lucky me coming across this opportunity, just what I was looking for, and decided to fill in the online application. It was very straightforward, all you had to do was to tell a little about yourself, your company details, area of expertise, where you lived and your phone number. I enthusiastically clicked send.
A few days after I sent my application, I had a phone call late afternoon. Spread out on my bed, in pyjamas, the evening sun sliding away from sight in the bedroom windows, drinking honey infused mint tea and eating chocolate. American country code, New York.
Hello?
May I speak with Miss Lina Hellgren Bullock?
Speaking.
”Hi, my name is Sandy and I’m phoning from The Women’s Association Togetherness Society.
“You recently applied to become a member?” She had a strong American accent and her voice was confident and friendly. I imagined Sandy sitting at a desk in a bustling high rise office somewhere in Manhattan, next to rows of other Sandy's in sharp cream coloured silk blouses and smart dark navy pin stripe suits.
Yes, I did, nice to talk to you Sandy.
”It’s my pleasure Miss Hellgren. If it’s a convenient time for you to speak, we would love to conduct a short interview, to get to know you a little bit more and to access your suitability for membership. Here at the TWATS we pride ourselves to ensure our community is a safe and professional space for entrepreneurial women who seek peer support in their career and business endeavours ” - Sandy said in a very professional tone.
Sure, now’s a good time. I took a quick nibble of my chocolate bar, pressed it soft in my mouth and swallowed silently.
Continuing in a very calm, soothing voice, Sandy asked me all the right questions, about my aspirations as a business woman, my values and future dreams. Whilst sipping the sweet tea, we spoke about my long and various experience in the fashion industry and found common ground in our advocacy for retaining more mature women in the creative industry. We bonded over the challenges of maintaining balance between work and private life. We reminisced about late nights working hard and missed playtime moments with our kids.
Our conversation was so insightful and empowering, it was a joy speaking with a woman that seemed to share so many worthy values and views on what really matters in a competitive industry. This wonderful Sandy lady in her shiny high rise Manhattan office filled me with hope of exciting global networking, fruitful knowledge exchange and sisterhood collaborations.
We spoke for quite some time.
”So”, Sandy said after her final question, she cleared her voice with a long ceremonial pause…. ”Miss Hellgren, I am hereby pleased to inform you that your application to The Women’s Association Togetherness Society has been accepted! Welcome!”
Oh, wow, fantastic! I replied excitedly. My mind filling up with visions of transatlantic connections, wise strong women and togetherness.
”Now, all you need to do is to decide what kind of membership you want.”
Huh?
”Yes, would you like a lifetime membership or 6 months?”
Uhh, not sure, I replied slowly, what’s the difference?
And then Sandy’s voice suddenly revved up, her tone a higher pitch. Sandy, was that really her name, started to babble away about money, credit card payments, the urgency of paying now, over the phone, in order to get the big exclusive discount they where offering only today if going ahead with the membership.
Alarm bells. Heart sinking and stomach churning. I swiftly made up an excuse that I had received a sudden text message from school, prompting me to urgently pick up one of my kids, appologised and hanged up.
It was dark outside now, tea cold, empty chocolate wrapper next to me. Sitting up on my bed, I opened Trustpilot in my browser, searched TWATS reviews, most reading ”IT IS A SCAM!”. Heart sunk to the bottom by now.
Then something weird happened, instead of getting angry, and telling myself what a fool I am, I told myself:
”You had a lucky escape there lady!”
The rest of that evening I briefly thought of having another conversation with Sandy, but decided to remember our conversation and her interview with me as an experience to take with me next time someone asks me about my future aspirations.
I still think of her though, wondering how she feels about her own job and her aspirations that probably didn't turn out as she wished.
This Sunday 2nd June at 8.45am BST: UNLEASH YOUR INNER CREATIVE BEAST!
Woman pointing out a fun chilled event!
Online workshop for women Sun 2nd June 8.45am BST: Exploring your inner creativity for growth
A lightweight workshop and fun introduction to creativity if you think you haven’t got it or wonder what it means to you.
What is creativity and creating? Why is it important in our modern lives and always has been, throughout time, on all levels.
With support and guidance from two multidisciplinary creative practitioners, Virginie Tolly and me, Lina Hellgren Bullock, we will explore, discuss and interact together with the aim to uncover what creativity means for you.
How can you use creativity to process your feelings and to feel empowered and self-connected in your everyday life?
This workshop is a free pilot, especially designed for "women who identify as curious creativity beginners" and all you need to bring is,
pen and paper and a mix of tools of your own preference!
Some suggestions below:
Anything you can find at home, crayons, paint, scissors, brushes, old magazines, recycled packaging, pieces of fabric, or that jar of jam collecting mould in the fridge?
Welcome to join us for a fun moment of sisterhood 💕
Me and Virginie have worked for over 15 years + as designers in creative fields for major leading industries and are passionate about personal development and Art.
To join: Unleash your inner creative beast!
"Let’s talk about age baby, let’s talk about you and me”.
“Queuing for the club”
I&D 3.0 and the future of automation connected to wellness.
As well as seeking meaningful and social change collaborations, where my creativity can be used to pimp concepts and products,
I am also seeking roles in businesses that I admire. So far I’ve mainly gone down the traditional route of hiring platforms.
Times have changed since I worked with talent acquisition, from bespoke personal involvement to hard-core automation.
Great that the paper trail is no more. I made a paper shredder catch fire once in a heavy regular clean up. Not very H&S.
Great that efficiency and speed of processes have been revolutionised.
But, there’s a downside to over-relying on automation, missed opportunities, and in worst case, bias and discrimination.
That is if your algorithms are not up to date with I&D.
Got an idea for you, feel free to implement, it will build your credibility as a business and communicate that you are "with it".
The idea:
The global wellness market is steadily growing and has huge potential for lucrative innovation.
McKinsey Global Wellness Trends 2024 points out healthy aging as one of their top 7 growing areas.
Healthy aging means your chronological age is just a number.
Many hiring platforms often prompt you to put your chronological age bracket in, with the occasional sweet I&D “Prefer not to say”.
Instead of chronological age, make a tick box for applicants biological age. This is far more useful information for potential employeers.
And as everything in life, a healthy balance, human touch & tech is king!
Basic Instinct: Not the movie
A recent photo of great enthusiasm.
I literally wake up every morning filled with ideas of things I excitedly can't wait to try out;
apps, writing, art, building something, social good concepts and more! To call it enthusiasm is an understatement.
I used to hang with a few people, whom when I presented some of my thoughts or ideas, often said something along these lines "ooooh, Lina, you’re crazy” some with a strange smile, not the kind of smile that makes you feel good.
Did you know there is actually, according to research, in general very little correlation between being “crazy” ( whatever that means nowadays ) and being overly creative. There!
If your brain is a treasure vortex of mad, bad, good ideas and concepts, do embrace it and make the most of it.
Try, test and experiment, you are gifted with creativity, submerge yourself in this deeply rooted and healthy emotional urge.
This wanting to create is a beautiful basic human instinct.
You’re lucky if you are in tune with it.
Conversations with AI: “A button business idea for you”
“Explorers”
Conversations with AI: “A button business idea for you”
Dear AI,
You know I love my social media, I’m a massive sucker for instagram, classic for work-research-creative sharing and community building.
Follow me here: https://lnkd.in/eUR-8FyB
No need to follow me on my personal private account that is mainly used as a goofy, happy, sad and emotionally lit therapy substitute. Anyhow….
Had an idea this morning, don’t be sad dear AI, but can you ask your big bosses if we can add an Algorithm-off button, just curious what would happen, I get so excited just thinking about it!
You see AI, it’s getting a bit boring being served up content that is driven by a kind of Catch-22 concoction of clever dopamine marketing and humans willingness to conform. I know you want to make lots of money, me to, who doesn’t?
What’d you say AI? An Algorithm on-off button?
I’ll design the packaging etc, thinking juicy patterns and colour ways already! You’ll loose a lot of customers at first, but in the long run it’s gonna sell like butter!
In hindsight, I can’t judge my tweens scrolling stamina, as I’m part of the problem. I gave them a smart phone fairly early on, the fomo nagging was to much to handle and their quest for dopamine is at it’s peek.
We can’t go back, and tech in general can do much good, but as their brains are in a major re-construction mode, I think this on-off button would promote their ability to innovate, create and explore the world in a much more individual way. 💚
Podcast listening tip: The Rich Roll Podcast/Episode “Jonathan Haidt On How Social Media Is Rewiring Childhood” https://lnkd.in/eur6YqWE
It inspired me to try to drag the kids back to exploring in the woods, see if the swing rope we tied up toghether is still there over the Dollis Hill stream….
Speak soon, X Lina
PS. Sorry I didn't re-write this with your help AI, I just love writing to much to share the fun with you...
“Out with the new and in with the old”
Me, sometime in the past, donning a very cool pink Celine AW24 style fur ball coat.
Or "Why a multigenerational team should be your priority”
Amongst the daily obsession with AI, and our interesting attempts to utilise it in the best way, I do hope you all get a healthy dose of art & design history. Tapping into classic designers and old or semi contemporary artists and methods is so important to be able to relate to new ideas and concepts,
everything is connected to the past in some way.
I’ve studied a lot of catwalks and trends throughout my career, and it’s fascinating to see re-constructed past aesthetics come and go, and then come again. Side note, hopefully I&D in a very wide sense will become a constant, not coming and going.
In with the old, just as a simplistic example, some top categories and looks from one of my favourite platforms https://www.tag-walk.com/en/trends/woman/fall-winter-2024 : Ladylike, Babydoll, Preppy, Masculine, Retro ( love the broad scope of this one, though Celine comes closest in my mind with it’s very classy monochrome 60s vibe ). Have we used these terms before? Oh yes, many many times in the beautiful circular world of trends. The scope for innovation and renewing the idea and visuals of these terms lies within a multigenerational team, that interprets and connects knowledge of past fashion with fresh eyed curiosity, a winning formula!
On the home front, as well as nicking my vintage Carhart denim, because the everchanging super speedy aesthetics on Tik Tok and a subconscious “must fit in” algorithmic mentality told them to, my tweens are now into old horror movies and music I used to like a long time ago, I can connect the dots and know when one of them is feeling teenage angst when The Smiths is blaring from her room.
PS. I’m always curious!
“The baby-creative’s search for the mojo formula”
Me doing a mojo-full project with https://fargfabriken.se/sv/ and Beckmans College of Design, quite some time ago when I lived in Stockholm, Sweden.
Since this woman went solo, and burst out of the corporate bubble like a newborn baby-creative, I've stumbled around, fallen over, got up again and kept on walking.
Still figuring out the best, and the coolest of course, stride, that will sustain both me and the industry for a long time.
As many others in the current climate, I'm also looking around for someone to adopt me into a team, belonging and purpose to make a change. The little baby-creative in me is screaming: "pick me, pick me!", whilst swimming in a vast pond of other fantastic creatives screaming the same, how to make your voice heard?
The fresh in the water baby-creative obviously realises that even though she carries a humongous bag of knowledge and creative beauty, some stuff has to be fine-tuned again, resume writing, portfolio pimping and "how to market yourself’ without being in people’s face.
Much dictionary reading also needs to be done, ghosting?, digital cockpits?, growth hacking?. Googled what "too experienced" really means, I’ve decided it means gold dust.
When looking for work, there’s so much to be done, so much to sift through and learn, so much "reach out cringe" to ignore, at times you can loose your mojo.
Fascinated by the industry, and society at large, want to decipher where we are going, and what we can do to make it a good place for mojo abundance?
I’ll give you some simplistic first ingredients for the mojo formula, the rocket science will come later:
Rekindle relationships, dust off the neglected corners of LinkedIn, move your body, eat your veggies, stretch your smile muscles and build new friendships with beautiful and uplifting entrepreneural spirits. Take it all in and give back, be open, be kind and persevere, the mojo is out there!
X Lina
“Career advice to my younger self”
Going with the flow is great, but personally, if I could rewind my career, I wish I had more deeply imagined my future dream industry, how I would have wanted it to look like, what I could do to shape that future and how I would have wanted to be perceived as a professional later on.
I was really lucky to get a job offer with H&M straight out of Beckmans Designhögskola BA Fashion ( Hons ).
I gave it my all, with passion and drive, and forged some beautiful lifelong friendships, but perhaps, on reflexion, there was a lack of a deeper purpose connected to myself and my values.
In hindsight, perhaps I should have visualised further ahead on the motorway I was on and also stop for a break and explore more of the exciting side roads I saw on the way.
But I was young and I had fun and life is comfortable as a salary woman, who doesn't like "security" right ? Money in the bank every month and when my twin girls came along, ( after 7 years of hard work and lots of savings, but that's another beautiful story ) that security tasted sweet!
Planning your own future is best when you connect it to your desired state of the future, and the industry at large.
Who, what and where do you want to be in the future? And how would you like the fashion, art and creative industry to look like in that future?
I know how I want it to look like and yes, working towards it!
❤️
Me at Easter in the Swedish H&M HQ many moons ago.
