There are countless ways in which the past year was a complete roller coaster ride for me. Looking back I don’t know even how and where to start picking moments. 2015 was probably the year that I learnt the most about myself, about limits but also about bigger horizons.
The year started with the biggest and most honorable job I have done so far. I got asked to be Head of Costume for the modern dance musical “I am Jonny” based on a real story, told and performed by my friends from Team Recycled for a good cause. Throughout the first quarter of the year I spend every free time left on organizing outfits for round about 75 people – up to 10 different ones for different characters per person. So a very busy but good start I would say. Parallel to that I worked on my capsule collection for university. Here and there I styled small editorials and assisted Dana at Echo 2015.
backstage at Echo 2015 with Dana
the print for my capsule collection
Sounds good so far, right? What I did not calculate was that a day only has certain hours… I started to struggle while squeezing also working part-time at WALD and dancing passion and family & friends into the tight schedule. My professors started to tell me to quit the I Am Jonny job and thus I lost parts of my mental support and also a lot of faith into my own strength at times. Luckily I have the best friends I could imagine, helping me out wherever they could and just lighten up every moment, showing me that I am actually strong enough to lift it all. And thanks to that, I did in the end. The musical performance was great, we got such an amazing feedback from the major national press. We successfully sent an important message into the world. And also the capsule collection worked out – even if I had to manage doing almost half of the work of a whole semester in only two weeks. But hey, I am no less proud of the outcome.
two pictures from my capsule collection
Somewhere in between it all I stopped blogging on my old blog tha.Darlinh. A step that I now sometimes feel nostalgic about but definitely don’t regret. Quitting the website I grew with for 3 years is hard but I am happy to start a new chapter with Styling By Anh. (psst…2016 will finally be more intense on here hehe)
Next chapter in 2015 was my internship at Malaikaraiss. The story behind is, I once applied for an internship at her atelier a few years ago after graduating a-levels. Back then being a teenager with no experience at all, she of course couldn’t take me. Due to university obligations I applied another time and spent two months working at one of my favorite fashion labels in summer. A great honor and wonderful experience. Though to be honest, I couldn’t fully enjoy since my whole energy was already soaked out from the months before…nevertheless thank you Malaika and Lina for the time and insight.
Drum roll please – because now we come to my favorite part of the year. HOLIDAY. I was lucky enough to spend my few weeks off with traveling. Next to fashion and dancing, my biggest passion: discovering the world. First time to Turkey, first time traveling with my best friend Lida and although we were only there for four days, we came back with funny stories and inspiration worth a whole month. It was really exciting to be back on the beach after 2 years and I also ultimately fell in love with Turkey.
Next stop Copenhagen with the family. Now very important, if you have the chance to go there soon, you have to – really really have to – visit the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. Thinking of the Yayoi Kusama exhibition still gives me goosebumps. It is truly the most amazing exhibition I have seen so far.
So back in Berlin the everyday university drill started again. I kept things low, launched Styling By Anh to my friends and family and re-organized my life. In December I did a second round for the I Am Jonny Musical, performed in Ulm this time. Honestly, it felt like after the first half of 2015, this time it was just a flick of the hand to get all the outfits together. Good sign: it means I learnt to focus on the important points.
One last event I want to point out from the past 365 days is the Wald Dinner a few weeks ago. Well less the dinner itself, but symbolic for another year being part of the WALD crew. By the way, it is 7 a.m. while I am writing this, somehow I couldn’t sleep anymore. I am sitting on the bench in my little kitchen and am getting very emotional here, looking back on a hard but priceless year. Priceless again for all the opportunities, love, trust and support I especially get from Dana and Joyce. My two boss girls at WALD. I keep thinking about where I would be right now if I wouldn’t have met them a few years ago. They majorly shaped me and my path and I am unbelievably happy to have these two inspiring power girls as my role models and friends.
Wow this post got incredibly long by now. I actually want to thank so many more people who journeyed with me this year but I think I am going to stop at this point and do it personally.
KISSES to all of you xx
started 2015 with this resolution
NTC training X WALD Crew
when I got this awesome orange bike from Adidas
when Wioletta visited me in Berlin this summer
the Lena Meyer Landrut music video “Wild & Free” that I worked for
towards the end of the year I got to dance on stage quite a lot…including background dancing for Vietnamese popstar Hoang Thuy Linh in Berlin and Prague
WALD dinner decoration
view over Heidenheim near Ulm
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