C&A - THE REIMAGINE DESIGN CHALLENGE

PH:1. having fun with bloggers Jessica, Anjelica Ana A.  and Barta, 5. took by German blogger Maren, 7. blogger Jessica from Poland.

Wearing on pic15. skirt: Zara, shirt: Pieces, shoes: Asos, glasses: Polaroid

 

Good afternoon readers, today I show you the diary of my trip to Madrid hosted by C&A. Two weeks ago, C&A invited 18 European bloggers to attend the official kick-off of their Reimagine Design Challenge in Madrid.

To start with, what exactly is the Reimagine Design Challenge?

Eight designers have been assigned a set of materials consisting of 200 plastic cups, plates and pieces of cutlery (forks, knives, spoons) featured in C&A spring 2013 shopping windows.
The designers are allowed to alter, mesh, mould and use the materials entirely to their liking, the only limit is their own imagination. Pauline van Dongen was selected by C&A to represent the Netherlands in the ‘Reimagine Design Challenge’.

What did we do during these days?

It al started on Wednesday evening. We arrived late at night in the Puerto America hotel in Madrid. I really liked this comfortable hotel and decided to prepare some blogpost for the coming days. After that, I decided to go to bed early and the next day I had breakfast with fellow bloggers Anjelica and Jessica. It was really nice to meet fellow bloggers from other countries in person. After our breakfast we took some outfitpictures and we waited for the other bloggers.

When all the bloggers had arrived we went to Matadero. This was the official place the event took place. In recent history the Matadero Madrid was a slaughterhouse in Madrid, which has now been converted to an arts centre. We were off to a great start with a delicious walking dinner and I fortunately got the change to get fully acquainted with the other bloggers. We also took some funny pictures together as you can see in picture one. LOL! Around 4 in the afternoon we were divided into groups to have a short conversation with the eight designers. It was nice to see that every designer was very passionate about his or her creations, job and this new challenge (pic.8 Pauline van Dongen designs). At the end of the day we got separated by country and went to visit the Museo Panteon de Goya. I have to be honest, i'm not really into visiting musea, especially when i'm tired after a long day, but this was a really nice experience because I also got to know the Dutch designers and the Dutch blogger Linda (from Lifestylehunters) better. Afterwards we went to see the Caixaforum artwork, this was really amazing to see. When I came back on my hotel room around 8 PM I was exhausted and wanted to share everyting directly with you. Unfortunately I didn't have enough time and decided to take a shower. In the evening we went to restaurant Teatriz (unfortunately I was really dark, so I have not appropriate pictures to post.) The dinner, party and cocktails in the sky lounge of the hotel lasted until late.

We had spare time during our last day in Madrid. I decided to discover the city, because this was my first time in the capital of Spain. Of course I went to Zara, Blanco and the other well known Spanish shops. After that i had a well deserved break at Starbucks. Unfortunately my wallet was stolen on the last day! Very annoying, but luckily I still had my passport and credit card. After I saw the entire city centre of Madrid I took a cab back to the aiport to take my plane back to the Netherlands.

I had such a great time and really want to thank the C&A crew. I'll keep you posted about all the news around the 'Reimagine Design Challenge' by C&A. Want to know more about this challenge? Please watch the below video's or go to the Reimagine Design Challange facebookpage.

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