The Fashion Artisan

FASHION: Decoratif

2010-05-10T07:37:00.000-07:00

For one of my pattern cutting modules we had to work in a group of 4 and create two outfits. These had to made from nonwoven fabrics and demonstrate a high level of embellishment and decorative techniques. We were inspired by the recent Valentino collection and used techniques such as laser cutting, dyeing, beading and pleating to create these outfits. We are really happy with the end result!

Shading for my life.

2010-05-04T09:39:00.000-07:00

The collection for my Slow Fashion project had to be presented with technical flat drawings showing the detail, and fashion illustrations to portray how the collection looks as a whole.

I did the flats on a design programme called Kaledo style ( I later added the fabric) and wrote a description of each garment alongside.

My collection has 10 outfits in, so I decided for my illustrations to show 3 different ways they could be worn. Each garment has three colourways to produce a wide range of outfits from the one initial garment.

I drew the outline by hand, scanned the images in and coloured the outfits on photoshop. I wanted the illustrations to look realistic so I spent hours shading in everything... Im really pleased with the outcome!

Slow down...

2010-05-04T09:01:00.000-07:00

Phew! Finally handed in one of my projects today, after hours and hours spent on it. The project was called 'Slow Fashion' and was about looking at how fast and disposable fashion is damaging the environment.

I researched into different ways I could approach this and decided to create a range of multi-functional garments that could be worn a variety of ways, rather than focusing on the 'eco fabric' concept.

I thought about the target audience and where the collection could be sold, and decided to aim it at the main culprit for fast fashion, 'Primark'.

I mainly designed dresses for the capsule collection, with a few jumpsuits and playsuits to add a bit of variety. The main fabric is bamboo jersey with a high percentage of elastane in, to keep the shape as the garment is being altered.

The pictures show my customer board, mood board and fabric board, along with a couple of sheets of initial ideas Ive scanned in!

Old Skool...

2010-04-21T15:06:00.000-07:00

An A Level Art project I did on 'emotions' and how the body changes to communicate these feelings. I've always loved art and really got into sculpture for my A level projects, to express things three dimensionally.

Madame Grès

2010-04-21T03:26:00.001-07:00

Whilst looking for inspiration for one of my Research and Design Development projects, I came across some gorgeous dresses from the designer Madame Grès. She was renowned for producing haute couture in the 1930's, and was considered "the greatest living couturier" in the 1988 edition of Vogue. Her dresses were works of art, she sculpted the fabric directly onto the body (up to 20 metres!) and was one of the first to cut fabric on the bias.

I think her dresses are so beautiful and timeless, and Madame Grès a truly inspiring figure.

More dash than cash

2010-04-14T07:17:00.000-07:00

I love this photo!

I came across this book (it was only 20p!) when in a charity shop, describing Vogue's way of how to look terrific on a budget. I thought it was perfect, due to the lacking funds in a students bank account!

Above all, the pictures illustrated in the book are amazing and timeless, they look like they could be from a modern arty magazine! To say the book is almost 30 years old, some of the trends are seen today, showing how fashion is so cyclic. Ive picked a few of my favourite pictures...

New love for Bertie shoes

2010-04-09T15:51:00.000-07:00

The new gorgeous Spring/Summer 2010 range from Bertie... The collection includes chunky clogs, classic penny loafers and on-trend shoe boots- everything a girl needs to take her from day to night! View the full range at http://www.bertieshoes.com/.

Give Me Liberty Of London

2010-04-06T10:46:00.000-07:00

The leading cosmetic's company 'MAC' and the luxary brand 'Liberty of London' have recently collaborated to produce a beautiful new make up collection called 'Give me Liberty of London.' The collection includes an array of eye shadows, lipsticks, nail lacquers and face powders, packaged in the famous Liberty print. The adorable pattern is based on a William Morris design, which has been modernized to bring it on trend for the spring.

"On to the next one"

2010-04-06T06:08:00.000-07:00

This is the new video by Jay-Z called 'On to the next one'. I really like the use of black and white in the video, simple yet powerful. Although there has been some conspiracy behind the meaning of the video- some say that he has included freemason imagery.

Midnight sketch...

2010-04-04T04:22:00.000-07:00

A quick sketch I did last night whilst looking through a fashion magazine. I love drawing faces and the human form, I based most of my art projects on it for GSCE and A Level Art. The media I used for this picture was a HB pencil; just wanted to keep it simple.

Heaven...

2010-04-01T05:48:00.000-07:00

I live in a small village in Lincolnshire, everywhere you look there are tractors and field upon field of flat land. Not exactly the captial of fashion as some would say... This is why I got very excited when I found a small vintage shop hidden in the heart of a local town close by, selling retro clothes from the 40's to the 70's.

It was like an aladdins cave, brimming with vintage dresses, blouses, jackets and everything you could imagine. It was so jammed packed, you literally had to crawl your way through the clothes. Every time I picked up something I like, I found 3 more things underneath it! I could have spent hours and hours there.

Everything was very reasonably priced, most of the dresses were around £12, blouses were £4 and skirts were around £5. I bought a gorgeous purple dress from the 1950's, only £14. Very happy indeed! I can't wait to go back, but I just don't want to be spending all my student loan there...

The shop is called 'Wear It', and can be found on Portobello Row, High St.Sth, Boston, Lincs.

J'adore Paris

2010-03-31T17:11:00.000-07:00

Last month I went on a trip to Paris with my course. I was so excited, because I have always wanted to go to Paris, and we were going to Premier Vision, which is a world fabric and trend show. Just walking around the city, I was amazed and above all, inspired by everything I saw. Even little things like the carving on an old door, or an elaborately detailed lampost at the side of the road. Looking around all the designer shops gave me so much inspiration and the art is incredible. 4 days was definately not enough time to see everything... I want to go back now!

'Dance Expose' show

2010-03-31T16:22:00.000-07:00

Back in February I was asked to design and make the costumes for Leeds uni dance group called 'Dance Expose'. It sounded really interesting as well as being a challenge!

The theme for the annual dance show was 'London Underground', with each dance being inspired by different aspects of the capital. There were around 20 different dances, each with their own genre and theme. My task was to design, source the fabric, and make the costumes for the dancers.

I had roughly 7 days to make the costumes- as this coincided with my course trip to Paris, so I had to work very hard to meet the deadline.

Each dance consisted of between 6-16 dancers, so it was very confusing keeping on top of the different dances and who were in them! I devoted a whole notepad full of lists and lists of each dance, it never left my side the whole time!

The choreographer of each dance gave me an idea of what kind of costume they wanted, some of the themes were 'London Zoo', with a samba theme. Others included a robotic theme for 'London Science Musem'.

I also had to source the fabric, as cheaply as possible due to the show being on a limited budget. I visisted Leeds market for this, as they have fabric at low prices. I was forever scribbling down noted and calculations, as I had to buy so much fabric and work out precisely how much I needed, without creating waste.

I had to think of ways to make the garments, as quickly and precisely as possible. I made wrap skirts for some of the dances as they were easy for the dancers to take on and off in the quick costume changes. I also made circle skirts, net tops, and many, many shoulder pads (at least 50!) to attach to the outside of tops.

For one of the dances, the influence was 'Lady Gaga'. From this idea, I constructed a paper pattern for a hood to work from, and managed to create 14 hooded open front tops with silver trim in one night. I also worked hard to make 16 samba influenced dresses in one night as well!

It was hard work, but it was definately worth it in the end when I went to see the show. The costumes looked good, and the dancers invited me on stage at the end to thank me. I even got a big thankyou in the programme that was available at the show!

Coco before Chanel

2010-01-25T04:54:00.000-08:00

I have recently just watched the film Coco before Chanel and thought it was absolutely brilliant. The visuals and costumes of the film were stunning and it showed how Gabrielle Chanel was an extemely ambitious woman who fought for her rights and her career. Audrey Tautou played the role very well, resembling the ambition and love for fashion. A highly recommended film!

Garment tech boards

2009-12-09T09:06:00.000-08:00

Every week for garment tech we are required to produce an A3 board of a certain subject- such as hoods, interesting sleeves, rever collars, and so on.... We have to collect primary and secondary images as well as analysing them. This sometimes proves difficult to collect primary images, as I find myself taking photos of garments in changing rooms...much to the dislike of the shop staff...

Illustrations...

2009-12-07T04:32:00.000-08:00

To go with my technical flats in the previous post, here are the illustrations of the collection. I initially drew them by hand, scanned them into the computer and coloured them in on photoshop, to give a neat finish. I plan to work into them further by hand, to show more of the details...

Flats...

2009-12-04T08:17:00.000-08:00

For my Research and Design Development module, I am required to create a collection on 10 outfits for the designer Yohji Yamamoto. Here are the technical flat drawings of each of the garments- I used Kaledo style and photoshop software.

What's this? A giant tinsel robin of course...

2009-11-24T15:44:00.000-08:00

Here are a few snaps I took when I went to London at the weekend! I absolutely love looking around Harrods ( even if i can't even afford anything in there) as well as Liberty's. There were some really cute shops along Carnaby street and the biggest reindeer I've ever seen in Covent garden!

I must say the most impressive window displays had to be Selfridges, there were crowds of people flocking around them, so I only got to take a few pictures. The theme was fairy tales and fantasy, which included Little Red Riding Hood and puss in boots! The windows were never ending and amazing!

Donna Karan pre-summer resort 2010

2009-11-18T16:28:00.000-08:00

While looking for inspiration for my Yohji Yamamoto project, I came across this collection which had some really nice, feminine pieces in. I like the mix of neutral tones and soft drape, contrasting with tuxedo style jackets and bolder prints. Just need summer to come around now...

Predicting trends....

2009-11-17T09:06:00.000-08:00

For a group work project, I am currently looking into the designer Yohji Yamamoto, analysing future trends for Autumn/Winter 10/11- and coming up with a collection for his main line. Here is a few trend pages that fit well with the designers style.

We also researched into the target market, coming up with customer profile board, and the typical lifestyle of the customer.

We combined some of these future trends, as we found Yamamoto uses different aspects of each of the trends, then went on to produce a mood board- naming it 'Functional Luxury'.

The next stage is to start sketching out initial ideas and illustrations... I'll keep you posted!!

Bargain!

2009-11-15T12:23:00.000-08:00

I love going to vintage shops, charity shops, and car boots to find unique clothes and jewellery. I was SO happy when I stumbled upon this vintage floral dress at a car boot- at a grand total of 50p! I do love a good bargain!

Future Safari

2009-11-12T14:14:00.000-08:00

This was a recent project in one of my modules- digital design. You can guess from the name that all of the work is done on the computer, using software like photoshop and illustrator. We had to choose a theme to create a collection of garments using a brand new software called 'Lectra'. I chose a trend from Spring/Summer 09/10 from a trend website- researching into different prints, colours and fabrics.

The next section of this project is to create the collection- so I will be using Lectra print and Lectra style to draw garments and apply different patterns to them. I have really enjoyed using this new software- I'll put on the finished collections when they are done.

'Periodic Tessellations' project

2009-11-11T01:58:00.000-08:00

Fore one of my modules in fashion design, we got set an assignment to produce patterned tiling for a chosen end use. We had to come up with a theme and colour palette, so I chose to redesign wallpaper for a 70's retro bar. I thought it was a bit different, and I enjoyed researching into 70's patterns and design. We had to design two different tiles, cut them up and rearrange them into alternative patterns.

I then chose the best one, and applied it to the end setting. I found it challenging as we had to work out the costings for raw materials and labour, along with scales and end dimensions.

I am pleased with the outcome and think my designs do have a 70's feel to them.

I never thought I would ever be doing anything like this on a fashion design course- but hopefully it will broaden my skills for the future!

Giant size...

2009-11-10T14:48:00.000-08:00

While I was walking through Leeds today, I had to look twice at this bench! Double the size of an average one, this usual day to day boring object has been turned into something unique. It even had etching and graffiti on- much to the fascination of passers by. Everyone found it very novel- even posing for a photo beside it.
I think it's amazing that just by changing the proportions of a familiar object- it instantly becomes art.

Feeling Christmassy already!

2009-11-06T13:42:00.000-08:00

Everytime I'm walking down Leeds high street, I'm always fascinated by the Harvey Nichols window displays- I absolutely love them! Previous ones that have stuck out in my meomory have been a giraffe made from glass bottles, and a dinosaur made from coat hangers..?! They are like pieces of art, rather than displaying clothes!

I took a few snaps while I was walking past today... made me feel in the Christmas spirit! A gold glittery moon, what more would you want?

New to the world of blogging...

2009-11-05T15:30:00.000-08:00

Just pondering on what to put on my first ever blog... so I think I'll start with showing a painting that I recently did of an iconic Jil Sander dress.

I love how the focus is on the dress, as the model is holding it up like an open fan. I also like the play on light and dark shadow and the low saturation of colours...