Give Me Liberty Of London

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"

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...

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...

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

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

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

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!