Concept Board Overexposed

Here is my Concept board for our group project 'Over Exposed', I feel that this is a great start and represents the theme well, I may still add to this board until I feel it is perfect, but I am happy with it at present.

Styling!

Last week we were introduced to styling, we were shown a powerpoint presentation of its definition, what it consists of and and what various roles are available within styling.

We were then put in to pairs and asked to pick a theme from 5 options and style a photoshoot to suit the topic. We had a deadline for the following afternoon.

Sophie and I decided on an Eighties theme and to shoot at my friends apartment as we thought it would be an ideal location. We meet at 9am to begin the shoot.

Sophie and I brought our various outfits and accessories ideas together and picked out 3 complete outfits.

I volunteered to be the model for the day so Soph took the pictures.

We then selected our favourite pictures and edited them on Photoshop to help create the best outcome for them.

We then put our pictures on to a Powerpoint presentation to show the class

Below are our pictures that we presented.

I really enjoyed this experience and look forward to similar tasks.

Autumn Term

This term we have been given the unit brief entitled 'Traces' and were put into groups of 5 to work together and come up with a related Theme. We are then to create a group project leading to a 'mini collection' consisting of two fully styled outfits, one including a jacket aswell as 'Look books' and a business plan. My group consists of two designers (Jenelle and Johanna) and three promoters (myself, Charlotte and Steph).

After initial brainstorming we came up with the title and topic of 'Over Exposed', the aim of this project title is to show how overexposure and underexposure can lead to a misinterpreted identity of a person. This is demonstrated within media based products such as ‘Facebook’ and ‘Twitter’, the true identity and communication of the real person is lost as everybody gains a perception of the person through their ‘status updates’ and ‘tagged’ photo’s. This title also covers media overexposure and what it does to people in the spotlight as well as garments that completely cover a person to hide their identity or a design that is so exposing that it reveals almost too much i.e. see-through clothing and ‘cut-aways’.

I began this unit as a Designer, but have recently switched to a Promoter as I was a bit unsure and confused about a pathway. Once partaking in a few weeks of design classes I realised that my passion did lie in promotion, so after discussing this with Sarah Charles I changed to Promotion.

I realise I have a bit of catching up to do at present, but I'm sure this will work out for the best.
I need to organise myself appropriately so that this transition does not effect my work.

Over the forthcoming weeks I need to create two Mood Boards for the unit and begin working on my Trend Book.

Where you are/who might influence that? At present I am in my second year of University studying for an Fda in Fashion.

How you got here (placement) I took Art & Textiles at GCSE level and gained an A and A* within these subjects, I then worked in the retail industry for a few years in London at Selfridges & co to gain life experiences. I later returned to Bournemouth and took a one year access course in Art & Design which gave me access in to my FDA Fashion Degree. I have completed various placements along the way including On/Off (London Fashion Week) and a placement at 1927 London which is a showroom where they carry brands such as Juicy Couture and 2812.

How will you approach this year?

This year I plan to be more organised and keep better time keeping, I hope to improve on my project outcomes and perfect my skills with Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.

Where you want to go next, and how you might 'package' yourself.

I'm unsure as to whether to do the third year top yet, as I would love to be ready for industry. I feel I have some valuable skills and experience and I would love to go in to womenswear Buying. I would gain some work experience within this field and then hopefully gain a job and work myself up the ladder!! I would package myself as a determined and passionate graduate looking for a womenswear buying position.

Where it might take you.

Once I gain a few years of experience within a Buying position I would hope to go on to working for a bigger company such as Harrods or Selfridges. I would love to be a Womenswear buyer for either of these!!

Who/what might influence your choices now and in the future?

I guess my family may influence my decisions but they usually support me with anything I wish to do as long as they feel it is the right decision, and my boyfriend want's to work in London also so I think it will work out perfectly, hopefully!

End of Year Evaluation

It seems unbelievable that I have now reached the end of my first year of my FDA course at AUCB, it has gone so fast. I have learnt a great deal of new skills and been introduced to new software such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator and Lectra. All of these software packages are essential for working within the Fashion Industry and I have enjoyed learning and developing my skills within these.
I have also been introduced to new machinery such as the Kansai machine and the industrial Overlocker.
The Kansai Machine gives a very professional finish to an overlocked edge and this machinery became a vital part of the production of my swimsuit. The Kansai machine in our studio room however was very tempermental and would often become unthread during it's use, which proved to be very challenging and frustrating.
The overlocker I found superb and could not fault it, it was very easy to use and it became a favourite of mine.
Lectra I found very interesting and I thought it was a brilliant program, after learning the basic functions it seemed fairly easy to use.

I also discovered an interest that I have for Adobe Illustrator, I had briefly been introduced to this package prior to the course but am now a lot more fluent and aware of the functions of the software and feel that my skills are developing well.

My sewing skills have also developed a huge amount and I have also discovered that I really enjoy the sewing process. I have also enjoyed learning all of the various techniques that we have been introduced to throughout the terms.

Projects - I often find it difficult to start projects as I usually need to plan it mentally before putting it down on paper as I hate doing things wrong. This has been the case in my term projects but I feel that I am improving. I need to push myself to develop ideas on paper and not just in my head as I have been told that I must demonstrate the process of my project development. I feel that I still need to improve within this area.

Buying and Merchandising - I am disappointed at my myself as I was not present at a great deal of these classes and this definitely reflects within my mark.

I am usually a very committed hard worker and I feel that I honestly have not applied myself fully within my first year due to my Music Industry commitments. I have been disappointed with my marks as I know that I could achieve more than I have.
I have now decided to give my full commitment to my Fashion Degree and I know that I need to work hard in the second year to achieve a better result.

I am going to apply myself a great deal more for the coming year, I am going to make an effort to be present at all sessions and manage my private study better.
There will definitely be a huge change within my attitude next year and I am very excited and eager to get 'stuck in'.

I have a lot of design ideas for next year and I am looking forward to putting these in to practise.

The Jacket

I've made a good start to my project, which I'm pleased about. I read up on the history of the 'suit' jacket which was very useful and I put this into my own words in my project. I am now researching the various types of jacket styles, their shape etc. This is very interesting as some of the styles I have never even heard of, so it is definitely broadening my fashion knowledge!

I think that this was a great way of starting my project. It really made me aware of the key shapes and looks aswell as colours for the coming season! I now am going to digg deaper and look at the various historical era's and see where the shapes originated from and what was hot in previous years.

I have taken out about 5 books from the Library so I'll check back soon with my progress. xoxo

GARETH PUGH

"This is not from a spaceship, it's from under the ground. I wanted it to feel earthy." - Gareth Pugh.
His colour palette consisted of blacks and greys with little else. I do like draping technique he used within his designs but I would've liked to have seen more colour.

RODARTE

Kate and Laura Mulleavy say their collection was inspired by Frankenstein and straight jackets and I can see the resemblence! The jackets included lots of strappy fastenings.
I liked the collection I thought it was very wearable even throughout the high street.

ALEXANDER MCQUEEN

To be honest I didn't like McQueen's collection! I found the whole collection rather odd and what's with the scary make-up!!?? Yes he's a great designer but it definately was not a favourite of mine..!

CHANEL

Chanel's collection had some cute pieces with the use of ruffles and fur used as trimmings.

LOUIS VUITTON

I think my favourite collection was Louis Vuitton's. I love the ruched, puffy and pleat detailing!!
Also the colour palette of the grey's black's and pinks I really liked.

DIOR FALL COUTURE

Dior created more ellaborate jackets with heavy embellishment and eye-catching bold colours. They used the hot fall trend of pink quite frequently.

LANVIN

"People keep trying to divide designers into optimists and pessimists, but me—I'm a realist," declared Alber Elbaz. "I thought with my heart about what women need from fashion—dresses, suits, blouses, coats. Life isn't just parties and lunches." - Alber Elbaz I really love the shapes Elbaz has created within his jackets, they are very luxiourious, feminine and gorgeous

PRADA

Prada used dated influences also with a palette of muddy browns and berry colours taken from the wartime era. The collection showed boiled-wool skirt suits and tweed dresses.

HERMES

HERMES - This collection was heavily influenced by air force women of the 1940's.
The colours used throughout the collection mimicked the era effortlessley and I found the pieces very classic yet still glamorous.

THE JACKET /BALMAIN

To kick start my Summer project I have been looking at the trend and catwalk reports for Autumn/Winter 2009.
I looked at the top ten fashion designer's for the season and decided to blog about my opinion on each.

BALMAIN
Balmain has a really strong look for the coming season and I have found the collection very inspirational. I love Christophe Decarnin's glitzy, glamorous rock-chic looks and his pointy shouldered jackets are amazing!!!

My day as a Buyer continued!!! Ralph Lauren

Our appointment at Ralph Lauren was a little different. This was Keiths first appointment with the brand so he informed me that he would be on his best behaviour!

The showroom was situated behind the Ralph Lauren shop on New Bond Street and we were greeted by a young girl in a much smaller venue.

It was very quaint, very Ralph Lauren! The classic, very classy but plain collection was at the front, the middle consisted of slightly more branding and at the back of the room was where the more colourful pieces were.

As Richmond Classics tends to be a younger store we wanted to stick to the easy selling branded garments.

We chose this assortment of coloured polo's as they we felt they are eyecatching and easy sellers.

They are just the classic shape and retail at approx £60.

These polo's are made with the longer button detail to give a more femine look.

We just ordered these three colours to test the market as these are slightly more expensive at £95

each!!!

We also ordered this beautiful blazer!!! It's gorgeous! I also ordered one for myself at cost price hehe, but it comes in pre Christmas so maybe I could get it from Mother Christmas?? TeeHEE

We ordered some shirts also soem with pink and white and blue and white candy stripe, which are lovely and some plain coloured fitted ones.

Last but not least we ordered some bags. The large as seen, the medium shopper in red/navy and baby pink/baby blue and the small just in baby pink/baby blue.

We will see how these sell and then next time will maybe be a bit more adventurous!

After this Keith and I had some dinner and headed back to Waterloo.

I thoroughly enjoyed the whole day and hope to help out again or possibly do it permantly one day : ) !

My day as a Buyer Continued!! D&G

We arrived at D&G at 1pm just on time seeing as though Keith nearly got us lost!!
haha

We were greeted by the receptionist who asked what company we were from and then we waited until Keith's D&G friend (Simon) greeted us and led us through the showroom to a desk where he chatted to Keith and the PA's fetched us drinks and a platter of assorted sandwiches for lunch :)

After our brief nibble we were given a large wheely rail and strolled around the showroom looking at every single piece of menswear.
I gave Keith my opinion on things he picked out and vice versa and we collected a nice collection onto our rail.
There were male models hovering around everywhere so if you wanted to see how something fit they would go and try it on for you! This actually was a great help, as Keith picked out a double lined shirt which I couldn't picture but it actually looked amazing on!

After this long process (nearly 4 hours!) we sat down and Keith and Simon went through each item and keith wrote down in his stock order file the garments codes etc and how many of each size he wanted and Simon imputed this onto his computer. I was instructed to take a photo of each garment so Keith could keep this on file, this was on Keiths camera I'm afraid so no pics this time..

The collection is for Spring/Summer 2010 but there are a few pre Christmas garments such as the polo's that we have also ordered.

After 4hours and 45 minutes at D&G we left for our apointment at Ralph Lauren.

My Day as a Buyer!!!!! Ed Hardy

Last Thursday I went to London with my boss Keith from Richmond Classics to assist with the buying as Natalie was away on Holiday.

Let me tell you it was a fantastic day!!!!

We set off at 8am where Keith picked me up from my mums flat in Southbourne and drove to Southampton Airport Parkway where we got the train into Waterloo. (This may sound strange but Keith said he can't handle any longer than an hour on the train!! also they go more frequently?) Anyway, we arrived at waterloo at 10:10am and caught the Tube to Finsbury Park, where we had an 11am appointment for Ed Hardy.

We arrived at the station and took a short walk down this cobbled street to a dodgy looking carpark, here there was a random door which led to a random staircase and up to a looked door with a buzzer. As soon as the door opened I understood why the place had to be so secretive! The place was 'kitted' out with Ed hardy clothing with framed photographs of famous celebrities wearing previous garments hanging from the walls.

The Mens collection was in one room and the womens in another so I got to work and started picking out pieces I thought would sell in the shop.

To be honest there wasn't a huge amount to choose from as we had most of it in the shop already!












This we chose I it was quite a simple design (for Ed Hardy) so we thought it would shift easily in the shop.


















This hoody I thought was nice. Keith wanted to order it in a baby blue colour, but I thought this is much better as 'it would go' with a lot more.


























These tops will look wicked with leggings!!

We also chose an assortment of caps featuring these medium sized rhinestones. They come in various designs and colours.

We chose a few menswear items but I did not photograph these...

We finished at the Ed Hardy showroom just before 12 and headed back central for our appointment at 1pm at D&G.

Some exciting news!

Firstly I'm arranging with Juicy the dates of my placement!!

Also I've been asked to asist my manager on a buying trip to Ralph Lauren and Dolce and Gabbana, London to help pick out the 2010 men's collections for the shop!! I'm going up a week on Thursday for the day with Keith so that should be a great experience!!

AIB Live and a change of heart in next years option

So the other day my fellow students and I helped out at AIB live graduation week at the Opera House in Boscombe and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It felt as though I was at London Fashion Week again! I was very impressed with the second years work and it's made me realise that I really want to do Design next year!!! I was in awe of all these collections and thinking why did I choose promotion again? I wanted to go to Uni to do Design so I've got to pull my finger out and do it, I have so many idea's and really feel I can achieve them and working at the show really made me realise that's what I want to do!

I need to chat to my Course leader though... Sarah do you think this would be ok please!!

I'm really excited about next year now and I'm so glad I worked at the show and it made me make the right decision! :)

A nice day

Today I was at the Ladies shop and had a really pleasant day : )
We had some new pieces from Juicy in which were gorgeous and I purchased a juicy bracelet with my shop discount ; )
Juicy is such a great brand I cannot fault their design's I wish I was the founder!!!!
BTW> I still haven't heard about my placement yet though!!! But keith is at Juicy in London tomorrow choosing the spring/summer 2010 collection so I'm sure he'll chase it up for me.

My day today

I've been browsing the internet for accessories and I'm in love with the candy inspired pieces from punkyallsorts.com!!!!!! They are so cute!



I also found a great website full of cute unique jewellery! http://www.spoiledbrat.co.uk/ has so many amazing bits and I ordered a disney couture bracelet that I'd been hunting for and a punky allsorts bracelet :)

Styling my Nan

So today I became a personal shopper for my nan. She is in need of a Wedding outfit, which she is attending in July for my cousin so I promised to help her find one. My nan's a proper cuddly nan and is a size 22 so this isn't any easy task...
I firstly took her to Debenhams and after hunting around I found her a gorgeous outfit consiting of a mid/dark grey skirt and jacket with a japanese style fastening, and a matching top which also included baby pinks and blues within a modern floral-style pattern. This she tried and it looked lovely. That was until I looked at the price tag and told her to put it back! The top alone was £69 the skirt £90 and the jacket £150!!! For a retired nanny that is way.... too much!!!! We wandered up the hill towards BHS and as my nan is in her eighties this wasn't very easy for her but I managed to drag her around Anne Harveys, BHS, Marks and Spencer's and we popped into Bon Marche (Fun.......). Can I just say this we couldn't find anything and I mean nothing, someone, somewhere out there really needs to design a range of gorgeous older lady-style clothes that are also affordable as the clothes available are awful!!! I'm afraid this isn't me that's going to set this right, but someone must have a passion for designing for the older generation so pull your finger out!!!
So I failed my personal shopping task today, but if the first outfit was half the price it would hae been a winner! Oh well...
Now she want's me to take her to Poole next week so we can look in evan's... hopefully we'll have more luck there!

So I've definately decided to study the marketing, buying and merchandising option for next year and I informed my tutors of this decision at my tutorial. I feel that this potion will broaden my knowledge base within this field and help with future job opportunities. I still love design but am happy to continue this in my own spare time and not at Uni.


I have very nearly got a summer placement at Juicy Couture! I am just waiting on one of the other head people from the brand. Fingers crossed!!!!


If I get this placement I will be over the moon as Juicy is a company which I aspire to work for one day! I have worked alongside products from the brand for a long time so I feel I have a lot of much needed experience to offer if I get this placement!

For the past few weeks I have been working full time at the shop (Richmond Classics) mainly at the Ladies shop, which I prefer! I much prefer working with ladies brands and I love seeing all the new items that come in to stock. We've now become a stockist for Arrogant Cat, which is great as their dresses are amazing but they are yet to actually sell. Maybe Bournemouth people are slow at picking up London trends. The dresses aren't cheap though so we'll see if they sell.

What is really selling within the shop is the Disney Couture Jewellery, everybody loves this stuff and I understand why! The collection is full of adorable necklaces with slogans such as 'believe' with tinkerbell attached, tinkerbell earrings, bambi bracelets.... etc just cute girlie stuff (every girl loves Disney).

The Dark Muse t-shirts are also a hot seller, these consist of controversial balck and white images of celebrities on a plain tee. The most popular of these is a t-shirt with Kate Moss sticking up her middle finger!!! This flew of the shelf! The public can be weird haha!

Random

Can I just say I love the Pussycat Dolls New Video 'Bottlepop', which I caught on Youtube today! The styling and makeup in this video is wicked!!!

Fashion V Sportswear deadline and crit

So today is Sunday and I've got a much needed day off from work :) so thought I'd make a new post. Our Fashion V Sportswear deadline was last Thursday followed by crits.. I felt my crit was a success! phew!!! My tutors actually said they were pleasantly surprised by how my garment had turned out, which I took as a compliment as they knew and I did how much of nightmare my garment's were to construct! So now the project's over I thought I'd express how much I actually enjoyed the project! I love doing sketchbook work and design and have realised a passion for using Adobe Illustrator! I really enjoy sewing also but get really stressed when things start to go wrong (such as wrong fabric choices!). I always thought I would go in to the design path next year but now I'm certain that I want to do the other side of thing's. I love customising things and creating embellished pieces, but perhaps I'll keep this passion for myself as a hobby? I know how to sew now so I can always do it at home on my mum's machine?
I feel that I haven't put my full potential into this year and I am slightly annoyed at myself! I can get top grades if I try and I really haven't! I need to keep my singing career seperate and focus on my degree as much as my music commitments so I'm turning over a new leaf right here and now!!!
I discovered that I love creating eyecatching fashion pages and collages, like in my sketchbook and have realised that I may love going down that route such as merchandising or magasine work?

.

LONDON FASHION WEEK

My Sportswear Project- This is going well I feel. At the beginning of the project I set my sights on designing skiwear inspired jumpsuits to be different, but as I discovered that nearly my whole class were doing jumpsuits I decided on swimwear. This kinda makes sense seeing as though I want to become a Lingerie Designer one day and this is more suited!! I looked at various swimwear designers for inspiration and discovered some great designers that I hadn't even heard of such as Zimmermann!! His Designs are Amazing! (See Below)
I purchased my fabric for my design in London and me being me I had to get the best so I spent £75 on fabric!!!!!!! .....and yes after I thought about it I did feel a little sick but oh well!!!!!!!!!
I had to change my design as the expensive fabric which I chose wasn't exactly stretchy and easy to sew on! So for that part I have changed my lace up cosy into a 'cut-out' bikini and the sequined neon pink fabric, which cost me the earth is only being used on the bust part of the garment hahaha!! I'll still make it look amazing though!

Fashion Week- Last weekend I worked at London Fashion Week and it was amazing (but this I did not think until day 2)!!! Me and my good friend Sophie shared a hotel room in Marble Arch for the duration and as I kind of expected the worst Soph refused to even shower the first night as it was that bad!!!! Anyway... the first day of the experience started on a saturday and as we didn't know our timetable when we booked our hotelroom we booked 4 nights from the saturday-tues, then when we got out timetables we realised that our group started at 6.30am!! I rang the hotel but by then they were fully booked so Soph and I woke up at 2:30am and I drove us to a friends on the outskirts of London to park the car. We then got the Tube straight to the Science Museum with our cases!!
We were met by Adela Straughan, our contact from ‘the doll’, who appeared very friendly and welcoming. We were asked to leave our belongings in a corner and informed that we would be helping to set up for the event for the day. We were shown to a lift and were informed that there will be a very large delivery of bottled water and we would have to carry the boxes to the appropriate room for the guests. This was extremely exhausting and the boxes were super heavy but our team of workers seemed to plough through this task and make it out the other side without collapsing, which was a relief. We were given similar tasks throughout the day, and by the end of the day me and sophie were just about ready for bed!!

The next day the real work started, (the proper work) and it was amazing!!


My first show - Felguni and Shane Peacock - the dresses were sooo amazing! I actually text my boss at Richmond Classics and asked him to look at the dresses for the shop!
For this show my model was called Palloma and she was lovely, I was in awe of all of these amazingly tall skinny girls!! They were all really lovely and I was actually quite surprised. I kind of knew how to act around models and respect their space as I have been in there situation kind of before so I was just very polite and helpful and didn't suck up and it seemed to work as they all seemed to like me.
Krystof Stroznya was the second show that I worked on and my second model was called 'Masha'. She was a beautiful blonde brazillian model who I'd been warned about as being a 'stroppy Diva' so I brased myself for the worst but she turned out to be really sweet, and she thanked me and gave me a hug so maybe the guy who told me that she was like that was the problem!!???
The designer Krystof seemd very down-to-earth and lovely but his show was sooooo unorganised!!!!!!!! he didn't even bring enough shoes for half of the models to wear so they had to keep swapping them over, and the show proved v.stressful but we seemed to get through it and pull it off so thank goodness for that!!

Day 3 Pam Hogg - This was a cool show!!!! Daisy Lowe, Alice Dullal, Jamie Winston was among the famous celebrities/models that we were dressing and they were all lovely! Pam herself seemed very genuine and friendly and her collection was so awesome! They were bright, sparkly, lycra jumpsuits so quirky and unique yet so current!! I saw Peaches Geldoff, the older lady from Britain's Next Top Model... many many famous faces!! It was great such opportunity to work with people like that! (I was not allowed to take photo's but a took a sneaky couple so I'll upload them soon!!
My model was called Anook and she was a simple, easy to work with model, she was v. pretty but maybe not as striking as the other models I had worked with..

The Final Day - On the final day we were called in to work at 6:30am! I had a Music Industry meeting the previous night and had a bit of a headache from a few glasses of wine so was not enjoying the early rise! We then were sat around for nearly 3 hours not doing anything because the designer had brought his ownteam and they were not sure if we were needed.. we were (needed) in the end (at last minute) and I dressed a model called Drielly she again was a very lovely girl and was easy to work with but one problem.. the shoes she were given were nearly two sizes too small!!! I felt sooo sorry for her as I watched her try and squeeze her feet into these tiny shoes and then the buckles were so bent I had 3 people helping me to do them up!! I'm really surprised she didn't collapse on the runway!!

We finished for the day around noon and had 6 hours spare until we were called back to de-rig for the evening. So me, Soph and Jen took our swollen and bistered feet off around London to find our fabric for our Sportswear project. After a painful stroll down Berwick Street I found the most sparkly and in-your-face neon pink sequinned fabric and shiny purple lycra and thought "Perfect!"- see I kinda like doing things a bit out there and unique! I got chatting to the man in the fabric store and he was telling me a story of how he met his wife in Bournemouth and yadayadayada.. and as I was a bit tierd and getting to the point where I was drifting off I didn't think twice and spent £75 on my fabric!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Only later did I think about it and felt a bit sick : ( !!!!!
We went to topshop and other shops and did the rounds and then we crashed out in starbucks and could hardly move! I took my bleeding feet out of my shoes and rested them on top of my shopping bags and just dreamed that I didn't have to go back and de-rig until 11pm and then get back to Hatton Cross and then drive back to Bournemouth!!!!
After a couple of hours in Starbucks we decided between us that we'd ask the people from the Doll if it was possible to not stay for the de-rig and we explained the situation and hey pretso they said we could go!!!!!!!!!! :)
So we dragged our cases onto the rush hour tubes and squeesed in amongst the passengers all the way back to Hatton Cross where my producer Cliff happily picked us up and gave us a lift back to my car at the Studio and we got on the road home whist breifly stopping at Fleet for some much needed KFC :) We got home and passed out for the count at around 10pm!

All in all the trip was amazing but soo tiering!!!!!! and expensive!!!!!! but would recommend it to anyone as it was definatly a great experience!