Dr Martens turns 50

The legendary British footwear label Dr Martens celebrates it's 50th year with an unmissable fashion and music project. on the 1st of April they launched a small collection of limited classic boots and shoes, available in black and red. As well as launch the limited edtion boots they have gathered different acts to help celebrate the aniversiary. Noisettes, The Duke Spiritand the Black Rebel Motocycle Club have have styled the retro boots with a 2010 twist.

Fashion Week in APRIL!!!

Can't wait till September to get your next fashion fix, well your in luck! After reading my monthly issue of ASOS Magazine, I've discovered that fashion week isn't as far away as we thought. The Alternative Fashion Week is runing between 19-23 April in London's Spitalfields Market. Over 70 new designer gradates will feature in the show, previous graduates to showcase include Garth Pugh and Jasper Garvida. You can catch the sublime to sensational at 1:15pm daily. As well as the show, inspriation can be found in the fashion market where you can get one-off pieces or take in the street style, which last year caught the eye of Vogue.com.
but wait you haven't heard the best news yet!.....IT'S FREE!!!

Fashion as a Forum

Along side producing a collection I have to write a Fashion based essay. For assement we we're given a genral question which we then had to inturpretate. To make things easier we were advesied to write about an area of fashion we found interesting. After struggling to find a subject I could write about I decided to base my essay on High Street VS Internet. I thought it would be easy, but when I first tried to gather information from the library, I relised that the Internet is still a new technology, and therist still haven't writen about it yet. It was also hard to find information online as well. Struggling to gather the my research made me change my essay slighly. In the end I wrote about the future of shoping, this included how we currenlty shop and how upcoming technology could change the way we shop in the future.

When I was at school I wrote a lot of long essays and I was very confident when it came to gathering information and managing my time to write them. Unfortunately that was years ago and I hadn't written an essay since my GCSE's. The thought of sitting down and gathering research wasn't appealing and I didn't find the set lessons helpful at all. I thought most of them were irrelevant. Due to these factors I didn't manage my time well and put the essay off till the last minute; which I now regret. It's not that I didn't pass the essay, but I know I could have done much better then I did. This has now moitvated me to read more thorey based books and I'm determinded to be better prepared when it comes to writing the Disatation next year.

The link below will show the essay I produced.
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AVDZ6sGu0H3CZGdoMjc1cTZfMTdmMjdkdmdkZg&hl=en_GB

Learning Lunch with Maria Grachvogel

As I mentioned on a previous post, I was invited to attend a learning lunch held by Lectra and Maria Grachvogel.


Before going I didnt know what to expect, I knew there would be demonstrations on how to use the Lecra programes, and Maria was going to talk about how she uses them with in her company, but I had no idea I would leave feeling inspired about my own work and my future with in the fashion industry.


The learning lunch started with a brief talk from Ruth Howcroft, a representative from Lectra; she's also the link between my university and Lectra, she has come to see us a couple of times in the studio.


Once Ruth introduced the talk and gave a brief overall of the learning lunch, she handed the talk over to Maria Grachvogel, where we viewed a live interview. Grachvogel disgusted how she built up her business, starting small and not entering fashion week until her business had been going for a couple of years and all the kinks had been worked out.


I really enjoyed the talk because it was so casual and relaxed. I felt so free to openly ask a question without felling silly or insurcure and it was nice to talk to a designer one on one. Grachvogel was easy to talk to and came off as a nice, genuin person who was very happy to share her experiance of the industry.



Before Leaving I managed to get a picture of me and my class mates with Maria Grachvogel. Thanks to her own dress, you couldn't tell she was heavily pregant, and she was still able to wear killer heels!!!

Mrs Prime Minister at LFW

London-based designer Osman Yousefzada had a very special guest at his London Fashion Week show, Mrs Prime Minister, Sarah Brown, was seated in the front row at Somerset House.

Sarah watched as the British couturier reveiled his new A/W collection. There were high collars, textural contrasts, and even floor-skimming maxi dresses, while one standout evening dress featured jewelled segments on the pockets. Mrs Brown, who chose a navy blue ensemble made up of a blouse by Wallis, jacket by M&S Autograph and trousers by Brit Lintner, was firmly focused on the designs.

Mark Fast DoesVoluptuous!

I wish I could congratulate Mark Fast for using a range of different sized models for his A/W show at London Fashion Week ,but Canadian designer, who claims to be the saviour of larger ladies, didn't do it well.

He didn't do Miss Renn no favours by making her wear an ill-fitted red Lycra frock which was stretched over every inch of her voluptuous body.

I think before he tries to use healthier looking women to showcase his work, he needs to improve his size gradings first!

Maria Grachvogel A/W Collection

This week I was lucky enough to attend Maria Grachvogel's show at London Fashion week. Due to the Competition I'm currently doing, which involves both Lectra and Grachvogel, I and three others on my course were invited to attend the show to help us with our projects.

Although I have seen her clothes up close before, I found it really interesting to see them being worn, you can really appreciate the Grachvogels skills when you can see first hand how the clothes fit the body in all the right places and this is enhanced even more by the way she uses her prints.

Even though I wasn't in the front row and I had to stand, I still thought I had one of the best views in the show, it was an amazing spot to view the clothes and to take my own pictures.

I've noticed when ever I view fashion shows online or in Vogue, you never get to see a back view, which is a shame because some of the key features are on the back of a garment. This is definitely the case in Grachvogels designs and I managed to capture front and back views of all her garments shown.

I've uploaded my favourite pieces from the show and a recording I made at the end of the show to give a feel of the collection as a whole.

I love the detail on the bust and the waterfall at the back of this dress.

You can see in these pictures how the prints work with the shape of the body.

This is my favourite piece out of the whole collection, it fits the body perfectly, the print is eye catching and flows with the body, I also love the open back with the boarding waterfall effect.

As well as attending her show, me and my class friends are also invited to a Learning Lunch this week. At the lunch Maria Grachvogel herself will be demonstrating how she uses the Lectra Programs throughout her design and construction processes. Hopefully I can learn some new methods and apply them to my project. Once I've attended the lunch I will blog thoughts and new techniques.

Life Drawing- My first Sesson

As my Professional Project is linked to Maria Grachvogel, and her garments show her understanding of the female form, i thought I'd start doing life drawing classes to help improve my understanding of the body, and hopefully improve my design processes as well.

I haven't attended life drawing classes for 2 years, so i was really nervous in my first session. but once i got started i was able to get into the rhythm of it. my drawing skills aren't as good as they used to be, but I'm sure after a few sessions my drawings should improve.

These two images show the longers posses, the one on the left was 45 minutes long, the second one was 20 minutes, the image on the right was 30 minutes long.

These two images show quick 1 and 2 minutes poses.

I really enjoyed my first session but i don't think the model was very good. due in the longer poses he would often move which would completely change my view. I'm hoping next time there is a female model as my project is based on a women's wear collection.

What is A Brand?

As part of a PPRD lesson we each had to look into brands and be able to explain what a Brand is and how they are defined. These are just some of my notes from this lesson.

The definition of a Brand-
A Brand is a name used to identify a specific product, service or business. A legally protected Brand name is called a Proprietary Name.
A Brand can be reconsized in many different way depending how the producer wanted you to see the Brand.
A Brand can be summed up in a word, image, pharse, colour or person, and they can be used to show different things about a label.

Below is a list of Brand elements

• Image
• Brand Experiance
• Brand Expectations
• Creating an Impression
• Qulities and Characteristics
• Specail or Unique
• Value element for adveristing
• Brands can show what a lable can offer
• Target Audience
• Manipulating
• Promises
• Essence
• Slogans
• Personality
• Value
• Apperance
• Heritage
• Emotional benefits

A part of my course is about finding my brand as a person, this will make me more appealing to the Fashion Industry and I'll be able to sell myself alot easier if I produced one. So far I have only been able to brand myself in words and values.

• self motivative
• current and preivous
• quality
• reinvention
• personal
• belonging
• confident
• ethical

Professional Project- Learning Agreement

As part of my brief I have to produce a learning agreement. This states what my project is, how I'm going to do it and why.

After doing a Learning Agreement for my Jacket project I found this one much easier to write, will little stress. Now its written up I feel very confident about what I need to do and the time I have set myself to do it.

The links below show my Learning Agreement and my Critical Path.

Learning Agreement-http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AVDZ6sGu0H3CZGdoMjc1cTZfMTlmY2Q3eDlmcw&hl=en_GB

Critical Path- http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AVDZ6sGu0H3CZGdoMjc1cTZfMThncGI5OGdoZg&hl=en_GB

Professional Project

As I've stated preivously, I only have two design briefs in my 2nd year and this is the BIG one! For the professional brife I have to create a collection. The thought of this terrifies me, I've studied Fashion Design for 7 years and I've never produced a collection before.
I really want to do well in this project as its the first design project I've been really excited about since I've started my course, and it should be easy for me to get stuck in!

The Professional Project is a chance for me to combine the creative and practical skills that I have learnt so far on the course and apply them to a Professional brief of my choice.
The brief requires me to develop and produce practical work that is expected at a high professional standard. The evidence of this will be shown through indepth research, development through design, pattern cutting and toiles and hopefully a high quality collection.

The professional brief I decided to use for my collection is the Maria Grachvogel Competition. This brief requires me to produce a dress for Grachvogel’s spring/summer collection 2011 embed Lectra into my design process; design, boards, pattern cutting. At a first glace I was only interested in this brief because I enjoy using Lectra so much, but once I looked at Granchvogel’s work I fell in love with her clean cut designs. I have a similar style so it’ll be easy to incorporate something I produced into her work.

Granchvogel has a deep understanding of a womens form and shape, and there is a huge amount of integrity in her work. The cut of Maria Granchvogel clothes is incredibly skilful and unique; with seams engineered to sculpt the silhouette. I’m hoping to achieve the same silhouette with the use of my seams and the cut of the fabric. In order to accomplish I’ve decided to incorporate life drawing into my research process; this should help me develop a better understanding of the female form.

PPRD Presentation

For todays PPRD session we had to creat a presentation about ourselves, it had to include areas like: how we got here, how are we going to takle the 2nd year, what next? and who/what influences us.

I did find this work hard because it ment presenting it to most of the class and speaking out loud in front of everyone. Although I am a loud person in normal day to day life, I havent had much experiance speaking out loud and presenting my work to groups of people; so the thought of it terrifiles me! But it is an important skill to have and as one of my personal weaknesses, it is something I want to develop and turn into a stregth.

When it was my turn to do my Presentation I could feel my heart racing and my hands shaking, but I just fouced on my writen notes and did the best I could. Compared to a group presentation we did last year, I think I was much better at projecting my voice and speaking at a steady speed.
Below is a link where you can view the presentation I produced.
http://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AVDZ6sGu0H3CZGdoMjc1cTZfMGZzZDdrazg3&hl=en_GB

A New Year

Glad to be back for my second year, it seems like I've been away forever!!!

Over the summer I produced my placement report. Which was a nightmare to send to be marked. I sent to by post but the night before the deadline Sarah Charles contacted me to say she hadn't recieved it. After alot of panicking and running around like a headless chicken I spent hours breaking up my work so I could send it by email. In total I sent 13 emails with my report attached and finialy got to bed at 3 in the morning.

I also started doing research for the Jacket project. I looked at differnt styles, shapes and the components that make up a jacket; collars, pockets and cuffs. I also took a trip to London and went to the V&A to look at the Future Fashion Exhibition.

The exhibition is running from 22nd may 2009 upto 31st January 2010 and showcastes work from The Royal Collage Of Art, Fashion MA graduates finial collection. The display features over 50 oufits and accessiores, and also includes students sketch books and illistrations.

I found the exhibitions really interesting. The work was amazing, with a high standard. There where many differnt styles of jackets which fitted in with my summer project, and gave me a kick start by inspriaring me for my design work.

Fashion can damage your health!

I was reading the metro my mum had picked up on her way home from work, and I found an interesting articule on fashion related health issues. Once I finished reading it I had to post it ASAP. So I've taken key information and writen it in my own words.

Under-performing

The healthiest underwaer is non-construtive, this applies to both men and women.

Men- Sperm production is affected by even a small raise in temperature of the scrotum, tight clothing and underwear is enough to do this, as well as sitting down for long periods of time.

Women-Although loose cotton pants aren't the sexiest, they are the healthiest. Thongs and man-made materials increase can increase the risk of developing thrush and cystitis. Also, most women don't wear the correct size bras. this can lead to back, neck and shoulder pain.

Killer Heels

37% of women admit to wearing uncomfortable shoes because they're fashionable. Over a period of time this can lead to hammer toe, bunions, hard skin, thickened and ingrown toe nails and corns.

Figures also show that on an average 8,500 women have heel related injuries a year, whether its falling over, tightness of the hamstrings, distortion in the lower spine and increased risk of arthritis in the lower knees.

According to podiatrist shoes should be surpportive, fit snugly around the heel, have a 1cm gap between the end od the shoe and your biggest toe and a maximum heel height of 4cm.

One Bag Full

In the past five years the average handbag has increased in weight by 38% to 2.4kg, according to a resent survey by Asda. Whatever your gender, a bag shouldn't be heavier then 15% of your mas body weight.

London Fashion Week

A few people on my course where lucky enough to get the chance to go and work backstage of London fashion week, and I was one of those lucky people. The event was ON/OFF which was produced by a company called Doll.

Doll is a company who are involved in many different events, ON/OFF is an event they started to get designers who are either not as well know or just breaking into the industry, has the chance to show off their work in London Fashion Week.

My main role was to dress the models for the shows, but I was also involved in the rig/derig of the event and other little tasks that would come up.

The event was running from Saturday 21st February- Thursday 24th February and featured 18 different shows. I was involved in 5 of the shows including the main event. The designers were:
Falguni & Shane Peacock
Krystof Strozyna
Pam Hogg
ON/OFF Presents
Ashley Isham

I toughly enjoyed every show. But my favourite show out of all was Pam Hogg’s. I thought every aspect of the show fitted together perfectly; clothes, models, hair, make-up, music. It didn’t compliment the clothes, it reflected the designer! The whole thing screamed Pam Hoggs, and she was the most organised designer I worked with.

Working in the ON/OFF event was amazing but a lot of hard work and very long days. I had to get up at 4am to get there for 6.30am, the latest I stayed there was 11pm!
Everyone was tired, everyone was getting snappy, but it wasn’t personal, and that was the key thing to remember, just ignore it and keep working.

I’m extremely lucky to have the experience, it was a good insight into another part of the fashion world and something extra to put on my cv along side my up coming work experience.
As well as my work experience which is a part of my course, I am hoping to work again with Doll when they feature at The Clothes Show Live in London.

What is Fashion and who cares anyway?

One PPRD presentation we where shown really helped me think about the industry I’m planning to get involved in.
I have questions, some answered, some unanswered.

What is fashion?
We deal with it everyday, its not just about clothes, it about much more.
Confidence
Art
Expression of thoughts and feelings
A reflection of who you are, who you want to be and how you want others to see you.

Who dictates fashion?
History
Celebrities
Cultural icons
Political figures and royalty
Fashion designers
Trend setters
Magazines
The Girl Walking Past You In The Street!

Does what we wear define us?
It reflects a persons mood. Expression though clothes can be more powerful then words.
It shows what groups we belong to, want to belong to and which ones we don’t. Punks started because they wanted to be different and not apart of a stereotypical group, but by doing so they did.
Acceptance or rejection of a style is a reaction to the society we live in.

There are many reasons why we wear the clothes we wear.

Function- protection from the weather.
Form- physical attraction.
Emotions- we dress up we we’re happy and dress down when we’re down.
Fantasy- emotions; we dress up we we’re happy and dress down when we’re down.
Religion and Identity- religious expression, identification and tradition.

First Term- pattern cutting

In A-level I had to produce a pattern for a corset but this was following detailed instructions and a lot of help from my teacher; it was nothing like any of the pattern cutting done in FDA Fashion.
On our first pattern cutting lesson I was really exited to be learning something new, but also worried that I wouldn’t grasp the method and wouldn’t enjoy it. But once shown how to correctly use the pattern master and explained the basic methods I started to feel really confident producing my own patterns and always looked forward to the lessons.

Now at the end of the term, Pattern Cutting is my favourite unit, its fun, challenging and is maths mixed with practical/design. (I always enjoyed maths at school as well as art and design subjects.) I’ve also found once started its very hard to stop.
With in the term we have produced over 20 patterns and produced a bodice, shirt, pair of shorts and an a-line skirt from our patterns. I’ve also found once started it’s very hard to stop.

When I first started the course I wanted to become a Buyer, but I’m now considering becoming a Pattern Cutter.

First Term- construction unit

In my previous studies I have done basic construction work, but not to an industry standards. I was surprised how much I had learnt in a-level didn’t apply to industry. For example I was told that seam allowance should be 1.5cm, but in industry we use a 1cm seam allowance with the exception of hems and the odd seam.
I thoroughly enjoyed doing construction because I got to refresh my memory and develop skills learnt at secondary school and 6th form, but I also got to learn new stitches and skills at an industry level.

I found the time spent with the tutor and the notes given really helpful if I got stuck or forgot how to construct a garment or a stitch. During the lessons as well a number of stitch samples I learnt how to produce high quality garments. I produced a basic bodice, A-line skirt, a pair of shorts and a women’s shirt. With each garment we learnt a new method or how to use a piece of industry machinery.
The bodice was the first garment we produced in class. In order to construct the bodice I had to a number of basic sewing methods; darts, inserting sleeves and hemmed the cuffs. It was simple and easy to construct, which is why the bodice was the first garment produced.
With the skirt we learnt how to insert a waist band and an invisible zip; it was a challenge but enjoyable. I also liked making the shorts. They also had a zip, but had a running fail stitch running down the centre front, centre back and on the inside leg seams, as all them seam join together, I found it difficult and frustrating, but I finally managed to get my head around it.
The shirt was the last garment we made and it tested most construction methods we had learnt through out the term. I made many still mistakes while producing the shirt, which I think was down to pressure; I wanted to make sure the shirt was perfect. I managed to put the darts the wrong way round and insert the sleeves in wrong. But I finally finished it, happy with the final product.

Although I still have a lot more to learn in construction, I know I’m able to produce most garments with what I have learnt so far, and I am confident to start my next project.

First Term- design unit

I have never enjoyed design, even in my A-levels and I still don’t. ever since I was young I have always been good at art and design, but I have never enjoyed design. I find I am unable to produce a high number of designs and say with confidence, I love each and everyone. Only half of them would have some worth to me. I’ve also found that design is too competitive, which is another reason I don’t like design.

Although it’s not my favourite unit, I have still learnt a lot from my design tutors.
It was good to get advice from someone who has worked in the design industry. We were shown how to set out mood boards correctly, produce working drawings and the correct way to present designs and ideas.

Although I didn’t like the themes of some of the design projects, I thought the time frames for them and the skills learnt/developed where essential in the up coming project next term.

This was the first PPRD lesson we had. It was about bonding with new class mates and coping with being in a new environment.
I thought it was important to put some of the work we did on my blog because it’s an important part of the course. I’m including questions we where given on the second day and the answers I gave.

First we spoke about being away from home for the first time. I thought this was good to talk about as it made me realise that most people on my course were in the same position as me which helped me let my guard and stopped me being nervous.

List benefits of living away from home.
Independence.
The freedom to do what you want when you want.
A life learning experience.

List disadvantages of living away from home.
Being away from friends and family for the first time.
Having to deal with the responsibilities of living in your own home.
When your down you don’t have your parents there.

What could you do to help relieve some of your anxieties?
· Talk to new friends.
· Make sure you keep contact with old friends from home.
· Call parents regularly so you don’t feel home sick and alone.
· Talk to 2nd years and reps.

After the group questions we moved on to games and activities which helped us to get to know each other, one game we played involved us making nick names for ourselves. It helped us to remember our new class mates names; I still find myself calling people by their nick name.