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.