Secret Vintage Fair....

30th March....

If you are about on this day please please come and visit the Secret Vintage Fair happening in a secret location in Colchester (details to be revealed nearer the time!)

 

 

I'm so excited to be helping with this event!! You don't understand! I love vintage clothes and any chance I get to be near them I can't resist! I am helping with the organising side with the fashion show and there may be a chance for my work to be shown on the runway! How exciting! I am really looking forward to it and just so grateful for this opportunity to be helping with something I really love.

FMP

Final Major Project Inspiration...

So my final project at university has started! Dun dun duuuuunnnn!!! It is scary to think that the last 4 years of my life has gone so quick! I remember my first day in Foundation year thinking I had all the time in the world and it has just flown by!

I am excited and apprehensive at the same time. Soon it will be time to enter the real world of work. I am looking forward to getting going with my FMP but also scared about the amount time we have to do it in. The only thing that is keeping me going is the fact that previous years have managed to do it so somehow I must be able to.

My starting point for my FMP was Darwin and his animal drawings. I then went down the route of taxidermy and stuffed animals to get textures, patterns and shapes. I don't want to do the 'too obvious' route of animals, using animals skins etc. as that is just not me. I've realised in the past modules I have lost what I am about, and rather than doing something I love, I have done the work just to get by. This is something I definitely don't want to do in the next one! This is my final work to go on show and I want it to show what I am about. I am more about the theory and the story behind the work, looking deep into the mood and texture of the work rather than something that will be wearable and sellable. As I want to go into teaching, finding a market where I could go into work afterwards with my pieces is not essential to me. I want to use all my skills I have to show what I can achieve and then take this to the classroom environment. I don't have a particular technique or skill that I am especially interested in as I like all aspects and try different things. I think sometimes this can be my downfall as I want to include everything! However I will try to do as much as I can to show my abilities, I don't want to be put in a box.

I have collected a number of images that have helped me with my starting point as I was a bit lost before I started. This has helped me to decide what I am doing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now I just have to do the work!

Inspiration... Lisa Temple Cox

Last year at uni we had a guest speaker come in and speak to us about her work. Lisa Temple Cox. Her theme was similar to one I am looking at now which is why I am using her for inspiration. She looked at scientific research like grotesque human parts floating in jars and things being malformed by the course of nature. This is very 'Cabinet of Curiosities' to me. Although things can look a bit scary and disgusting, there is still beauty in it. Someone has stored these items for research and analysis so that we now know the things we do in medical research and the way we work.
The images can look a bit scary and upsetting but I tend to look at them as objects rather than something that was once living. It is sad to think that these people grew up with these deformities or illnesses but it has also allowed us to develop in the medical aspects of it too.

From her research she then created a model of her head, having to make a cast whilst being completely covered. I would find this stifling and claustrophobic! But the outcome is astonishing and really connects with her research.

Please go check out her work because it is amazing, you can tell she loves what she does. Things don't always work out the way you intended them to be but sometimes that's what makes them better, a beautiful mistake. 



Inspiration... Elie Saab

Elie Saab Spring 2013 Couture...

A Divine collection that I just love. I love the colour story of light shades, pastels to then the bold reds and blacks. The beading and embroidery is just amazing, something I could never achieve. The collection is almost whimsical, fairytale like with florals and a touch of something that could be seen in Snow White. The Queen wearing the red and black dresses of course and the pastels and florals worn by Snow White, lost in the forest to then survive in the wilderness. There is a naturalness to the flowers and bead work that look like they have grown on the dresses rather than been placed there. I love it.



London Fashion Week... Christopher Kane

Christopher Kane A/W 2013

Looking at some of the shows in London Fashion week and trying to gather inspiration for my final major project - one I came across that I quite liked was Christopher Kane.

This collection clearly has some kind of military influence and that's not just the camouflage. Although I don't really like camouflage patterns - too much an easy link to army etc, I do like the appliqued versions of the pattern, adding texture to the coats. I also like the 3D flowers, mixing the feminine with masculine style shapes of garments. This is something I want to explore in my FMP. I also like on the knitted jumpers the raised shoulder details. These are all things I will look into when designing.

 

 

 

 

 

 





Out and About... Natural History Museum

Natural History Museum London

From my initial idea of using Darwin and his botanical drawings as well as animals I thought of what better place to start - the Natural History Museum. I wanted to collect images of unusual animals and plants that I could gain texture and shape ideas for prints and embroidery. My favourite part was the bird section. It was very Darwin, with parts of birds laid out separately to show the distinctions between each type, heads, wings, feathers, feet.

I love the little tags labelling each part too

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also liked the collection of animal bones they had. Could look lovely as line drawings...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This trip was really inspirational to me and I have so many ideas. Just shows you how important primary research is, I wouldn't have got this many ideas just from a photograph found online.

 

 



Out and About... V&A revisited...

A little while ago I visited the V&A for the Hollywood exhibition and I thought I would go back and just have a look at their fashion department again. Even though the exhibition space hadn't changed much it was good to go back and revisit what you have already seen sometimes. It's good to see things you might not have seen before, also you might be looking for different things this time so your inspiration and the images you take might be different from the last time. And it is always good to remind yourself of what you have already seen. Like this time I didn't realise there was Edwardian clothing, which is the era I have been using for my dissertation. Whereas before, I visited that section in the summer so was looking for something completely different.  I didn't take many pictures as I had taken photos on my last visit but I just loved the Edwardian clothing. The colour was lovely as you usually associate the era being quite dark because it coming after the Victorian era.

 

 

beautiful collar

 

 

PURE London

Today was the end of the Pure London exhibition at Kensington Olympia and it was also the day students were allowed to go. If you registered online you got in for free which was good. I didn't really know what to expect before going except that I knew it was for buyers to purchase ideas and labels to sell in their companies and shops. I didn't expect it to be so huge!! I think we ended up going around 3 times trying to find the exit! There were different departments for different markets like ladies wear, lingerie, accessories etc. and also there were some guest lecturers and runways. Although we weren't there to purchase anything it was a good way to gather information on stand ideas for our coming up shows at GFW and New Designers. Also there were a few places like Drapers who were advertising jobs and career prospects. I only managed to get a few photos because I didn't want to look like I was stealing ideas from the companies and going to copy what they had designed. So we worked as a team to gather images and layout ideas.

 

 

I liked the idea of having wallpaper in the background as it gave something more to the stand than it just being plain. Also we have people in our class designing wallpaper for their collections so this could be a way to show off their work too.

 

It was a good but very tiring experience.

Well done!!!

Vanners Competition...

I just wanted to say well done to everyone in my class who got their samples made into fabric swatches. They look amazing!

 

 

 

 

 

The last 2 pictures are samples designed by Samantha Seymour.  The green and purpley one is my favourite! Gorgeous!! Well done!



Inspiration... Darwin

Darwin

Recently I have been feeling a little down, not really knowing where my life and work is heading. Normally I have an idea of what I want to do, something I really, really love but nothing has been getting me really excited. I was just sitting in the library, on the floor with my friend, as you do, just starring at books hoping for some kind of inspiration to pop out when it hit me. I have always liked books of people's work who sketch plants and animals, documenting what they see in their lives, wishing I could go on some kind of adventure. How could I have not thought of it before? Who is the most famous person to document animals and plants through drawings, noting how they are vary in different parts of the world! Charles Darwin!

 

 

 

 

I just love the details in the drawings themselves, the texture and tone is amazing! I have a few inspirational day visits lined up for next week, one of which will be me going to visit Darwin's old house in Kent. I'm so excited! I have so many different ideas already of what I could do! This was the eureka moment I was waiting for! 

Inspiration... Rust

FMP...

So I've been thinking of what I could do for my final major project, the last and final project of my degree. It is so daunting to think this is what you will be marked on the most! Got to make it count! I've had in my head a while now that I want to buy old plain military uniforms and update them somehow with embroidery, print etc. I've been thinking of surface decoration and I've wanted for a while to master marbelling or mixing up dyes to create blobby effects. War and the images I have found in museums always brings me back to the same old thing. Worn down, rusty, decaying. I dabbled in a bit of rusting fabrics in a previous project and really enjoyed the process. I want to explore this further and maybe push it to being something different, maybe not necessarily using rusting objects but creating an effect to look like rust. I've found some lovely images of rust, the colours and textures are amazing. Here they are...