Paloma Faith

I'd love to design for someone like Paloma Faith, she's very experimental! providing someone else could sew all the sequins on...

(yellow liquorice allsort looking head piece)

From Berwick Street to Goldhawk Road

What a hectic 2 days in London. The aim was Fabric Shopping. The outcome is must do more Fabric Shopping. Firstly, why are Goldhawk Road and Berwick Street so far away? Green line, Blue line, Pink line, Blue line, Grey Line Redline, Lighter Blue line, Grey line, Green line ARGH! My poor Oyster card, that's supposed to be fabric money you know!




Anyway, having had such a strong idea of fabric choices from looking at the Whaleys and Bradford folders I was hoping to find the exact fabric in my exact colour. Its a wee bit harder than that. No spotty voile, i'll have to dye that. Don't have a heart attack Sarah, no fabric spray involved this year. No red wool, no its either to thick, or its crepe wool (tacky). But I did find some lovely jubbly cotton fabric for my trousers (pale orange, bottom left) and my play suit (Violet, Bottom Centre).

5 Year Plan

So this is my 5 year plan.

Amelia Kanaris.
March 2010.

3-6 months:

• Continue working really hard to finish toiling my collection and tweaking to perfection, taking styling into consideration.
• Make 4 outfits to a high standard for Crit deadline 17/05/10.
  
• Complete Photoshoot of collection for a look book.
• After the Crit make a further 2 outfits to go with the collection (Gala-worthy, Fingers crossed...)
• Do work placement at Peclers for 2 weeks + in the summer.
  

6-12 months:

• Secure a 3 month placement in a trend forecasting/design environment.
• Dissertation and Placement Reports will be written.
• Either make a professional trend book based on several trends which I can design collections for. Or design a larger collection i.e 12-24 outfits.
  

Beyond 12 months:

• Graduate from university with BA degree.
• From here I want to go straight into the industry. I am full to the brim with ambition and determination when it comes to this I can't wait to get out there!!!!!! I will most likely be living and working in London. This is where I see myself.
• Hopefully with the combination of fashion futures work experience and fashion writing/blogging practice I will be able to start in a job as a trend researcher either for a forecasting agency such as Peclers or Trendstop. From here I would aim to work my way up to designer for the trend books.
• As design is my favourite aspect of fashion, another option for me would be to look into womenswear design for high street companies. On the top of my list to work for would be; Asos, Urban Outfitters, Topshop or such like. These are brands where I would shop, and as my design philosophy is to create clothing I would want to wear this would make my aesthetic the perfect design combination!
• The ULTIMATE dream pathway would be to finish university, gain interest off of the back of my designs from the likes of Topshop, NEWGEN, vauxhall fashion scout to invest in moi :) Paving the way for me to become a ready-to-wear womenswear design, showing at London Fashion Week every season... ahhhh. Although i'd settle for creating my own brand and with lookbooks etc approach e-retailers and retailers who sell multiple brands. Starting with smaller boutiques/markets and working up in popularity.

There is also the way into it that Henry Holland and Luella did it. Fashion Journalism. Holland started out at the Teen Mags, and Luella at the Evening Standard and then Vogue. These are my favourite two designers. Its in interesting approach. Gain all the contacts, find a niche, and make it popular enough for a successful design career.

3-5 years:

Within 5 years of being in the industry I want to be well on my way to having a successful career (and be able to afford a REAL Chanel 2.55 bag, from my own pocket) Having acheived a job as either:

• Popular Trend forecasting designer/trend forecaster for a magazine/fashion futures agency or design house seeking out current trends.

-or-

• making my way up the designer ladder in a high street chain in a more commercial environment.
  

Must-Have

My favourite piece from Burberry Porsum AW10/11. Leather/Shearling jacket. I wonder how long I will have to save for it....Maybe I'll add it into my five year plan.

(Image from http://jakandjil.com/blog/)

Marios Schwab AW10/11

I love this Autumn/Winter Collection...so simple yet really really beautiful! I want the Heidi-esque pinafore.



Marios Schwab is certainly under the spotlight at the moment. Becoming creative director for Halston means he had a debut to prepare for New york fashion week and a show for his own label at London fashion week just a week apart. For this collection Schwab seemed to go back to his Austrian roots. with traditional tailoring of simple and sharp shapes and silhouettes. Schwab seemed to dull down on layering and quirky prints to make way for crisp white shirts, delicate embroideries, fur jacket and cropped boleros. Which truly made a demure and lady like collection.



Velvet and brocade dresses hint at his Austrian background. Inspired by techniques he was taught whilst learning the trade at the age of 15. they bring out a luxurious feel to the collection which has been Influenced by “English roses and vanitas.”



Corsets and embellishments roused the simplicity of the collection. Concentrating on a more structured and tailored look. with focus on an exposed leg most of the detail was kept above the waist. Most noticeable to me were the unusual curved bolero jackets, which Marios refers to as ‘Alien Necklines’ and ‘L’ shaped collars on thick fur coats. Within a Colour palette of dove greys, mink, petrol blue and ruby red Schwab is bang on trend for Autumn/Winter.

(From my website http://stylesponge.com Amelia Kanaris)

AAAAAH GOODIES

For those of you who didn't know I recently won Liberty London Girls competition for £500 + worth of Front Row goody bags!!!! Best day of my life. All I did was write who my favourite LFW collections were. Put in a bit of light hearted drug humour, and voila....



the opening of the 10kg box!!!!!!!!



House of Holland goody bags included Sebastian volume boosting hair product, which is amazing! Lots of Mac make up including eye shadow and lipsticks, hair products aplenty from herbal essence, loreal, tigi, redken, label m (i would recomment Label M dry shampoo to anybody!) As well as Happy socks, weleda skincare products, an Alice Temperley t-shirt, fair trade tea and many more!



Plenty of Loreal and Revlon goodies to keep me going! One of my favourite to come out of the box was a leather Bally notebook! Eremis skin care - Must admit I gave it away to my mother for mothers day - cheeky i know!



Swarovski red heart necklace....stunning! Will get pics up asap!



AAAAAAH no carpet left!

I have to thank Sasha from the bottom of my heart, such an enouraging competition to win!!! it really did boost a very depressing month! Here is my winning post:

it’s impossible to pick one!
Topshop Unique for their animals of Farthing Wood on CRACK concept. Making a mono-brow look good? not easy!
Meadham Kirchhoff for the WOW factor. Persian rugs and hot pink head scarves. Beautifully constructed.
Ashish for making me want to look like a hobo! Loved the colour and fabric.
Louise Goldin for beautiful shapes and structures, futuristic military at its best.

I LOVE LFW!

Liberty London Girl Giveaway

Liberty London Girl is a Fashion Editor from London, living in New York! I had been following her for some time on twitter, along with her tweets for Mercedes Benz for LFW. When I saw she was doing a goody bag giveaway i instantly thought - wow whoever wins that will be a lucky bugger!!!!

So to enter, you had to write who your favourite show at LFW was and why. I entered.

I WON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


£500 + worth of front row goodybags including House of Holland Clutch Bag, Mark Fast knitted knickers a swarovski necklace and loads of hair and make up products WOW WOW WOW! I can't believe it!!!!!!!!!


To check out my entry click here.


and to check the prizes click here.

I will update www.stylesponge.com in due course with pictures of my goody bags!!

FASHION WEEK

ok ok ok. For those of you who don't know, i am a contributor for www.cyanatrendland.com and they recently asked me to cover London Fashion Week for them. Well at first i thought he meant in general from pictures. but no no no low and behold in my inbox comes my 'PRESS PASS' for LFW. Luckily enough it was my weekend off and I was spending 5 whole days in london - coincidence much????

Somerset House

Louise Gray

Ashish Trousers - Street Style

Topshop Show Space

I got to see shows from Louise Goldin, Richard Nicoll, Mark Fast, Mary Katrantzou, Louise Gray, Holly Fulton and more - and even got an exclusive from Katrantzou. So ... here are some of my favourite reports:

Richard Nicoll:
http://cyanatrendland.com/2010/03/04/richard-nicoll-lfw-aw-201011-2/



Holly Fulton:
http://cyanatrendland.com/2010/03/02/holly-fulton-aw-1011-london-fashion-week/



Mary Katrantzou:
http://cyanatrendland.com/2010/03/01/mary-katrantzou-aw-1011-exclusive/