Fabrics!

A preview of my collection fabrics! I've bought my main colours so far, just a few linings and extra's to get!




(White Spotted Voile. Orange Polyester. Orange 100% cotton)

(Violet 100% cotton. Red Cotton Drill)

(Green Polyester and Guterman Natural Cotton Threads)

(Ric Rac)

I know what's on my Christmas list!!!!!

The Cut have just reported that fashion companies are to start auctioning off internships to raise money for Charity! "allowing those with money to breeze in and experience what it's probably not at all like to intern there" The bidding starts at $1000, but is expected to go a lot lot higher! Although It is a good cause, presumably, I can't say i agree with it...It's a pretty invaluable experience to have someone to pay for!?

During their Week internship at Vogue they will meet Anna Wintour, be shown around the office, and then the rest will determine on his or her interests! I tell you what I would be interested in....Getting my moneys worth looking through the sample cupboard!!!!!

If any rich old soul would like to pay for me to intern at Vogue, I have no Qualms with that! If One week will cost around $10,000 then that means i'll have to save approximately $120,000 to do my 3 month placement at Vogue. Bummer!

50 years of Carnaby Street

Taking advantage of a bright and sunny day in London on Wednesday I walked from Waterloo, to Covent Garden, to Piccadilly, Regent Street and then Carnaby Street! (had to get my moneys worth out of my sunglasses) Anyway, at my final destination I stumbled across an exhibition named '50 years of Carnaby Street 1960-2010' naturally I was over the moon because my whole collection is based on the youth-quake that was mod culture in 1960's London. Fate!

Of course I ventured inside and it was amazing! I learnt a lot about Carnaby Street prior to its height of popularity. For example, Carnaby Street is built on a 'plague pit' basically a burial mound from the plague! It was home of the first 'Pest house' nursing the 'unsaveable' in London during the plague from scurvy and allsorts.





Thrilled to see these colours everywhere! The Red, Green, Orange and purple are the main colours for my four outfits, and blue and yellow were going to be my extra 2!



The exhibition has a lot of memoribilia from the 60s including old magazines, dolls, records etc! All real vintage stuff!








Paisley prints and checks in a variety of shift dresses!




'Bowie Bags' Jodpur trousers. Look familiar?


A Foale and Tuffin Jacket, in polka dot print!


a 1960's Bell Dress



Phillip Townsend plaque. It should lots of photography of his of twiggy, mary quant foale & tuffin!! All in all it was a nod in the right direction to my collection, the polka dots the colours the shapes, which i thought had digressed slightly from my theme! I love the era and the culture and has definitely given my ideas for my sketch book! i've been collection 'biba' bags and Mary Quant tight packets! So i've been waiting to use them in a fun way!

Oh and I also found these shoes in Office, they're £65, but with the wedge and the pring they would be so perfect with the collection!

The Miu Shoe

These shoes + my collection = perfection. I need them!!!! Unfortunately they're a taaaad out of my price range!!! They're Miu Miu SS10 shoes from Net - a -Porter. The chunky heel and the sparrow print is screaming out 60s to me!

Bedtime Reading

I've partaken in some light bedtime reading lately. These are a few books that have either motivated me or inspired me, and are teaching me even more about the fashion industry.



'Fashion Makers Fashion Shapers' by Anne-Celine Jaeger is all about the philosophy and input behind the label. Their history and how they got where they are now! There are some very useful tips and lessons into making your own label!


Luella.

American Apparel.

"It's very easy to go outside of the boundaries you are trying to create for a label. It's much harder to keep one unified vision and have every style fall under that voice you've created...one voice...is what makes us successful" American Apparel


Rodarte.


Basics Fashion Design: Construction is what it says on the tin! A guide to construction - which I need, and is very helpful! It gives a guide on Flat drawings, altering patterns, rules hints and tips!

Info Gathering

Fashion Monitor - A fashion and Trend based website.

"Established in 1989, Fashion Monitor is the UK's leading source of industry information for media, PR and communications professionals working in fashion and beauty. "

They cover news about:

• brand and product launches and repositioning
• retail openings and expansion plans
• communication campaigns and celebrity endorsements
• PR agency account wins, launches and personnel appointments
• online and print media title launches, and editorial and commercial team changes
• stylists and photographers movements, and new agencies

Mintel-Market based research website.

"Mintel is an independent award-winning provider of world-leading market intelligence, delivering robust information, analysis and critical recommendations. Mintel's trusted portfolio of proprietary industry solutions and products has been supporting high profile clients in key sectors such as FMCG, financial services, media, retail, leisure and education for over 38 years.

Our ability to connect the dots means you receive more than just points on a chart or words on a page.We provide you with the Intelligence you need, in time to stay ahead of the market. The result? You will not only make informed decisions, but the right ones, at the right time."

Mintel is aimed at companies within media, retail and leisure industries to seek out intelligence on their competitors.

Companies House - A company research website

"The main functions of Companies House are to:

• incorporate and dissolve limited companies;
• examine and store company information delivered under the Companies Act and related legislation; and
• make this information available to the public.

Drapers Online - a Fashion and Business Website, focusing on businesses, companies and breaking news in fashion.

"Drapers is your key to the UK fashion business. Every week Drapers features the finest news, trends, catwalks, top fashion jobs, exclusive sales data and insightful viewpoints.

Drapers finds out what’s going on in the business and how it affects yours with the finest collection of news, views and interviews, as well as eight special trend forecasting editions."

A first look into who is doing what, and whats happening where.

These websites are all useful aids to help me get an insight into breaking fashion news as and when it happens! Not only that but information on companies and marketing which is useful for employment, as well as key fashion and trend knowledge which is Very useful for blogging, and trend researching. Companies house and Mintel are most useful for when setting up your own business, and seeking intelligence on competitors in your field. At the moment the websites i am more likely to use are Drapers online and Fashion Monitor.

You can also follow all websites on twitter. For news updates as and when they happen!

http://twitter.com/Fashion_Monitor

http://twitter.com/companies_house

http://twitter.com/mintelnews

http://twitter.com/Drapers

Fashion As a Forum

Continuing on from last week's Toile positivity I've had some very encouraging results back from Anthea today for the Fashion as a Forum: Design Aesthetics unit. I passed with a 76 (First) i'm relieved! Anthea said i had a real knack for writing and that she read it 4 times. She seemed very impressed! This means I can now progress onto year 3. For The unit I wrote about the Digital Schedule of Fashion Week and the introduction of fashion film which is taking over catwalk shows. It is a subject i'm very interested in!

I think some of the extra marks came from my Research file, which i did as a blog http://fashionasaforum.blogspot.com I thought seeing as my essay was film related I should be able to show the films I was talking about!




One of the films I discussed was Little Shilpa's AW10/11 who has been labelled the 'Phillip Treacy of India'. The video is eery, in an almost subliminal way, and as soon as i saw it i knew i had to write about it - and haven't forgotten the film since! Here is some of the conclusion from my essay:

'The revolution of a digital schedule is clearly approaching a wider audience of buyers and wholesalers. As London is innovatively paving the way for creativity in fashion film and digital streaming I predict the digital schedule will become a permanent fixture to the twice yearly event, also becoming more important to designers in Milan, New York and Paris.
Whilst Twitter and Facebook kept the world updated on the week, the daily updates attracted more viewers and website visits jumped by 30 per cent. Burberry's show streaming proved beneficial and advantageous to sales, whilst Hussein Chalayan depicted recurring issues to fashionable ears, sending out a serious message. The world of new media and technologies is expanding the fashion industry. Fashion films are correlating to collections indicating that film could replace the catwalk itself, as it is a more economical presentation of a collection. However, for now I imagine whilst there is still the prestige and excitement of attending shows in person, catwalks will continue. With digital streaming and fashion film becoming more dominant in Fashion Weeks to come. there will be a growth in accessibility to fashion insight, prosperous opportunities for the exhibition, promotion and the more widespread display of Fashion.' Amelia Kanaris

Toile Review. Take Two.

A very successful toile review for round two. All tutors were impressed with my presentation and illustrations, which I was very pleased with. They said the collection itself was very 'fresh' and that it was a massive improvement from the first time around! I'm so relieved. the long hours and sleepless nights paid off. Not that it stops there, oh no! Its all go go go now to perfect the toiles and make the finished collection. Living a designers life is definitely not as glamourous as it seems. However, very very rewarding. Just goes to show that upsetting criticism can be, the reaction it stirs within you really activates successful learning. (If you want it to of course). I'm now feeling very positive. Watch this space.

(images from the toile review. Some of the outfits got a bit mis-matched on the way due to swapping outfits on models etc. and the wind was strong!)




This year has been challenging so far. Stressful, and sometimes you just don't have a clue what you're doing or where you are going. Now i'm at a point where I am focused, I know what I'm doing, I'm organised and I know how i'm going to get there. I'm quite capable of managing my time and meeting all the deadlines I face. I've mastered the 'language of academia!' somewhat.. meaning I am quite confident in year 3 and acheiving my personal goals and targets. Every day its put into practice, and this is how i learn best, trial and error - and if its not my error I'll know not to trial it. I'm a visual learner and i like to understand something to learn it, not just do something and forget it.