The first post Christmas buy

So, I got a lot of vouchers and money to spend following Christmas and I could have easily blown it all today. Actually, I found myself being anxious to save up and didn't end up buying much. Though, I have got the perfect outfit for New Years Eve ( I'm going to have to get a picture of it for you). I only had to buy one item to pair with some I already had so avoided putting a massive dent in my back account for a change.

I can't find the image on the Topshop website, but I bought a tres chic Vintage looking top made out of creamy brown lace, translucent with short sleeves that have an interesting look. Im going to pair it with a textured black body con high waisted skirt, black tights, heels, and a little black vintage belt with a gold buckle and a gold antique looking necklace. Hopefully it will convey the Vintage but edgy look that I try to go for. I was looking for a pair of Leather high waisted shorts but any I saw were way out of my price range for today.

I don't actually know what is going down exactly for New Years Eve yet. Everything is up in the air at the moment so I should probably stop blogging and get on with making some calls :)

Happy New Year xo

Dreaming of Paris

Mmmm just think that in seven weeks time, I will be in Paris for my 20th birthday. I love it that my birthday falls in February because that means I shall vouchers galore from Christmas to go clothes shopping for a good cause. I'm getting excited constantly surfing the net for all the goodies I wanna get. Paris is obviously one of the most chic capitals in the world, so I need to look good and sophisticated. Here's a few things I was thinking about. If a lot of them are from Topshop, please excuse me, but I always ask for tons of vouchers for there for Christmas.

First of all, I definitely need a new coat or two. It gets a lot colder in January and February and I haven't yet been able to buy a new one. The two trends that are luring me in right now is the camel coat and the military cape. Might get one of each if i'm lucky enough to afford it.

Definitely a unique buy :) Its from ohmyfrock.com and so far, I've not seen anyone with one like it. Plus its a lot cheaper than I've seen in coats on the high street. Will only cosy me around the £50 mark when including  package and posting.

Now, If I am going camel coloured for a coat, the cape is going to have to be in a different one. As I don't wear brights, I am thinking black or navy. This one is £85 from Topshop

I've seen a lot of girls around wearing shirts, especially in sheers. I'm thinking a black sheet shirt, with my camel tapered trousers, thin black leather belt and maybe braces (if I can find some decent ones, not like the ones today which were terrible and cannot physically be worn) Again, sheer shirts can be found in Topshop. This one at £38 is quite unusual cos of its back as well. Must have !

I do have a love for graphic print tops. You see them all over, it's just about finding the right one. This one from Urban outfitters £35, would look pretty cool with a patterned high waisted skirt or shorts or even just with leggings and my tweed blazer

I'll be back soon to post some more ;)

New prospects and Edward Scissorhands

My work experience with Gok Wan was so exciting last week. I loved working with the fashion team, modifying clothing and accessories for the looks, helping out in wardrobe and dressing up the set etc. The overall experience was so valuable and made me even more confident about looking for further work experience. This new found boldness has certainly paid off. My dream is to work for the Republic head office in Leeds for my Year in Industry and they accepted my e-mail and have asked for a CV! On top of that Flux magazine Mancheser read some of my sample articles and said they should be able to find some work or features for me to do. I'm so excited. I feel like I'm dreaming because I've been getting so lucky.

I saw a photoshoot in Idol magazine that I wanted to upload onto my blog. They've ran with the Edward Scissorhands theme turning it into real, edgy high fashion imagery.

In my own personal style, after seeing the Pretty Reckless in Manchester on Tuesday, I became inspired by the whole Taylor Momson look. Now, i'm usually into all this vintage looking clothing but I have an inner rock chic that I like to express along side this. I saw the Crafted Love Lane top in Republic and decided I must own it. The next day I went straight to the White Rose centre to pick it up and its a beauty !

Gok Wan

I'm so excited that Friday and Saturday I'm doing work experience for Gok Wans fashion fix. It should be really interesting though i'm quite nervous considering this will be my first ever work placement in the fashion industry and the biggest thing that scares me is messing up or disappointing. I hope that I do well, I hate letting people down.
Other than that, it has been a crazy week of deadlines with today being digital design and Garment technology. Jaskiren and Sophie created the dress, whilst I completed most of the research work for the journal and we all put a group effort into design and pattern cutting. The dress and the journal have both turned out really well. The below image shows the final dressed design. Our theme followed a vintage trend and we look into Topshop as our company we were designing for, aiming at that particular target audience.

Gypsy Rose

I'm really loving this fashion editorial from Tank Fashion magazine :)

Miss You, Alexander McQueen.

I was really thinking today about how much of a loss it was when we lost Alexander McQueen from the fashion industry. He was really bringing something unique and innovative to the catwalks, shocking and frightening people at the same time. I'd give anything to be as talented as him, but I reckon it takes someone really special to get to his level. My favourite collection of his, well one of them, has to be Spring/Summer 2010, his last catwalk show whilst he was alive 'Platos Atlantis'. Its magical

Deadline is nearly over :)

Just got a few days until Tuesday to hand in all my design development work, and then next friday it will all be over. I've just finished my illustrations for Martin Margiela but I'm not too sure how I feel about them :/ I think they definitely looked better in my development journal as I'm not that great at photoshop.

I mean some of them would definitely look a lot better if I could have added more detail onto them, but they took me seven hours to do and I just didn't know how.
   Anyway, other exciting news. I got my first reply about a placement from a London Fashion magazine called "Fashion Insider" , so I could possibly be getting an interview which is really exciting. Im also thinking about applying for the charity "RAG" fashion show with my designs, as I just saw an e-mail about it on the Portal.

New design Inspiration

I am always on the look out for new fashion designers to inspire me. The kind of current design I look for is something that is edgy and unique. I love designs that just stand out and draw you into the page, making you think "That's incredible". I love the sense of the weird, strange and unusual.
The first designer who I've become fascinated by recently is Samantha Cole, London. She gains conceptual inspiration and really challenges the ideals of what is fashion and beauty. I love the alludes to architecture, fabric textures and shapes within her clothing

The second I chose to include in this blog is Lisa Shahno from Moscow, Russia. She has a huge fascination with geometry  which you can see incorporated in the garments she designs. She is an innovator, looking for new ways to create clothing for example the last image you will see underneath where she uses glow in the dark threads to make an impact.

Zoo magazine Fall 2010

Love love love this editorial in fall 2010 Zoo magazine. I'm inspired and I am designing when I get the chance

Speedo colloboration with 'From Somewhere'

Also I found this quite an interesting piece to read

http://www.speedo.com/en/speedo_brand/swimming_news/newsroom/swimming_news_3328.html

It tells you all about how Speedo colloborated with an ethical fashion label to transform old LZR racer suits from the old stock, into a fashion garment.

Iris Van Herpen

I was generally scanning the German fashion magazine, Zoo, online and came across dutch fashion designer Iris Van Herpen and couldnt help but be fascinated. From the A/W 2010 'Synesthesia' collection, theres no words to describe the garments but simply outstanding. The clothes are made mainly from leather strips. I've always loved cutting edge and unusual fashion and this is definitely a collection to be inspired by

Design Development

I Havent posted in a while because I've had soooo much uni work. Had two deadlines last week and it was mad! but was definitely worth the effort in terms of the design development project having found out I got a first for the group phase of our project :)
I'm currently enjoying the next phase of design development and thought I'd give a peek at some of the work I've been doing. I'm okay to put it up now after copyrighting it and all that jazz.

Roland Klein

Had quite an interesting lecture today in my module, 20th Century Fashion. Fashion Designer Roland Klein came in to speak to us about couture. The man use to work with Karl Lagerfeld and Maxmara and can you believe he had his own company and everything, got bored and started in Interiors instead ? :-o I mean he use to design outfits for Princess Diana when she was alive. Thats one achievement that was once every designers dream.
   Other than that, I don't think I've stopped working on my uni projects and given myself a break! I've got trend research and boards for Martin Margiela due in on Tuesday, then patterns and samples on Friday next week.  Eek! It's going to get hectic !

Jum Nakao

Brazilian design Jum Nakao constantly impresses me. His ability to adopt origami techniques and incorporate them into clothes is brilliant. The man is so talented and innovative.

Future Beauty: 30 years of Japanese Fashion

The Future Beauty exhibition at the Barbican in London was a privilege to see. Some of the most amazing and influential Japanese designers like Comme des Garcons, Issey Miyake and Yohji Yamamoto had their beautiful creations under one roof. The work, techniques and creativity that had gone into many of these garments was exquisite. The girls on my course who get to study some of these designers for their design development project are really lucky ! These were just some of the pieces i managed to get pictures of in the galleries but there were plenty more I wanted. It certainly gives me some new ideas to explore in my own design work, especially with a design project on conceptual fashion coming up.