Fashion on the Field and Leeds Festival

August is going to be quite a busy month! Not only have I got work 9-5.30 every week day but from the 17th-20th August, I am style scouting at Debenhams 'Fashion on the Field' event at York Ebor Racecourse. My job is to pick out the most stylish women every day for the catwalk heats. The winners will go through to the final on the Saturday and the most stylish will win some great prizes. Its such a great opportunity and I will probably end up snapping a few photos myself to create a style report for Republic.

Another style report I've been asked to do is at Leeds Festival. There will definitely be some great outfits on show and I hope to be wearing some of them. I've been researching T in the Park, Glastonbury, Wireless and Lovebox for Republic and its given me some great ideas. I will definitely be needing something leather, something bold printed, graphic print tee's and some denim shorts. I want to put some great looks together and as soon as I get paid I'm off on a shopping trip, with the addition of my new Republic discount card.

Shame its too muddy to buy a pair of these for Leeds Fest!

Amy Winehouse for Fred Perry

Now I'm never usually a fan of celebrity designed collections, mainly because you know they've had nothing to do with the design process and have just slapped their name on it for a bit of publicity. However, I am surprised to say that I am actually quite impressed with the Amy Winehouse for Fred Perry range.

I think with the range you can really tell that her input was valued. She has this whole vintage pin up style going on and you can really see that translated into the collection as wearable pieces. Fred Perry is also a company that you think about for their casual polo tops and jumpers and with Amys collection, its been given a more feminine and fashion forward edge also.

This dress is also one of my favourite pieces in the collection and I would actually want to buy this to wear on a night out. Think its been reduced now so it is more in my price range too :p

I think celebrities could really do with taking notice of this collection as it shows how to really express their own personality into a commercial, stylish range.

Summer lovin'

I really think these shorts by Stolen Girlfriends club are immense and would love to find a pair, or something similar. They may be cable knit, but they look so cute for a summer look paired with a shirt, socks and sandals like the girl in the image I found off look book.

I'm really into Miss Selfridge at the moment and they are definitely going up in my books.  This shirt and skirt are both absolutely gorgeous buys . Unfortunately, when I tried on the skirt I felt like I looked like a pear :| Don't know if that was the truth or me being paranoid, but I'd had quite a stressful day at that point. I have seen a similar one in the same shop in black so maybe that might work with my look a bit more.

Tim Walker, Britney Spears and Busy times

Hey, if you check out my last post underneath this, you will see the Republic vest top with the 'Your Boyfriend Gave me this T.shirt' slogan on it. I am actually working on the updated version of that at the moment at work with a new slogan and different style font. So, I will be busy with that tomorrow morning as well as photo shopping the new branding onto menswear garments to present to the director. Other than that, I've had a lot to do this week from the menswear fabric swatch boards to be sent off to suppliers and to be used on the colour boards, research, sketches and detailing for the new Christmas party dresses for Miso. The head womenswear designer really liked a neckline I drew up for one of the party dresses which was awesome, plus I managed to get a few sketches hidden in the pile of research so hopefully I might get them spotted if I am lucky. Still really enjoying the job.

I was also researching some ideas earlier for styling shoots I want to do for my portfolio and was looking up ideas on a kind of 1920s Vintage look. Anyway, nothing to do with that, but I ended up coming across one of Tim Walkers Photoshoots from Vogue Italia June 2009. I think this shoot is just so perfect with the edgy and editorial look of Vogue italia but injected with the acid fairytale appeal of Tim Walkers style.

Britney Spears has a new song out called 'I wanna go' and the first thing I noticed about the video was the top she was wearing in the beginning scene and how much I really wanted it. Its just quite casual and unusual at the same time.

So its a 6.30 am start for me tomorrow so I'm out, but I shall be posting back soon :)

Work placement (Republic)

I am really enjoying my placement with Republic and learning so much already. The atmosphere there is so laid back and relaxed that it makes it work actually something to look forward to.
I am working as in the design studio as you already know, and for the first two days I was working alongside one of the designers in the menswear department. She basically drew up her flats of her designs and then I coloured them, added texture and shaded them on illustrator and photoshop. Learning to texture and shade was the first skill I learnt this week which helps flats to look more realistic. This will be so helpful in my final portfolio next year.
Better than that, today I was allowed to work alongside one of the womenswear designers of the 'Crafted' brand. My task was to research a new slogan for one of the tee's like the ones you can see below that already exist.

I don't know if I'm allowed to reveal the slogan name and design but hopefully I shall see the tee in the shop in an upcoming season. I'm hoping I get loads more tasks like this to do and maybe in later months I can even work up to hopefully them letting me create some of my own designs. I also get a 50% discount off Republics brands and 33% of their other brands which will come in very handy ;)

Biomimicry

I'm going to start focusing a few of my blog entries on 'Eco, Sustainable and Slow' Fashion as in 14 months time I will be starting my blog on this subject. I chose it as I've always been obsessed with the unique and innovative and I believe there is some really creative ideas coming under this subject. One of those is the idea od "Biomimicry", which is the green idea of "using nature as an idea to solve design problems". Some of these are not necessarily sustainable but theres a lot that do help towards a better environment. Here are some of the existing ideas I have discovered.

Karen Ingham has created a line of "Pollinator Frocks". It has been researched and  discovered that the bee population is shrinking and this supposedly threatens humans in terms of their food sources. So, the designs are treated with a "nectar-like sugar solution" to encourage bees and butterflies to pollinate. It is an interesting solution though I'm not sure how one would react to becoming a bee magnet !

When discussing Biomimicry, Ada Zanditon is a designers name that will always appear. She too translates the idea of the collapse of bee colonys but in a way that she tells the story through the clothing; she instead draws awareness to the issue. Her "Colony" Spring/Summer 2010 collection takes examples from Hexagonal Honey combs in structure, showing how high fashion and sustainability can work hand in hand with one another. She uses sustainable fabrics too and concentrates on enhancing the life cycle of her products.

Fashion Designer Mattijs van Bergen and Landscape architect Anouk Vogel collaborated to create the "Living" dress. Constructed from recycled bicycle inner tubes and wool, the idea of the dress is that it evolves every season. Its surface is constructed of "vase" like structures that can be filled with water and then topped up with flowers in various positions and of different designs to make a dress that can be ever changing.

Tara Baoth Mooney, a graduate of the London College of Fashio, created a collar that is actually made from textured moss !

Finally, Donna Sgro uses "Morphotex", a nanotechnology based fibre that mimics a morpho butterflies wings due to a trick of the light. The benefits is its lustrous hue is created without the use of dyes which saves on water and energy.

Working for Republic :)

So yesterday is was confirmed that 5 months of my work placement will be as a design studio assistant for Womens and Mens wear at Republic and I am SO SO SO excited ! I finally got the placement that I wanted all along and I'm thrilled, but nervous, to get started in the next few weeks :) As the Head Office is in Leeds too I get to stay in my gorgeous flat :) I feel like my future is finally starting to positively come together.