Charity Fashion Event

Just a quick update, tomorrow I'm off to a charity fashion show in Linlithgow in support of a work colleague and am currently in talks about whether or not I'm allowed to take photographs.

Hopefully if I'm allowed I should have the post up by the weekend but basically its a charity event involving a fashion show demonstrating key styles and outfits from the past so many decades.

Its come at the right time as I need inspiration for my collection next year and theres also raffles and a bar so there's plenty to get excited about!

Very excited!

Futuristic Eurovision garments

I finally got around to watching the Eurovision Song Contest today and oh my some of the dresses! I've been keeping an eye out for some inspiration incase I decide to do another collection for next year and this certainly helped!

I want to talk about Norway because her dress was by far my favourite, it was very 'futuristic' but managed to remain simple and flattering.

I really like the shoulder detail on this and it reminded me of other futuristic gowns that have simple features and yet have a fantastic overall silhouette. Less is more when it comes to these types of garments. I also liked the banding across her garment and when it was paired with the paneling it gave great detail but in a very understated way.
A few examples of similar dresses:

Now you can't talk Eurovision without mentioning some of it's tackier outfits!

Here is Romanias entry and I have to say that while I felt the overall performance was all that Eurovision stood for the outfit reminded me of a character called 'Raven' from the Scottish television programme with the same name. There was just far too much going on here in terms of the outfit for me to handle. 

 And finally this is another example of a 'futuristic' gown with a twist! Miss Moldova wore a white gown with a structured shoulder but the real wonder of it was due to light projections which made the dress change and for example look like it was engulfed in flame. It was a great idea but as soon as Graham Norton went 'watch the dress you may be surprised' it became increasingly obvious what was going to happen. Still a great effect though.

The rest of the night provided other more 'safe' garments and a mixture of the utterly bizarre but these were a few that stood out and inspired me!

So yeah the Eurovision Song Contest has provided a lot of inspiration in terms of the possibilities for next year, I've never used embellishments before but I'm now enticed by all the glitter and sequins!!

Knowing your stuff

The following was a post I wrote a year ago on an old and now abandoned blog with a few updates. Why post it here? Well I start my final year at university and the post mentions a scenario that came up when I was only mere months into first year. This post serves as a reminder of how far I have come as how much there is still to learn.

There is nothing more important than having a good knowledge of fashion. No-one knows this more than me. 
In first year at university I was with a group of friends when they suggested we watch 'September Issue.' 
"It's about Anna Wintour" one of my friends told me and when I asked who Anna Wintour was my friends literally fell silent.
Yes. I, an eighteen year old fashion student, didn't know who Anna Wintour was. Looking back on that event now I could scream at myself since I still don't understand how I couldn't have come into some contact with the name over my lifetime but the situation proved a valid point. KNOW YOUR STUFF!

To those who don't know, Anna Wintour is the head editor and chief of VOGUE, the ultimate fashion force. She is the woman who gave us the supermodel on front of our magazines instead of celebrities, she also drove street style into the pages of our fashion magazines.
I should mention that I recently bought 'September Issue' and every time I watch it I'm reminded of my first year at university and how much I had to learn...

Since then I've taken it it upon myself to learn as much as possible about the fashion industry and I don't just mean designers. You need to know as much as possible about photographers, models and designers who have changed the way the industry is. So on a regular basis I read blogs to see new designers and if I come accross a name I don't know I look it up, make some notes which I keep in a file and always come back to them when I do a project because their design style can also be of great inspiration to me. 

There's a book called "In Fashion" which has a list of people in it the author demands you know about and I can see why. If you go for a job interview to get into the industry and they ask you who inspires you, you're going to need to know those people or else you need not have bothered turning up in the first place. 
Imagine I went to an interview at eighteen and was asked what I thought of Anna Wintour, I'd have taken a Manolo Blahnik to the butt on my way out of the door!

So I have a few tips to help you get ahead of the game:
1. Read blogs, there are thousands of us out there who know designers, photographers, stylists etc that you may not have heard of, if you read a name you're unsure of, look them up! Get as much of a rounded knowledge as possible.
2. Keep a note of any designers etc that you find you personally relate to, wether that be in terms of back story, design style, ethics etc because when it comes to essays and interviews, the person infront of you is going to see that you've really grasped the idea. 
3. Programmes like 'Next Top Model' and 'Project Runway' expose you to designers, editors and photographers you may not know, although reality TV can be hit and miss with some people it's a great insight to the industry and can only help build your awareness of people in the industry and how the industry itself works.

So! Start now. Have a look online at influential, well-known and some not so well-known people in the industry. Expand your knowledge and ensure you keep a note of what you learn because it is such a big help in the long run and has deffinately helped me in achieving what I do at university.

Some basic names:
-Anna Wintour
-Coco Chanel
-John Galliano
-Issey Miyaki
-Iman
-Twiggy
-Mario Testino
-Alexander McQueen
-Christopher Kane
-Zuhair Murad
-Vivienne Westwood
-Oscar De La Renta

Those are just a few to get you started, another good way is to look at the adverts in Vogue (lets face it, there's thousands) and look up the names of the designers who's adverts you find appealing. At least that way you already have some common ground! You like their style! 

Fashionary

I've been rather busy working to earn a little extra cash for my London trip this past week which is why I haven't posted BUT I have found a lovely little gem I want to share with you all.

FASHIONARY

Fashionary is a sketchbook that has been developed to aid a designer throughout the initial design stage and development of garments/ideas/collections. I'd seen this a few months back and thought it would be a good thing to promote but I wanted to buy one first to see for myself just how good it is!

I bought a Fashionary Sketchbook to help me with my development into next years collection-something that I've only just started to think about- and it is really great. Besides all of the wonderful specification examples, measurement charts and other important dates it holds, each page has a light outline of either male/female templates which means ideas can be drawn onto the page proportionally accurate straight from the off.

Last year I spent ageeees trying to develop templates that I could then draw sketches onto but that isn't really necessary for sketchbook work, whilst I done my sketchbook I was having to trace around basic templates which was so time consuming (and frustrating if you have a great idea in your head that you want to get on paper!)

Fashionary don't only supply sketchbooks though, they also allow you to buy little memo pads which have a single template or garment on them. These memos are going to be my next purchase as they are ideal to draw full collection outfits on and then put onto a moodboard to convey your ideas in presentations. They all look extremely professional too!

Here are a few examples of some of the specification sheets in the Fashionary:

In terms of my collection next year I'm unsure what direction I want to take and what garments I'd like to tackle, a big part of me wants to produce a line of gowns, the other side of me wants to produce a very 90s inspired grunge-like collection but there's all sorts of other themes bouncing about as well which are equally diverse and making it impossible to decide!!

I'm hoping to enjoy another week or so just brainstorming these ideas before getting down to the nitty gritty but this Fashionary Sketchbook has me all excited about the development process already! Definitely the best idea I've found in relation to fashion sketching in a while!

Fashionary is also great as it isn't bank breaking, as their prices are in $ it only costs about £19 before shipping and such so it is a great bargain considering all that you get in it.

For more information about this great project or to buy your own Fashionary-http://fashionary.org/
Photos aren't my own.

New Tricks

This is going to be more of a beauty post but hey-o I love a bit of diversity on a blog! Keeps it interesting!
So recently I've had a bad bout of acne on my face, usually I can have quite greasy skin but lately it's completely dried out and a lot of spots and blackheads have started to appear over my nose and cheeks.
I'm pretty obsessive over spots as well, as soon as one appears I have to get rid of it so scarring has now started to develop over my cheeks. I've no idea what's caused the recent change to my skin whether its be the recent exams or sweating from the gym but its been getting me down more and more as it's gotten worse.
This post is actually being written before I go to the doctors so hopefully I will be given help to solve the issue but yesterday me and my sister went to our local shopping centre and had a walkabout to see if we could get advice from skincare specialists as to what may be able to help the issue.
The two places we ended up getting a lot of help from was LUSH and BENEFIT cosmetics in Debenhams...

 Benefit recommended I get into a skincare routine as it's become very varied due to me always being up early and traveling to and from university so I got this little set of cosmetics and even got a freebie to minimise my pores!

 LUSH gave me a few testers but I bought this fast fix for spots that my friend swears by for £5.95 and I put some of it on last night and there was a little bit of improvement this morning in the areas it was used on so hopefully this will continue to help any new breakouts that happen.

 Because of my dry skin but history of grease on my nose LUSH gave me some testers of moisturisers and they are so good! I usually use a dove moisturiser but find that it can be really thick and doesn't stop oils coming through onto my make up but the enzymion and vanishing creams they gave me are so light and grease free when applied to my face! They've stopped some of the dry patches on my cheeks and are good because my old moisturiser would sometimes cause make up to move about my cheeks, especially bronzer so I'll be going back to buy bigger bottles ones these have ran out.

 In my benefit bag there's two face washes, one is a Foamingly Clean Facial Wash which is non abrasive and so stops irritating my spots when I wash my face which was an issue I've had with my current scrubs, it's really good for taking away any extra grease and oil in my skin too.

 Another moisturiser I bought is this one, I've used it a little bit but it's a tad thicker than the testers lush gave me, nevertheless it's still really good at battling my dry skin spots and is light so my face doesn't feel like its caked in product.

 I used to have an eye cream before and it was pretty good but this one I tried before bed last night and the texture of it when applied under the eyes was cooling and you can feel it working! Underneath my eyes get quite dark circles because I'm up so early for university and it will take time to see a real difference but I have good hopes it will work.

This is for pre-bedtime to keep my skin moisturised during the night and hopefully stop breakouts, again, not tried this one yet but am hoping to tonight!

  Another pre-make up moisturiser and toning product. Not tried this yet but it's more to help control the levels of dryness and oiliness on my skin. Its said to read your skin and adapt to help underneath your make up so when I finally get back to actually wearing make up this will be my go-to product!

 This is a face scrub but I'm only using it twice a week because I'm sure irritating the surface of my skin on a daily basis isn't going to help but I still need to remove dead skin cells to help clear up everything! Used this yesterday before bed and it was good! Not too hard on the skin.

 Everything I got yesterday in a convenient little carry bag.

 LUSH also gave me this tub of face mask for free which was lovely of the lady because it should have cost £5.95 but basically I'm to wear it for ten minutes to help sooth my skin and this is what I'm going to try tonight, it doesn't smell very nice due to there being garlic and all sorts in it and it can only last up to 3 weeks in the refrigerator but if it works its definitely a sound investment!

 So here is a few photos of my skin at the moment, lots of redness, dryness and a few unsightly spots which is why there haven't been any photos of my on this blog yet! Although that should hopefully change with the help of these products.

 

 

I've also just come back from my doctors appointment with a 4 month antibiotic treatment which should help and luckily I am allowed to drink on them so I'll have my first one tomorrow morning.

 

I feel like I have so much in the way of skin care now that I really need to decide what should be used and when because I'm not wanting to end up with too any products on my face again, especially as I would like my skin to have improved by the time I go to London in 35 days! But yeah a big thank you to the staff at LUSH because they were so helpful and to the Benefit girls as well because they hooked me up with some great stuff that should hopefully get all of this sorted!!

 

It's nice to finally feel like I can get my skin back to normal!

Overload and unload

So I finally made it through the last day of third year! Last week I had a production management meeting with Michelle which went well (i think) and today was my last exam.
I was away all weekend to Ayr with family to get away from town for a bit and although I took my revision with me it didn't even get glanced at once!
So the past two days have very much been about sitting infront of the books and memorising long lists of conductive fibres and sectors where smart applications can be used (gripped yet?)
Anyway 12:30 came and i got to celebrate third year freedom for a whole hour before a meeting about out 4th year choices began. Happiness was replaced by dread during this point.
The time will come when i need to make the big collection or dissertation decision but until then im taking at least 2 weeks off for 'me time.' Infact! Heres a photo of how im celebrating my newly found freedom from higher education...

Collection Hand-In

At last! I can finally put my collection behind me, don't get me wrong I loved the experience but the past 12 weeks have been intense as I've battled with some methods of design that I had never tried before.
My two best friends agreed to be my models as well so they were a fantastic support system throughout my presentation and were such good sports considering one of them had a massive cut out between her boobs!

The theme behind the collection was the opening ceremony of the Olympics where you saw agricultural Britain being taken over by the Industrial revolution but I wanted to translate that onto garments.

The clothes themselves are predominantly black and green with various structures and textures on them to help convey the idea that structures are taking over a green landscape.

All in all I'm happy with what I ended up with in the end, some of the jersey fabrics caused problems as it's easy to pull them out of shape and the dress created a lot of sewing issues because of how complicated its silhouette is but the whole scenario was a learning experience.

Tomorrow I hope we get the brief and theme for next years collection so I can get started on it as soon as possible because  have a bunch of ideas going on in my head that I finally want to get down on paper!

Anyway here's the final collection which includes:
-black cotton drill trousers with black ric rac detail
-green and black crepe shirt
- black gabardine and cotton drill dress with ric rac detail
-black stretch jersey crop top
-green and black stretch jersey bralette
-green stretch jersey skirt
-black satin stretch leggings
-black leatherette cage skirt