Monday 31 January 2011

VOODOO MONSTERS



Today i spent allot of time going through my sketchbooks photographing and documenting some of the work i have already done this semester helping me come to decisions with my final line up. We are having a visit from Elinor Renfrew in the next few weeks not only is she the head of the Fashion department at Kingston University she is also the external examiner for our own university and an extremely important figure in the Fashion Industry acting as a consultant for Arts Thread recruitment and part of the British Fashion Council. Therefore i want to check that all my work for this term from the very beginning sketchbooks to what i am working on now is in a clean presentable order and clearly documents the design process.

Over the next few days I am going to upload various sketchbook pages, development photos and line ups.






The "Voodoo Monster" images were taken whilst i was experimenting with silhouette, creating various different garments out of one pair of trousers and seeing how many different silhouettes i could bring into the collection designing in this way.

Click on Images to enlarge and see details within the garments.

Sunday 30 January 2011

HOUSE OF BLACK




David Black is a name you will definitely be hearing more of in the future! Having recently finished his third year at the Scottish School of Textile and Design he is already firmly establishing himself as one of Glasgow's leading young designers through the launch of his signature label "House of Black". Aswel as taking on a number of styling jobs David has been busy completing a new collection entitled "A House is Not a Home"which he will launch at the Pyuupiru event, as part of the Glasgow Film Festival. Being a huge fan of David's designs i cannot wait to see his new collection!




Check out The "Houes of Black" facebook page for all of the latest events and images of Davids work.
David Black - House of Black

Monday 24 January 2011

WILD.YOUNG. THINGS



Last week i was lucky enough to work alongside my good friends Lindsay Robertson and Emma Claire Noble on a quick studio shoot. I wanted to photograph my toils with full styling before continuing with my design development and moving on to the finished collection. There are still some features within the garments that i need to address and i am planning on adding a few more pieces to the range before i start making the final garments.






Thank you Lindsay for taking all the fantastic photos and Emma for being a MUSE once again.

For more of Lindsay's work check out her blog Fashion Oxymoron.

Tuesday 18 January 2011

VOID-OF-COURSE



I just can't get enough of leather, rubber, lace and studs. No matter what trends are in and what I'm currently working on i am always drawn back to the designers that are producing the darkest pieces. Void of Course is a new London based label born through the collaboration of modern tailoring designer Sean-Anthony Moran and film-maker/theatre-performance artist Christopher Sutton. And i would KILL for a piece of their current Romance of Violence collection. Luckily enough it is currently being sold in my favourite store in the world MACHINE-A and i will most definitely be going in to view it when I'm in London later in the week. I would love to style the African printed t-shirts from my own collection with the heavy studded leather jacket and the leather cod pieces!




VOID-OF-COURSE

Monday 17 January 2011

BITCHING BLINGGGG



I have been busy designing a range of accessories to go along with my collection. Bright Statement pieces with the same homemade effect as those worn during "Los Gallembos" the religious cult festival held in the Dominican Republic. I photographed a selection of the first models to get the initial idea of shape and size. However the final accessories will be made from different materials with possibly a slight change in structure. Alongside the handmade accessories i am also excited for seeing the results of the TOP SECRET collaboration i am currently working on with one of my Favourite jewellery designers!


Alfa Romeo Design Award 2011


I have recently reached the semi final of the 2011 Alfa Romeo Design Awards. Having being chosen from over 200 applicants i was shortlisted as part of the final ten who were given the finalists brief and two weeks to carry out all of the work, research and preparation before being interviewed in front of a panel of judges including the head of pr at ISSA, the FS 2011 creative team and members of the design team from PPQ. The Alfa Romeo Design Award currently in its first year, an international design competition running in conjunction with the annual St Andrews FS 2011 fashion show. The competition has been featured on Vogue.com who also sponsor the event. With the winning candidate receiving £1000 prize money, designing a range of tshirts for TrekStock, a spread in FS magazine aswel as publicity through Vogue.com i was extremely excited to have reached this stage in the competition.
The finalists creative brief entitled "The colour of Fashion" asked us to design a collection which defined the importance of the nature of colour to a designers work displaying that through the use of colour we can express the original research and inspiration behind our designs. Whilst incorporating an awareness and key understanding of the iconic brand Alfa Romeo into the design process. We were asked to pay particular attention to the sporty compact "MiTo" the newest model of Alfa Romeo's range.


I started off by heavily researching the brand contacting the company arranging visits to the show room where i was kindly given samples and swatches of fabric used within the car aswel as a number of booklets which explained different aspects of the cars functional aesthetics. Coming from a fashion background i really didn't know where to begin with this project considering i really don't have a clue about automotive design! However reading the manual from a designer perspective i started to see interesting features within the MiTos design which i wanted to carry forward into a collection. The fact the car was compact and lightweight made me begin to think of performance fabrics and possibly leaning towards a sportswear collection. Discovering the cars safety features and the fact it had six airbags led me on to the idea of inflated aspects within my design. Possible concealed pockets which then billowed down to the ground reinforcing the aspect of hidden storage.


I knew that whatever way i planned to interpret the brief and design the collection it was extremely important to consider and reinforce Alfa Romeos brand history. This was also my first encounter of reaching the semi finals of an international design competition, knowing that i was being interviewed alongside candidates from schools in New York and Paris was nerve racking to say the least! I planned on using luxurious fabrics throughout the collection silk jersey, dutchess satin, and organic cotton all dyed to the brightest colours and then worked on top of with embroidery, lazer cutting and clashing prints. I had the original Alfa Romeo crest modernised to fit into the 18 - 35 year old market. Simplifying the famous emblem down to a single geometric cross i then had this lazer cut onto the pattern pieces experimenting with different fabrics. Considering the collection if chosen would be shown alongside several designers including Nicole Farhi, Amanda Wakeley, William Tempest and Future Classics i knew the fabrics and colour would be key in determining the winning collection. I also wanted the collection to stay true to my design style using oversized patterns and silhouettes similar to my Honours collection although simplifying the designs to fit into the FS market.






As part of the competition it was also necessary to design a range of tshirts for the charity Trekstock which would be sold alongside designers such as Sass and Bide, House of Holland as well as a number of tshirts designed by celebrity's. I designed the tshirts with an illustrative approach although still displaying key features of the final collection. Some of the illustrations below:




Unfortunately i wasn't chosen as one of the final few to go through to the last stage of the competition. However it was an amazing experience taking part and getting to the Semi Finals!
FS2011
TREKSTOCK.COM
VOGUE PUBLICITY

Friday 14 January 2011

HEY MAMI, YOU SEXY


Big hot pockets, feya, ugly
Corny, busted, chopped, straight fugly
British guys playing rugby
Brooklyn boys who wanna thug me





Tuesday 11 January 2011

YO-LANDI VI$$ER




MUSE.

BACK TO THE GRIND


Soooo glad to be finished winter break and back to the studio today! Six weeks to make our final EVER collection. small bit terrified!