Career Information Links

I have an assessment for Professional Studies today. It's in interview form and I have to show my portfolio. I'm quite confident but nervous too because there' so much to think about, points I want to say, skills I have etc.

In preparation for this assessment I thought it would be interesting and helpful to do some research into the types of jobs I'm interested in. The pages have good information about what the job holds, and what skills a person should have to suit this job.

COSTUME DESIGNER - Very interested in

WARDROBE ASSISTANT - Very interested in

FASHION DESIGNER

ILLUSTRATOR

DRESSMAKER

...

I just found another DOVE advert which would be perfect for my own individual fashion issue - Anti-Ageing.

Thankyou Dove!

Fashion Issues Presentations

Yesterday we had our group presentations on a fashion issue of our choice. My group chose Political Fashion, and I was surprisingly interested and inspired by the information we were giving each other.

We chose to all go and research a certain aspect of political fashion. We also all made a couple of slide each going along with the same look and colour. We then came back the following week to put the presentation together. It went really well and I'm very confident in writing my essay at the weekend all about Political Fashion because of the valuable information given from the people in my group.

I also really enjoyed watching everyone else's presentations. I was really surprised to find every single group out of the whole year had chosen different subjects. Which was great as there was nothing samey and there was no competition between people.

I just wanted to link this video on my blog as someone had put it on their presentation as part of their presentation about 'body issues in fashion'. It's really up-to-date and interesting, showing how images are transformed for advertising - portraying a perfect body which girls (and boys) aspire to be, but it's not real, it's completely photo-shopped. So should we want to look liek a real beautiful person, or an artist's portrayal of beauty?

In Preparation for My Presentation

In two weeks I have a presentation of my portfolio and CV. It's in the form of an interview, but I have 5 minutes to talk about myself. I definetly need to practice before going in. I need to state where I think I'm best suited in the fashion industry and why, this should be visible in my portfolio, I should point this out and talk a bit about the points. I also need to talk about any jobs I've applied for so far for my work placement in April.

TRAID Talk

First off, I've got to apologise because this is going to be a looong blog entry. I found this lecture so interesting I just couldn't stop taking notes!

TEXTILE RECYCLING FOR AID AND INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT.

The aim of this campaign is to protect the environment by recycling, to aleviate poverty by funding projects across the world in countries that are still developing and also to educate the public of environmental and poverty issues.

Ethical fashion needs to exist as the fashion process as a whole is very unethical. From the extraction, to production, distribution, consumption and finally to the disposal.

We have to recycle our clothes as research from the USA said that 90% of clothes are wasted within 3 months of use. That's ridiculous! We all need to take Ecology, Economy and Equity into consideration when creating and using clothes.

Did you know that if the world consumed as much waste as the UK, we would need 3 earths to survive.

Basically, there is a conflict between what we are used to doing, such as throwing things we don't want anymore, and what we should be doing, like thinking of other things to do with clothes after we're done with them.

Some really interesting stories from this lecture I noted;

85% of water in Uzbekistan water in the sea was used to grow cotton, meaning desertification and huge drought for the people to live there. The sea levels literally disappeared, and the most awful thing about this is the fact that only a third of the water ever reached the cotton fields as they were using half-pipes to transport water, which meant a huge amount was lost before even reaching the fields.
In Mongolia, gotas have been raised as a resource for cashmere which has become a hugely popular wool in fashion. in 1949, there were 2.4m goats in Mongolia, and by 2004, because of huge demand, there were 25.8m goats. That a raise of over 10 times as many. This many goats needed feeding so they were fed seeds, which created less quality of cashmere. As food ran out, goats ate the grass on the fields. So many goats doing this created a great amount of desertification of Mongolia.

In Osaka, a man who used pesticides to grow cotton had put his work load on the roof after a long day out of the way of his 4 young children. Over night it rained, and the chemicals from the fabric dripped slightly onto vessels which the children used to eat and drink out of the next day. This tiny amount of the chemical swallowed by all 4 children ended them up in hospital, where all 4 children died. Chemicals are bad! We should stick with natural organic cotton growth with NO pesticides.

In LeSotho, many factories were created to give more jobs for the people living there. Some were fair trade factories which was good as everyone had better working conditions. However, some factories didn't maintain this standard. Unregulated rubbish tips opened at the same time as the factories where waste was set fire to. Children are seen running around these hugely dangerous pits for things to use for their homes. This leads to deaths, dangers and respiratory problems.Some campaigns and organisations which are trying to tackle some of these, ecology, economy and equity problems include;
- People Tree
- Organic Soil Association
- Pesticide Action Network
- Pants To Poverty
- FAIRTRADE
- Love Fashion Hate Sweatshops
- Ethical Trading Initiative
- War On Want

My Unique Selling Point

This was so much harder to answer than I expected! I tried to look at my personal statement for answers. What is the one thing that sets me apart from most others and that would make me a great working candidate?
In advertising terms you would be saying, "buy this product, and you will get this specific benefit".
So me as a product, what would the specific benefit be of my 'buyer'?

Some of my good skills would be I have really good organizational skills, my time keeping is good and I'm a quick learner.

So maybe I should say "Employ me and you will benefit from someone who is a very quick learner with great organizational skills"?

Portfolio Plan

Here is a copy of the list I quickly made up of ways I plan to improve my portfolio for when it comes to being assessed. I've already started working on most of the pointers here but here's the full list anyway;

- Buy spraymout.
- Print off CV to put in front of portfolio
- Buy labels and write on PC then print to put on each plastic wallet
- Buy pack of white card (need 17 sheets to mount)

- Scan in ZARA designs, make images smaller in the centre with African/jungle-type background with title 'Jump Into Jungle' and 'Spring/Summer 09'.

- College work - scan in illustrations put on blue/picture background that has been faded and include season/year, colour pallet and collection title.

- Print off jacket mood-board, colour board, jacket designs, dress mood-board and designs.

- Mount all work (this will take the longest amount of time!).

Proffessional Studies

This is the unit of my Fashion Studies course that deals with developing my portfolio, improving my CV and cover letter skills, growing confident in interviews and preparing for work, as well as looking at possible work placement opportunities for easter.

I began this year with getting back on track with my blog. I had done only a few over Summer so I'm really glad I am back on track with them, I have much more information this semester to write though, which is why there's been so much more writing!

Before this module I didn't really have a proper portfolio. OK I had some of my work from college, but that was all A1 work which quite frankly looks very unprofessional compared to my university work. It was all A1 whereas all my work from university has been A3 at the biggest. I got hold of an A3 portfolio which looks so much more professional and neat, it is also so much more handy to carry around!
I have improved all my favourite uni work so much using Photoshop, I'm very proud of it. I also labeled all my pages, and added a business card to the front. Also adding a pretty label for the outside to make mine look a bit different to everyone else's is a nice touch!
I'm very proud to have a good portfolio now which I'm very confident about showing at my mock interview at the end of this module!

My CV has improved no end, along with the creative CV which I have never done before. I found that looking at past student's examples in lessons was really helpful along with the lectures about how to improve. I went home confident enough to create a good looking CV with all the right information needed.

Cover letters I've always been quite confident with but I'm still interested in getting my feedback to see where I can improve on that.

Overall this has been a great module with a lot I've learned which I know will help me no end with my work placement at the end of the year and work after university. I realise I need to perhaps make my portfolio and CV more swayed towards the job that I'm interested in for my work placement such as the Derby Theatre wardrobe assistant. As I don't know for certain where I'm going yet I think it'll be alright for now.

DPP Talk

DPP information on University Of Derby website.

Last night we had an evening of presentations by the third years who had a year out in industry. All 9 students gave a 10-15 minute presentation talking about their year out, their finances, where they lived, how they got on, jobs they were given and how they got on with the people they worked with.

Although I don't plan to have a year out for working in the industry myself, I found some of the information interesting and helpful. I think the information will help towards the 5 week work placement I have to do in April next year.

Some points I found that were repeated quite a lot were;

* You can apply for a half student loan as fees for this year out to the uni are £640.
* You have to do 38 weeks of work placement, and an average of 40 hours a week.
* Not all companies pay you, so remember living/travel/maintenance finances.
* Some students have been offered further employment after graduation.
* London College Of Fashion website is a good source for placements in London area.
* Don't be intimidated by workers, just be yourself and don't be afraid to voice your opinion. Don't be bullied.
* If you want to work with a foreign company, communicate visually as images can be recognized in any language.

Future Laboratory Guest Talk

We had a really interesting presentation from someone from the Future Laboratory last night that really opened my eyes to the marketing side of fashion and the future of advertising/marketing in general.

The Future Lab speaker Ravi Khanna was a past student of Nottingham Tent University who studied Fashion Marketing. He won an award during his time at university which landed him a job at the Future Laboratory. He worked and lived in New York and now travels almost everywhere. His job involves traveling, interviews and presentations of his findings, publications and client work.

The Future Lab began by distributing a magazine called Viewpoint which looked at issues that could effect the word. It then moved on to creating a website similar to that of WGSN which looked at current trends and movements effecting the globe. This updated daily so was used by many individuals and companies.
Here are some facts and notes I found really really interesting during the lecture -

- "the growing need for customers to collaborate with brands " "participating culture" - letting customers interact with the brand is becoming more and more popular.

- brands need Conversation, Collabortaion and Creation to be successful.

- Conversation - approachable, casual, open
Collaboartion - flexible and democratic
Creativity - imaginative, inspirational and daring.

- even though brands are becoming more involved with the customer, the public believe brands;
- lack honesty 32%
- lack fairness 12%
- lack inegrity 14%
- are deceptive 6%
- 46% want brands to be friendly
- 33% want brands to be personal
- 31% want brands to be local
- 30% want brands to be simple.

- Technology makes brands more accessible, it's all about customers changing the brand, for example Burberry had a live show online with a comment box, which made it as if the public were on front row seats and their views were important.

- brands have to be interesting and fun - 'Wish You Were Here' swap shop - swapping New York store with London for a fun new perspective in stores.

- We have to think of the brand as more of a personality rather than a public or private entity.

- Overall brands, to be successful have to think LATTE - LOCAL, AUTHENTIC, TRUSTABLE, TRACEABLE and ETHIC.

Portfolio Points

1. Never put in anything you don't like.

2. Strongest piece of work at front, and end of portfolio.

3. Try not to switch between portrait/landscape layouts.

4. Be very neat, mount work - no tears or wonky edges.

5. Use neat, clear portfolio sleeves.

6. Photograph garment to take to interview, or if you really want to show a garment take only one.

7. Show pattern construction/work, technical files mounted on A3 in project.

8. 3 or 4 projects should be kept inside portfolio.

9. Show a cross-section of your work, wide diversity of work you've done.

10. In an interview, always turn the work, and any negative points back to being positive.

11. Label portfolio - different projects, with an added index if possible.

12. Include a copy of your CV or business card in the portfolio so you can hand it out easily.



*** how I need to start improving my portfolio -
- sort through work - choose what I want to keep in portfolio
- need to buy some new plastic sleeves for my portfolio
- write list of the projects and order them
- write a list of changes/adaptations to projects I want to do to improve
appearance/effectiveness.

In Desperate Need of a CV Update!

I had a lecture today which involved looking at past student's CVs. Oh my, I really need to get mine up to scratch! OK, so most of mine is up to date but my personal profile definetly needs rethinking. Also looking at the creativity of most people's CVs made mine look really boring, I'm thinking of adding some of my illustrations to the CV, and possibly playing around with the layout and size/shape of the page. I also learned an important thing about cover letters - they need to give the reader a feel good factor about you from the first word to the end, mine in the past have been so plain and boring, no wonder I've not been very lucky in the past! Time to do some thinking...

Alexander McQueen S/S 2010

Here is a link to one of the greatest finds I've had for a long time. I watched this as it was streamed LIVE officially from Alexander McQueen's Spring/Summer 2010 catwalk. I don't think I've ever been so excited by a video! The prints reminded me of the natural bark prints seen a lot this spring/summer but were based on Atlantis, deep sea colours and fluid-looking fabrics. The heels were AMAZING, they were so high that the angle the feet were made to look reminded me of old Chinese shoes.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE VIDEO


x

Summer Sketchbook Update

Here are some images of my finished sketchbook which I'm handing in this week!

I worked really hard over summer to complete this, a moodboard, colourboard, 40 jacket designs and 40 dress designs. I'll add more photos of my work as soon as I can.

Robot Fashion Model

I was just browsing youtube today when I came across this.

"The HRP-4C robot. The girlie-faced humanoid with slightly oversized eyes, a tiny nose and a shoulder length hair-do boasts 42 motion motors programmed to mimic the movements of flesh-and-blood fashion models. At just over 5 feet tall and 95 pounds in weight, she's still thin enough to guilt teenage girls everywhere into puking up their lunches. And the manga-inspired face, with a tiny nose and large eyes, should keep the plastic surgery market afloat in even the most dire economic climate. Unlike modern models, however, the HRP-4C walks down the runway with constantly bent knees and it fully capable of smiling. In case you are looking for an HRP-4C of your own, a similar model will cost you $3 million dollars."



Could this be the new fashion model in centuries to come? Maybe this would tackle the size 0 issue, we have less models and more robots. This would be a great way to show that size 0 is virtually impossible to achieve, and young girls won't see real thin people and want to be like them, because this time it's a robot.

Sketchbook Update

Oops I haven't been sticking to my summer resolution :(...

I have got well and truly stuck into the sketchbook - having done half my list of what I need to to do it's looking very full and busy. I'd even say this is my best sketchbook yet, I've put so much effort into it - spending about and hour on a double page spread. I hope it pays off! I've done a lot of research and definetly know what details to look at designing on the jacket.

I'm currently on the designer research part of my sketchbook, I've looked briefly at Vivienne Westwood and now looking in depth at Bill Gibb...after that I have some research into John Galliano, Yohji Yamamoto and Alexander McQueen to stick in. I've just bought the Bill Gibb Fashion And Fantasy book and I'm loving it - I went to an exhibition of his work in November and wanted to look more at him.I'm finding his work really inspirational and exciting. I want to use his links to nature to inspire me in designing a floral pattern for the lining of my jacket.

After that I've got to look at future trends and colours. I've looked in a Colleczioni magazine for Autumn/Winter 09/10 and I need to look on WGSN, style.com and possibly fashiontrendsetter.com for more research.And then finally I'm looking at flowers, doing some observational and other paintings/drawings for shape ideas and research into floral fabrics/patterns, possibly vintage. I'm swaying more towards brighter colours and more unusual, tropical flower shapes to be different to the ditsy English garden type florals that are in now.

I want to try and get some scanned images of my sketchbook pages onto here as soon as I'm done.

Then it's onto my 40(+) designs....busy busy busy!

A Perfectly Tailored Summer Project

So now I've broken up from university for Summer; but not without any work to do!

Our brief for the Summer is tailored jackets. I've basically got to produce a sketchbook, 40 designs and a moodboard or two. I'm actually really excited about this and got stuck into my sketchbook straight away.

Now I've done many sketchbooks through school and college but the last one I did was really disappointing and quite boring so I'm determined to create the best sketchbook for myself to date! It's going very well so far - I'm thinking out the box and bought a book from a charity shop to work over. Each page is like a collage and it's turning out to be really exciting and fun to do aswell as read afterwards. I plan to upload some scanned pages of my sketchbook as I go to keep you updated.As part of this project I'm planning some trips to local places to get a broader range of research. I'm going to go to the Derby Museum and Art Gallery as I want some of my inspirations to come from victorian paintings and floral decorations. I also want to go to the Pickfords House Museum to take photos and sketches of old costumes for inspiration of styles and silhouettes. I also need to take many trips to the libraries around for books on aaaany information I need.

Looks like I'm going to be a busy bee! I promise to keep this updated, it's my summer resolution :).

2 days in the life of a Dresser

Wow it's been a long time since I wrote an entry on here. ...So on Wednesday and Thursday it was my job to work as one of the dressers behind our university's graduate fashion show.
It was a real eye opener to what working behind a big fashion show was like. I thoroughly enjoyed it although it was hard work, I would definitely do it all over again.I think the main thing I learned was just how well organised a show like this had to be - hair, make-up, rehearsal, fittings were all planned to specific times and places. I enjoyed meeting professional models and working with them, and I also enjoyed looking at the third year's work and seeing them all together looking great with hair and make-up and accessories.

Another great thing about Thursday was the atmosphere. There was a great team feeling like we had to work with each other and help each other if we got stuck to make this fashion show run smoothly. I spent a few hours between the two fashion shows with friends for a meal and it was great just doing that too because it was the first bit of out of uni time we'd had for so long. It's a shame really because it was our last day before breaking up for summer!After working behind the fashion show, it made me want to look at possible careers like this. It was tiring and hard work and nerve racking but I just enjoyed it so much, it was so much fun and being apart of this relieved, happy atmosphere at the end of the night was really nice.

Could a dresser be one of my possible career options?? Perhaps I should look to see if there is ever anywhere local who want dressers volunteer work.

Holiday Work

I'm so pleased to have finished the first major process of my Fashion Design Practice module.

Over the easter holiday I've created 4 different boards - one overall African themed mood-board (the 2009 trend I've decided to go with), a colour board, a target customer board for my chosen high-street store which is ZARA, and a board of silhouettes that inspire me.

I'm happy with all four, but I think my favourite is the African mood-board showing the inspirations for the trend I'm going to design for - it's really colourful and I feel that this board works the best out of any I've done before.

Then, using a combination of these boards and research I've designed 42 different items of clothing which include - Jumpsuits, Trousers, Skirts, Dresses (short and maxi), Tops and Cardigans. I had to keep my target customer in mind so while designing the clothes and prints I was constantly thinking about the type of woman who would shop in ZARA.

Here is a photo of some of my design sheets and down the left hand side are the mood-boards which helped inspire the designs. It's not a very clear photo as I only took it on my phone but it gives you some idea of the work I'm doing;

Overall, I enjoyed all the design process, I find the mood-boards and design presentation always fun to do. Drawing the same template for my clothes to go on was a bit of a drag but I like how the face are all different, giving them all their own look. I definitely found that some designs work much better than others but all together they work really nicely - it's going to be tricky picking just one outfit to represent the whole bunch of ideas I have!

Style Icon #2

LADY GAGA!!

Another music/fashion female I am loving at the moment. Not only can I not stop listening to her music and have Love Game as my ring tone, she seems to be in every magazine I read. It's quite understandable that a hell of a lot of people don't like her style because it's so daring and out there but I think I admire her just as much for her bravery than the style she pulls of brilliantly.I read an article/interview with her the other day and she explained that she's always had an interest in fashion, she has great respect to elegant major designers like Chanel. I guess this just proves that she does really have a love for fashion and it's not just for show - she picks what she wants to wear and with a little bit of help from the Haus Of Gaga she has an amazing wardrobe.
I think Lady Gaga's outfits just show that she can pull off some of these crazy haute couture designers out there, although I'm afraid almost everybody else is left to stare in awe and wonder what this crazy lady will be wearing next.

I Want To Be A Pin Up Girl!

Oh what I would give to be around in the 50s, if I could travel back in time I know this would be an era I'd stop at. And given the chance, I would definitely give being a pin up girl a go!
Being a 'curvy' girl myself I've always dreamt of the defintion of beauty back then to still be here today. Women are meant to be curvy, we are meant to have more bumps than men because we carry children and it's just the way our bodies, when healthy, are supposed to be. But now it seems that to be considered pretty or good looking you have to have a figure close to that of a man, and a thin man at that! The 20s Twiggy look is still the fashion now, but i say less of the size 0s and more size 12+ real women sizes please!
Anyway...

I just love the whole look of pin-up art and photography, they're so cute and naughty, and I love the fact that it's not all in your face like most magazine models of today. The detail gone into the clothes and lingerie they wear is just as delicate as their perfect hair and make-up.
I've been thinking and I might just have to persuade my boyfriend to use my camera just so i can play dress up and do my hair and make up like a pretty pin-up girl!

Easter Suprise - a Magazine Review

Along with a few easter eggs, some money and bits and bobs I got a sewing magazine for Easter from my mum. The title is SEW HIP, a magazine that looks as if it's not been out long with this being only issue 6. It was surprisingly a really good read and I'm still happily flicking through.

It's basically a magazine dedicated to fabric - patterns for a 60's inspired dress, a cute simple dress for a little girl and even a turtle soft toy were in it! It might sound like the type of mag for middle aged women the way I just described it but it also had some really helpful and up to date information inside like countless adverts for vintage and contemporary fabric suppliers, an interview with a fashion graduate who has her own label, product reviews and book reviews.

So much of the mag just reminded me of vintage, kitsch designs found in places like Paperchase and fabric prints similar to those found in Topshop. It made me want to get my sewing machine out and start creating little fabric wonders myself, and I may even start doing that in this Easter Holiday!

I would strongly recommend it if you're bored over summer as there are so many fashion and craft ideas inside. It's full of inspiration and filled me with excitement and I know I'm going to spend the rest of my Easter Sunday flicking through it again and again and again!

P.S On a random note, how adorable is this Hello Kitty sewing machine? I've really become a fan of CUTE recently, buying floral dresses is becoming my thing and now I have a Russian doll bracelet. Hello Kitty is the epitome of kitsch. Ooh I want it!!

Trousers Handed In!

I had to finish them off at home but I'm sooo happy with my final pair of trousers. The sewing went so well and I had no major problems, not one minor problem either really!
I chose a grey fabric as you know and ended up using a baby pink silk for the pocket lining which worked really well as a contrast. The trousers now fit really nice and I'm so happy to have handed them in today.
I'd love it if they got picked for the media fashion show in a couple of weeks which will feature some of the trousers made by first years. It's a charity event for the blind so I had to provide a written description which, if I get picked, will be read out as the model walks down the catwalk.

Also on a random note, I met the 3rd year student I will be helping for the rest of term today. She seems so lovely and I'm actually really excited because the collection she's designed is just the sort of thing I love - bright colours, patterns and quite commercial items. I don't start work with her for another 3 weeks but I've offered to go in during the Easter holidays if she needs me.
Work I need to do with her includes pattern cutting, tracing off patterns, helping with photoshoots, designing and making accessories, and basically just to help tie up any loose ends. I think I'll also be needed to help dressing for the graduate fashion show at the very end of the year which will be hard work!

I'll let you know how this goes!

That Vintage Feel, My Shirt and Trouser Project Update

I bought my fabrics for both the shirt and trouser on Monday and they are exactly how I wanted. I bought some gray fabric for the trousers, they've got some stretch in them and are plain pale grey, they quite thick with a nice weight should help the fall of the trouser legs. I bought 2 metres at £5.99 per metre. I then bought the prettiest dusty pink silk dupion which has a slight shine to it. This was more expensive at £10 a metre, I bought 2 metres again.

On Tuesday I fitted the trouser toile and the only change I needed to do was to take in the leg more, as it wasn't quite fitted enough. I took a good 4cm off from the master-draft and re-drafted my pattern. I've cut out all my fabric now and have over-locked all the pieces except the pocket bag and facing as this is a different fabric which I didn't have on the day.My trousers are slim fit, and they come out slightly at the hips to give a good silhouette. They are size 10.

Today, after fitting the shirt onto a mannequin last week, I changed some of the shirt such as the length of the sleeve. I also wanted a gather at the sleeve head so had to sort this out on the master-draft. I changed the collar shape too, I made it smaller and rounder to make it look more delicate. I've cut all of this fabric out too, ready to start sewing next week at university.

I need to buy a zip for the trousers and some buttons for the shirt, I've got some in mind I just need to find somewhere that does what I'm looking for!

After falling in love with the dusty, antique pink silk I immediately made my mind up that I wanted the style of this outfit to be quite vintage - accessories would be gold and I'd love a model to wear my shirt with a really big, statement necklace. I can also imagine a huge pair of gorgeous, cute heels that would go perfectly with the fitted trousers.

My Portfolio

All work done by me, I'll update it as I add to my portfolio.

I wrote my CV this morning in Professional Studies. It was the first time I had written one since school, oops! But I was surprised to find I could write so much about skills that I've learned since college. I was asked why I had kept my CV to only one page, which I thought was a good question. I guess it was my instinct to just fit it all onto one page. I think it just looks a lot neater and as employees only take a minute to skim through, one page is simpler and more straight to the point to look at. On the other hand, if I had a lot to write about, only keeping it to one page would be silly; why only have 1 page of information about yourself when you've got so much more to tell? As my skills and experience grow I'm pretty sure my CV will too - just like my portfolio!

Super Cute Strawberry

Thought I'd just share with you a bag I ordered on Wednesday. It's the cutest bag I've ever seen. Quite Katy Perry inspired don't you think? I've not been so excited about a bag for a long time, oh this joys of being a woman!
Ok, it's not very practical, I can't carry much in it but I don't really care! It's definetly a pretty accessory more than a practical item. I'm counting down the days until it arrives at my door.

There's More To Fashion Than Sewing & Shopping

So Friday's session at university was our Fashion Design Practice lesson. We were working on the Macs on Adobe InDesign to create a fashion magazine front cover. I've then got to use the shop research and reports I did earlier in the semester to do a page comparing prices that would appear inside the fashion magazine. I'm really enjoying this kind of work! I have Photoshop at home and so I'm pretty familiar with the program but InDesign is really new to me.

It's really opened my eyes to the different areas in fashion and if I'm honest, the newer things like this are exciting me alot more than standard pattern cutting and manufacture. Many people close to me are great at art and I've always enjoyed drawing and painting, so I think the reason I'm enjoying these sorts of lessons is that it's bringing the more creative side of me out at the moment. I even enjoy writing, I've got really into this blog malarchy and I quite enjoyed writing the essays on fashion and it's history.

I've really opened my eyes to the possibilities of doing something other than sewing and pattern cutting. Perhaps I could be a future fashion illustrator? Or magazine columnist? Or even a trend researcher for a company?Above is an image I did for a Visual Studies module last semester. I chose to look at gothic architecture and created 2 illustrations based on this. I drew the original figure with pen, scanned it in then using Photoshop, scanned in other images and fabrics for the clothes. The male image I created was similar to this.

I plan to upload more photos of my work to show you soon.

Technical Fashion Projects

Just a quick blog from me today. I spent this afternoon finishing a toile of a basic pair of trousers, which I've then got to adapt to my own design for a final pair. Tomorrow I'm doing more work on a shirt project which is alongside the trousers- I've completed a toile of this too.

So now I have to seriously think about how I want to change the designs for this shirt/trouser combo. I'm thinking dusty pink shirt with puff sleeves, low neck-line and darts to make it fitted, but I'm still trying to find that extra something to make it different. I'm thinking maybe how I embellish it with buttons etc. could really make the shirt more individual.

Now for the trousers I'm not too sure...maybe a grey fabric, or a dark brown? and I can't decided whether to make a really nice wide-leg trouser, or slim-fit, I'm swaying more towards the wide leg at the moment but I'm pretty sure that could change! Anyway I'm going fabric shopping soon at the market in Derby - there's a really great fabric stall (that's been extended recently yay!) which is where I plan to go.

I've already spotted the shirt fabric, ooh I love fabric shopping I'm actually quite excited! It's like looking through your wardrobe and finding something you forgot you had but once really loved - just rolls and rolls of fabric piled up, I have to admit I spent a while browsing the material last week, and I plan to do that again but come away with something this time!

I'll keep you posted about my final designs for this project.

I'm A Barbie Girl

I was browsing blogs today, something that has grown on me immensely since starting my own, and read an entry about a Barbie Runway Show which happened on February 14th this year (valentines day how cute!). The pictures just say it all really, I guess this was a fashion show to present the many different Barbie looks. It amazed me that the clothes looked so much like something Barbie would wear, but at the same time the models didn't look too bad either!I guess Barbie is probably one of the first things little girls look at for fashion inspiration - without knowing it obviously. I remember thinking I wanted to get married in the same dress one of my Barbies had. I also used to get sooo excited when I'd buy a new outfit for her, or sometimes my mum would even make her a cute dress. Although nothing could beat those little pink shoes that always got lost, and strangely it was never the pair that went missing it was only one shoe! I was smart enough to know that Barbie would not look cool in odd shoes, so most of the time she went bare-foot.

Another memory has just popped into my head and it made me giggle. I once attempted to make my beloved Barbie a shiny silver flared mini-skirt out of one of those silver tin foil cake wrappers (you have no idea how long it took me and my boyfriend to work out how to describe that thing!), I made a hole and stuck her legs through it, it didn't go to plan. Hmm it looked very uncomfortable and I think the next day she was back into her pretty wedding dress. That was probably the only fashion disaster my Barbie ever had!
“Sometimes I wish I could go back to the days when I was six and my biggest problem was what kind of dress to put on Barbie"

Style Icon #1

KATY PERRY <3
I've been into her music for a while now, and I respect her just as much for her style.She said herself that she strives to be unique, and she pulls it off so well!
The amount of fun she has shows through in everything she wears. It's really impressive how much it reflects in her music and videos too. I think she's such a great example of showing your own personality in the way you present yourself. I'd like to think I do that too.I would just LOVE to have a rummage through her wardrobe.