Highlights S/S (F/W) 2013

There have been so many exciting collections for s/s 2013. From Alexander McQueen inspired by honey bees to Anne Sofie Madsen's couture embellished showpieces. I, personally, have found this season's offerings to be a vast pool of inspiration. That said, here are some of my highlights from this season.

 Alexander McQueen






Sarah Burton has, yet again, managed to wow the crowds. She successfully proved herself a worthy successor of the late Lee McQueen and it is great to see her relaxing and letting her imagination fly away with her in this collection. As cheesy as it sounds, the strong references to honey bees just brings a certain pun to mind - McQueen Bee. Honey combs, bee keeper's headgear,

beehives and not to forget the all important Bees were all featured in the conceptual collection. Towards the climax of the show the dresses developed into large floral creations drawing the bees in. Many of the garments were decorated with little bee ornaments.

Louis Vuitton









Louis Vuitton has put a fresh, contemporary spin on it's traditional style. Although I have never been a big fan of yellow in general, brightening up the collection

with a healthy dollop of the garish colour has made it fun and joyful, so I don't mind it.

Dries van Noten







Dries van Noten is renowned for his traditional hand made embellishments and this has not changed this season. He has combined hand made flowers and embroidery with flower

prints and a variety of plaid. Van Noten's talent for separates is clear as is his eye for mixing print, colour and texture.

 Anne Sofie Madsen






I have been a fan of Anne Sofie Madsen for a while. She's relatively new on the scene and her attention to detail and couture tendencies have captured my attention Her obsession with dark fairy tales just brings her work alive. This collection is just another example of her genius. The skeletal dresses and
embellished show pieces are complimented with the odd informal sweater giving the collection that extra dimension.

Electric Holiday

Ok so here's a bit of early christmassy fun for you. If you love Disney and have an interest in fashion you will love this...

This short animation is the result of a collaboration between Barney's New York and Disney. All of your favourite characters, from Minnie Mouse to Tinker Bell, rubbing shoulders with the big names in fashion. Of course there have been complaints about making the characters 'skinny' but if you watch it all of the way through you'll see that minnie has no problem with her real figure. You'll know what I mean when you see it. Regardless of that, it is a bit of fun and I couldn't help trying to name all of the famous faces as they popped up. The fashion world has been given a magical touch.

Enjoy...

Jin Kay - In Praise of Shadows

Jin Kay won the Parsons Designer of the Year award this year and I am not surprised. His designs are exciting, innovative and multifunctional all in one go. I am inspired!

Kay's inspiration was the definition of beauty in the east compared to the west. In the east, beauty is defined by the mystery beneath the clothes, to cover your body entices intrigue. In the west however, beauty IS the body, the aim is to expose and reveal. His collection, I guess, enables both desires. The wearer can be creative with the garments, wear them in any which way they like. The materials used are varied and contrasting, the wool provides a base while the chiffon creates a new dimension, casting shadows, hence the name of the collection.

Take a look at Jin Kay's video to see for yourself - Jin Kay : In Praise of Shadows

NAW

OK, so this may not be entirely about fashion but here's my friend Nathan aka NAW. He's a very talented rap artist who definitely deserves some recognition. I guess he does kind of link to My fashion degree as I once made him a pair of green trousers for his birthday :) Don't forget to take a look at his various freestyle videos on you tube: NAWSWORLD

Enjoy ;)

Second Brief

Ok, sooooooo....I have definitely been neglecting my blog, but to be fair life has been hectic. I have just finished and handed in my second brief of my first year fashion degree. I'm pretty pleased with my final outfits so I shall give a brief run through of how they have come about.
We where given Japanese fashion as a starting point and as I've always been fascinated with origami i decided to take the 'traditional Japan' route. I looked into origami but couldn't really find anything that hadn't already been used to death in fashion... until I came across origami tesselations. They are another form of paper folding but on more of a 2D plane than regular origami. This was new to me and I quickly became obsessed, so I had to use it. Here's an example:

I sat down and worked out some different ways of transferring this folding technique to fabric as it does not have the same qualities as paper. I also had to contend with the fact that our brief specified that we had to combine denim and jersey, not the easiest task. Finally I came up with the idea of using thick bull denim as the shapes normally produced by the folding, sewing them onto the jersey in the right places and then folding the jersey around the denim. The stiffness of the denim helped keep the shape in the jersey. A bit of topstitching to hold it down et voila. Also I used some thinner denim and just folded it like the paper and topstitched that down. I loved both techniques so I made sure I used both in my two final oufits. The outfit on the left (below) was based on a triangle tesselation design. I tesselated stretch denim to create jeggings and carried on the triangle theme in the t-shirt.. The dress on the right was a combination of hexagons and triangles, applying the denim to the jersey before folding. Once again I carried on the triangle theme by giving the dress batwings which create triangles when the arms are stretched out. The colour scheme was based on a purple Japanese flower.

You can't quite see the detail in the trousers so here's a close up:

I loved making these outfits. The tesselations were tricky because the angles and measurements of the shapes had to be spot on, but it was definitely worth the time and effort. So thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed. xoxox

First Brief

 Well I have completed my first Brief for my fashion degree and am pretty pleased with the outcome. The brief was titled 'Experimental Toile' i.e. mock up. As it was our first brief they didn't want us to spend a fortune on fabric so we just used plain calico. You can't really see all of the details in the pictures so I've added my schematics board to show you.

Fresh flower dress

I have been doing some research for an essay assignment that involves comparing two pieces of art. As i am on the fashion degree I went down the route of symbolic fashion designs. Here's what i am starting with...

This dress is just brilliant, made by Alexander McQueen for spring/summer 2007. It is made with real flowers that were stuck on just before she walked the cat walk. The flowers were falling off as she walked leaving a trail behind. Lee Mcqueen said "Things rot. It was all about decay. I used flowers because they die". For such a beautiful creation this dress has such a morbid concept, it really fascinates me.
I think the late Lee McQueen was a genius and all of the creations that he left behind are proof of that.