Louis Vuitton...AW 2011-12

Louis Vuittons AW, RTW collection was very intriguing. The start of the show consisted of PVC, peacked caps, trench coats, hotpants and jodpur style trousers, however in parts of the show the seductive style toned down a bit and there was some exquisite dresses with luxurious fabric choices.
The pieces that caught my eye were the ruberised lace blouses and moulded leather bodices, I find the combination of both work well together, they suggest a subtle  monochrome colour pallete which overall gives a striking appearance.
This collection really stood out to me as its allowing  a woman to dress in a prominent way yet still being classy and elegant...

 

The Pattern Cutting Begins...

I have decided to make 2 garments for my final major project. I have chose to produce a jumpsuit and a dress.These 2 garments were taken from my final capusule collection inspired by 15th and 16th century armour.

I want a very structured yet feminine and striking collection.I intend to use jersey fabric with leather detailling.

I am excited to produce these garments as it will allow me to explore and develop a range of techniques.

I have already sampled prior to the pattern cutting to make sure i was able to produce the detailling I required for the garments and made sure that the leather I had chose was easy to work with.

I have started off with making the jumpsuit. I have never previously made one so therefore found the pattern cutting quite a challenge as I had to alter the basic pattern a lot to match my design.

The jumpsuit will have exagerated shoulders...

Detailed side panels...

...and a leather top stitched waistband.

From creating this pattern I learnt a lot and feel that this knowledge will be useful and will enable me to problem solve by myself when it comes to making the pattern for my second garment which is a dress, again with leather detaillings.

Harvery Nichols...

I have recently completed a work placement at Harvey Nichols, which I learnt and gained a lot from. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and met some great and interesting people! This placement enabled me to  experience the marketing aspects of the fashion industry and learn about the business from a high end perspective.

During my time there I worked with the display team who's roles are to install the new windows, do the diplays around store and dress the mannequins in the windows and around the store.
The windows are changed about every 7 weeks, where the display designers come up with a theme and a layout. This is all very carefully planned down to set up of the window and the positions of the mannequins.

Harvey Nichols are renowned for their amazing window displays and I was very excited to be apart of an installment!

The theme of the January windows that I helped install was tubes and pipes.This theme was a very clean, abstract and almost futuristc with a hint of vibrancy. Therefore the tubes and pipes were very clean colours, mainly white and grey with the occasional bright blue tube. The mannequins were to be dressed in vibrant colours for a contrast.

I really take my hat off to the display team as the job is very hands on and with every window display installment everything has to be changed including the flooring, painting, lighting etc. Not only are they responsible for the windows but also various displays around store like the show case cabinets. They are also responsible for dressing the mannequins around store that they have to dress weekley wearing various brands. They are also involved in signage displays around store.

During my time there I got to experience all aspects of the job role, from deliveries, dressing the mannequins, creating vinyls for the windows, steaming the garments in preparation for the windows,painting backdrops, and daily floor checks.


On my second day I was asked to choose outfits for the mens mannequins for the international designers department, I found this a bit of a challenge but I was excited about it! The clothing I found most interesting was by the designer Dries Van Norten. The garments had interesting details and I loved the colour pallette of the collection that ranged from navy to cream shades. I also chose an outfit from Lanvin as the clothing had a very sleek and sophistcated look.

I was also asked to help do the showcases around store, so I had to pick various accessories and shoes in pastel shades to match a cupcake theme. I then had to help arrange them in a quirky way in the display cases which I enjoyed doing.

Another task I was given was to pick accessories such as scarfs, handbags, jewellery etc for the pipe display, which was made out to look like a human figure, however it was quite difficult trying to dress the displays as the figures were very abstract and therefore couldnt get a jacket or skirt onto the figure, so one of the display girls and I had to just dress them in accessories and shoes. I loved doing this job, it was a sort of trial and error to see what would work best on this unusual display, however once finished we were pleased with our efforts!

On my last day I was asked to do the L'Agent Provocateur perfume feature in the Knightsbridge windows. I enjoyed this job however it was quite difficult to try and display the perfume boxes and bottles around and on the tubes.It enabled me to be creative as I tied them on the the tubes in different angles and after many attempts of trying of make them stay it all worked out and I was happy with my creation!
I loved working at Harvey Nichols and would definitely go back again if I got the opportunity to!

London Continued...

Another thing I visited whilst in London was the Tower of London. During the tour I went into the 'Fit for a King' exhibiton. The exhibiton enabled me to see over 500 years of royal armor. Prior to this I never thought that it would be something that interested me, however the thing that fascinated me was the structure, details and the way the were formed. I felt drawn to the 15th and 16th century armor and was instantly thinking how these pieces could inspire my own design work. When I am designing I have always found that I am drawn to creating structured shapes,and even thought the use of armor was for men at war, I feel that I can take the idea and turn it around to create a very womanly, structured and sophisticated collection that has an edge to it.
I therefore intend to use this theme for my AD205 module.



Visiting the V&A...

I have always wanted to go to the V&A Museum and on a recent trip to London I got to do so. I was a bit let down as apparently the fashion section is closed until early 2012. However I still made the most of the visit and got to see many other interesting exhibitons. The current exhibiton that was very inspiring was photography work called 'Shadow Catchers.' This exhibitons presents the work of five contemporary artists, Floris Neusüss, Pierre Cordier, Susan Derges, Garry Fabian Miller and Adam Fuss, who all work without a camera. Instead of the use of a camera they create images on photographic paper by casing shadows or manipulating light. They can also do this by chemically treating the paper.
I was very intrigued by this method and found the whole theory behind the concept fascinating!

The work I found most inspring was by the artist Floris Neusüss.He has dedicated his whole career to extending the practice, study and teaching of the photogram. His works often deal in opposites: black and white, shadow and light, movement and stillness, presence and absence, and in the translation of three dimensions into two.

Here, the varying distance of parts of the body to the paper has created sharper or softer outlines.

The image shown here was created by placing photographic paper in a garden at night during a thunderstorm, and letting lightning expose the paper.

In this installation piece, a chair stands on a sheet of photographic paper that retains the shadow of a person now absent from the seat.



Fools Gold

I love this new winter trend, GOLD being the statement colour mixed with black and earthy tones in velvet, satin and other rich, opulent fabrics, aswell as metalic foil printing. Together these give a very elegant and striking look with a 'baroque' kind of theme...
Designers that inspired this trend include Balmain, Emilio Pucci and Phillip Lim

I have finished my garment for AD208. I am pleased with the outcome of the dress that I produced. Although the design has changed drastically due to problems with the chiffon fabric, it has turned out better than I expected. I feel the colours work very well together and I like the way the chiffon has been draped in a different way  to what I originally wanted. I feel that my sewing skills have improved during the production of my garment and would like to experiment further with draping in the future and gain an easier technique as I found it quite difficult at times.