MUSE: Freja Beha

Working on the black project I decided to up the ante on my muse. She is completely comfortable in her own skin and i find her inspirational. I have become a massive fan of Freja Beha recently and find myself designing with her in mind. Here are some of my favourite shoots of her

Summertime Shananigans!

OK so 3months after the summer recycling project is set I finally came up with something exciting!

I stumbled upon a group called junky, they de-construct re-cut and completely transform old clothing into something trendy and new. Taking a pair of trousers and turning them into a top, skirt or jacket. Their innovative use of pattern cutting really excites me and I'd highly recommend a visit to their website... http://www.junkystyling.co.uk/

Following in Junky's footsteps I took a bog standard Blue blazer and following their steps turned it onto a funky cropped jacket with a billowing collar

 The white dress is another creation in the summer recycling project. It is made from 10 disposable overalls which are designed to be worn once and thrown away. Its is a representaion of how much waste there is in the textiles industry.

These white overalls are made overseas and are a product of cheap labour.

 They are worn once and simply discarded with no real thought for where they came from or where they are going to end up.

This outfit is designed to raise awarenes of the amount of waste in the textiles industry and to highlight ways of reducing this for example, by reusing garments and redesigning them into something new.

So get making everybody!

Recyclisme + Florence + the Machine

IM BACK!.... I have very much missed my blog as i have been living out of a suitcase for most of August and have rarely had my laptop, camera, garments, sewing machine all in the same place at the same time. 

However.... I have managed to squeeze in a posting for August! ;) Brownies for me!

So prepare for some Recycled loveliness and some performance, costume ideas and inspiration!

These two images are taken from http://bbc.co.uk/wales/southwest/sites/culture/pages/fashionwaste

showing art creations made from recycled materials in swansea and sums up the feel of my summer project.

The new project title is recycling, re-using and all things ethical. I have spent many weeks researching how the fashion industry could be made more ethical. I have a great interest in this issue and focused my foundation dissertation looking at ways of recycling and re-using fabrics and materials. The fashion industry creates a huge amount of waste from left over after pattern cutting to surplus dyes and there is a big movement looking to change this.

Above is some work by Gary Harvey, the dress is made from a recycled bodice and old broadsheet newspapers. I particularly like this dress and its composition, it looks as if it is a piece of installation art. 

For my project i am going to look at recycling different materials, not just fabrics but paper, plastics, card, metal, glass? Il keep you posted! - Hopefully

Secondly..... Florence and the machine...

I have happened to stumble upon a competition to design a stage costume for florence and the machine to wear on stage when she is touring in New York. I have literally just stumbled on this and I'm extremely excited! here are the first few images i looked at for inspiration. Any ideas please holla at me! 

Share Your Talent

On the 22nd July 2010 the government funded 'find your talent' scheme came to an end. The scheme was to encourage teens to take an interest in culture. It gave them the chance to experience new and exciting things such as DJing, dance, VJ (video jockey), fashion, singing, MCing, break dancing (to name but a few). It also gave them the opportunity to perform at the SouthBank Centre.

(I do appreciate that I am THE worst photographer ever)

I was lucky enough to be chosen to design and make the costumes for the North Somerset performance which included a VJ, 2 DJs and 15 dancers. Who were the finale piece for this event!

Here are some of the snaps from the event....

I really enjoyed working on this project as it gave me many new challenges to overcome. Such as, designing and making costumes for nearly 20 teens. I had yet to work with so many people let alone teenagers, who are renowned for letting you know when they don't like something!

I felt that the costumes had to be distinctively boy and girls but there had to be a sense of unification between the group of dancers. Each of the outfits were different, to give a sense of personality to each of the dancers, DJs and VJs

I kept the base colours rather neutral - royal blues, grey and white. I then made sure that each outfit had some flashes of the neon yellow colour. I wanted to use a fabric that would make the movement and the dancers stand out. To create a more intense visual impact i also included flashes of reflective tape to really make the costumes 'pop' whilst they were on stage.

 We were also able to adapt the lighting to act as an ultraviolet light, making the yellow flashes glow throughout parts of the performance

Overall... I had a brilliant time, The trip to London felt like a holiday, we were well looked after which made the intense work load all the more worthwhile. Also i do love a challenge and i definitely got one here!

Ooooooo New Project....

OKAY....

First of all, how glad am I to finally have the Internet at my new gaff! We haven't mastered the wireless part of it yet but it is bloody fast!

Secondly, i am super excited to be writing my blog again, how Ive missed thee!

Anyways, currently i am working on a new costume design project where I am designing and making the costumes for 20 teenagers. The performance stemmed from a a government initiative called 'find your talent' looking at getting secondary school kids interested in culture. The group from Weston-super-mare put on a particularly impressive performance with their club night 'Lush' and they have been selected to perform at the Young Talent Festival at the South Bank centre on the 22nd July.... Not long now. Here they have transformed the ideas behind the club night into a choreographed routine with DJ's and VJ's to create an exciting and intuitive piece!


INSPIRATION...

Before i had chance to meet with the choreographer to discuss ideas for the costumes i began to research ways of creating a visual impact on stage. Hussein Chalayan is an amazing designer, he creates innovative designs using cutting edge technology. I particularly like these pieces and the use of LED lighting, the shapes are so simple yet the lighting turns the garments into a work of art.

Unfortunately, I do not have a team of lighting and electrical specialists. So I began to look into fabrics that could create a similar look. I began with bright white fabrics that when placed under UV lights have a glowing effect.

Also i quite liked the Glowing effect that this fish from Bristol zoo had. Nature has some amazing eye-catching technology!

However, after looking at the floor plan and the performance space it became apparent that it wasn't feasible to make the dance area dark enough to create an impact. And unfortunately I'm not a fish!

My next piece of inspiration came from a policeman!...

These yellow jackets that are worn not just by not just police but paramedics, builders, cyclists and people who need a highly visible presence! and this is what the dancers need on the stage.

So off i went and purchased some wacky yellow fabric and reflective tape!

DESIGNING & MAKING....

Here are some of my first initial sketches and my new beautiful over locker! which has been a god send in this project.

FINAL THOUGHTS.....

Right now I am in the midst of finishing the costumes I have a few more to finish off and i intend to measure the rest of the performers today.... Insanely close to the deadline! But I'm sure i can pull it off.

Finally I'm going to leave you guys with a sneaky peak of the final costumes (which have engulfed my room) enjoy...

My final dress!... Goodbye year 1

6 MONTH PROJECT...

6 months of research, sketching, sampling, more sketching, toiles, spending money, stressing out, sketching, planning and constructing is finally over. Here is the end result.

2 WEEKS OF STRAIGHT KNITTING.....
Sat in the knitting room 9:00 - 19:00 bent over the knitting machine banging out a dress. The pattern itself was relatively simple but the fact that i had decided to individually place each strand of yarn in order to create a fluffy feathery texture turned it into a painstakingly slow process.

A little jolly to Castle Park for a photo shoot - courtesy of Photographer Hayley Brown

All for a 10 minute presentation!?!?

Barely even a flick through my sketchbook!

Final thoughts...... I feel slightly hysterical at the minuscule amount of attention given to my dress but at the same time i am glad to see it complete, and Even more ecstatic to not be sat in the knitting room anymore. 

I would like to give a special thanks to Flo Martin, Hayley Brown and Elly Peers for Photocopying, cutting threads, helping with knitting the last sleeve, modelling and photographing! Thanks guys!! mwah!

Bin Bag Dress

Another one of the 10 dresses that i made was a combination of bin bags and a floral charity shop skirt. I made many dresses out of bin bags, recycling bags... anything that was free! This thing kept ripping but luckily i could simply tape it back together! if only all clothing could be fixed like that! I particularly like this dress because of its nature to rip, and move and change every time i put it on!

This next dress also incorporates bin bags. The pink dress is a nightie from.... a charity shop! i didn't like the pretty, delicate look of the dress, it was also rather big and long and very tacky.... So i destroyed it! throwing paint at it and tarnishing it with a pumice stone was a great stress reliever especially as this was the 8th dress i had made and by this time the pressure was beginning to mount! The lace is from a haberdasher and cost 18p from their bargain bucket. The dress cost 30p, and the bin bag and embellishments were all things i had lying around! this was the cheapest dress out of my collection.

These two dresses are still on display at Norton Radstock college where i took my art foundation Diploma along with the A1 sized photographs which are posted on here.

This Saturday i worked at the Bristol Graduate fashion show, i turned up on the day expecting to be a model dresser. One of the models phoned in sick and next thing i knew i was on the catwalk! scariest thing of my life! Pictures to come...

Opposites Attract

I thought I'd give you guys a brief update of my final project. The Title was Opposites Attract. The opposites that i chose to look at were Ancient vs Futuristic. This covered everything from skyscraper buildings and neon colours to myths, gods, gold and jewels. Eventually i focused my research down the bird gods of egypt and began to look at the heiroglyphics and statues depicting these. I then began to look more closely at the actual birds that were represented.... Falcons, Vultures, sparrows....

The pictures shown are of my attempt to re-create some of the textures, colors and patterns that can be found on some of these birds in knit. The pink one is taken from the stubbly pink head of a Lappet Faced Vulture, (Below Top) and the grey from the 'blobby' skin around the head of a King Vulture (Below Bottom)

Along with creating fabric samples i have also created many jumbled up garment designs. Below is one of my favourites as well as some more fabric samples which i am currently developing to use for the final garment!!... I hope you've enjoy this post... Time for some more sampling i think!

  

Please leave a comment.... positive criticism is always welcome