Fashion Textiles Costume...

Perfume at the Enchanted Palace, Kensington

2011-11-08T16:30:00.000-08:00

Here are a few photos from a recent trip to the Enchanted Palace. This is an exhibition currently on in Kensington. The exhibition consists of the work of various artists who have each designed and created all kinds of installations from knitting and fashion design to sculpture and contemporary art.

The first room you enter is the 'Room of Royal sorrows' the various glass flagons and bottles are metaphorical for collecting the Princess' tears and the room invites you to begin to think about the last time you were upset.

I saw this installation as a great inspiration for my final collection. The concept behind it being the idea of collecting and encapsulating something beautiful resonates with the concept of my collection and I decided to create a few digital print designs from the photographs that I took at the exhibition.

This exhibition was great fun and I would advise everyone to see it. For more information about the tickets etc visit: http://www.hrp.org.uk/KensingtonPalace/stories/palacehighlights/EnchantedPalace

Final Project

2011-10-30T14:26:00.000-07:00

As you can see I haven't created a blog post for a long while now. After a period of felling overwhelmed by the amount of work I have to complete for the final part of my degree, I have collated my thoughts and inspirations.

My research begins with the novel Perfume by Patrick Suskind. I began by looking at some of the scents he encounters, in particular the different oils in the perfume shop where his obsession with creating and capturing perfume began

I want to base my collection on the idea of capturing and encapsulating something beautiful and magical.

Thus far I have began to create some print ideas by layering and mixing flowers to create a perfume inspired print. and here are some examples:

This week I aim to work on some silhouette ideas, based on images of flowers that I come across in the descriptions for perfume formulas, so I shall follow up this post with some images from that.

Finally here are some other images that I aim to play around with this week:

MUSE: Freja Beha

2010-12-12T15:05:00.000-08:00

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!

2010-09-25T08:02:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-29T13:46:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-27T15:35:00.000-07:00

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....

2010-07-16T03:21:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-22T12:40:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-27T01:09:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-19T14:35:00.000-07:00

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

Alberta Ferretti - My inspiration

2010-05-09T03:07:00.000-07:00

I would like to use this blog entry to promote a fashion designer that is a favourite of mine, Alberta ferretti. For my Textiles A-level i had to do a presentation on her work and at the time i had never heard or seen any of it, and out of ignorance just wanted to learn about the big names like Gucci or Chanel. However, now she has blossomed as a designer and i am totally hooked on her work. Below is a snapshot of her homepage www.albertaferretti.com

The fashion style i usually look towards for inspiration is never normally anything as pretty as this. I like dramatic, Avant Garde objects that wear the person rather than a 'dress on a clotheshorse' type look. However there is something quite admirable about her pieces. For example the dress above at the left has thousands of tiny pleats, or the green dress with hand embroidery on such a sheer fabric.

I would like to think that Miss Alberta Ferretti is a big fan of 'trendils' (look they're everywhere). I am contradicting myself here saying that i dont particularly like thing to be too pretty, however, i do like a good trendil or two. again note the layering and ruffling of the silk chiffon fabrics. The garments have a fluidity about them and are finished so emaculately.

I particularly like the cute brogues that the models are wearing giving the models a nerd-esque look. They also look extremely comfy. Overall, i think i admire her work so much out of jealousy, or a 'i wish id thought of that'. Her pieces are so sickeningly sweet yet magical and inspiring. They make me want to pay more attention to finishes and minor detailing occasionally rather than throwing things together haphazardly (i have even been known to use a stapler in my time!) Anyway, I hope you like the pictures and visit her Website!

wooaaaaah! Yep! Thats right another heres one i made earlier...

2010-05-03T14:08:00.000-07:00

This one started life as a peachy coloured dress from asos, pretty but Rather ill fitting. It had a waistband which seemed to be made to fit a size 4 rather than a 10 and strange gathering going on which made you look like you had boobs on your back!?! Odd! Anyway, i decided to sacrifice this one in the name of art. Firstly, it was tooo long so i hacked of the 'pretty' edging and cut into the god awful waist thing. next i cover it in white paint, i firstly attempted to use bleach... a lot of it and whereas the blasted dress remained the untouched the college chairs will never quite looked the same... My bad!

Using a bucket and other random shit from around the studio i arranged the dress so that it would dry with a crumpled effect that i could still get into. Next i attacked the 'pretty' neckline and shoulders with black paint, some black netting and more black paint on the scalloped edging (i don't throw things away easily) stitched it all together and then here we have dress no.4! :)

Foo Fashion show

2010-04-26T02:01:00.000-07:00

This saturday my friends and i went to the foo fashion show! it started at 8pm and we decided it would be a good idea to have a drink or two before we set off. finally we left and stumbled our way to Motion nightclub - the venue for this evening. This is new teritory for us and upon arrival we felt sort of out of place and way to drunk in comparrison to everyonbe else so we swiftly hid ourselves in a corner until the show started.

The show was amazing! Forgetting the rather awkward start, the clothes were cool, models cool, perforemers cool. The whole thing ooozed coolness!

I particularly like the Fud hoods (apologise if spelt wrong) below is a collaborative hood designed by my new friend Ashley Marc Hovelle - AMH. PLease also ignore the stupid face! I am simply very pleased to be wearing this hood... and i'm no model.

These hoods were in most of the collection and i would definately recomend. This particular hood reads 'I'm bad' in glowing neon ink, needless to say this is going to be my next pruchase.

Other designers at the show included Sew that jazz, puckoo couture, Motel, Adidas and an adidas clad breakdance group, dutty, a burlesque dancer, nipple tassles, a brilliant whistle playing beat boxer, hula hoop, fire, acrobatics and a magician.

This old thing

2010-04-14T01:17:00.000-07:00

Firstly, please ignore that pouty/grumpy look. This is another one of the dresses from my final collection. This one first started as a 1950s style twinset comprising of a calf length dress and cardigan. Which i rejigged to make a a bodice. I am trying to locate a picture of the original garment which i will hopefully post up here soon.

Here is the finished garment.

I don't particularly like the silver skirt thing that i knocked up in about 5 mins... It looked better in my head. However, the bodice underneath is actually quite cool. The cardigan of the twinset was beautifully pleated and i inevitably decided to cut it up into shreds, or trendils as i like to call them and arranged it across the bodice to follow the body contours. I also decided to leave a trailing, floaty piece at the side (I do have a passion for floaty trendils!) Unfortunately the majority of all of this detailing is hidden by the grotesque silver thing! grrr! Never mind, more to come...

Installation Piece

2010-04-05T13:30:00.000-07:00

Although i do love everything fashion i appreciate that it would be naive of me to think that a transition into the fashion world would be simple. i am increasingly aware that opportunities rarely come around for the luckiest of people. you have to push yourself, push to get yourself heard. Think of how many people are studying fashion related degrees every year in all the universities across the uk?!?!?!?! Therefore i am constantly keeping my options open and look at other art forms for inspiration and interest.

textiles artists, sculptures, ceramics, instalation artists, photographer and illustrators frequently feature in my research as they can often bring organic shapes, materials, ideas and ways of working into my own creations

Whilst doing an Art foundation i decided for one of my projects to create a piece of installation art. I looked at artists such as Annette Messager and Christian Boltanski. In particular the sculpturasl pieces by christian boltanski and his use of shadows of light. The example shown above is taken from http://likovna-kultura.ufzg.hr/obrazovniweb/English/plane01.htm although i am sure this isn't where the original picture came from.

The title for my project was 'urban' and the final piece was a selection of clothing that i had solidified in human shapes (by soaking the things in pva and then hanging over college chairs etc due to lack of resources) and then burnt, painted, anything to dirty them up a bit. the clothing was representational of people within a community and the idea of destroying them came from the pictures i took of the local council estate i grew up in - parks graffittied, fences broken, bins burnt out, drugs, booze, cigarettes, etc etc. I projected a pen and ink drawing of a swing in one of the parks, symbolical, something we all must have done when we were kids... played on a swing.

Unfortunately these are the only 2 pictures i seem to have of the installation. they are close ups of some of the clothing i destroyed. I shall try to locate more and post them on here. The beauty of installation art is that it is around you, enticing. I feel that it gives the viewer more options. people can make their own assumptions of what the piece means. The thing i enjoyed most about this project was the freedom. The freedom to push your creativity. To push boundaries so effectively. I enjoyed this project much more than some of the fashion ones i have done. Any comments would greatly be appreciated or even recommendations or pictures of your own work.

My Fave!

2010-04-02T13:05:00.000-07:00

This is my favourite of the dresses that i made fo my final collection. For this i used an old white t-shirt and 20 disposable overalls which were donated to me from Waitrose. i stitched them all together to create a skirt and a train and voila! a homemade wedding dress?!

the 10 dresses project

2010-03-20T03:09:00.001-07:00

For my final i created a series of 10 dresses made from recycled materials and re-using old garments.

This 1 was created from a size Anne Harvey shirt found for £1 in a local charity shop which I shredded it down to fit me. I combined the left over shreds with paper and wire to create a shoulder piece. Please forgive the pouty grumpy look throughout these photos.

I found a full length beaded fishtail dress in a charity shop for £7. It was slightly too big but i cut out the lining leaving the completely beaded outer layer. I have no idea what the white fabric is made of it had a shiny plastic feel to it and was found in a skip. I cut up the bottom of the dress causing it to fan out and stitched this white material in between the gaps causing it to puff out.

1st Costume

2010-03-17T08:52:00.001-07:00

I have decided to upload these pictures of my first costume. This is the final outcome of the garment i made for Marina Sossi of Marina sossi group for her Shakuhachi & Butoh performance at the Bath Fringe festival of 2009. This was a very successful collaboration and a great experience for me as to what it would be like to work in this field. I have been inspired ever since. I enjoy the idea of designing and collaborating with others combining feedback and ideas to produce a strong outcome. Let me know what you think.

Anybody want a costume design intern?

2010-03-11T06:13:00.001-08:00

As a fashion Textiles design Student, we are encouraged to seek work experience in our second year. This can be anytime from June 21st 2010 - Sept 2011. I am looking for and internship in costume design and will happily travel anywhere in the world to get one.

I have a few applications going through at the moment with companies in California and Los Angeles. However, i am constantly on the look out for more opportunities in case any of these fall through. I have a sound knowledge in many different printing techniques such as heat transfer, silk screen etc. As well as being able to both hand and machine knit in order to be able to create innovative knit pieces. Further more i am confident at using sewing machines (industrial and domestic), overlocking machines, pressing and finishing seam as needs be.

I am extremely enthusiastic when it comes to creating dgarments and have had 1 previous encounter with costume design. So if anybody had any ideas or would like to help me out please get back to me

Twitter

2010-03-10T11:46:00.000-08:00

Who has a friend that Twitters everything?
I do!... It irritates the crap out of me! so i thought this blogging idea was better. Although atm i dont have any followers? hmmm...

Anyway... rant over

my new project: opposites attract. I'm going for ancient and futuristic, my muse is a sort of gothik biker chick and im going with a colour scheme of black to give me limitations. Any suggestions are very much appreciated.

Also Im very excited to be visiting Stratford Park on Sat 8th may. As part of the Stroud Textiles Festival Graham Cottenden will be giving an illustrated talk on 'costume for the theatre'... My favourite Subject! yay!

I've never been so excited at the thought of visiting Stroud!
Well that was my first blog over! thankyou :)