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!