Hello Second Year

Hello!
I can't believe how long it's been since I last blogged! these past few months have been crazy to say the least, but I'm back, and here's what I've been getting up to as a second year fashion student!

Second year has been quite a shock to the system, lets just say I didn't know how easy I had it last year...

The year kicked off with a collaborative project where we were asked to team up and collaborate with industry professionals  to create an avant-garde fashion accessory. This was not as easy as it seemed. My project partner and myself decided to create a headwear accessory, and we took our inspiration initially from insects, as insects seemed to be key catwalk trend when we first started researching. The project then developed and our concept was the was way in which insects are predisposed to protect themselves from harm, we focused primarily on the hard shell and wings of a beetle.



Copyright Gordie Cavill Source Photography

We used adobe illustrator to create the pattern on the headpiece, which is taken from a wing pattern, we then used a lazer cutter to etch the pattern onto the leatherette fabric.

Then came the audience and context project, where we were to consider the needs and lifestyle of a specific customer/ client base when designing our ideas, we started the project by developing our illustration skills before diving straight into the pattern cutting, toiling and making or the garments, the whole thing was extremely fast paced, but that's the way it is in the real world!

The project was largely focussed on sustainability, therefore the dress is made from British sourced wool crepe. I also investigated methods of zero waste pattern cutting to produce a minimal waste lay plan. My key design element however is the fact that the dress has a detachable collar, and therefore can be worn in more than one way making it more versatile and likely to be kept for longer, the detachable collar also allows the wearer to only wash the collar by hand washing, cutting down on water and energy usage from washing machines, win win!

So that pretty much brings us up to the end of December, first semester has certainly been interesting, lets see what the new year will bring!

Happy New Year!

The age of the kimono.

This season I am absolutely OBSESSED with kimonos, I think they're just amazing, you can wear them ANYWHERE. Its definitely a staple this year, everyone needs one in their wardrobe, whatever your style. There are so many different trends and variations out there that there is bound to be something for everyone, and as I said in my previous post, I wear mine all the time! A few new ones are definitely still on my to buy list this year...

Kimonos are great to just give your outfit a bit of a twist, slip one on with your skinny jeans and top and you'll instantly look more dressed up , they're like this seasons answer to the leather jacket (although you still need a leather jacket, everyone does!)

I've teamed up with a couple of boutiques from the asos marketplace to put together a collection of what, in my opinion, are the best kimonos available online, and for great prices!

First up its the amazing collection from the House of jam, who have some really unique kimonos available, the hound's tooth one is definitely on my shopping list, I love a good eye catching print! The pink one is also up there with my favourites, perfect for a feminine, summery look! If you're looking for the perfect statement piece, House of Jam is where you need to be!
check them out at https://marketplace.asos.com/boutique/house-of-jam?oss_ss=1

Next up is Nereus London, where you can find some really cool kimonos for absolutely amazing prices! perfect for style hunters on a budget, particularly uni students like me! we all know what its like to spend all your money on clothes and not be able to afford milk (just me?) well not anymore, you might even be able to splash out for a loaf of bread with Nereus London's prices, amazing! My favourite of this collection is the 90's style monochrome kimono (right) I love the way it's been styled with the denim cut offs and body jewellery, perfect for a festival! head to https://marketplace.asos.com/boutique/nereus-london?oss_ss=1

 

 

If you're jumping on the kimono band wagon (and if you're not you should be) House of Jam and Nereus London are two boutiques you do not want to miss out on, amazing products for great prices, massive round of applause for them!

 

 

 

Festival Fashion

Well hello there! I recently got back from v fest, where I saw some absolutely AMAZING outfits, which inspired me to blog about my favourite festival essentials available both online and on the high street. Before I start I'd like to mention that I did ask permission to use all of these images, so please don't use them before contacting the owners!

Ill start with a few of my own garments I took along with me...

The first is my amazing silk kimono from Topshop (where else?) Infact I might as well save my finger strength and start by saying that they're all Topshop because Topshop is amazing, there. I must say though, I did feel particularly cool in the fringed top with my denim cut offs and my hunters (another festival must have)

 

If you're going to a festival this year (still Leeds fest and creamfields to go!) you NEED a head accessory of some sort, I didn't take one and ended up buying a pretty crap one from a stall, I wish I'd been more prepared, there were some seriously cool ones about! I've done a bit of browsing and found a few of my favourites on asos marketplace.

Floral Headbands by babs-matee29 https://marketplace.asos.com/seller/babs-matee29?oss_ss=1

 floral headbands by Rouge Pony https://marketplace.asos.com/boutique/rouge-pony



Head accessories by Hurricane Gypsy https://marketplace.asos.com/seller/hurricanegypsy?oss_ss=1

 

 

You don't need me to tell you that you're going to need some denim shorts, it rained most of the weekend and I still lived in mine, mine were just some old ones I have which were my mums! just plain old denim shorts, but I love them. BUT... I've found a seller of denim shorts with a twist, for if you're looking for something a bit different, which we all are of course!

Denim shorts by apliiq https://marketplace.asos.com/search?q=apliiq&oss_ss=&tab=boutique www.apliiq.com

 

At V fest, there were kimonos everywhere you looked, it's safe to say they've hit the big time, floral ones, Japanese style ones, embellished ones, you name it. But kimonos arn't just for festival season, they're for life! I wear mine all the time! they're amazing for dressing up plain old skinny jeans and a top, and you can definitely find one to suit your style, because there's so much choice, here are my favourites...

Kimonos by black DUSK https://marketplace.asos.com/boutique/black-dusk?oss_ss=1

 

 

black DUSK have some great products on offer, my personal favourite is the orange chiffon kimono (middle) because I think it would look amazing at a festival with denim shorts and some jazzy jewellery, but then it would be perfect to wear shopping or out for lunch, I love the bright statement colour!

 

So there you have it! if you're going to a festival this year you should definitely check out asos marketplace before you go, you can find some great unique things on there, I'd also just like to say a massive thanks to all of the sellers featured for letting me use your images! 



Project Tattoo



Recently, my boyfriend decided that he wanted to get a tattoo (about time, judge me if you will, but I love them) and asked me if I would do a few design ideas for him to play around with. He wants the tattoo to feature a bear and possibly an eagle, maybe even a lion so naturally I began by researching illustrations of all three, and found some AMAZING things, which I'm reluctant to post as, although I found nothing to suggest the images were copyrighted, I didn't want to risk it/ upset the artists, plus the whole copyright ordeal quite frankly terrifies me. Better to stay out of it!

 

Im thinking of maybe working around a jungle theme (do lions bears and eagles all reside in the same place? probably not...who knows?) So my designs are still very much a work in progress, quite honestly I’ve just about managed to nail a basic drawing of a bear without it looking like a mutant, but nevertheless I took a crack at it, and here’s what happened...

 

Obviously, this isn't the finished article (these would make terrible tattoos) but I thought it would be interesting to show how I develop my ideas into designs, and maybe post the development of the designs and hopefully the finished tattoo... so what do you think?

July's Best Buys!

Hello! First of all I'd like to apologise for the terrible spelling in my first post, and offer reassurance that this post will be thoroughly checked (or pasted into word for a spell check) so if there are any errors, blame word. Secondly, I’ll explain that I thought it might be a good idea to do a monthly post at the end of each month highlighting my favourite purchases, so here goes the July edition!

I’ll start with my fist and absolute favourite buy, which is this bright blue floral placement tube skirt from Topshop (Ill warn you now, Topshop features a hell of a lot in this post) which I bought at the beginning of the month and, despite its special place in my heart, have not yet got around to wearing! I know, the injustice. It’s quite a loud skirt, so I wouldn’t team it with anything too crazy, possible a cream chiffon cami so give a summery look, with maybe a statement necklace to complete the ensemble. This skirt makes you look SUPER skinny because of the cunning placement print, hats off to Topshop for that one, Bravo. 




Flower Placement Tube Skirt- Topshop £28



 

Second I'm going to pay tribute to another new tube skirt which also holds a special place in my heart, the Topshop blossom print pencil skirt, which makes you look amazing, honestly, you don’t even need spanx. (If you don’t own them you're a liar) It’s quite a soft, feminine print and a light colour palette, so again you could get away with a simple cream cami, although I did have the crazy idea of possibly teaming it with red, who knows, the possibilities are endless!

 



 

The last of this month's pencil skirt pandemonium was this blue geometric animal mix print skirt from, you guessed it, Topshop. I actually work at Topshop (who would have known?) and I knew this was the last one in stock when a customer brought it to the tills, my heart sank, but then she changed her mind like an absolute saint and I bought it and all was well! I wore this with a black v neck cami, also Topshop, a black biker jacket and some healed Chelsea boots for a casual day look, and it gained me many a compliment! Massive thanks to the lovely lady who chose not to buy it

 



 

Next I'm going to make some of you insanely jealous by announcing that I will be attending this year’s V Festival, and then make you slightly more jealous by telling you that it will be costing me a grand total of £35 and 2 shifts as an 'Information Point Personnel' But just curb your jealously, as it might make you feel slightly better that I will be wearing a hi vis jacket, like the super fashionista I am. The reason I'm including this snippet of info is because another of my July purchases was a pair of HUNTERS! I cannot tell you how long I have coveted a pair of these, and now I had a reason to buy them, yey!

 



 

Hope you enjoyed my July best buys!

First year in a nutshell

First of all, hello! this is the first of ( I hope) many posts, and what better way to start a fashion(ish) blog than to talk about my experiences as a first year fashion student? I'll start by saying that I was not at all prepared for what was to come, having just finished my A levels, it was hard to adjust to the fast paced course, but I survived! And I survived pretty well, actually, I ended up with a first in my first year, but if you think that relaxes me for my second year, think again.

As a self confessed control freak and proffesional stress head ( I can't go anywhere without my filofax, my friend call it tony...) I am still absolutely terrified of what I have coming, but enough of that, Im scaring myself just thinking about it...

So, first year kicked off with a project called Design Methods, and my first ever session included my tutor telling me that I hadn't done what was expected of me over summer, (fantastic) but im glad she did because she scared me so much that day I made sure it would never happen again! We had to base our projects around repetition and use repetitive patterns to come up with a new design which we would later make in another project. I based mine on a pineapple, dont ask me why, we then had to shoot our garments as part of a team (not my forte) in the style of a magazine of our choice, we chose dazed and confused and mine ended up looking like this...

Copyright Saskia Cole 2013

 

My team worked with Saskia cole, a photographer based in peterborough. You can find out more about her through her facebook page https://www.facebook.com/#!/saskiacolephotography

 

Another big project of the year was an illustration task, where we had to choose a current designers collection and basically experiment with differnt illustration techniques, this project was my absolute FAVOURITE as I love stuff like this, I chose Holly Fulton's RTW SS13 collection, as I fell immediately in love with her use of print and colour, and the stories behind her collections. Holly Fulton is definitely up there with my favourite designers. Here are some of my illustrations, don'y judge me too much, I'm just a first year...

Holly Fulton SS13 RTW

 

 

Excuse the poor image quality!

So those were my two favourite projects of my first year, but so much happened outside of Uni work too, if you're toying with the idea of going to uni and do'nt know if you should, go! not going to uni would have been the biggest mistake of mylife, and this is coming from a girl who smashed an oven trying to be the fresh prince of bellaire on a skateboard, seriously.

I learnt alot about myself during my first year, not to mention I got to meet Christopher Bailey! (nicest man in the world) I deffinitely came out of my shell, and i didn't even know I needed to.

Bring on second year!