Printing nightmares!!

Right well this week I have had night mare after night mare at the printers. I sent my look book and press release to the printers and have just had a night mare. I have to ward anyone off of going to image xl, my work has not come out of the high standard that their high prices should reflect, in fact I have had to have things re printed to get a better standard.
But moving on my work has been printed and the press pack is complete, which makes me so happy. Just need to finish my reflective journal now for mondays deadline, its going to be a fun sleep deprived week end. Any way I wanted to show you the final pictures of my work so tell me what you think.

IDENTITY

During my second and final year of FDA Fashion, I worked in a team for a competition called 'Make your mark in Fashion'. The competition was based on choosing an ethical company that was participating in the competition to work with and create an innovative and new approach towards that company. I worked with Claire Wood and Michelle Baptiste as the 2 designers of the group and myself and Gemma Lancaster as promoters. We based our project on the company Juste, as we had very little information bar the business biographys from the competition website and part of the competition rules meant we couldnt contact them.
For my part in the project I decided to create a look book/ magazine promotion for the range, calling it Identity. The designers produced an outfit each for this project, both including tailored jackets. Me and Gemma used these outfits for a photoshoot, which we then used for the promotional materials.
I tried to base my work on inspirations taken from mainstream magazines like Another Magazine (before the layout changes), InStyle, Elle, Lula and Vogue, to name but a few. Although there were struggles in this project, mainly with relying on other peoples work to do my own, I still loved working with a team and having them to talk ideas through with. The designs were amazing also, and Michelles jacket is still on my wish list of things to own. Although we never went far within the competition, our work was for our preperation project before taking on board our final project, and was a great experiance. I also learnt that some photographers are troublesome to work with, and some are too flamboyant for their own good. Yet you have to find a way to work them which is what me and Gemma had to do.

TOPSHOP NEW YORK!!!!

Ok girls and guys, we all have one favourite shopping destination, and that is Topshop. I found this clip on you tube from the launch of the New York store. Follow the link and have a sneeky peek. It looks so amazing I cant wait to visit New York again so I can go there. It totally isnt the same as shopping in Topshop in the UK..... or is it? who cares, its shopping

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhZPLSzvcmQ

xoxo

Inspirations or Aspirations

This lovely lady came to speak to my year on tuesday. Her name was Vanessa Denza and she has had an amzing life within fashion. She seemed to have a story for everything, and although she is ruthless she is brilliant. Check out her website to find out more, follow the link below.
www.denza.co.uk

It was really inspiring to hear her stories. I really want to be able to look back on my career in 20 years time and have as many amazing stories about my career as she does. I just hope Im as lucky as her. But check out her website as she scouts for new designers and talent all the time.
xoxo

Its been so long....

Been a very hectic few weeks for me, so the blog has been pushed to the side. Anyway I wanted to show you whats been keeping me preocupied for the year. My work has come so far from when I started the project in January, and now im less than a week from my final deadline :(I did a photoshoot with 2 wicked photographers from BA Photography 3rd year at the institute. Using the images I have developed many different images to use in my look book, for my press release. This image above is my final look. I love the strength of the images and they look wicked in my look book. But what do you think?

First year was full of great experiances, and the main one was our New York trip in February 2007. This trip wasnt my first visit to New York, I had been the year before so I'd pretty much done all the torristy things and so this visit consisted basically of a huge shopping spree. Accompanied by my rather fabulous companion Dee, we strutted around manhattan going from shop to shop, with many bags trailing behind us. One of our favourite shops was Abercrombie
and Fitch on fifth avenue. It was a fantastic store and really refreshing from all the others as it was like stepping into a night club with really hot model guys behind the counter.



Fendi was one of my favourite window displays while we were over there, thats where I took these photographs. The window design was simple and effective, a great theme of space age and futuristic clothing with mixtures of fabrics and mostly silver colours.


One thing that was the highlight of our holiday was the Mac Make -up collection that was launched, Mac Barbie. It was amazing! Im a huge fan of make up and at the time worked part time for Benefit cosmetics, so this was a collection I had been waiting for for a while. So when we stepped into Henri Bendels it was like christmas had come early. There was a special Barbie Mac stand in the entrance, with models painted up to look like barbie and posing in a barbie set. Me and my friend went nuts and practicaly bought the whole collection. I spent over $500 on make up during this trip but it was so worth it.
Ok so I may have done more shopping than mueseum visiting but alot of experiancing fashion and culture is absorbing the environment which is exactly what I did.
I had champagne in Tiffanys and tried on Manolo Blahnik's in Bergdorfs, just like evry girl should!

Old School...

So I was looking though my old A-Level work and started to remeber how much I loved Textiles. These images are from one of my second year projects, I used mostly muslim to create the dress and created the colour by dyeing the fabric with coffee.
I loved the colour it created while I was experimenting and when I created the final fabric I had to dye several metres of fabric and used several jars of coffee, which ended up stinking out the whole studio.

I loved this project and I loved the outcome, I really wanted to create a dress that looked like it had been buried in the garden, and was an old family antique dress, yet quite garden fairy like. My friend Becks modelled for these photographs, and she also modelled for other photographs within my projects at uni. At A-Level I was so passionate about design and allways wanted my own collection to go down the runway at graduate fashion week. But my opinions have changed during my time at university.

Dewy Samples

For my final project I have been working on a limited edition collection that would be designed by Graduates. The range would be something brand new for Miss Selfridge, and the first for a retailer in the UK.
In my development I have been trying to develop the ranges identity and branding associations with Miss Selfridge. I have been developing the range with the name Dewy by Miss Selfridge. I am currently working on the look book and the front cover of it.

Thes images are my work in progress, similar designs but at the same different. Although these are my initial designs I have also been looking at doing the designs more digital based.
LJust like the example underneath, however im unsure and dont like all the negative space.

Digital Portfolio

So Ive begun working on my digital portfolio for interviews and also London Graduate Fashion Week. I have been looking in my final project from FDA work and I loved my trend Book, Fashionista, so I've been re working my pages within my published work for my digital portfolio.

What do you think?
I know it seems quite simplistic but I want the work to stand out and it needs to have a proffessional edge to it.

QR Codes

So yesterday I took part in a lecture from John Noi, editor of spektacle magazine. His ideas were so interesting and I love the idea of his on line magazine, were he has turned it into a neighbourhood type newsletter, you have to check it out to truly understand it, so follow this link.
http://www.spektacle.com/index.html

However he was telling us all about QR codes. There amazing and I love the idea of them as there are so many possibilities, however I can download the application on to my phone so if you have a black berry then it sucks for you too. But if you dont then check out the site and download the application.
http://reader.kaywa.com/

Here is QR code to take you straight to this blog.


If you want to try out making your own codes then check out this guys blog as he has his own generator. Its alot of fun and worth trying out.
http://undesigned.org.za/qrcode-generator

Love me more xo

Oh to be a Fashionista.....

Welcome to my blog.
Every one is blogging and although Im not everyone, I am becoming a blogger.
I am currently finishing my final year of BA Fashion Studies at the Arts Institute at Bournemouth, and have already completed an FDA degree in Fashion. Im going to try and keep you all up to date on how these last few hectic months go and also tell you how my work is going.
Keep on loving me xo