Maria Grachvogel

Another designer i strolled upon, and i love!

Maria Grachvogel Spring/Summer 14

When i came across this collection i fell in love - the print automatically reminded me of the fabric i had been experimenting with. Although its not the same colours it still reminded me with how the colours blended together.

The prints are what drawn me into the collection but the shape of the garments and how they fall is beautiful, the way they drape and shape the body.

Simone Rocha

Whilst doing some contemporary research/catching up with LFW I came across Simone Rochas S/S14 collection. Her inspiration was Nobuyoshi Araki, Ed Templeton’s Teenage Kissers and the girls in Amsterdam, with mainly a Monochrome theme.

I love how much detail is within the garments and also how each design is 'tested' in each fabric, ranging from leathers, plastics and sheer fabrics. The sheer garters and paneling with dropped gathered waistline on the skirts also caught my eye.

Uni work

So the last time i posted relating to uni work i went london and focused on the London Transport Museum. However the first week back to uni i came across an article on MSN home page about abandoned theme parks, very eery but also very interesting for me. So i started researching them. I loved the colours in the images, very dark dusky colours but then also the distressed colours from the rides, such as the teacups, i found the peeling of the paint inspiring. 

My work station, although it has changed since as this photo is from 2 weeks ago

  

Since then Ive been developing ideas from my research. Starting off drawing but then moving onto sampling and even some knitting! 

I have also found many different fabrics that i feel relate to my work, with many of them being the surface texture/design that interested me.

I am quite a textiles person when it comes to the fabrics and the samples development i think, but at the same time love making garments and bringing 3d shape into it.

My current samples are relating to the tracks from the rollercoasters, using pleating and boning to develop them. As well as gathers to create the lines.

Also knitting samples - starting with thick knit and then adapting it to loose knit because an image and all the lines with curves reminded me of very loose knit. After two i didnt feel they were loose enough so i found 'arm knitting' which is so quick and simple and creates exactly the knit i am after, i then tried it with strips of fabric which worked very well with the fraying creating a rough distressed look.

 

I am also in the process of draping on the stand, with fabrics that relate to my work.

Baby Dress

About a month ago now i made my first baby dress! Age 0-3 months.
I am very proud of it especially as it only took me a few hours!
I lined it too, with a popper on the back

It is so tiny but comparing it to other baby clothes its the same size. I am yet to know if it fits but hopefully it will! :)

London Visit 10.09.13

On tuesday i visited London, after looking forward to it for so long! Booking in advance may be cheaper but made me very impatient!

Having planned my day long before, i went to London Transport Museum, The V&A and did some shopping aswell as other research!

First stop was the V&A museum to see Club to Catwalk exhibition, which was rather small and as usual no photos or sketching were allowed, so i was sure to take down the designer/collections that inspired me hoping at the end there would be postcards to buy of what interested me. However the postcard pack of 12 was £6.50!! rather expensive and it didn't really include many of the outfits that i liked.
So before returning to uni a week on Monday I am going to search the internet for images from my notes.

Some images I've found c/o http://www.disneyrollergirl.net

After the V&A I went on to Covent Garden to The London Transport Museum, which has always been something that has interested me, the history of the different tube maps especially. And with the Tube Poster Exhibition on at the minute there was more of a reason to visit the museum. Most times i go London and end up in Covent Garden and i visit the Museum shop to have a nose so it was only right to actually visit the museum this time, with 2 for 1 voucher, at £15 each it was costly, but would have been worth that!

I took so many pictures at the museum, although the section solely on the tube map was closed for refurbishment i still sneaked some pictures from the barriers! The exhibition on the posters was also interesting seeing the comical sentences used and how they have changed today.

I also visited Oxford street for some shopping and to see The Selfridges window displays which are always worth going to see!

As well as some of the architecture around London!

 

I have been collecting many different images throughout my summer time off uni from online, magazine cuttings and also from right on my doorstep - the village i live in!

Visiting London has gave me an insight into what i find inspiring as well as gave me more images!

Moda trade show NEC 2013

A couple of weeks ago I went to Moda trade show to get an insight on how brands present themselves to buyers and also see what different companies are out there.

It was interesting to see the labels on the garments and how much they sold them to wholesales for and whether it was for the one garment or a pack. If they had different colours and fabrics these were also shown on the labels with fabric swatches or just the colour swatches.

I managed to pick up a few leflets whilst there and a look book. Although it was interesting to look around the different brands, i found i enjoyed the fashion shows more and got more out of them. Seeing the outfit down the runway being shown with the company's collections gave more of an insight into trends and the brand. You wasn't able to take pictures at all in the NEC but I took notes throughout the day on the catwalk and the garments I liked on the stands. So I plan to search for the professional pictures when the exhibition is finished so I can put them with my notes.

 I did take a few photos whilst walking around, before i seen the signs for no photos!

F+F Autumn Winter 2013 Collection

Working on the clothing section at Tesco, F+F/Cherokee, I always get excited when i see new styles come in. I also love flicking through the merchandising books to see where the product goes but also the rest of the collection we are likely to get in, as well as the garments that we may not get in our store!

So I constantly keep up with the new trends coming in, through Tesco, as well as other resources! Their F+F Autumn Winter 2013 collection looks amazinggg! All the warm colours - reds, blacks, green and royal blue with many eye catching prints thrown in there too!

So here are my best picks -

Love geometric lines and monochrome.

Not sure how i feel about Tartan for myself but this styled together is edging me towards it!

The intricacy of the body with the pazzallo trousers.

Love this burgundy colour at the moment!

There are soo many more though!
Images from the Cosmo F+F Lookbook
http://www.cosmopolitan.co.uk/fashion/shopping/f-and-f-edgy-autumn-winter-collection-6#fbIndex6

Check out the catwalk show.
(taken from http://www.youtube.com/user/ClothingatTesco)

Design Philosophy

Hand in date tomorrow - yessss! :)

Just packing everything up ready and checking it all off the list one final time.

I have 2 design philosophy's because i edited it around easter time and sent it off to make a book, however i then found out it had to be completely different to the other version AND the book wasnt needed anymore - £30 down the drain....

So i re wrote it from scratch however it still pretty much included the same things as its what i like! I am going to hand both copies in otherwise the book would have been really pointless. With the book i planned to add detail on the front on the dust cover by cutting a pattern into it almost like lace to relate to my design style which i wrote about inside but having found out it wasnt needed i dont think i am going to.

Final Design Board

I have decided to do a final design board as i felt that it would be a opportunity to explain a bit more about my garments, almost like a spec sheet.

Outfit completed!

My outfit is finally complete yay! :)

With obvious things I'd change next time, especially the problem I had with the collar at the end on my jacket, with a hem on the outside on part of it, couldn't change this though as the fabric wouldn't be useable if I unpicked it, I have ordered some more fabric so I can try and redo it before but that still hasn't arrived so its not likely il be able to.
It can't be seen unless your close up.