so me and Emily used our nice sunny weekend off to go to Islington, went to nice little vintage shops and had a wee wander. We went to Waterstones and had a gander at the books which is like one of my favourite things to do, looking at the fashion books and wishing I had money to buy them. I am looking to get a load of costume books after starting to work for Angels I feel I need to boost the historical knowledge- geekkyy. Anyways saw loads of books and saw these illustrations which I would love to be able to do something like in my 3rd year projects. Good news is I have a whole year to practice. Robert Best illustrations…the guy who designed Barbie for Mattel- sort of a more sketchy elegant version of Jordi Labanda. Good huh!?

packed with pattern and colour. Two cities..Buda & Pest

I found about about these collections through a picture of lady gaga wearing a circular dress in which she looked ridiculous. I don’t like Lady Gaga’s fashion she makes everything stupid and takes away the credibility and complexity of designs like these which take clever pattern cutting and clever ideas.

Liz Black seems to be influenced mainly by origami and circles. The early collections are amazing and the pattern cutting must have taken yeaaars. The results almost look simple. The designs elongate the body by cutting it straight down the middle- the circles don’t seem to prevent movement. My favourite collection is the Autumn Winter 11/12 ‘Concentric Thoughts’….

Lady Gaga publicising a dress…. (none of the images are my own)

take me back to NYC…

I LOVE jenny packham so many pretty amazing dresses. Greeeennnn- such a good colour- If I were Kate Middy I would wear it everyday, even to bed. 

I liked the more evening wear clothes from Donna Karen but wasn’t keen on the beginning tribal style stuff. Hated Victoria Beckhams collection- the only time I’ve ever agreed with Liz Jones from the Mail- tight leather weird boots don’t look good on anyone that is not a stick. Her blue and orange stuff looked pretty similar to Marc by Marc Jacobs- maybs he has been giving her tips. 

NY fashion week has got me excited for London- I’m excited to see the shows from the fashion houses where my course friends have been doing their internships. 

Heres my fav stuff from across the pond. bring on my London (my new home!) x

jenny packham…

this is why green is my fav

good old red head.

Donna Karen…

ALice and Olivia…

time to stop shopping for a bit…

Got massively sucked in by a sale in NYC. Brought a stupidly high pair of shoes- I don’t even think i can ever wear them out. Just been prancing around the house in them. Well hey.. at least there not my standard black…’wine’ coloured is soo different. 

So i have been researching eco fashion for the design development portfolio project this semester. Basically we have to design a range, either for our own brand or a established brand which encompasses the ethos of ‘slow fashion’ the opposite of ‘fast’ unsustainable fashion. 

I had a crazzy afternoon in waterstones where i sat in costa and read loads of books about eco stuff and wrote some letters to work placement people with a hot chocolate- sounds geeky but was quite nice. Anyways this was my purchase….

At first i wasn’t keen on the brief but now its appealing more- theres alot of stuff to think about and so many different directions you could go down. I am already feeling guilty about the amount of clothes i own and how little i wear some of them.

The section in this book i found most interesting was the bit about recycling, reusing and upcycling. The crazy things designers had done to reinvent clothing was cool and i especially liked the designs by Holly Mcquillan. She makes sustainable clothing through clever pattern cutting where ALL of the fabric is used and there is no waste at all. The garments are therefore very cleverly cut and innovative- they all have a structure and other similar designers had worked with tessellating shapes to achieve this. Here is some examples of her work and some by Mark Liu- both working on the ‘Zero Waste’ ethos. I’m not necessarily a fan of the final garments but i think the way in which they are pattern cut is amazing.

lay plan. no waste.

So Les Miserable is my favourite musical eveerr.

I was watching the DVD of the 25th anniversary concert (which is amazing) and the costumes are so detailed, i would love to work in the costume department of a show like this! I was also watching the show on BBC about Matt Lucas being in it and they showed him on his costume fitting which was so interesting, they have so many different versions of the same costume and keep every garment they have ever used. I’m considering trying to get a placement in a theatre or something so i can try a bit of everything on my placement year!

Some insane hats

spesh love the menswear- i love a good waistcoat. 

trench coat/ hat combo= so good.

classic. Lynne would deffs be a fan if i made this in Garment Tech..

I want to see it again. Now

Love these prints, done by Shepard Fairey- the guy who did the Obama ‘Hope’ posters. He seems to a have a red/black/white obsession like good old Yohjjjj. I like how they are illustrative and playful yet powerful and serious.

i’m a fan

Aung San Suu Kyi

I want to be able to have hair long enough to do thisss.