Wednesday 6 July 2011

Illustration boards for Final collection

After all my posts on fashion illustrators at the start of the year, I have finally produced my illustration boards to represent my collection.

Using the research on both modern and historical artists, I started to sample combining the two styles of art in one piece, along with elements of my theme.

The two artist styles I chose were Kandinsky an abstract artist from the early 1900 and a modern fashion illustrator named COCO. The styles they both work in are very similar and mainly based on shape.

I then worked in my sketch book re-producing the style of these artists work, but using my theme of floristry within it.

I feel these styles suit my theme very nicely, as the theme of flowers is itself a very obvious theme, therefore presenting it in a more abstract way makes the whole thing a bit more complex and more interesting to look at.

I then started to combine both the modern and historical styles together to gather ideas for my final boards. As well as the abstract geometric style of art, I went back to me research on Laura Laine and how I could apply her style of figure into my pieces.

The main idea of the board was to some how show your garments in a mix of contemporary and historical art forms. I think from my sample above I have found a really interesting and different way of displaying my designs from my final collection, rather than just drawing your average fashion figure wit clothes. I've also stuck to my final collection colour scheme as I think this helps keep the whole project together.


This is my final board. I chose to display my dress design, as I was able to you the geometric effect to display the roses and leafs that are stitched onto my dress. Another thing I added to my final boards was some of the lyrics that inspired me to my FMP theme of flowers.
The medias I have used in my final piece are : pencil, charcoal, fine-liner, ink, chalk, oil pastel, watercolour and collage. I feel by the use of multi- media the final piece had a more textural look, and draws the eyes to all areas of the work.

I am really happy with this board as it definitely brings through my feminine feel that I have had throughout my collection and entire project. I think my theme also shows through clearly as the flowers and leaves are the obvious aspect brought straight from my collection and then the silhouette of my outfit is shown loosely on the figure.

The final thing we were asked to do for this illustration brief was assign a market level to our illustration boards. After both the research on market levels and into the different ways f ashion is communicated I would say that my illustration board is aimed at a Ready-To-Wear market. This is because its not quite fine-art/edgey and expensive looking as your normal Couture style of illustration. However the design ideas are maybe slightly to complex for a highstreet market and the kind of audience it attracts.
Generally a R-T-W customer would be over the age of 30, hence would be more likely to have a knowledge or art, or at least the mind set to appreciate the design of my board. Whereas a younger customer may find the style to complex to fully see what the board is displaying. The other reason I see my board as ready to wear is the style of figure I have used. The style of figure is very edgy and more Tim Burton-esque, also fashion figures always tend to be drawn with very elongated legs from the major designer fashion shows, which are also all ready-to-wear or couture.


Saturday 11 June 2011

The Duchess of Cambridge

I haven't blogged for ages ! I'am very sorry ! However work load has been horrific ! A collection and 2 jobs and leaving home is alot to happen in a month !
However, I definitely left the blog on a high ...The Royal wedding ! Sooooo the perfect way to re-start my blog is ... Catherine the Duchess of Cambridge's outfit from the Queen's official birthday parade today !

She wore and beautifully tailored ivory coat and ad chic black hat. Ivory being a clever colour choice after her wedding only just over a month ago on exactly the same balcony. Although the brand has not yet been discovered, my guess would be that it is either another Reiss, as it is fastly emerging as the Duchess' favourite, or possibly even another McQueen to emulate her wedding.



Either way I think she looked stunning, and she must be one of the most naturally pretty women in the world .


Friday 29 April 2011

My Final Royal Dress Prediction

So with me now willing to put money on the fact that Sarah Burton is The Royal Wedding dress designer... here are 5 predictions of the Bride.

1. The colour - Off white/ivory, not only is the colour hugely popular in wedding dresses its also a big fashion trend for S/S 2011 and white is classed as very elegant which will suit kates style perfectly. Also by Kates previous wardrobe we know she can do bright white very well after the Reiss dress.


2. The dress will have some sort of sleeve, it is custom for royal wedding gowns to bare a sleeve, I think she may have a full length sleeve in a sheer fabric to update this rule slightly. She has been wearing the style for many of her dresses and jackets for recent events, showing she possibly prefers to cover the arm anyway. I think with both the length in her arms and legs would be suited to a long fitted sleeve anyway as it sticks to her tiny figure.


3. I think there will be some kind of embellishment on the dress, only very delicate and still very classy, but maybe crystals or stones of some description to add the princess touch. And if not crystals the dress will be embellished with some form of delicate embroidery or added texture or flowers into the fabric, this would especially be typical of a Mcqueen design.


4. Kate's hair will definitely be worn down and I think kept to her usual gentle curls. Especially after the comments made to her hairdresser, that she wanted William to still recognise her at the end of the aisle. She'll also be wearing some ind of crown/tiara , I think it will be a little for subtle and less heavy than the one worn my Diana though.


5. My final prediction is on the shape of Kates dress, I really do think she is going to go for something alot more slimline than expected from a royal wedding dress, I still think it will have some volume in the skirt (epically if it is McQueen) however no way near as big as that worn by Princess Diana, I'm also not 100% on if she will have a full veil as I don't know how this would suit Kate's style.

Thursday 28 April 2011

Sarah Burton

Looks like I may well be right !!!
Sarah Burton has just been seen leaving The Goring Hotel, where Kate Middleton is staying tonight !!!


So is Miss Middleton wearing a Mcqueen ! And even more excitingly is it a new design by Burton or could it be a vintage Mcqueen dress or even one taken from an old sketch.

Alexander Mcqueen had got connections with the Royal Family, apart from being awarded an CBE by the Queen he was famous for sewing rude messages in to Prince Charles' Jacket.



The Royal Countdown

In about 12 hours Kate Middleton will be on her way to Westminster Abbey to marry Prince William ... And I'am stupidly excited !


My last on post about the Royal Wedding was totally college related, however this is just me getting into the spirits of things before tomorrows Pimms-fest !

More than anything I can not wait to see Kate's dress, after all the rumours I really do hope it is a Sarah Burton design, as the wedding collection she has previously shown was beautiful. It would also mean giving a new quirky look to a Royal wedding dress.



The only thing that makes me doubt the rumours how simplistic and elegant Kate Middletons style has aways been in her Issa engagement dress and Amanda Wakeley suits.And that the quirkiness of the Burton designs are too out there for Kate. She has been noted for saying that she wants William to recognise its her at the end of the aisle, and therefore will she stick to a dress for fitted to her elegant sophisticated style.

What I am sure of, is the dress will be beautiful and look amazing on Kate ... I think she could probably make a bin bag work, as she is obviously just very naturally beautiful and has such a elegant and svelte figure.
I will be up at 6am in the morning, for the very start of the coverage, and by the time Kate Middleton emerges at Westminster Abbey at 11am I will be at my friend Julie's Royal Garden Party watching in awe as she walks down the aisle ... I hope her heels are a little higher than usual ...maybe Bridal Louboutins ???

Monday 18 April 2011

Solving my dress dilema.

A few weeks ago, I asked for some help finding a dress for one of my best friends 40th birthday bash. After no help what so ever i managed to find the perfect one ... Thank god I shop a lot !
Again it was a French Connection which seems to be a major trend running through my wardrobe. For £135 I found this Tunic dress with gold embroidery. It's also an off white colour which is one of the main colours for spring/summer. I love french connection dresses as they always seem to fit so well and always come to a perfect length. This one was a little see-through though and therefor had to be worn with a white silk slip underneath, but looked great with mink/bronze heels and off white and gold jewelery.
However as the zip goes from neck to bottom of the spine its not the easiest think to get off after 1o or more drinks !

Although I didn't get a good full length photo here are two to try and show the colour and style a little better.

Julies Birthday dress got top marks though as I mistook it for a McQueen or Lacroix, she actually found it in a designer boutique on The Wirral and obviously teaming it with her fabulous nude Louboutins made it look even more glam. Again it was an off white colour with light gold lace Croatia .... we obviously have fabulous taste in dress colours ;)

Then came the celebrity guests ... Olivia Newton John and John Travolta ... otherwise known as Julie and John. who surprised all their guests with a routine to "your the one that i want" from Grease. Their costumes were particularly good, however Julies Kate Cuba shoes were alot nicer than Newton-Johns.


So all in all if Kate Middleton wants her wedding to be the event of April if not the year, shes got some serious work to do !

Sunday 3 April 2011

The Royal Wedding

I am one of the sad ones who is getting rather excited about the royal wedding, with only 25 days left to go.
In our current brief we are asked to look at how events and cultures can influence fashion and the way it is communicated, and I thing The Royal Wedding is a great way to demonstrate this.

Everybody is taking advantage to cash in on The Royal Wedding, from Fashion Designers, foods brands, interiors (my mother included) and even toy makers !!!

This Happy-Land figurine set even includes a Corgi ! Its on my little sisters Easter list too !
I also was very impressed by the Royal Wedding theme running throughout Marks&Spencer this afternoon. With royal cushions, right the way through to egg cups and crown printed guest towels !!
The one Royal item I came across to really make me chuckle was from TopShop ...
Royal Knickers !!! I'm sure HRM will be sporting these under her Hermes suit !
My final royal finds are from Harvey Nichols, we have cakes, cups, biscuits, coasters and even tea bags ! As well as a special Royal Wedding themed Afternoon Tea is the restaurant.
My Favorite is the Keep Carm and Marry on Biscuit. The Keep Carm brand have become immensely popular over the last year, and I think its great to see they are even joining in on the royal action.
I'm looking forward to seeing Vogue magazine later in the week to see if they are also working with the royal theme as well as seeing if any shop windows get a royal makeover.

Friday 1 April 2011

Branding in Music Videos

Using branding in music videos has been a popular topic in the news recently, as apparently there is too much of it and it takes the attention away from the music you are meant to be listening too.

I decided to go way back to 1966, and look at a Frank Sinatra "fly me to the moon" video ( guilty pleasure) . Music videos then were very low key, and usually just consisted of a filming from a live recording or simple studio recording. No dancing around, or strobe lighting and not a brand name in site.


Compared to this I looked at Jennifer Lopez' new music video for "get on the floor". Which within the first thirty seconds of the video we get to brands clearly shown. I have snap-shot these to show how clearly obvious the brands are made to stand out.

By comparing the two music videos with over a 40 year time diffrence between, it is obvious how music videos are used in modern day. In the sixties they were used to promote the music and artist alone, however now with the rise of celebrity, music videos by big artists are used to promote as many brands as possible. This is because if a fan is made to think that the celebrity uses a certain brand, they will be enticed to purchase.

I wonder how Swarovski have done with takings this mothers day !!!

Monday 28 March 2011

A desperate plea to anyone that reads my blog !!!

It's not often I have problems when it comes to shopping ... HOWEVER, the high street aren't doing me justice this season !!!

I have one of my best friends birthdays coming up and have been searching for a dress every lunch break possible, working in Manchester you would think I'd of found half a dozen by now, but the only dress I've seen is £125 !!! and thats before matching shoes and clutch bag !

Everything is in awful colours, cheap fabrics and lazy embellishment especially Topshop, River Island and Lipsy. So this is my last ditch attempt for help.

My usual style is quite structured, neutral colours and preferable short and nipped at the waste. It's a style I'am sticking with as I feel it suits my shape and me as a person best. I'm looking to spend no more than £70 so anyone that can help I would be sooooooo grateful.

Here are some pictures of my favourite dresses, to give a better idea of the style I'm looking for !!!



Tuesday 22 March 2011

Dress full of flowers

After my first experiments on photo-shop yesterday to make my bouquet surrealism pieces, I have continued this evening to create two more.

I think these illustrations work really well with black and white images as it really makes the floral detail stand out. Compared to the last two samples, I have used more posed models to try and create a more realistic image. This makes it slightly more difficult as I have to shape the image so it doesn't look as though the image is just copy and pasted together



In my opinion the above has worked particularly well as the background of the image makes a much more interesting image. I think to improve further I should try adding font and maybe printing out and adding more media, possibly embroidery.

Monday 21 March 2011

My Mums favourite piece of my work !?!

Slightly strange post, but these photo-shop pieces are the result of my research into Salvador Dali. He is famous for his surrealism style of art work. Surrealism art uses the element of surprise, with objects in the wrong places or being used in the wrong way.


Using photo-shop I have created my own kind of surrealism art inspired by Dali but in a more modern way.

I got my idea from my Mums floristry magazines, as they always contain really big colourful hand-ties. This is ideally how my collection will look, therefore I have combined fashion photography with full photographs of bouquets. By cropping resizing and using the lasso tool I have been able to keep the shapes and use them to look like real garments.


The element of surprise is that when you look at the image you are able to see the model is actually wearing the hand-tie.
This is my favourite piece of work I'm yet to create using photo-shop, I believe it's worked really well. I am thinking of using this technique for one of my promotional boards for my current brief.
My mum especially likes these images and has agreed to make me up some hand-ties in my specific colour scheme, to create more of these images.Check Spelling