I have almost finished my shirt toile that is in for next Wednesday as part of "Research Practises" all I have to do is finish up the sleeves cuff. I am really pleased with how the shirt has turned out overall, apart from the buttons, which aren't quite central (thanks to Adrian). And with a bit more time I would have made it all a bit more precise.











I came up with the idea for the shirt whilst researching culture, I liked the idea of working with origami, which inspired me to design a shirt with a hint of Japan, and also a hint of me the designer. I like to use seams to create direction in my work, and shape.

Follow On!

Below is a photo I had taken of me wearing the shorts I made, I wanted to use this photo as part of my CV.
Theres a number of photos front and back of the shorts. So far my greatest achievment.

Over the past year I have become much more confident in my ability to design and make from scratch, developing my own pattern's from simple blocks and understanding how garments work. I would definately prefer to work in menswear in the future, with the potential to work on womenswear.

Extra Bits!

I haven't shown that many images of my work in some post's so I'm going to display a collection of them here.

Below is a page from "Application of Design" the project I ended up making a pair of shorts. This image is one I drew as part of research and I focused on interesting trousers and shorts from high-street shops for inspiration, before designing myself. My designs can be seen to the right.

More Catching Up!

I'm going to upload a number of my photos from the design work I did as part of "Applied Fashion Design" The mood board we came up with and put together as a group, which was used to inspire our own personal work.We had to design 6 outfits each for this brief so 30 outfits (range layout) within the group and take our 3 favourites from each to create an illustration from.
I found working as part of a team quite different but it is something I would definitely be comfortable doing again, as I feel the way our team worked together, we communicated between each other, bounced ideas off each other and came up with a strong collection by the end.

This experience overall has helped me personally and given me more of an insight into how the fashion world works.

Now that it's so close to summer, I am finding it hard to concentrate on the work I have got left to do, as it seems that this year has gone on forever, with project after project..........
I am excited for next year to actually get on with making a collection of my own, the downside being all the work prior to that, research etc... Also the 6000-8000 word dissertation that is no dout going to take up a lot of my time.

Still Catching Up!!!

Been through a number of projects that I haven't mentioned on here. "Applied Fashion Design" and Application of Design" before that, and I am in the process of "Research Practised" which is handed in next week. So coming up to the end of my 2nd year and the project I have enjoyed the most as well as achieved the highest mark is "Application of Design". I designed and created a pair of menswear shorts, this was the first time I have ever made anything ready-to-wear, and they did fit me for a bit, but it seems I may have lost a bit of weight, so now they fall down! When I get a bit of time I am going to either put some elastic in the waistband or put belt loops on them. I have used a picture of me in the shorts as a background for me CV.

"Applied Fashion Design" was the project we had before the Easter holiday's, a group design project. We went on a day trip to Manchester in the first week of this project. The aim of this trip was to see first hand the brand we had chosen to design for. Ours being MARC BY MARC JACOBS, I was in a group with Jennifer, Rose, Vanessa and Amelia. We met up briefly on the day to compare notes and discuss what we were looking for. Rose and myself were designing for menswear so we had a look around at the diffusion ranges for some other brands, like Paul Smith, Hugo Boss to name a few. I managed to take quite a few photos in the store which helped the group when we were thinking about layout for our presentation and other little details.

Catch Up!

I haven't posted anything for a long time now, mainly due to time, and a bad memory. Since my last post a lot had happened, PPD2 has nearly finished, Theoretical and Contextual Studies is all handed in and marked (could have done a bit better with it) started looking into dissertation for next year, got to have it planned by the end of term. Think I may follow on from my essay, goin into everything in more detail. Enterprise and Innovation had been completed and I had a presentation with Angie, which left me realising I hadn't followed the bried correctly.
I lost track of the whole idea behind the "£10 business" and put in more money to start with. I could have comfortably made a similar amount of profit if I had followed the brief as my business idea has been a great success.
A lot of time and effort has been put in to finding a work placement, which was supposed to happen in the first 2 weeks of June. Along with most people on my course I am yet to find something, so I am looking to do something in the Summer. I'm looking for either a styling placement, a design assistant placement which would allow me to get involved in the making side, or something with a magazine. So far I have only had one interview with a designer called Charlie Le Mindu, "www.charlielemindu.com" I've uploaded a photo of him to the right. He is a designer from a hair stylist background, if you look on his website which I have quoted above you can see the kind of stuff he does, a lot of millenery. It's not something I would usually be interested in, but I felt it would give me a great insight into a small up and coming designer.

Nearly Christmas!

Since my last post, which seems a while ago now, quite a bit has happened. Started our second project and its a week till deadline for that, which has been interesting but also fairly difficult.

Tailoring Processes. We had to visit the "Heroes and Heroines" exhibition at Leeds City Museum as well as produce a shop report focussing on tailored garments, so I looked at Paul Smith, and all the different jackets and blazers that include interesting and quircky details that I felt could help influence me when it came to me designing my own jacket. We went on a class trip to the West-Yorkshire Playhouse where we looked at all the costumes they hold in their costume department, we were given the chance to wonder round try on some garments as well as draw and photo them. I didn't really enjoy this and found it hard to motivate myself to get on with it. I've stuggled with all the hand sewing that was needed to produce each of the samples that where essential as to submission for deadline.

Business and Enterprise. Another ongoing project we've been working on is "the £10 business" that we are supposed to be starting even in a group or alone. Again I've had no motivation towards this, and have so far just come up with a few ideas for a business. More importantly to me is getting a part-time job, as I think after christmas the money struggle will begin. Having spent too much over the festive period.
In our PPD we've been looking at our CV's and discussing work placements for next year, aiming as high as possible like Paul has urged us. Ideally I'd love to find a placement working in a big store where it gives me the chance to mix with other fashionistas and get my name out there. A job styling would be great although my self confidence may need improving on for that to happen.