Deadline Day.

Yesterday was the deadline for our Little Black Dress making project. Overall, I am really pleased with the way my dress turned out. I feel my sewing skills have definitely developed from first year.
Here are some images of my final dress.

Making the Ultimate LBD

 Make corset pieces in lining fabric

 Cut out in grey viscose

 Cut out in fusing

 Cut out lace

 Attach fusing to the back of the grey viscose

 Cut out pieces for the skirt part in organza, black stretch and lining

 Use black boning and attach to lining.

 Sew together corset pieces

 Use ruching machine to gather organza for the bustle

 Sew together the layers of organza

 Trim final edge with lace trim

 Use black ribbon binding to cover stitch tracks on other layer joins

Bonny Scotland.

At the weekend, I travelled to Edinburgh for an open day at Edinburgh College of Art. I was abit disappointed in the way I wasn't given a proper tour of the campus and was just pointed into the direction of the Fashion department. I didn't get to look around any of the rooms in the department as there were no members of staff or students to ask questions to or talk to. At first, I thought the Fashion programme sounded interesting and had elements such as, working with a student from another students, which made it sound different to other courses I'd looked at. This has made me re-consider my application.
Despite this, I spent the rest of the weekend exploring the city and doing abit of shopping. Here are some of the photographs from my trip.

 Prince's Street

 Edinburgh Castle

With Braveheart :)

"One is never over-dressed or underdressed with a Little Black Dress"

Tomorrow is the deadline for our research and portfolios from our Little Black Dress project.
Overall, I was very happy with the way my portfolio and sketchbook came out. I feel they were the best representation of my research.

"Scheherezade is easy; a little black dress is difficult"

While researching The Little Black Dress, I discovered that Chanel's Autumn/Winter 2011 Collection was all about the colour, black. I have selected three of my favourite images from the catwalk.

I found the images from a Google search. I really like the ruffles and silhouettes of these dresses.

Black dress to a white wedding.

The summer project arrived this week. I was so excited to get started while reading through the brief. I've been asked to design the perfect LITTLE BLACK DRESS.
By doing this, I have been asked to research the following:

• What is Haute Couture?
• What is Pret a Porter?
• The origins of the Little Black Dress
• What trends will influence your LBD?

I then need to think of a theme and design and develop a range of designs that best reflect that theme.

To start, I visited my massive collection of fashion magazines (Vogue, Elle and Harper's Bazaar) By looking through them, I noticed a lot of underwear as outerwear. I then thought about how to make this feminine and outstanding. This was when I chose my theme, Burlesque. From this, I searched images on the internet to get a general idea for each point of research. I will then gather it all together and start to put together my sketchbook.

AD101 Deadline.

Today was the deadline for this blog. I have really enjoyed updating this with my work and things that interest me. Because of this, I intend on continuing with uploading pictures and videos which inspire me as well as updates on how my work is going.

Nude.

I recently signed up to Polyvore but didn't really know how to use it. This morning I was playing around with some of the templates and features and created this set. I really like the feminine tones I've used. Not only will I be using these neutral colours as part of AD109 but these are the tones that I have been wearing this spring as well as accessorising with gold jewellery.

The Rosa Collection.

This is my first idea for my collection logo. The idea is that the 'Zelleri' stays the same for each individual collection but the collection name changes. As I've chosen to use roses as my inspiration, I have been thinking of collection names which link to this. I had thought of 'rosebud' but thought that would be a little childish. I will continue to develop the name 'Rosa' as  I'm not 100% happy with that. Although I do like the colours I've used. 

(Image from Google: Pink roses)

The secret garden.

I feel these two images help explain the theme of our brand. I love the innocence of the first picture and the use of white flowers and I love to colours in the second image. These are the colours that was selected as our main colour palette for each collection as we chose to make them soft and feminine for the summer. The first image was found on Google and the second was found on Deviantart.

Second meeting with Colin.

Today, Colin Reid came back into college to catch up with each group and to see how we were tackling the project.
He really liked our ideas that we shared with him and could see that we had developed a focused brand. He suggested a few things that we could do to improve our work such as making our colour boards more 3D and work into them with things like ribbon, thread, lace and fabrics.
Colin also liked the idea that each member was creating a different collection and how we would be using the same logo but modifying each one to link into our separate collections.
He also suggested we look into nature related things such as 'secret gardens' which he thought would link nicely with our colour palette. We agreed this would be a good idea.

You're the closest to heaven that I'll ever be.

This is a photo I took while in Jesmond Dene today. I really liked the soft pink colours as they are the colours I intend on using for my branding project. However, I will not be using this flower for my inspiration. I have chosen to use roses as they can help represent a feminine range.

Nature Unleashed.

This is a copy of our companies mission statement:

"Zelleri is a unique and luxurious collection of garments with an earthy twist. We provide six key collections every season that are sure to attract the sophisticated woman willing to make a statement. Inspired by nature’s most empowering features, each collection combines the classic look with unusual statement pieces. With each range there is a limited edition infusion for those moments of indulgence.

At Zelleri, we believe it’s all about style, not age

Price range: 
Dresses 120.00 – 325.00
Swim wear/ Lingerie 85.00 – 250.00
Skirts/Trousers95.00 - 190.00
Coats/ Jackets125.00 550.00
Accessories 40.00 – 150.00                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

Theme: Soft, feminine and elegant with an earthy twist. This collection will include natural tones and may introduce floral prints as interlining.                                                                                                                                                   


Zelleri: Nature Unleashed."

Zelleri: Nature Unleashed.

In our groups this week, the tasks were to come up with a name for our brand as well as write a mission statement.
As a group, we chose nature as our main inspiration for our brand. Tara came up with the idea of finding a name of a wild flower or mushroom, so we went to the library and did some research. This was where we found the name 'Zelleri' which is a type of mushroom.
The next task was to start deciding what the purpose of our brand would be and what it would have to offer. We started by making a rough outline of our mission statement which included what we were inspired by, where we would fall in the current market and what our price points would be. 
From this, we also chose who our competitors would be. We chose All Saints, Ted Baker and Religion. This next task would be to research these companies and create shop report boards for them.

Alexander the Great.

 Spring/Summer 2007

I absolutely love this collection by the late Alexander McQueen. I recently discovered it as I was searching for fashion linked to nature on Google, for my branding project and immediately fell in love with it. I love the unusual shapes of the dresses and the accessorising with roses.

Spring/Summer 2010

I first found out about this collection in the video for Lady Gaga's 'Bad Romance' video where she is wearing one of the garments as well as the uniquely shaped armadillo shoes. At first I thought the shoes had been designed just for the video until I searched for McQueen's new collection on Google. Once again, he amazed me with the structure of the garments.

You give me that hummingbird heartbeat.

Last night, I went to the Metro Radio Arena to see Katy Perry. As I was expecting, she had some of the most usual outfits, but I didn't expect there to be 16 costume changes, where each costume was even more elaborate than the previous.
Here are some of my photographs from last night of the costumes and the set.

This was the encore costume. It is hard to make out what it actually looks like since I had to zoom in quite far, so I found an image on Google to show how amazing this final outfit was.

Walk, walk fashion baby.

Yesterday, Colin Reid came into college to start us off on a new brief involving branding. He spoke to the group for roughly an hour and a half sharing his experiences in the fashion industry. I really enjoyed hearing about the people he had worked with such as Donna Karan, Calvin Klein, Nautica and Pringle. Colin also mentioned that he was part of the creation and development of the famous 'CK' logo for Calvin Klein.
As part of the new brief, we have been asked to work as a group to design and develop our own brand. We will need to come up with a brand name, mission statement and customer profile. I am looking forward to starting this project as I feel it would be a different experience working as part of a team instead of just working independently.

I just want to bring you down.

Here is a photo of my final shirt. I was really pleased with the end result and I am proud of the development of my skills in pattern cutting a sewing throughout this project. I now feel much more confident on a sewing machine with only having very little experience in the past.

AD108 deadline.

Today was the deadline for the Phaze Steampunk shirts. A representative from Phaze came into college to look over the work and portfolios. We rearranged the studio so that all the shirts were in the centre of the room and all the portfolios were set out on the tables. One of the main things she said about the shirts was the range of diversity. Personally I thought the range worked well as it showed how each student had taken in their research an applied to their design. 
For my shirt, she commented on how simple it was and how it would be something which would more likely be mass produced. She did criticise my use of silver studs on the shoulders and asked why I'd chosen to use that particular colour. I explained that I felt if I'd used brass coloured studs, it wouldn't have linked in with the purple and black. Despite this though, I did appreciate the feedback and hopefully it will help me in the future to develop on my ideas instead of creating simple designs.

Once upon a dream.

From my Alice in Wonderland project, I became a fan of the photography work of  Annie Leibovitz. When I found out that she's created a series of photographs which represented celebrities as Disney characters, I had to find them. This is one of my favourites featuring Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens as Aurora and Prince Phillip from Sleeping Beauty. I love the soft tones and costumes.


Here is a link to the website where I found this image as well as the rest of the photo shoots.
http://www.insidethemagic.net/2011/03/photo-archive-latest-in-the-annie-leibovitz-disney-dream-portrait-series-capturing-celebrities-as-colorful-disney-characters/

Lasso of Truth.

I love anything to do with superheroes, mainly DC Comics. I found out that MAC makeup were doing a range based on Wonder Woman and thought I had to get the whole range. My sister bought me the 'Russian Red' lipstick when she was visiting a friend in London. I then treated myself to the 'Mighty Aphrodite' powder blush and 'Rapid Black' eye liner pen, both of them I use everyday.
(The image is one of the promotion posters which I found on Google.)

Chanel Winter Collection.

I found this video while searching on Youtube for catwalk shows. This one, in particular, caught my eye because of the use of real icebergs. I loved this idea as it creates an atmosphere as it would have had to be cold to keep them from melting. I liked this as it linked in very well with the season which the collection was for.

'A Dream of a Dress'

This is an image which I found on Tumblr. I really like the darkness of the image and the elegance of the dresses. To me this image represents the 'Victorian' side to the Steampunk culture.

You are the only exception.

I like anything to do with sailors and pirates, basically anything nautical, and when I saw this image of Hayley Williams from Paramore, I immediately fell in love with it. I love her 50's pin-ups styling. I found this image on Tumblr.com.

Time for round two.

Here are the front and back view of my second and final toile. From this, I will now be creating my actual shirt. I will be using black cotton for the main body and purple satin viscose for the shoulders. I am looking forward to next week where I can start cutting out my final shirt. However, I do feel as though it needs taken in a bit more so it's even more fitted.

Isolation, brings you to the end.

This image is of my first toile. From this I now need to create another as I have made some changes to my design. Instead of having a side zip and fastening at the yoke, I will now be putting in a hidden zip down the back. I will also be making my design a lot more fitted to give my shirt more shape and to represent the Steampunk style. 

Cassandra Rhodin.

I stumbled upon them while researching for a project on my previous course. When I first saw Cassandra Rhodin's fashion illustrations I immediately wanted to learn to draw like her. Her drawings are so pretty and inspiring. I'm going to try to learn myself drawing like she does. I have a long way to go before I can do this, but I'm willing to take that effort.

 (http://alexdoesfashion.com/blog/tag/illustration/)

(http://www.123people.com/s/cassandra+rhodin)

I like the small hints of colour in this one. I feel as though using little colour helps these images stand out as the main focus becomes the actual illustration and not the application of colour. 

You think I'm pretty without any make-up on.

I love Katy Perry. I love her style, care-free attitude and most of all her music. I can't wait to see her live in April. I can only imagine what her costumes are going to be like.
(Image from : http://www.onthesnow.co.uk/photo_guide.html?id=4049513731&text=music)