When The Day Met the Night

I was sat with my flatmate Sophie today and we were sitting there seeing the end of first year fast approaching and it seems almost unfathomable to think we could of made a home in less than a year and yet it is a home, it has been for a year and it will be for the next two years. I feel like ive met so many people and ive learnt lessons that im probarbly not even aware of yet but theyve impacted me and made me grow up. I find it hard to sit here and say like many university students that uni is the best thing, i think for many this is true but for me I came to university to study fashion and thats the only reason, I wanted to move away from my family and i needed a new place to live but i didn't come to uni like many for the 'lifestyle', not to say i dontt enjoy it i'd be lying to say i didnt theres many days with many memories that i wouldnt swap i just want to keep moving, i want to keep learning i dont want to 'sleep all day and party all night' i want to have fun in the evenings and during the day i want to succeed, i want to push myself and i want to proove myself, so that when i move through uni and i come to the day where i start to push my way into work i am just continuing doing what ive always done, trying to make something of myself, making friends on the way and doing something im passionate about and sleeping wherever i may rest my head that night depending where fashion takes me, i hope always with a few close people near by. This year the course has taught be many things, its showed me i need to sit up and take note that there are hundreds of fashion students just in this country and everyone is different and everyone is a talent in someones eyes just maybe not the ones that are looking at you at the moment. I've learnt i need to wake up early and start making something of every day and making something in every day, last year at Leeds i forgot what it was like to work hard at something and this year i think ive struggled to get back into it i feel like i am now, but i feel i need to push myself harder next year. Ive learnt that I need to get work experience and start becoming an adult and actually doing something because i want to not because im told to. Ive really enjoyed writing this blog it helps to write everything down and even when your feeling down about something to force yourself to see a positive in a situation, im going to look at starting a blog seperate from this but to keep a record of everything thats going on, so much can happen in a year, this time a year ago i was studying at Leeds University, now im studying at Coventry University! who knows maybe next year ill be a worldwide famous fashion designer.... or maybe ill just settle for making it through to a second year at uni..

So have a nice day

Final Toile!

Today i finished making my toile, yesterday i managed to wait out in the lasercutting room until i got my final piece cut and today i sewed it into place, to begin with i also sewed the front two pieces that you can see leading off of the eye socket together so they crossed at a point making a v shape however i felt this looked awkward and dropped easily not holding its shape so i roughly cut them to form a straight point making the neckline more rounded. When i went to get my toile approved Angela said that i needed to make the shoulders fit more to the body and to curve them slightly which i roughly sewed in and i liked how the pieces then sat better. On my final illustrator pieces i decided to draw this curved shape into the skull so as to avoid having a bulk of fabric at the seam like in this practise one and i also shortened the cross over section and drew the end line at a 90 degree angle so when sewn together itll sit flatter than in my toile ! i was so happy today as i again sat in the lasercutting room for hours but i managed to get all my final fabric cut out, in illustrator i also made a pattern for the black skull block shape that goes underneath to get an accurate shape to sew onto with much neater edges and so tomorrow i begin sonic welding !! Im so excited to finalise my garment and see what ive been working towards, im upset i dont have time to make the skirt to go with it but i have decided i will make it over easter, a plain black maxi skirt made from black cotton cut up from the front like my original design but without obviously the lasercutting so that i can style the skull top appropriately for the photoshoot and so it will be what i envisaged !! I think i can honestly say this lasercutting project has taught me that as awful as it sounds you do have to look after yourself for these projects, you need to make sure your work gets finished above and beyond everyone elses because its your grade that matters, and if it means making sure you go first on a lasercutter than so be it. Its cliche to say but it is a dog eat dog world out there and also im glad in the first year we're learning how crazy it gets trying to use facilities as i think its useful to be aware of how to work under pressure as the industry we've picked to work in and the next two years are going to be even more crazy than first year but i think the end result of the projects is always worth the stress throughout, theres nothing like seeing something that is completely your own.

Yesterday i started sewing the calico pieces of my toile i had cut out 3 pieces on the lasercutter the day before and at this point i was still waiting to get back on the lasercutter to cut my final piece. I sewed the overlay pattern onto a basic shape of the skull which when actually made will be black peering through white.

i want to write one of those final statements for this blog so itll be handed in and ill say bye to this 'project' but i dont really feel like doing that tonight i have thousands more things i want to write in here and i still have a day left so i guess this is the pneultimate goodbye. Universitys getting more and more stressful, i find myself being rude and bitchy to people when i should refrain, everything just becomes a battle when you get into the studios, a battle to make progress that day. Even when i come home it doesnt end, i have my italian exam tomorrow and i need to learn how to speak it, i currently know 'ciao mi chiamo paige ho venti anni' i already know this will barely get me one mark and yet i cant motivate myself today, i guess everyones allowed one day where they just cant be positive but the days this happen always seem to be the most inconvenient, if only you could plan when you'd feel like stopping the time and just taking a few hours out and away from everyone and everything, i just want time to myself. I dont want time to myself at uni, or at home or at any of the homes of others i try to fit into, i honestly just want to go find a little house by the seaside with no computer, no tv, no one i know and grab a good book and bake and sew and knit and sit down and enjoy music ! not trying to cram these things into my life or being made to them but to take some time, i wont be greedy one day and one night will do just to get off this mad journey ive been on for years, constantly moving from house to house from home to home, first im in empingham, then i travel backwards and forwards from there to oakham and then i go to leeds and travel far and wide to leicester, to london, back home anywhere to get away and then back to coventry to leicester to coventry to leicester to oakham. Its just tiring and tonight i got a harsh reminding of my family and what kind of family i have and it spent my mood spiralling into this blog post and its now 22.43 and i need to revise italian.

The Trend Boutique The Wisdom Age

(Conference Notes..)


'The wisdom age.
-In an era of extreme sudden change
-Came through a decade of financial uncertainty- decade of unprecedented change, idea of next great depression, bankers
-Economic perspective- confidence at an all time low
-Successful business how to analyse/insight of the basis of what people need
-'The ignorance of crowds'- may begin to see privacy as a barrier to efficient shopping and socialising- that would be tragedy
-Status/twitter- say what your thinking/where this idea of privacy is being outmoded

10 years.10 trends.
DIY culture- Do it yourself.
Consumerism and humanerism
Citizen brands- brands social and ethical values
Social corporates will create new direction.

Hit and Miss

Primark
Product 6 Primarks 'love to party' collection for the christmas season is made up of a collection of outfits for its wide range of customers, snow white sheer blouseswith assymetrical drapery and nipped in sleeves boast elegant button detail at the shoulder, tunics are simple in shape but come in bright festive crimson reds and burnt oranges with heavy gold and silver embellishment adorning the necklines whilst kneeskimming bodice hugging dresses show off a iridescent colour palette with teasings of metallic catching in the light and sheer fabric contrasting with the woollen shift dresses and cardigans that come in vibrant peaches and greens.
Experience 7 The window displays lure you in cleverely showing off all the fashion retailing awards they have won in 2011 but the brightly coloured outfits are easily missed as the prices are more of the focus, leaving you often wondering while in primark how much has been compromised within a garment to make it such apparent 'value for money'. the store itself was surprisingly tidy with the first half of the store consisiting of 'winter warmers' and 'love to party', making it easy to find what you were looking for, many of the sections also had matching accessories making your shopping time in there even less and the experience even easier.
Value 5 Primarks main marketing appeal and what makes it 'the fashion store' for such a wide range of customers is because of its apparent value for money, and while i cant debate this point over the basics range they have instore, when it comes to looking at their 'love to party' collection as value for money i cant help but debate this idea. For the younger target market gold and cream dresses with ruffle detail and slight pufball skirts are priced at £15 but with such scratchy slippery material (100%poly), loose threads and badly sewn in details and even when styled on the mannequins an extremely bad fit, these disappointments in the quality of the garment begin to show up everywhere you look; harsh chunky silver hook and eyes down the front of a beautiful teal bolero (£10) and silver thread adding a cheap quality to otherwise beautiful heavy fully lined woollen dresses (£15) really show that by not thinking about the smaller details (or in some cases thinking too much about them) they are slowly driving customers into other shops, where an outfit for christmas can be bought for about the same price but will still be of good enough quality to get out time and time again, i wonder whether the same can be said for those garments sitting in primark this winter.

Newlook                                                                                          
Product 6 Sequins, lace, velvet and embroidery all fight for you attention as you first walk into the store. Skirts and dresses come in different texturised velvets, metallics, rich purples and royal blues. Pussy bow collars, sheer fabrics, heavily embellished 'flappers' style tops and sequinned dresses are all beautifully displayed alongside more wearable products, leggings that come in velvets lace and sequins and shift dresses that are simple in shape with beautiful gold and black embroidered lace and sheer slightly gathered skirts.
Experience 7 The window displays at new looks coventry store do not do the products inside any justice, the outfits on show look cheap and tacky with a large section of the display being given to a huge range of metallic clutches being hung on 'invisible' string, so it is a pleasant surprise as you walk into the store and are straight into the 'christmas' collection. Textures and prints are contrasted together to make it a visually exciting experience to start looking at what new look has on offer, '30% off' signs scream at you from almost every rail making it hard sometimes to get a look at anything with so many excited shoppers ripping things of off the hangers, im glad i went shopping here on tuesday and not on a saturday as i feel that such offers wouldnt of been quite as pleasant on such a shopping day so close to christmas.
Value 6 New look is definetely a store that is beginning to seriously compete with 'higher end' stores like topshop and riverisland, but with prices going up they seem to nearly always have to be having a range of discounts in store to make these clothes that arent as good quality as the former stores mentioned affordable to their target market. A heavy fully lined silver sequin dress retails at £39.99 but so many sequins are already missing and the sheer heaviness of all this detail giving you a less than flattering silhouette. Velvet dresses (£) are lovely in the rich royal blues and purples but the gold metallic one scratches at you, compare this to the exact same one in topshop that is beautiful next to your skin and is £32 i know where i would rather go. However Newlook do offer beautiful embroidered tops and lace dresses, simple in shape, fully lined and with gold and black lace accenting the blue/black colours and costing £24.99 i almost nearly bought this for myself.

Topshop
Product 8Topshop is the high street store that epitomises 'British fashion' and its christmas collection fights with the slight tackiness of metallics and sequins seen in other stores with no detail being too small enough, and the results are a collection that cannot be beaten on the highstreet. Black sequin jackets are paired with black and white playsuits with lace collars contrasting the heavily structured fabric, soft cream jumpers with gold beaded embroidered swallowss can be contrasted with a black velvet polka dot devore effect skirt to create outfits that are so beautifully styled on the mannequins as an alternative look, challenging the more typical party dresses of other stores.
Experience 4 The Topshop store in coventry is very small and as you look round the collection you are watched by all the shop assistants that boast effortless style and 'cool', they are more than offputting in my case they were rude, wanting to know anything about a collection they will not comment on in fear of you being a worker of one of there rival stores, coming in to steal there ideas. hearing my friend comment how they had moved their jewellery section they immediately accused us of such and then proceeded to follow us all round the store, although i think there clothes are beautiful as are the window displays and the inside of the store (with giftcards being hung off little white wooden trees) i would think twice before returning there.
Value 8 Although Topshop is in a completely different price range compared to primark/newlook with dresses for the christmas season retailing upwards of £32  (for a gold velvet 'flippy dress') the quality is amazing and as is the style of the clothes, when your shopping in topshop you are paying not only for the clothes but also nowadays the topshop label, which gives you basically access to a style that has been made for you, making your wardrobe effortlessly chic. Black sequin jacket retails at £55 but with no visible flaws and much finer more thought out embellishment it is a nice alternative to the stereotypical 'sequin party dresses' and unlike them can also be worn all year long, making it perhaps better value for money, however you would still need a dress to wear under it..

'Money doesnt mind if we say its evil, it goes from strength to strength. Its a fiction, an addiction and a tacit conspiracy'

(Post Modernism V&A Notes..)

Klaus Nomi- an opera singer phenomenon in the underground scene performing alongside a drag queen transformed himself into something other worldly.

Cinzia Ruggeri A/W 1983-4 'Ziggurati-style dress'

Musicians/drag queens/party goers/nightclubs- 'Shimmering synthetic appearances that flaw their artificial origins'

Karole Armitage dubbed the 'Punk Ballerina' for her furious experimental music and classic technique. Fashion designers David Salle and Jeff Keons designed costumes.

The Trend Boutique- Key Issue in Industry.

(Conference notes..)

Austerity vs Luxury..
The end of 'era of mass consumption' and birth of the 'age of austerity'
The growing divide between the rich and the poor (squeezed middle sector, middle ground disappearing)
Both in the U.K and also globally.
Economics split traditional vs BRIC (Brazil, Russia, China)

Traditional..
little or no manufacturing , high level of debt, consumers need areas to buy.
BRIC..
restrained consumption, strong manufacturing bases or natural reserves, low debt, growing wealth (Russia, China ex communist countries)

Since the recession started to see changes in the rules
- ways we do business
- who we sell to
- a reassessment of what we have to offer as a country
- aesthetically design codes have also seen change

Key drivers
Current economic situation can be mapped out right back as far as the start of the industrial revolution  (1790's-1860's), even if we go back as far as the 40's (make do and  mend)

1940s..
-WWII
-Rationing, allotments and make do and mend
-Post war industrialisation
-High level of debt (to USA)
-High birth rate & introduction  of the baby boomer generation
-Introduction of welfare state (talking point at the moment)

1950s-70s..
-Post war economic boom went on until the 70's
-The advent of the teenager
-Popular culture-US
-Womens desire to work and have financial freedom- two income family
-Introduction of credit cards, cash machines and desire to run own home
-International travel

1980s..
-'Greed is Good'
-Tax cuts to wealthy and increase growth
-The de-industrialisation of the UK
-The yuppie (mobile phones, eating out)
-Period of Boom and Bust
-Civil unrest with riots, miners and strikes


1990s..
-Global monoculture
-Information age
-Personal electronics, mobile phones and video games
-utilitarian aesthetic
-24 hours & Sunday shopping
-Population growth through migration


2000's..
-High employment
-Growth in consumer debt (end of 90's had doubled from 80's)
-Cheap finance, property boom and equality release offers
-Conspicuous consumption- 'Bling' and 'IT' bags
-Throwaway fashion
-Continued rise & expansion of the supermarket

Recession in a time for stop and reflect- end of throwaway fashion/mass consumption
Rise in social media gave us a voice

-Value sector showing large growth
-Primark and Sainsburys grew their UK clothing sales by £1.1 billion and £0.46 billion respectively between 2000's and 2010
-Challenges within there too- wage inflation in China, increasing Cotton prices.


Heritage and craftsmanship- Mulberry, Vuittom
Eco luxury- Vivienne Westwood, Stella Mccartney & Lotus

New technologies in the luxury sector is often where fashion takes the lead-
-Social media (live tweets/feeds of show)
-Augmented reality
Ralph Lauren, Burberry, Prada and Chanel

Waiting Game

Whilst waiting to use the laser cutting machine i thought id get on and upload some photos from a website called 'lovely packages' which ive been looking through to gather research for my shoe project as we have to make a shoe box or our take on a shoe box for our olympian sandal ! I love all these ideas and how they look beyond the obvious meaning of a shoe 'box' and taking different objects from around us that are used for something quite obvious and then choosing to use them for something entirely different. Because these are look at taking very abstract things and turning them into packaging i realise this isnt entirely suitable for Liberty as they are a reputable traditional store that exists and is famous within its heritage and the old fashioned 'London Town' look and so I have begun to develop print ideas for a shoe drawstring bag that had a olympian pigeon/floral print all over it.

Where will I be?

By the time i finish my Fashion degree i hope like any other student to of gained a first and be well on my way to working through internships, apprenticeships and freelance work to get to London. My main aim is to do what I can to get all the experience i can and learn from others skills that arent taught in my degree so i can work in the fashion capital of London. Through the first section of this course i have begun to realise that i do enjoy the pattern/print/textile aspect of fashion alot more than garment construction itself and so when i leave university i hope to begin to specialise more into print for fashion, making garments much more about the aesthetics of new technlogy and pattern rather than just looking at the silhouette. I feel like when ive worked through a project specialising the story i have looked at into print then the silhouette comes naturally through this and i hope to be able to work in this way. In 10 years time I hope to of definetely made it to working in London if not living there but i dont want my life to only be about fashion i want to dedicate my life to the work i produce but i dont want to give up a sense of freedom to do that; i love fashion and i love art and being creative but i dont want to fall to the pressure like Galliano/Mcqueen did, and im not saying that i will ever get to that level of creative genius because i dont think thats what i want anymore, i want to be respected in my own right for producing something that hasnt been seen before and is innovative and something that is a force in pushing fashion into a different direction for the future. I think if my life was only about fashion i wouldnt be able to produce anything of worth, I am most inspired by the things around me, by other cultures and outlets into the arts and the people i choose to have in my life. I think the balance i want is unrealistic but in a sense of dreaming and hoping i hope my life works towards this point; however i know i need to really push myself more and more until i feel like im achieving something.

sweet dreams are made of this

A while back our class went on a trip to London to visit the V&A exhibition 'House of Annie Lennox'. Annie Lennox was the singer of a band called Eurythmics and had a very different style sometimes very androgynous that was in the late 80's/early 90's something to behold ! I was particularly excited for this exhibition as when i was a very tiny toddler me and my sisters have vivid memorys of dancing around in the living room with our mum listening to there albums, the eurythmics seemed to be the soundtrack to many a birthday party ! So excitedly i entered the little house in London, it was only made up of about two rooms and within the main room it had a little makeshift house in which sat a desk and original hand written lyrics to many of Eurythmics songs, it said that Annie Lennox would pay visits to this little house and sit in it and write during the time the exhibition was on, however unfortunately the day we went wasnt the day she decided to pay a visit ! there were like cube sections in the wall where you could put your head in and have surround sound of different songs she played and then if you looked down there were little teddy bear ears she wore and different shoes, it was very edgy and unique and suited Lennox down to the ground how it was set up ! There were about four our five outfits that were arranged on a stage against the wall, showing some that she had designed herself such as a british flag suit and then there were also dresses she had worn on tour. These shoes above i just had to take a photo of, i am a live long lover of Doc Martens (again all thanks to this goes to my mum who has had a pair constantly since she was my age) and when i saw these little leopard print (another love) pony hair Doc Marten shoes i loved them so much!! I enjoyed the exhibition so much, Fashion and music to me go hand in hand and i think this idea is always backed up just in realisation, we are creative beings and when someone has the confidance to get on stage they normally have a persona they take on- Elton John and his infamous glasses, Freddie Mercury and his all consuming stage presence that was reflected in the Glamour of his outfits, David Bowie.. the list goes on and on throughout the decades until you get to now where Lady Gaga, Take That, My Chemical Romance, throw as many genres of music as you want in there, everything is a show for them they wear there costumes and they become what we see, sometimes the visual becomes more important than the music or is it just that the music sounds better dressed up? or the costumes sound better with a soundtrack? What im trying to say is Fashion needs to stay intouch with music and street style and everything that goes on around is nobody in anything is one without the other, Annie Lennox's music would of still been amazing but had she not taken on a persona- her short cropped orange hair/her androgynous style/crazy music videos, she would not have the exhibition in the V&A she wouldnt be a personality to be remembered and maybe her music wouldnt be quite as legendary.

take my hand lets fly

Friday was me and Angie's day this week to work our four hours for Natasha our third year, we both got there about 10.30 and as Tasha didn't need us until after lunch we both concentrated on our own projects and the looming deadlines ! I went back up to illustrator and worked on my skull pattern, separating the individual shapes (that when on the laser cutter just fell through) and began to erase sections out of them so that the overall shape would be cut but there will be enough fabric in between so the shape doesn't fall through and its like it has been engraved ! I will be trying this out on Monday and hopefully will be able to put up some samples that have worked ! After lunch we met with Tasha and she gave us each jobs, because i had worked on illustrator previously she asked me to create a pattern on it like abstract heart shapes that repeated across a piece of fabric 1 metre by 1 metre. To do this I opened a new file and set the document size to 1 metre by 1 metre and then began to use the pencil tool to draw these shapes, i was entirely confident with what i was doing and when tasha came up she showed me how to use the pen tool to make neater shapes with more accurate curves and a much easier and less time consuming process which im really glad i was shown as it would of helped me alot when doing my skull ! But atleast i know it now for the future, she also showed me how to make sure each shape was 1inch big and then how to repeat it across the fabric quickly and then how to change the scale ! Pattern and print definetely interests me the most and i was glad i got given this job to do and then also how she came up and made sure i was doing okay ! As working with third years i was scared we would be left to get on with it then we came back and it was wrong theyd get angry!! Because Angie had worked with leather on her shoe as she's in the first shoe workshop she worked on putting a zip into a top, however it didnt go according to plan and so after Angies 3rd attempt Tasha let her go buy us all some drinks and we took a break which was really nice as we got to talk to Tasha about work experience opportunities and get more of an insight into how they work and the things we will learn and also the things we can learn off of them ! To begin with like many of my classmates we didnt want to help the third years as we have so many deadlines but im really enjoying it because theres so much we can learn its such a good opportunity ! After we had all taken a break i then helped Tasha cut out some pattern pieces and then took the pieces down and used the sonic welders to create a zig zag shape around the edges of the fabric, i was more than happy to do this job as i wanted more practise at using the sonic welders as im using them for my skull top and i worked with such concentration scared i would go wrong that i can definetely say i am good at it now ! After that it was time to leave for the day, knowing next week i am going to lasercut out the pattern i produced on illustrator when i lasercut my own and also that on wednesday tasha said she would help us out with an patterns we need to produce which i was so happy about as i am really struggling with the pattern making process ! It was so hot when i left the room i was walking outside in just a tshirt and shorts and with the clocks going back this weekend its the start of a beautiful few months regardless of the stress that will ensue.

you are my sunshine

On Friday I had my leather workshop which everyone in our class needed to do and be signed off for on health and safety before we can make our shoes. There are 6 machines we were shown but only 5 we were inducted on as one of them the lecturer said we would only use if we take fashion accessories next year as its quite a dangerous machine to use unless you are used to it. The first machines we looked at were twin needle machines which basically as suggested in the name unlike sewing machines which only have one needle have two, these machines make a stitch seen on jeans fabric on the seams. The leather needles are alot stronger than normal sewing needles and so when passing the fabric underneath the needles/foot you have to make sure your hands are either side of the fabric, as these machines are used for joining several layers of leather together. There were two types of machines for many of the leather machines one looked like a normal sewing machine, as in it was a regular set up where the fabric goes flat under the needle and would be used for a flat piece of leather before the shoe was constructed and then the other machine could be used when the shoe was constructed and the needle and foot sat up higher. As seen above on the samples we tried out many of the machines and saw the different stitches and how they worked and started to look at what would be most suitable for our shoes when we come to make them. The machine we were shown but not inducted on was a leather machine that has a knife in and is used to cut off a thin layer of the leather so that it makes it more manageable to sew a seam and the seam to lie flat as theres not so much bulk. The settings can be adjusted to take more or less leather off of this layer and also in the laser cutting room there is a huge one of these machines which can be used to cut an entire hide in half, doubling your fabric. i found the leather workshops extremely interesting as the machines and there functions/set up were explained indepth and by doing the inductions before our shoe workshops it gave us time to look at the machines and decide which stitches we can achieve on our shoes and also meant that we will have more time in our workshops to get on and make them.

it isnt love, it isnt love, it isnt love

For our illustrator class this week we carried on learning about different tools and how to make different shapes from them and little tricks which make patterns alot more interesting to look at and easier to construct, I found these few illustrator classes extremely useful when i was helping my third year Natasha this week make a pattern on illustrator and also when i was drawing my own skull one, even though I wouldnt say im amazing and have a full understanding on how to make the most out of these tools its good to be familarised with the software and know how to use the basic techniques and then play around with them by myself to develop upon them.

im just going to, im just going to let you down.

Today I finally managed to make it onto the lasercutter and start to see how my pattern will work. Earlier on this week we were told that our toile material which is paper nylon had all ran out and so we were going to have to either make it out of scraps we could find or paper and then later in the week calico was a mentioned substitute fabric. I abandoned my idea (or have so far) of doing a top and skirt which was a dress combo as seen in previous photos of my work and decided because of the lack of fabric i would concentrate on the top section firstly. Within this I thought developing my lasercut pattern and putting it onto illustrator etc and then cutting it out of paper to see that it would work was the first thing i should do. Cutting it out of calico at this stage didnt seem a good idea as for the top i want to join the shoulder seems and crossover jaw sections with the sonic welding machine and these machines can only be used with synthetic fabrics. As you can see from the photos above I scanned my drawing of the leopard skull into photoshop and then saved this as a jpeg image and put it into illustrator. The shape of the skull is the pattern piece for this top, four skulls will form the shape, with two making up the front two panels and two making up the back two panels. These will then be sonic welded as i said before at the shoulder seams and then hang down like a bib. The top section of the skull as you can see is straight and quite thick (seam allowance) and this will act as the seams.
After i had transferred the image into illustrator i then created a new layer and using the pen tool firstly for the outline and then the pencil tool i drew over this skull shape to create black lines that would be picked up on the epos software in the lasercutting room. I saved this file as an older version of illustrator as the software in the lasercutting room isnt updated enough to register the latest versions of illustrator and then began the long process of queuing to use the machine ! i decided to queue upstairs on the fourth floor, as the lasercutter is a lot bigger and i want to work with this one in the end if i do decide to do my skirt as i will be using big panels of fabric and lasercutting skulls out of the bottom section so i felt it was better to familarise myself with that machine. When i got onto the computer in the room i opened up my skull pattern file into epos the programme used and then went through the process of picking which lines would be engraved and which ones would be cut out colour coding them. After this i then layed the pattern paper i was using flat in the machine put the lid down and using buttons on the sidd of the machine positioned the laser over the section i wanted to be cut and then sent my print to the machine !!! as you can see from the photos all of the skull was cut out as i didnt ask previously whether paper could be engraved which i would definetely make sure i did before doing this again as i wasted valuable time, I took photos of the skull whilst still on the lasercutter to show the overall shape of it if it had been engraved and some sections cut and i am happy with it, i still believed the fabric we were using for our finals could be engraved as previously when we asked lecturers they said yes it could but when asked again said no it couldnt ! I dont know whether there was a communication problem at this stage when we first enquired and if so next time i definetely need to make sure i ask several times about things firsthand to make sure i get all the information i require as i now have to go back to my pattern and figure out a way to make my pattern work ! This week ive come up against alot of obstacles and lecturers not being on hand to help as third years are well under way with their projects but i keep reminding myself that it is a good thing to learn that making mistakes is sometimes a good thing as long as you learn from them and my pattern may turn out even more interesting now i have to think of a new direction to go with it. Also i need to be ready to tackle problems of not enough fabric/space/time to do everything i want to when i work in the fashion industry so better to learn it now in my first year when it doesnt matter as much !

if at some point we all succumb for goodness sake let us be young.

Me and Angie have been put together to work alongside a third year to help them complete there final collection. Our class got split up into partners or for some people were put by themselves and then we were paired up alongside a third year ! I was really happy to be working with Angie for it as although we're very different we get eachother which is nice to have and we dont stress eachother out and we have a good time! Anyway the third year we were put with is a girl named natasha, or tasha for short ! She showed us what shes doing for her final collection and the fabrics she had bought and also gave us an insight into how she works. She also showed us our portfolio and to be honest it was so refreshing to talk to someone who told you it how it is, that we NEED to sort out out portfolio now and what should be going in it and what shouldnt and also ive been getting really worked up over pattern cutting for our lasercutting project and she showed us how simple it is really which helped me so much ! Her fabrics bought from paris were amazing and it also gave me a kind of price average to how much ill be spending on my final collection. It was also a little scary as she told us how stressed they are in there group and how so many people dont talk anymore and how not to let people in our group look through our books because alot of people in there group have copied eachothers ideas ! Her collection looks really cool too and shes burning/melting organza and making wearable items but then they have alot of stuff that is attached to it with all these awesome techniques and thats what im interested in doing things differently and so is Angie so we were really really happy!! Its so good i feel to be put with third years, we only spent half an hour talking to her and we'll have so many more hours to come, but when we were talking i gained so much insight and information into how we'll be working next year and into our third year ! Also helping them is going to give us an amazing chance to work with different fabrics and beautiful fabrics, whilst also learning new techniques and getting to experiment with these techniques! It was so sunny today and I wore my sandals and it made my day even better i love summer shoes!

once upon a time..

I was talking to one of my flatmates last night about how people change and since being at Coventry I didnt think I had until I started talking about who I used to be and how I was and I suddenly realised ive changed alot. Not those noticeable changes that I myself  could see when i was in leeds, where i was obviously growing up, but here i feel like very very slowly im finding my feet and im beginning to see where i want to go with my life, and how im getting there and who i will meet along the way and those i choose to bring with me from my past. Most of the time i feel like its a bit of a struggle to succeed or keep going when my hearts in about 50 different places, but gradually im realising that this is my present, the past is where it belongs and you can look back with fond memories but I have to leave it in the past and concentrate on my life now, because only I can make this happen and work and only I can make myself happy.

im like a bird i want to fly away..



Here are some amazing Alexander Mcqueen peephole booties that have a lasercut overlay which I am going to be looking at to see the different effects of lasercutting and also sizing my pattern and whether i will split up the shapes of the pigeon to make it more abstract and how fine detailed it will be. Its important to keep referring to designers work and seeing what is out there to keep yourself inspired and keep pushing yourself to think more and more about different ways of working.

OlympicsOlympicsOlympics

These are some of my intial design ideas for my olympian pigeon print, i have mainly been focusing on drawing the shapes and then starting to split up the shapes of the wings to make it more appropriate for lasercutting, to use the shapes for the shoe and also looking at incorporating further imagery into the body.
Here is a little bit further research on why pigeons are released at the olympics!
In the original olympics in Greece, trained homing pigeons were released at the end of the fames to announce the winner from the villages. In the modern era however thyey are released after the cauldron is lit at the main opening ceremony as a symbol of peace and to show that the Olympic games should take place in peace.

its so cold when shes not around

Iv'e always loved harajuku girls fashion and lately ive been tumblring away looking more and more at there fashion sense and street style. They piece together so many things that look beyond what everyone thinks is fashionable and beautiful and make it into something eccentric and artistic and that is what fashion is about, working outside of what fashion is to everyone else, how the clothes hang on your body and what is normally put with what and reaching out and changing your looks through fashion/hair/piercings/makeup/contact lenses/body art. I think harajuku girls use there body as a canvas upon which they can 'paint' on so to speak. Many fashion designers supposedly do this, but I think harajuku girls work to the future and not what will sell but what is inspiring/beautiful/eccentric/damaged to them and more than anyone else there clothes show there personality, there not scared to embrace something else.

Tonight Matthew..

So completely ignore my previous post on my ideas for my olympian sandal and where I was taking inspiration from ! I have been putting this project off for a long time and I took a few days away midweek to go to Leicester to see a bit of sunshine and get my head together to 'tackle' these next few weeks ! So upon returning i have spent the past 2 days working solidly in the library, unfortunately today is Saturday and St Patricks day and as I write this as a good student and persevere with work I can here all my flat drinking in the kitchen.. but seem as deadlines are calling and i have £42 in my bank account until I go beg natwest to extend my overdraft this is a perfect night in..
So I went back into my research stage of the project (fully knowing that i should now be designing the shoe) and looked again into the Olympics. I liked my idea of looking to the 1948 Olympics and recording it in the presence in a print, almost like 'story of now' WGSN/'George Shaw' paintings. Also this ties in nicely with the idea of looking to the past and how liberty embraces heritage.
I looked into the opening ceremony of 1948 London Olympics and read that 7000 pigeons were released from 350 wicker baskets at the sides of wembley arena to mark the beginning of the Olympics and i like the idea of this imagery of a flying pigeon to begin to make a pattern out of so i have started this process of making this into a print by drawing a singular flying pigeon and starting to put a print within the wings. I looked at the official posters for the 1948 Olympics and saw that Big Ben was one of the main images and liked the idea of drawing Big Bens clock dial into the official Olympic rings and this is the pattern that i have started to draw within the bird. Photos to follow soon!

The kids are going to love it

The initial stage of working on the mannequin began like this... (i forgot to publish this post and noticed it today so this work came before all my other mannequin work!!) I began to concentrate on silhouettes and working onto the mannequin on monday to begin to build up my project and develop it further forward so i could begin to look at placement of shapes and which skulls worked better on the body and also sizing and structure. I pinned my skull stencils in a number of ways onto the mannequin and started to look at what would work best i really like the two skulls forming alot of shoulder detail as it showed off how strong the skull pattern is and was very striking and bold and i also liked the silhouette formed from them.

illustrator.

For our lessons with Charles we moved on from photoshop lessons and have begun to look at how illustrator works, in this lesson we learnt how to make shapes and how to use the different tools to erase further shapes into intial silhouettes and also merge shapes like the 'star' and 'square' together.
I have previously used illustrator as it was one of the key programmes at Leeds University as part of my course, but as it was all taught through 'word documents' and this isnt a way that is really suitable for me to retain information, i think its much better to actively do it and learn it from someone going through the stages and you following them which is why i like the way these lessons are taught. For our lasercutting project we have to convert our patterns into photoshop and then into illustrator to link it up to the lasercutting machine to cut out the pattern from our fabric, something which i need to start this week.

lets make a shoe?

So we had our first lesson with the woman that will be helping us make our sandal a week last monday and ive finally got around to writing it up (sitting in a band meeting with 4 boys will push you to resorting to such levels).. i was scared about this first lesson as we had previously been told about a month ago to postpone any work on our olympian sandal projects and concentrate on our lasercutting projects as our lecturers hadnt sorted out a footwear specialist to come in and help us make them, so i had completely abandoned work and hadnt got any shoe designs to show ! She was very helpful to each and everyone of us and tried to give us as many ideas as possible to start to get us all more inspired by this project as i dont think any of the group were really feeling it as deadlines are mounting up and we had had too much time off of it. I especially was feeling very confused by the project and had been from the start; although liberty is an amazing store and there patterns and prints are what i myself am interested in, for footwear i found it confusing to translate this into a shoe. I knew i would have to have a shoe that was mainly influenced by pattern but didnt know how to go about this and unlike other people in my class whos designers have a key 'style' as in structure, feminitity, new age.. Liberty is much more a 'store' and stocks other designers clothes/shoes so for a shoe silhouette it was particularly difficult. However the lady helped me see that i could begin to take liberty prints/incorporate my own ideas into them and begin to look at cutting the shapes out of the leather and then i began to think of cutting big shapes out of the leather; shapes of a liberty print? and then underneath have a 'backing fabric' that is screenprinted in my pattern although not under every section as obviously a sandal needs to be breathable. So as you can see talking to her really helped to get my creative juices flowing, i think it is vital to have appointments/one on ones to get feedback and begin to bounce ideas off professionals to learn from them and understand different directions to go in and different ways to work in/percieve things, something that is provided on this course which is crucial i believe in students developing their skills and hopefully progressing through second and third year we'll be begin to take on everything we've been told in first year and start needing less and less instructions on how to take our work and just have critique and feedback.
Also in this lesson we had to choose a shoe 'template' which was 3d and basically a shoe and we had to pick one that we wanted to use for our sandal. They came in a variety of shapes and sizes, with or without heels and then with different height heels. I decided to pick a flat sandal as i want to concentrate more on the pattern and fabric that goes on the sandal and keep the structure of the actual shoe very simplistic.

silhouettes developing

Looking futher into silhouettes for my dress I began to look at the shapes in this Katrantzou collection (Autumn/Winter 13) and how the top half (which for mine is the lasercut skull detail) is very structured in shape leading into a more voluminous skirt that billows out of this top section. I like the idea of the skirt being shorter at the front than back and creating texture and volume within the fabric for both the front and back sections. Katrantzous collection look at getting the balance right between an interesting silhouette and an intricate pattern and I want to take this direction more into my experimentations on the mannequins as I have begun to create quite interesting shapes and ive definetely decided that the top half is going to be two big laser cut leopard print skulls which are sharp in structure creating an interesting silhouette in an almost jacket-esque aspect for the top half with the skirt coming out from underneath and also perhaps bringing a different lasercut print to the back of the bottom of the skirt. Here are some of my developed mannequin experiments, translating my initial drawings into patterns and then into fabric, although I didnt quite understand or enjoy this way of working to begin with i think it gives you alot more freedom and you can push your creativity when draping fabric and see the postioning on an accurate body form/representation alot more than when drawing. However drawing allows you to work more against the body shape but mannequins allows you to perhaps push this further as you get to work with how the fabric works and moves to the body.

mi chiamo..

Procrastination in its best form. I have alot of italian homework to do do for tomorrow and i dont want to so i thought id do other work instead.. i dont seem to have the time to myself at the moment theres so many deadlines and so much work to do ! This morning it was my day off but i decided to wake up early and venture into uni to get this piece put on the mannequin and photos taken of it so i could do some more developmental sketches in my book tonight ! Although i like the detail of the neckline i think i want to do it like my initial mannequin developments and perhaps use two big skulls, one each side and take them over the back equally, make them 2 seperate pieces and then get some fabric and begin to play with that to see how it will look as i want to look at creating a bubble type shape at the bottom so its like a balloon of fabric and i also want to look at making the body of the dress the shape of a skull and fabric will allow me to do this easier than paper as paper is quite restricting !

olympics

'The story of now' is a trend forecast for spring/summer 2013 that looks alot to our past and how we can record and document it for the future, being strongly represented through the use of logos and pictograms. I went to see an exhibition that reflects this prominent trend which i have mentioned before, that being George Shaws 'i woz ere' exhibition at Coventry Herbert Art Gallery ! His collection comprised of him going back to places in his childhood and sitting there and painting detailed and complex paintings that picked up every flaw of the place so they represented what he had infront of him and also took this idea of graffiting ones name onto a bench 'i woz ere' but in Shaws case this transgressed into him painting the places to be there and to always be there in a sense. I really liked this idea of looking to the past and documenting them and felt it would fit in well with the Olympics and Libertys. Libertys relys heavily on its heritage and when it was first opened it stocked a variety of goods from over seas and I liked the idea of taking logos of the olympics throughout the ages from all the different places its been held and start looking at these to create a pattern from and within this gain a base idea for the silhouette of the shoe. Within this I also may start to look at taking the London olympics logo from 1948 and the logo for 2011 to make it more personal like George Shaws work.

This is the button i made when practising on the laser cutter. I designed the overall circular shape on indesign and then the concentric circles that decorate the body of the button I programmed so they would only be indented and not cut out as you can see and they make an intricate ridged pattern which makes the button much more interesting and texturised and then the star shapes that work round the circle I chose to have them cut out and same with button holes in the middle ! The only problem here was the button holes in the middle as the stars i put too close together and when i popped out the plastic the tiny bit seperating the two stars also came out, so this is something to bear in mind when doing my laser cutting for my skull project

here we go again.

This is how i feel about fashion today. We had a class with Angela on the skull project and everyone got quite worried when we were shown example sketchbooks on how much work we should be aiming to complete bu the end of a project, 20 pages a day sounds crazy! I was sat with Angie waiting for Angela to come round and see us individually and we were both having a down day wondering why we'd chosen this course when it feels like we dont seem to be excelling in it, i felt like when i left leeds id done it so i could enter a fashion course and remember why i loved it and be simply amazing and loved (stupid i know) but since starting here ive coped alot better with the 'living away from everyone' than i did in leeds but ive felt like im struggling more than ever with the course. Last year because i didnt care nothing phased me, no grades mattered too much to me but then this year everything matters to me ! I felt like we've been swapped quite a bit through teachers and been given varying feedback ive never been too sure whether im on the right track, but when Angela looked at my sketchbook she said my drawing skills had potential which made me very happy; i know it sound small and insignificant but i really dont think im that strong a drawer, ive definetely gotten better all the drawing skills i had to practise in Leeds made me improve as much as i didnt want to participate ! But hearing it from someone is so nice ! Also getting feedback on how we should be playing with silhouettes on the mannequin has helped so much and i feel like even though work is piling up i feel excited for fashion ! Its amazing what some nice words can do to brighten days up, i cant wait for summer its so lovely outside ! I can feel butterflys in my tummy everytime i walk outside at the moment, i feel my happiest and most inspired when its like this ! But it is making me feel quite homesick which i think has been whats been making me feel less motivated lately so today was a big boost !