Patrick Ian Hartley

Patrick Ian Hartley came in yesterday to give a guest lecture on his work from where he first began to where he is now and it was so interesting to watch through the progression of his presentation how far he has come from where he started out and how although he began working in ceramics and sculpture he is now having his face corsetry/body armour featured in fashion magazines. i also found him very inspiring he didnt just come out of university and then straight away have a job at the top of his game, he's worked hard and continues to work hard, he puts thought and consciousness of the world around us and the history around us into his work and he challenges preconceptions of certain topics and the stigmas attached to them and presents them in a way that isnt 'frightening' but interesting, allowing us to go outside of our comfort zone and start questioning what has become of where we live and what others consider right. Above that he questions nothing, he doesnt allow us to attach stereotypical analytical views of his work but rather tells you what it is and asks you to appreciate it for that. fullstop. When his work needs explaining he exhibits it like a story book and when it doesnt you should take it at face value and that is that.

Project Facade:William Michael Spreckley

Project Facade: Walter Fairweather

Project Facade: Walter Ernest O'Neil Yeo
Project Facade : After initially looking at facial corsetry and isolating different parts of the body seeing how lacing makes this look of 'finger cheeks', Hartley started gathering inspiration from his every day life one day he was travelling home on the tube and an elderly gentleman was leaning against the glass panel, and he liked how it flattened out the facial skin.
He decided to use PVC which had similar qualities to windows and led to much more extreme contortions to the face.
 

John Irving

“When someone you love dies, and you're not expecting it, you don't lose her all at once; you lose her in pieces over a long time—the way the mail stops coming, and her scent fades from the pillows and even from the clothes in her closet and drawers. Gradually, you accumulate the parts of her that are gone. Just when the day comes—when there's a particular missing part that overwhelms you with the feeling that she's gone, forever—there comes another day, and another specifically missing part.” 
“The thing that is most hardest to accept about the passage of time is that the people who once mattered the most wind up in parentheses.” 

Matej Kren

i have just started looking at matej kren. For our clothes show stand three groups won the a class competition from the installations we made based on our artist/designer and the winning groups got to join together, collaborate all themes and design/make the stand Coventry University has at the clothes show. I worked in a group with Angela, Kayleigh, Abi and Emily and we researched Nick Cave, his soundsuits, his concepts and beliefs (i have more posts to come on him as we made a moodboard/installation/photoshoot influenced by his work) and our final installation we created was picked as a winner, the two other groups to win were 'will cotton' and 'matej kren' . Along with our artists we also had to look into the day of the dead/ razzle dazzle and this idea of a wonderland and all of this we expressed in said installations.
We have had several meetings in the past couple of weeks in our group (which consists of all the people from each individual group) and we have come up with our basic ideas and then have split our group into small groups and shared out all the prop making/ideas we have had. I will write a seperate blog post on all our ideas in the next couple of days as at the moment its very late at night and we have the patrick ian hartley lecture tomorrow and i dont want to be sleepy ^.^
I am working with Emily and Abi and we are looking at sorting everything out for projecting images onto one of the walls of the stand (booking projector/sorting out what images will be projected/consulting with digital media group) and we are also going to make table covers for the tables that will display all the products we are selling at the clothes show.
We decided to go away and all create a moodboard each on one of the designers and also on another theme- either razzle dazzle/circus/day of the dead/wonderland.
I chose to research Matej Kren as his work is based on building sculptures installations from books and looks at both contemporary problems; erasing boundaries between reality and fictions and also the classic themes in art; relation between the inner &outer/ the part& the whole. I thought his work seemed to have alot of depth to it and i wanted to begin to research another artist beside nick cave so i could broaden my knowledge! Tonight i have been sat planning ideas for the table covers and putting together a moodboard of inspiration! I really like the idea of making a patchwork cloth, making the 'squares' the shape of different sized bookends and using book papers/different fabrics/textures (to relate to nick cave),candy floss/sweets (to relate to wil cotton), striped/black&white razzle dazzle patterns and printed skulls perhaps to create this direct collaboration of all these themes in a visual exciting and aesthetically interesting way.



Matej Kren Book Cell (from the outside appears to be bricks but on closer inspection made from wonderful literature)

Lets all own a bookshop and drink cups of tea

Ive woken up today on this bright cold Monday morning and i have a list of about a hundred of things that needed to be done about a week ago, but me being me i thought id sit down and update my blog as the first thing to do on my list ^.^ Last night i had a couple of friends come over and we made a roast dinner and listened to xmas songs and it made feel really happy and lucky to of met some lovely people, however only too soon it was time for us all to return to the mounting pile of work that is consuming our lives! I have fallen behind on my trousers that we are making as part of Evas class, its not a module we get marked on but if we want to make a final collection in our third year we need to learn how to make basic trousers/tshirts/dresses etc so then we will be able to adapt the block to our own designs when we need to ! Also other than that its an invaluable skill to learn, as a fashion student although pattern cutting is definetely my weakest point i really want to get better as it is just a logical process and i want to start to push myself into making more of my own garments in my spare time/print on them to establish a stronger portfolio for placements and by attending these classes and trying to keep up to date i feel ill be able to !
For the past few weeks we havent had any lessons because of trips/illnesses and before that my grandads funeral so unfortunately i have fallen a bit behind, last week my class started the first steps into making the trousers and as of last night i still hadnt even finished my pattern pieces!
At about 10pm last night armed with my camera to take photos for my blog and a hot chocolate to make me happy i sat down and powered through, all i had left to do was to trace over my original pattern draft for the back trouser piece and then i had to lay out all my pattern pieces onto my fabric and measure the grainline (which you do by laying your pattern piece onto fabric and measure from the 'straight of grain line' you have marked on your piece to the selvedge edge!)
Measuring, pinning and cutting is quite a long laborious task and not something you want to rush as you want the pattern pieces to be accurate ! Here are some photos of me pattern cutting..

pinning pattern pieces onto fabric (excuse my appearance/houses appearance)

pin!pin!pin!

front trouser pieces, zip guard and back pocket all pinned

Cutting out patten pieces (and also from this my hair needs redying/i look like the hunchback of notre dame)

“Oh, never mind the fashion. When one has a style of one's own, it is always 20 times better.” 

"they must have so many angry young people. Being a fashion designer or an artist, you have to be angry."

Just a quick entry, after a busy day at work (in which i felt like cinderella) im back home and its 21.54 and im now researching influential japanese designers of the 1980's as part of the research for styling for our scarfs for the clothes show live catwalk, i thought id share some images im putting together for inspiration ! sorry its a short post today but i am just ridiculously tired standing on your feet for 6 hours after going into uni at 9.30 just doesnt equal a happy smiling paige at the end of it >.< however i love japanese fashion and 80's fashion, my two favourite styles/eras so im happy the direction the catwalk collection is going in, i was supposed to just be part of the stand design group but i want to try and help out as much/as little as time allows for the styling side of it as it really captured my imagination this morning when the teachers were discussing it ^.^ Ive never looked into japanese designers that indepth before but i absoloutely love them and im hating myself for being deprived of their style for so long! I love how they go completely against typical westernised silhouettes and look at pleating/fraying/knotting amongst others to create something anti-fashion thats so interesting and more like art which is what fashion should be.

Rei Kawakubo

Rei Kawakubo

Issy Miyake

Issy Miyake

'I think there are things that need to be changed about this world'

We were told on Tuesday that we have a special speaker coming in next week and his name is Patrick Ian Hartley, i had never heard of him before but decided to look up some of his work before next week and it is amazing, it really pushes the boundaries of how we percieve ourselves and how others percieve us and the way different materials can be used to distort faces and shapes into something more interesting, heres a face mask from his latest collction that i really love, it creates shapes never seen from the face before, almost bringing a tongue shape from his chin instead of his mouth which is fascinating if shown in everyday context/culture. i will write more next week once we've had a lecture by him, im so excited ^.^ i love getting to hear from designers it gives you a real insight and understanding into all the different areas of fashion and art.

'Its a good thing that people do question their values, without assuming their values are always correct. To push people, to reconsider their opinions is good. But sometimes you have to do that in a direct and upfront way, in your face' Nick Knight

Cyrenians Charity Event

The Cyrenians are a Coventry based charity that help get homeless people back on their feet, offering support from a team of volunteers who give up their time to help others.
Our university works with them to use counterfeit goods and create something new that can be sold (these goods we call 'upcycled') they will be setting up a store before christmas but for now we were making products for them to be sold on a stall in the town centre as part of a catwalk/market event , with all proceeds going towards helping their cause.
On our first week back at university, the first years, second years and third years were put into different groups and given shirts/hoodies/jogging bottoms that were all counterfeit and from these we carefully removed anything branding them and returned this to our tutors and then we set about using the fabric we had to create products we thought would sell well.
We started out with a plan where we all began suggesting ideas, some of the first years werent very forthright with giving ideas nor were the third years so me and Jordan ended up leading the way with ideas consisting of peter pan collars, detachable collars, bags and scarves. Once we had these products in mind we then divided our group so smaller groups could work on producing a 'mass' of these said products. I took charge individually of cutting strips of the fleecy fabrics found on tracksuit bottoms/work out hoodies and tied these strips together and using the resources of pencils began to knit a scarf from this. It was very time consuming and although i was given permission to take the fabric home to continue and finish my scarf i was blighted by freshers flu and unfortunately never finished the scarf in time for the stall. If i had to knit a scarf again i would be alot more realistic and look at using either large knitting needles or a subsititute for large needles to create big stitches that would of made the process alot quicker. I was happy though as Angela really liked my concept and said that it would be a more high end product and the amount i did knit i was very proud of, as i enjoy knitting having learnt by hand when i was younger and then being trained on knitting machines at Leeds University ! I definetely feel my talents lie more in the textural/print aspect of fashion !
Unfortunately i dont have any pictures of any of the goods my group made for the stall but i do have photos of the event up and coming soon along with my account of the day !

we all got old at break neck speed, slow it down go easy on me.

Do you ever have those days/mornings/nights/hours/minutes/seconds of not knowing what your doing after having the best few days where you began to see everything with such clarity? thats how i feel right now, i had a topshop interview yesterday which left me feeling on top of the world and yet now for some unfathomable reason i feel so low and unsure.
I just wrote a couple of entrys for this blog trying to catch myself up to date on what ive been up to, and i feel like going back and deleting those past couple of entries because the voice thats writing them isnt my own.
I was lucky enough to be invitied to topshops recruitment evening for christmas temp vacancies after my friend Kayleigh who works at topman was lovely enough to hand my cv in, which i was so greatful for as i have been trying so hard to get a retail job for as long as i can remember with no such luck and so the saying 'its not what you know its who you know' has never been so true.
I went along to it a little nervously but with determination and excitement to finally be allowed to see what fashion interview entails ! I was wearing a black maxi chiffon skirt i got in the autumn topshop sales, a floral monki shirt i got off of ebay, a black&white aztec print bow tie i got in the top man sales and a leather jacket from motel ! I really wish i had taken a photo, if i have time i will put it all on and recreate the look to show !
We were all asked to sit on chairs in a circle and then they said the thing i hate Hate HATE, its the one thing i just honestly hate ! did i mention i hate it?! We all had to go round and say our names and an interesting fact about ourselves.. i hate having to say something... interesting?! And by the inward groans of everyone else so did they, i offered up that i studied fashion and that got a few head turns ^.^ sometimes playing the fashion card works ! And it was better than some people who literally didnt say anything just their names.. these people in general were the men who all slouched in their chairs and muttered inaudibly.. they looked the part though ?! A little gutted if they get the job and i dont..
Anyway after we had introduced ourselves we were split into two groups and given two different activities within these groups, to start with we had to work in slightly smaller groups and design a product that would appeal to their consumer base and that they werent/hadnt already sold; i suggested headphones as everyone listens to music and gigs/festivals are at their peak of popularity within our culture as is technology, music is at everyones fingertips ! I also came up with the idea of making them so they were a black canvas which the customer could buy and then with the pens/paints provided draw on them and customise so each one was individual to them and their style. My group didnt offer up very many ideas and just went along with my ideas but as topshop staff were watching and could see how big/small our input was i was happy that i was in a group where i could shine !

Customised Headphones id seen previously inspired my idea

The second activity we were again in our groups and then split into smaller groups and within these we had to identify what makes a good sales advisor and more specifically what makes a good topshop sales advisor! Our group made a mind map of all the points we thought mattered and then we had to come up with an advertisement for this position, a member in my group said he liked the idea of using superheroes and i took this point further and suggested we do a comic strip entitled 'the adventures of the super sales advisor' and there would be one strip with a day in the life of a good sales advisor and then a strip underneath with a day in the life of a bad sales advisor and colours/speech bubbles/thought bubbles would convey this ! We presented all our ideas and i was really pleased that they liked all our ideas and i felt really happy that i felt talented at this, i think sometimes just doing a uni course and never feeling like you stand out and then seeing all your friends get retail jobs and you never manage to get an interview you can get really pessimistic over what you love and this gave me such a boost ! ^.^ i really hope i get the job but if i dont im just happy i had this experience and that i got a chance and i will definetely be going even more crazy with my cv even if its not paid and just for experience !

lets fight crime with mangos and limes

On monday i started a job as a christmas temp cleaner at west orchards shopping centre. It is honestly the most boring, monotonous, repetitive job i have ever had the pleasure of doing. I previously worked as a cleaner back home from the age of 16 at a hotel complex and ive always been lucky enough to be invited back to work there in the holidays and im good at it. Cleaning is not a difficult job, its not rocket science but manual labour, it doesnt require alot of intelligence but you do need to be grounded, down to earth and willing to mix with people across the spectrum of our society.
I need to stress that i am not stuck up, i have more than the utmost respect for everyone that works full time as a cleaner as ive been there and done that for many years now and i was so thankful when i got this job, its 20 hours a week for 7 weeks and i can earn up to £900 and how i need that money im back on the brink of entering my beloved/dangeros overdraft and i need this money for next year, to start getting into this industry and how i hate saying this but money is needed to get a head start.
So on Monday morning i put on my horrible uniform (sensible shoes, need i say more?) and sat through 3 hours of awkward silences between the new christmas temps as we filled in paperwork and learnt what cloths went with what liquids and the dangers of cross contamination...
It hit a low point when people struggled to fill out there addresses but i looked past this, i put on the 'pinny' (why cant they call it an apron) and my name badge 'general assistant' and after a tour of the shopping centre we were let loose on the food court.
The next four hours were the worst of my 'working' career, the staff that work there full time were honestly lovely, but there were 14 new christmas temps and about 8 fulltime cleaners and it was a monday afternoon... we were racing eachother to be able to be the one to take the tray.. clean the table.. clean the chairs.. empty the tray.. and begin the process all over again.
Actual highlights include learning how to put bin bags in a bin at the end of the day and .. actually and nothing.
If your unsure where your going in life do a job like this, i was doing this and knowing i can do better, knowing everyone working there can do better but I have the determination and the tools to succeed. I got talking to a woman who when she found out i study fashion at university was telling me how she always wanted to do fashion, how she idolised zandra rhodes and how shes made wedding dresses and loved Mary Quant in the 1960's and all she kept saying to me with regret in her eyes was that i need to go for it, i need to push myself, i need to get away from cleaning, i need to do everything i can and in the moment i realised i do. I dont want to be that person stood there telling someone 30 years my junior about my past dreams and realising that i never achieved them and never will.
Sometimes you need a real shock of reality to make you reassess where your going, how your going to get there and where you will be if you dont manage it.
I have my next shift there tomorrow, 12-6.30 which is annoying as it means i miss most of university, but this week it couldnt be helped as they had already rota'd on the shifts without knowing my timetable so hopefully next week will be better..