Drop the Tough

Check out the new video for Groove Armadas Drop the tough! My brothers Girlfriend and Brother were behind the making and organizing for the shoot! i was asked to take part but it was so close to fashion week i was sewing away at Emma's! It looks like it would have been a lot of fun to be apart of though! have to say I'm pretty impressed! 

Little Boots for Notion Magazine

So i got to go along and help out on a shoot for Notion Magazine on friday which was really fun! Emma Bell was styling Little Boots so i got to be her assistant again which was nice as i hadn't been able to get over and help her since the show in February! Their was some AMAZING pieces that were brought to the rail unfortunately not many of them got used on the shoot but it was cool being able to have a look at them and how they were made! Ill post up the pictures when the magazine is on the shelves!  

Gemma's Letter Poster Publication

My Good Friend Gemma who i studied with in my first year of fashion design at diploma goes to university in Leeds she is a graphic designer who is putting a Letter poster publication together to show the work of artists and designers from all over the world. She asked me to submit a piece which is what i arranged the shoot for shown on here a couple of weeks ago. I got the Letter F which is cool as i was doing the fashion side of the design industry! Here is the image in all its final glory! 

I was given a bunch of questions to answer for a profile on myself...

Name

Emma Box

Location 

Chatham, Kent

Subject field

Fashion

Inspirations?

Popular culture, Modern architecture, female sexuality, Op-Art, music and interesting people.

What are your design tools?

A Black fine liner, a mannequin, lots of fabric and my sewing machine!

Describe your style in three words.

Eclectic, Fun yet sleek  

What first drew you to design?

My first craft set from the early learning center then when I invested in fashion wheel I just new that was the direction for me… but on a serious note design was the only thing I ever wanted to do it gave me something to focus on and a way to express myself. Nothing else gave me as much satisfaction, I couldn’t imagine doing anything else. I just wouldn’t want to.

What is hanging on your walls?

Posters, Vinyl covers, inspirational quotes and photos to remind me of good times!

Place of escape? 

An evening alone in my room with incense, some good music and my own thoughts…

Who is your creative idol?

Hussein Chalayan never fails to amaze me!

Who has been the most influential person in your life?

My Nanna, she taught me a lot about life and in fact introduced me to sewing! She was a woman with great strength my true inspiration.

If you could be a colour, what would you be?

Electric Blue but ideally I would like to be black and white together, stripes!

Favourite word.

Serenity

If you could be anywhere right now, where would it be?

In a garden at nighttime, anywhere hot with the sound of running water and a clear sky with the moon as big as you could ever see it!

Favourite quote.

“Its your baggage that makes you who you are, you have to embrace it”

Check out Gemma's Blog and Myspace

Group Project for the BBC

We have been put into groups for a group collection which i will write about in a new post soon but to start; we have been given a brief by the BBC to make a garment to be shown at London Saint Pancras station. The event is to celebrate Englishness! So we have been asked to make an outfit using whatever we like to show what we see as english! So as we were told to be as inventive as we like we decided to use English newspapers as our theme. We didn't just want to make the dress straight out of paper so i made some sample pieces where i PVA glued newspaper cuttings onto muslin fabric. When the glue dries its left stiff but still moveable! you can screw it up into a ball and the newspaper doesn't crack or rip so it was perfect to make in bulk and use to drape on the stand! We are going to paint headlines on top of the fabric that show English events in history. 

Took all night to dry but worked so well! Cant wait for us to start making something out of it now! 

Record Bag

I like making things out of random crap! 

2 records, some 60s vintage fabric and 4 keyrings lead to this...

Emma Bell antics

I had a lot of fun working with Emma Bell on her collection last month go check out her blog to hear about our fun ridiculous antics! It WILL make you laugh! 

Playing with Paper

Found that hood 

RETRO-FUTURISM

Look what i found hidden away in the depths of myspace...

I designed this like 3 years ago now! Time sure does fly! 

More Femme Fatale

This one pretty much describes how i feel right now....

but it also makes me feel a bit better because I LOVE this image!!! 

Props to Alexander Jordan. 

Backstage at Emma Bell LFW

Emma Bell LFW

I just completed a months work experience with Emma Bell...after lots of hard work and fun times, this was able to happen...

LOVE IT

Hair&Make-up

I loved the hair and make-up that i did for the shoot yesterday! The hair was put into a high ponytail and i wanted the hair to be as long as possible to reflect the length of the sleeves. I managed to find a really cheap hair piece for £2.50!!! which i gripped into the ponytail and wrapped her natural hair around it! considering how cheap the hair piece was i was really pleased with the turn out! We managed many hair flips and suprisingly it didnt come flying out!!

The make up of course had to be a bit gothic love to add a bit of black to contrast! so i did a base of foundation, powder added some moon glow by benefit around the nose and cheek bones to highlight. Natural colours on the eye lid with some white in the corners to lighten it and give it depth. I found the longest lashes i could get my hands on and lined them with just a bit of black to blend them in making sure it wasn't too thick else the eyes would look too heavy! I added mascara to the bottom lashes to open the eyes more then painted black onto the eyebrows and onto the lips, added Vaseline on top and onto the cheeks as suggested by the lovely Naomi and voila!! 

LOVE IT

Femme Fatale

So i thought it was about time i did something with my jacket from a tailoring project i had to do a while ago. I hate tailoring. With a passion. So to bring a bit more me into it i did something a little bright and fun to play with! I do however have quite a contrasting dark side so had to add a bit of goth into it with the black. love it. Heres a sneak at the first image to come out of it more exciting ones on the way though!!

The theme behind the jacket was titled Femme Fatale after one of my favourite songs by the amazing velvet underground! I used those lyrics and looked at strong female icons throughout history taking the elements of their personalities which seem to run throughout to come up with a concept. I also looked at bondage and fetish hence the long sleeves and ties... the back of the jacket didn't work as well in the main fabric as it did in the toile, which was quite disappointing as it was a main feature, which just sort of droops pathetically in the fabric used in the final garment but there we go... calico is shit and misleading from now on I'm going to use as similar fabric i can find cheap to the main one i intend to use so that doesn't happen again!! 

My housemate Naomi Brown would like to get into styling so once i found the accessories and make up i wanted i got her on board to direct the shoot. Rose Jocham is my amazing model she can be found on the Profile model agency site! Last but not least! The amazing photography was done by Alexander Jordan! 

The rest will be uploaded very soon...

Playing with Paper

Playing around with paper on the stand can be pretty fun i came up with this technique by sticking together two triangles either side of a rectangle then connecting them all together i placed them on the stand in different ways. I love this technique as the pieces can fold up on itself i want to sew piping into the horizontal seams and place wire inside so it really holds its shape well.

Here is a sleeve idea i really want to make this into a structured leotard with a giant zip down the middle and pannels showing the female shape in all its glory...eerrrr yeah think it would look pretty hot! 

As part of a dress looks kinda cute in different positions around the waist down etc. I love it as a hood but like an idiot i deleted the pictures so im unable to post them!