SECRET PLANS UNDER WRAPS

I do have some good and exciting news which I am looking forward to unveiling! A great opportunity has been offered to me which will take place as soon as I finish uni. I can't let slip exactly what it is yet but i have been allowed to say "watch this space for Viennese Juiciness!" Excitement!

LFW JEAN-PIERRE BRAGANZA

Friday saw the beginning of fashion week and it is now well underway, i was lucky enough to get to dress at one of my favourite designers Jean-Pierre Braganza's show. Jean-Pierre used to tutor at my uni but now he just comes very now and again to review our collections progress. It was great to be able to see the clothes up close and take note of the finishing and techniques, they were all so beautifully made. Below are some shots from the catwalk show taken from the london fashion week website. The first model is the one i dressed.

The cutting techniques were so interesting to look at the shapes and structure of the garments really reflected the beautiful prints well. Good job J-P!

Here a few sneaky shots from my iphone apologies for the extremely bad quality the camera on those phones are shit.

It was all really well organised and the prepping for the show went nice and smoothly. The chaos didn't come until we moved the rails backstage two other designers were showing as apart of the same show Felder Felder and Hannah Marshal, whos clothes didn't look too impressive tbh it mainly consisted of black velvet dresses with oversized shoulders and very unflattering leather trousers!

Show was over pretty quickly with one quick change with my model, gotta love a quick change! Then clothes were packed away back into boxes and the shoes (Nicholas Kirkwood ones which were amazing!) were ticked off bagged up and ready to go! Then we were free to leave and finally get some food!

EMMA BELL INTERVIEW

As you may know this time last year i carried out a full time work placement with designer Emma Bell, which provided me with some great fashion experience!... along with many funny ones which included flying mugs and two men who go by the name of sun beam and gnome... anyway! I help out where needed from time to time and I got to interview Emma for a section in my dissertation so i thought i would post up a few of the questions on the blog for those fashion students anxious about graduating and the industry that they face.

Since leaving education do you feel you were well prepared for the industry, are there certain areas which you wish you’d have been taught more about?

To be honest when I left Uni I suddenly realised that there was so much more that I should have been taught whilst studying. Yes, you get to leave with all of the technical knowledge and a nice portfolio but all of the things that really matter like experience and networking etc, are the things that are the most important. I think that Fashion courses should put more emphasis on things like brand identity, marketing and how exactly to make those vital links.

Would you ever of considered working for another designer having someone else name on your designs?

Yes and this is something I have done a lot in the past and still do now when it comes to working on freelance or commercial projects. Quite often I do design work for other brands which is most often following their brief so it’s not entirely in fitting with my design aesthetic but it’s good experience and it pays the bills and allows me to be able to work on my own brand.

Do you see fashion as art? Or fashion as industry? What are your opinions on this debate?

I would say it is definitely both in that ‘fashion’ is so multi-faceted that it would be impossible to just label it as one thing. There is no denying that in many aspects there are a lot of designers that are presenting their work as art however at the same time it remains an industry. Commercial design is as much of a sector when it comes to fashion.

Being a young designer do you feel you have been taken advantage of in anyway or guided in the wrong direction?

I think there is a huge amount of pressure on emerging designers and graduates from both the industry and your peer designers. I think its only too easy to be drawn into things that are not necessarily the best starting points for creating a long lasting career that you can maintain. When I was studying I recall it being constantly enforced from all angles that to branch into commercial projects is selling out, which explains why there is that whole Ugly Betty attitude within the industry that sees so many people turning their noses up at something that isn’t considered cutting edge or ‘cool’. When it comes to setting up your own brand the chances are you haven’t had any guidance on how to go about this so I think its only too easy to get sucked into things.

The industry has a very exploitative nature in general from an abundance of unpaid or badly paid jobs, people always wanting something for free and creatives constantly competing for opportunities, so I think young designers and graduates are prime targets. Employers are only too aware of how determined young designers are to succeed so it is very easy to be taken advantage of, which is why it is so important to build up your experience to know your own value.

Fashion Week

So as im sure you are all aware yesterday marked the end of London Fashion Week for another season. I manged to get involved in a bit of stuff through the lovely Alexis Knox who i met through working with Emma Bell. So after an amazing night at coldplay i had to get up and catch a train in the morning to go and meet Russell a.k.a 'Random Bangle' to help him with the finishing touches on his stuff for Designer Ziad Ghanem.

If you have'nt seen any Random Bangle peices here is an image taken from the previous collection which he did for Ziad Ghanem.


It was great to go and help out and see how Russell makes and constructs his pieces i love being able to see how other people work and what their inspirations are. After a day of cutting and sewing i got back home to get some sleep as i'd arranged to help out at the show the next day. That night i had a call from Alexis needing me to do her a favour as two of her interns had cancelled. The plan for the next day was basically get to the Notion Magazine office for 8.30 am to collect suitcases of clothes that needed to be taken to Birmingham and dropped off for a shoot then get back to convent garden for the show. My alarm went off very early the next morning!

I managed to get to Notion offices dead on 8.30 met the other intern who would be joining me on the trip collected to suitcases and jumped in a cab to Euston. It was a challenge trying to move so many suitcases its quite difficult trying to drag 3 fairly big sized at one time but i created my own technique in the end. Anyway we got to Birmingham jumped in another cab which took us on a bit of a tour trying to find the right place to deliver them to but eventually we found it. Once we handed over the clothes we signed collected the money for the travel and headed back to London for this...


We got to the Vaxhual venue for about 3 o'clock was informed which model i would be dressing and got him into his fist outfit. The show was in collaboration with Fire Trap the denim brand so there was a lot of rewored denim involved! Some amazing shapes were created using triangles and geometric patterns. I know how difficult they are to sew since i used a similar concept in my creative cut project. Ziad used the less conventional models to give more of an impact they all seemed to have that special something about them and a striking look different to what most designers usually go for.

INDIA

I can't get over how fast time is flying by at the moment. I realized that it is now two years since i ventured over to india to do some work experience at Filaure which is ran by my Aunty. It was an amazing experience for me and at times challenging, i was definitely a little nervous to be flying to the other side of the world on my own! Auroville has some beautiful sites and i met some wonderful people, i thought i'd post up a few pictures as i havnt mentioned my trip on the blog before!

The Two Pictures above were takem at the center of Auroville the huge globe building at the top is called the Matrimandir its an AMAZING  building which contains a meditation chamber at the top its an amazing work of art that has taken years to build. The picture beneath that is of the beautiful banyan tree that is next to the Matrimandir the roots grow down from the branches making it look like a group of trees together.

My favourite lizard that i would see running past my feet in the garden most days! 

The little tortoise my second cousins managed to find in their garden! i wish i could of brought it back with me as a pet. 

Can safely say i didnt want to take this one back home as a pet though! 

While helping out at my aunties factory i was able to go and source fabric in the city of Chennai. I had to go to the market where they sold big lots of fabric at extremely cheap prices and select nice ones to take back to be made into garments for the boutique. Above are some pictures of the view from the hotel i was staying in while visiting the city. 

Also in chennai is a crocodile sanctuary where they bread crocodiles in their masses! They had some pretty beasty crocs i can tell you! I also go to see hundreds of snakes that they captured for their venom in order to create Anti-venom.

India is one crazy place! I recommend going and checking it out! Its MENTAL!

FINALLY

Managed to pick up the new copy of notion magazine at WH Smiths today! Wanted to make sure i have it in the collection as i was assisting on the Puma Advert featured on the inside!

Make sure you go get a copy!! its a great read and features the adventures of Emma Bell in New York for the Designers Against aids Event which showcased the collection I helped make! Look out for my name in the Speacial Thanks to section as well!! 

Little Boots for Notion Magazine

I had a nice day in london today bought a couple of new things including a bargain watch, which is plastic and chunky! and managed to get hold of the new copy of Notion magazine which includes the shoot i assisted on for Little Boots. My scanner is broken so ive just taken a couple of snaps with my iphone's crappy camera...

There you go a couple of pics but if you want to see the rest and see them properly you will have to go buy one! Look out for my name in the 'Special Thanks To' section at the beginning and under 'Fashion Assistants' in the shoots credits.

Hope you like! 

Notion Magazine

I assisted on a shoot with littleboots for Notion Magazine a little while ago! just found out its on sale now! gonna have to purchase that tomorrow! 

Trip to WH Smiths is in order tomorrow then! 

The Black Widow

I had to make the jacket in this black fabric for a project. Didn't turn out to great. I'm gonna alter the design and make it into a caplet type thing maybe change the collar and make it in leather!!

But for now heres a few pics of the garment at this stage...

Was such a bitch to sew!!!

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!  

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! 

Backstage at Emma Bell LFW