Talk about 'no pressure'....

A friend of friend asked me if I would help her, as she had purchased her wedding online and turned out be absolutely awful, it was poorly made, the fabric was cheap and looked yellow when it was supposed to ivory, the beading on the front and at the back of the dress were hanging off. She hated the dress and could not afford to send it back or buy another dress, so I said I would try and help her.

                                               The back of the original dress with beading

I found some lace motifs from a fabric shop, they were quite big, I brought 4 for the back. I cut around the floral lace shapes to create a new floral motif . It made the dress look more like a wedding dress, I am really happy with the outcome. 

Before I brought the lace I decided to bead the top of the bodice... which took hours. I am a bit of a perfectionist so it all had to be perfect, especially if its for a wedding. However I later on then found the lace after I had beaded all of the front and had sewn the lace onto the back which looked so much better than the beading, in the end I decided to take all the beading I had done on the front of the bodice and then put the lace on there instead. It was horrible to take all those hours of work I had put into it out, but I believe it was for the best... and I am so glad I did.

The lace motifs on the front of the bodice, which I dont the same as the back cutting the lace motifs up to create my own floral lace motif, making sure it was symmetrical on both sides. Its beautiful I am really happy with the outcome..... and so was she! Its rewarding knowing that I have helped someone with something she hated and turned it into something she loves!

Designer Inspiration - Valentino

Valentino Haute Couture Fall 2012

My pre collection at the start was inspired by Egypt, and once I started experimenting with my prints they began to look more oriental than Egyptian, with this I then began to further my development with this by looking into designer whom have used oriental as an influence. I came across Valentino, whom has used oriental prints within this collection.

Valentino has used very subtle prints with added surface detail, which is beautifully made. I love the use of colour and the femininity of the entire collection. 

I love the sheer pleating on this evening gown

 All in one jumpsuit with repeated subtle print

I love this dress, the print on this fabric is so beautiful, its very pretty and girly. I love that the print is symmetrical

This gown and jacket is my favourite of the Valentino collection, the colours of surface detail, I really love the yellow floral print on the jacket and the novel surface detailing on the sheer full length gown.

My pre collection

My pre collection hand sketched.. I can not draw heads, they end up looking very manly. They are full length evening gowns, with attachable leather harnesses on the bodices of all of the gowns.

I think I could have experimented more with the designs, however I did not want them to be too much and too complicated. They tend to look quite oriental, which I m going to use for my final collection which I am starting to research for now, playing more with different lengths rather than just one length. They also lack sexiness and femininity.... 

This design is a dress I have decided to make as we could make one of the six that we have designed as a toile as I think it looks like the most complex and uses a of fabric.

                                                         This dress looks very oriental

I like this dress however I think it looks a bit frumpy, I think all the dresses I have designed lack sexiness, they are not feminine enough which is something I need to take into consideration when designing my final collection.

This is my least favourite design, I am not too sure why I just really do not like it.

Construction workshops at uni...

At uni we have construction classes where we made a Bias tube dress. I obviously chose the light weight sheer chiffon to make it harder for myself as I tend to do, not out of choice. 

It was very easy to construct, apart from the fabric being silky and moves all over the place when cutting it, but overall I really like the design...Id recommend wearing something underneath as it would be a naked dress!

                                                                   Front of the dress

                                                    Back of the dress with the bias tube

Pattern Magic - Hooded shirt, this was quite fun to make and construct as it is completely different to anything I have made before, its not something I would wear and looks really silly with just a face popping out the face hole, but can be worn as a normal top. I gathered the seam in the back which drapes the fabric. The fabric is an awful colour and horrible to worth with it was like a silky jersey.

                                               Front of the hooded shirt with the face hole

                                                             Side of the hooded shirt

Back of the hooded shirt with gathers in the back seam

I love drawing and painting

Some images of my hand drawings over the last few years of studying at uni. I really love hand drawing, I feel as though my drawings have improved, I especially love drawing with pencils and charcoal to create shades and depth within the drawings. 

                                             Drawings of leaves from Hampton Court gates

                                                      Oriental Watercolour quick sketch

                                 Oriental floral and bird sketch using pen and watercolour

                                       Oriental flowers - using watercolour, pastels and pencil

                                                       Bold oriental flower watercolour

Another brief I looked at butterflies, taking one wing of the butterfly and repeated sketches of the wing in various scales and placements using charcoal.

My most recent sketch looking at Leonardo Da Vinci - Muscle sketch using charcoal

Ciment Pleating

David Linnell, the owner of the company, came into uni today to explain the history of the company and what they do. Bringing with him so of the most amazing pleated fabrics. The company has produced a lot of pleated fabrics for the royal family, Lady GaGa, for films, theatres and has done work for Alexander McQueen and Zandre Rhodes.

Laser cut pleated fabric, I'm not too sure if I like this, because the pleats hide the laser pattern.

A tube of pleats, gorgeous colour all polyester though. Would be interesting to use loads of these tubes of pleats on one garment.

Shower curtain material, with fabric inside, very exciting!

David showed and explained to the group the process of pleating fabric, which is all hand made. The different scales of cardboard, some small scale and the large scale in metre sizes, is all hand grooved and can take around 60 to 80s hours to produce. The fabric is then placed on the pleated cardboard rolled together and steamed.

 Examples of cardboard that has been grooved to make a pattern

 Not seen very well, but this pleat has been made with the use of shower curtain material, like a clear plastic. This is very much like the style that was used for Lady GaGa.

 This pleat I love when the materials bunched together rather than spread out to show the pleat pattern, this is a pleat that I am considering using within my garments for my final collection.

The pleats David has produced are stunning, especially when you know all the hard work that has gone into producing them. David explained his wishes to retire within a few years time and is looking for somebody to take over the business, I can imagine it may be hard as it is a very specialised craft which the person will need to have a lot of knowledge on the subject of pleating. 

The pleats David has produced are stunning, especially when you know all the hard work that has gone into producing them. David explained his wishes to retire within a few years time and is looking for somebody to take over the business, I can imagine it may be hard as it is a very specialised craft which the person will need to have a lot of knowledge on the subject of pleating. 

I found the pleats very inspirational and believe I will look into visiting the company in Potters Bar and look at using some of the pleats for my final collection this year.

Ballgown Exhibition at the V&A

The ballgown exhibition at the V&A.......

For my final collection I knew I wanted to design an evening womens wear collection,

I have always been a fan of Couture Gowns, so I thought it would be perfect for me to design something that I love. 

The ballgown exhibition held gowns by Alexander McQueen, Victor Edelstein, Sybil Connolly, Worth London, Cindy Beadman, Hardy Aimes, Elizabeth Emanuel, Giles Deacon, Erdem, Mary Katrantzou, Felicity Brown and Many more. It was really nice to see the gowns up close and not behind a glass box, this way you could see the craftman ship in each and every gown.

                                                              Giles Deacon - 2007

                                                            Alexander McQueen - 2011

                                                                 
                                                                     Marchesa

                                                               Gareth Pugh - 2011

For my pre collection brief, I have been working on some print ideas to go onto my outfits using Egyptian as a source of inspiration. Looking at repeat pattern, scale and collage. At first I experimented using black ink and bleach to create these prints, ink and bleach work really well together, however I almost killed myself with the fumes...make sure you wear a mask or open a window. 

Ink and bleach pattern and cut out the same basic floral shape in various scales and placed onto a gold piece of paper.

Doing the same as above, however painting another print on top of the collage. 

Collaging again using different floral shapes and colours

Cutting out large pieces of paper with a design I had drawn on before had and then placing a print onto the back

Experimenting with 3D ideas onto my prints, a print I had produced on photoshop, which then I cut out various shapes of leaves and folded them to make them look 3D. Placing them in a random pattern - thinking of ways in which I could produce this using fabric.

One of my final prints for my collection using photoshop, these were all single pieces and shapes that I had hand drawn, put onto photoshop and pieced together to make a background and then creating the floral shapes to form a repeat pattern. 

Using the same process as the image above but just using different floral shapes.