Stories of the high street!

Visual merchandising is a crucial part of the retail mix. Its the window to a shops personality and should reflect a businesses ideas, desires and personality. Whilst flicking through the internet for inspiration i came across some of these gems!

I love the bright simplicity of this Louis Vuitton window. It captures the viewers attention but is still simplistically beautiful! encompassing one of this seasons key trends of the stripe and the combination of vivid red create a strikingly powerful window that is delicious to the eye.

The colour explosion in this window invites the viewer into the shop with its bright florals and feminine finishes. The simple yet elegant poses of the mannequins combined with the intricate detailing of the florals surrounding them create a botanical dream fantasy that will make any shopper stop in their tracks.

 In contrast the use of black and white monotones also creates a bold stamp on any highstreet. The psychedelic striping creates an optical illusion and daze to the window! Combining two key trends of the eighties power dress and the radical 60's creates an evoking mystery to be viewed.

I really like the innovative use of cartoon and anime that Gucci have used to created a playful side to their floral collection. combining cartoon with florals isn't an obvious route to take in terms of window dressing but Gucci have hit the nail on the head and balanced both vivid ideas o create a colour explosion!

monotoned androgyny 

 classic black is back this season with mono prints, stripes and polka dot flourishing through London fashion weeks catwalks. But for me, i like the classic black tailoring. Chique. Elegant. Sharp!

Leather glove accessories give this outfit a sense of playfulness whilst still looking classic and clean

I like the unusual combinations of garments in the image above; the combination of woolly hat with and androgynous blazer combined with the pop of colour form the handbag creates a uniquely beautiful outfit. A brave statement!

 (images from Pinterest)

 Primary Power 

This season looks set to bring back punchy primary colours to our staple clothing; with yellow accents; bold blues and racey reds. Mixing and matching bright statement pieces to give every outfit that 'wow' factor!

A snap of yellow combine with monotones gives a fun punch of energy an outfit 

Small accents of colour work just as well as all over brights to give a modern fresh feel

experiment with neons for a daring look

 Bright blazers give a playful side to a tailored finish

Shades of cobolt blue give a cool electric burst to any outfit; combined with the lemon stilettos creates a bold statement ready to stand out of the crowd!

Flashes of bright read combined with neutral tones creates an elegant modern outfit. A key colour for spring summer working best with simple garments.

I love the oversized boxiness of these shorts, i love experimenting with shapes and oversized silhouettes to create body shape illusions!

This shows that bold colour can work well together; the combination of bright blues mixed with the burst of vermilion orange and cream tonal jackets creates a vivid and fun outfit that is daringly edgy!

(images sourced from Pinterest.com)

When SIB took over my life

So for the past couple of weeks i have been knuckling down in an attempt to make my self initated brief work the best it can be. I know im not one of these people who can do something last minute and create magic so  i knew that i was going to need to spend alot of time on my final boards to create movement within my flats and ensure that my boards are of the highest level i can make them . Determination was the key on this project; and after a 29 + stint in the library i feel like i have definitely put the effort in.... whether the results are there i guess thats for my tutors to decide, but fingers crossed.

Here are a few of the boards i am most happy with across the briefs i have completed :

For Design brief 2 we were given the brief to design high end evening wear with the theme of circles. Straight away i knew i didnt want to be literal in the meaning of circle so i looked further afield to gain my inspiration. I began by looking at circular shapes within church architecture and quickly found myself becoming inspired by stained-glass and the jewell colours within stained glass windows. This then propelled me to look at crystal gems and grease colours and combining this with the idea of cut and reveal and transparency within clothing. 

Below is my mood bored of initial colour and silhouette ideas. 

From this i created 3 evening wear outfits, below is my favourite of the 3 i created 

Alongside the fashion illustration and flat board we also were required to create print boards, here is one of my more preferred ideas, capturing the sheer beauty of crystals :

and here is the flat line up board of the full collection for this brief :

Another brief i have also been working on is a futurism brief inspired by everyday architectture to inform the shape and print of my garments. I took particular interest in Stella McCartney and Hussein Chalayan's S/S 13 collections using organza sheers. Bellow are my favourite boards form the collection i have produced :

I am quite pleased with the flat board i have produced for this brief as it was the first collection where i felt my flat images showed movement and the 3D flexibility that clothes show. 

As for my next brief, i'm still not 100% on the collection i have produced; based on the exotic flowers of the rainforrest i have incorporated bright colours with digital print to create a vibrant but edgy collection thats perfect for the high street. I chose New Look as my 'prospective' business as it is the type of company i would like to be part of once graduating from university. Below are a couple of the boards i produced. I leave the decision down to you as to whether they are 'good' or not.

Noahs Arc Competition - The final out come

So i have been continuing with my SIB projects and my Noah's Arc competitions, and finally i had come up with a final design to submit to Beta Fashion. Alongside my initial design i have also created 2 outfits that can also be worn using my initial scarf print to also be submitted with my work . And for once, i am fairly happy with the results i have accomplished. 

 Here is my final print for my scarf which i have transformed into a print board as a basis for my print collection designs. This print has mainly been inspired by the lion and the idea that nature and animal are always watching and staring and searching for their prey. 

Using this print as a basis i have created a blouse and chino short combo as part of a Autumn/ Winter collection. I am particularly pleased with how i have managed to create movement within my fashion illustration as i have struggled with this in the past. 

Here is the second outfit i have created for my collection; within this outfit i have altered the print slightly and used a colour way variation to enhance the aesthetic of my collection.

Altogether i am quite happy with the overall result of the competition i have submitted, I will also be submitting this as part of my Self Initiated Brief  and feel that it works well with the rest of the briefs i have completed. 

Noah's Arc

So as part of my Self initiated design brief project i have been asked to complete various competitions and projects that i have found on the internet. At the moment i am currently working on a project called 'Noah's Arc' for a company called Beta Fashion. Beta fashion are a company that make and sell scarves to the public but also set competitions through out the year for the public to also design scarves that the company can go on and sell. 

So far my attempt of a scarf design isn't going will but i have created a selection of developmental design! Im currently torn between two ideas: 1. creating quite an aztec based colourful scarf or 2. creating a scarf using digital imagery. 

here is one of the designs i have done, i'm really not sure about it at the moment but i guess it's a start ...watch this space for progress!

Let me know what you think!




sooo I have done a couple more designs .. they are still really basic but I want to see what you guys think of them .... I can't decide which one to develop or whether I should just start again! dilemmas!

i think i prefer this version using the slightly more tone down colours what do you think ?

I'm trying out the whacky and wild theme ... but I'm not sure if things need to be a bit calmer or whether I should em-brass the bright colours. 

A bit toned down ! 

i kind of like this one, its a bit out there but i like the colour combination; its fun and lively ...and isnt that what noahs arc and life is all about ?

digital prints and the nervous breakdown!

After lots of research, development and planning ...so came the time to take the plunge and finally submit my digital prints!

Amazingly this year our university have managed to get the funding for a brand spanking new digital printer! An opportunity that no other year has had so far at our university! having a digital means that we can create complex colour popping prints that are impossible to create buy screen printing.... this new equipment gives us so many opportunities to create the garments and prints we really want to without compromise! how amazing!

Although the printing is fairly expensive at £30 a meter for cottons and £40 for silk...it is worth it! thats not to say i didn't have a nervous breakdown when submitting my prints to mo our digital print technician. As the printing method is a long process (sometimes taking up to 2 weeks to get your prints back) and quite costly it had never been more important to make sure i got my samples correct first time round! And after a lot of stress and many an hour spent in front of a photoshop screen...success at last! my prints were ready to go. 

Handing over my usb stick to mo was quite a nerve racking business and waiting for my prints to come back to me was like being a 5 year old child the night before christmas! the day couldn't come quick enough!

Much to my delight however all my prints were successful, no blips, no wrong turns! £40 well spent. I printed on to crepe de chine as this was the closest to the material i shall be using in my final collection; as i was printing a meter of fabric i had the option of 16 A4 samples; 8 A3 samples and 4 A2 samples. I went for the 8 A3 option!.

And here they are, my final prints.... i love them all ...but i do have my favourites!

this print was based on the crazy octopus i saw at the aquarium, i like the colours i have used in it and i feel it creates quite a quirky print.

Although we were told not to use a lot of reflection our prints i feel that within this print it enhances it in the way i want it to and gives a sense of blurred reality which encompasses my creative direction.

I like this placement print , i love the photographic quality to it but the hazy focus on the image...disorientation is a mood that i am trying to create through my collection and i feel this print will add to this notion.

Although this print is similar to the one above, i love the colours used in this; my collection primarily made up of dark shades so its nice to have a few prints that give a real colour blast !

Although this print is bold i also feel it has quite a delicate and feminine feel to the print , particularly with the use of pastels contrasting with the deep blues of the print.

This sample i have designed to be used as a lining rather than a print on the exterior of a garment, i feel it would work better as an intricate flash of design rather then across a garment.

This is by far one of my favourite prints , i love the intricate detail and the colours i have used, its dark and mysterious but can still be used to make a garment look classy and feminine.

and this is the last of the prints... so far - i like this one because its got quite an animalistic feel to it!

Now my digital prints are completed i now need to work out how i will incorporate them in to my roughs and designs! wish me luck! I'm going to need it!