First Look

After god knows how many hours of man power my first (or 3rd in my lineup) look of my grad collection has been completed <3 

I more than certainly underestimated JUST HOW LONG it would take to make, the entire look (minus 2 seams) is completely handcrafted. I have calculated roughly 40 hours worth of handiwork has gone into these 2 garments and I must say my hands have hated me for it! But it's been so rewarding and I couldn't be happier with how it's turned out :)

So that's one down...only 5 more OUTFITS to go!

I wish I had some time...

...to write a proper update, but in the meantime treat yourself to an updated design for my collection :)

 

Hmm long sleeves or short sleeves?

 

Portfolio Layout?

So on Friday artist Rebecca Rendell came to guest lecture, and afterwards came around to speak to us individually about our work (which was great!), and I received some feedback from her about the pages I had produced previsouly for my portfolio (you can see these in my last post). She said she thought it looked very professional and she liked the consistency of layout on the pages, but she advised me to spend a little time cleaning up some of the images which had been scanned from my sketchbook, and that still had a distinct line between the image and the background so that it blended into the page as a whole. 

 

When looking at my customer profile page, she also suggested that I break down my text, and to only include very specific information, as having a large block of text as I currently have will more than likely be skimmed over or not read at all. So that was very informative, and made me realise that as I'm producing my portfolio pages to really consider it from the spectators point of view.

Does this communicate the ideas effectively? Does it make sense? Is that a page that will be skimmed past or will it make them want to stop and look? - Gotta be asking these questions constently!! 

 

Well I've been working on these new pages as part of my technical folder for uni, and I don't know about you, but I think these are looking visually more exciting than the layout for my portfolio I posted last week.... 

So I'm looking for some feedback, any suggestions, what do you think? 

Also ignore the text! The text is there for the purpose of me and my lecturers, but just layout and design wise, which looks best?

Oh also I guess this is showing you some of my toile development process too :)

D-Day

So Friday was DEADLINE DAY! And I am still feeling exhausted from the week leading up to it! *Yawn* This was our first deadline of our 3rd year, which means only 3 more to go, weheeey. I'm feeling pretty confident about it, I mean I know I worked as hard as I could and did the best I could, and at the end of the day that's all I can do right? But lets keep the fingers crossed until I get my grade back (If I don't get a 1st I will screeeeam! ahah)

Once I get my sketchbooks back, I'll do the post I promised about my design journey...it'll be a pretty long post so be prepared!

For the moment though (as I'm feeling brain dead right now!), I'd just like to share with you a few 'portfolio' pages I did quickly on Wednesday. These are certainly not finished or finalised boards which will actually be going into my portfolio, they're simply a starting point, of an ongoing process that I'll be working on from this point to be ready in time for when I finished. So any form of feedback is of course welcomed!

Because circles became such an integral part of my design process, I've tried to incorporate this into my layout, as you can clearly see! But like I said these are only a starting point, and like everything I do there is always room for improvements :)

And speaking of making changes, I have already started to make alterations to my 'final' collection that I got very excited about and posted last. In fact I think I started to make changes literally like 10 minutes after I posted it! Ahah. I've decided I want to play around a bit more with the colour combinations, working with colour isn't really my strongest point, so pushing myself to work with it this year was a bit of a challenge! But along with that I've just been making small changes, mainly in the details.

So other than that, I'm currently trying decide what to do with myself today, I want to work on my dissertation, however I don't think my poor overworked brain can handle big words and my complex subject matter.... in fact this has taken me over an hour to write! Whaaat! And even watching 90210 is proving difficult to concentrate on.....

Happy New Year

Hello 2014!

I hope everyone had a great start to the new year last week! And what better way to start the year blogging than with a post about GRADUATE COLLECTION!

I have finally just finished designing my FMP  - Hurrah - I will write a little, or a lot, more about it very shortly once I have all my moodboards and whatnots finalised, and then I'll do a post on the entire design process, what my inspiration and concepts were and all the mountains and molehills I've climbed to reach this point!

But for now, enjoy a teeny sneaky peek of what will become my 3rd year collection...

Warning: Subject to change

#alwayspickingfaults/wantingtomakeimprovements

Feedback is ALWAYS welcomed

Carbolic Photoshoot

This photoshoot happened waaaay back in June! (yes, that long ago) My first shoot that I worked on where MY designs were being photographed, that was pretty darn exciting, oh yes it was. 

The photographer was Emma Barrow, who absolutely amazing, and a great photographer to work with, you can view her work here, and I recommend that you do :)

Model was Beth D from Gingersnap Modelling Agency, and hair and makeup was done by Jo Dyer at Envy Hair

I couldn't have been happier with the results and I hope you like them as much as I do!

On the Gingersnap website

PCA Fashion Show

So this is what it all comes down to. As any fashion student knows, the end of year fashion show is THE event of the year. And I am so proud to have been part of the Plymouth College of Art's show this year :) Without a doubt PCA has reached a whole another level, and it's only going to get better!

We held 3 shows over the course of 2 days, with our finale show blowing everyone's frilly cotton socks off! Massive thank you's to EVERYONE who participated and helped make our show amazing, and of course a huge well done to all the designers :)

I especially would love to thank the two most important people in my life, my mum and my boyfriend, for having to put up with me and all my stressy fits (and trust me, there was alot ahah) but more importantly for their endless help and support. Love you both very much xxx

As second years we were required to produce capsule collections of 2 or 3 outfits.

So here it is. My capsule collection

Carbolic

Also featuring work by Serg Bojorean

Simon Rawling

http://www.simonrawling.com

 

Jamie Sweetlove

https://www.facebook.com/JSPPhotography?fref=ts 

 

St Columb Photography

https://www.facebook.com/StColumbPhotos?ref=ts&fref=ts

 

And my dress featured in Thursday's morning newspaper! 

Plymouth Herald

View The Herald Video Here 

Models by Crazy Fish Model Agency

Glamour Icons - Moodboard

I've just put together a very quick moodboard, it's really badly done lol. But as I'm a bit pushed for time, I thought it would be more efficient to just throw my images together so I can get straight on to doing some concept drawings! Knowing me though, I'll re-do it at the weekend, can't be dealing with half-hearted work. No no.

Due to already knowing the fabrics and colours I'm working with, I've strictly stuck to rich dark hues of blue for my moodboard. I didn't have an exact idea in mine when I started searching for my images, but straight away I noticed I was being drawn to these pictures that had alot of soft curves and lines in them! I'm about to start on some sketches, and I'm thinking drape, movement, romantic and feminine right now....