The Fashion Book

Over the last couple of months myself, Tribe Magazine and Plymouth College of Art have been working collectively to document the work of the (now graduates) 3rd years fashion students!


The Fashion Book; Featuring designer profiles, footage of the Graduate Fashion Show held in May, and video interviews from some of the students discussing their work.

Take a look at the amazing work produced by PCA's Fashion Graduates of 2014

View it here

Thank you to Foto Plus for the photography of the show, and lookbook images featured within this publication, to Dan McCluskey and Peter Griffiths from Tribe for their video footage, and to Tribe in general for offering me a position with the Magazine as a result of working together on this.

You can view my video interview here:

And if you were unfortunate enough to have not attended our Fashion Show, not to worry, you can watch it now:

On Becoming a Graduate

Well this post is well and truly overdue!

I am no longer a fashion student. I am officially a graduate. A 1st Class Honors Graduate. *Proud face moment*

Since my last post (way back in March), I have finished my collection, all 450 hours of pure handy craft, showcased at my end of year fashion show (which was amazing, by the way), exhibited at Graduate Fashion Week in London (which was also amazing, by the way), and then there was the PCA Summer Show!

PCA Graduate Fashion Show

PCA Fashion Graduates 2014

Yes I am missing everyone already!

...I then took a much needed 3 week break, of doing absolutely nothing, but lying in bed watching Netflix. I needed it. It was heaven.

Buuut. Then the hard work began! (Secretly I love it, I really really do), my calender is pretty much full up for the next 2 month and the number of emails popping up in my inbox is increasing more and more each day. Straight after graduating I was offered a position as the new Fashion Editor for Tribe Magazine (very exciting!), I have started work on my first 2 pieces of freelance work, and have been collaborating with 2 lovely independent businesses (Sew and Fabric, Truro Wool), as well as running a series of workshops and courses in association with them (who would have thought, me teaching?) and in October I will be returning to my beloved Plymouth College of Art to do a bit of work with the 2nd and 3rd years on the Fashion degree in Portfolio Development (so I don't have to leave after all?!) There are a few others bits and bobs beginning to happen - but nothing I can yet reveal!

I'm in the mind set right now of just saying 'Yes' to every opportunity that's coming my way. I'm viewing everything as a stepping stone, that will eventually lead me to being in the position to finally setting up my label. And when that day comes. It will. Be. Perfect.

My Grad Collection Tweeted by GFW

And on their Instagram

Some lovely words about my collection from Fashion Feed

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!

Introducing...

...MY GRADUATE COLLECTION

After, god knows how long, I have finally, 100%, down to the very last detail, finalised my collection!

WOO!

And here it is guys...here. it. is.

So this is Thankful Thursdays...

It would seem there is an online phenomenon known as 'Thankful Thursday'.. .I imagine this is nothing of the new, but I often find myself so sucked up in my own little bubble that I often bypass these types of things! But hey ho, there we go...

My dear friend Sophie actually introduced me to this, she's been posting her Thankfulness over on her blog for a little while now, along with her countless pictures of her adorable bunny Batman, this is him...

 Trust me if you love bunbuns you want to follow her!

 And this evening on Facebook she asked me the simple question:

"What are you thankful for this week ms rocky balboa?" <----- there is a reason why she calls me Rocky Balboa, but that would require a post of it's own! Not to mention it's one of those '...you had to be there' moments.

In all honesty it's not a question I often ask myself (that's bad right?!) but I must admit it was so REFRESHING to stop and actually think 'What am I thankful for?' then I had the realisation.....LOTS! And booooy does it make you smile *Que goofy grin*

So here goes nothing:

I am most thankful for everyone of my classmates who helped me in putting together our KICKSTARTER campaign! As self-proclaimed project manager (there is no modesty here) I've spent the last couple of weeks organising, planning and researching the best way in which we could make this a success, but I cannot stress enough how this wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for the commitment from the rest of my class and all their help and contributions. SO THANK YOU THANK YOU!

 

We're a fun bunch....I know

Which brings me onto my next Thanks! OUR KICKSTARTER WENT LIVE TODAY! 

Now I'm most likely doing this backwards as I'm actually going to be doing a proper post on this tomorrow, but keeping it short and sweet.... Us BA Fashion Students at Plymouth College of Art are fundrasing for our end of year Fashion Show! So so important to us, and I would be even more thankful tonight if you would be so kind and donate a little of your time (and money) to help support us :)

 

#FASHIONSTUDENTPROBLEMS

Thanks no.3

I sold this today!

 

Photographer - Emma Barrow Photography
Model - Beth D, Gingersnap Model Agency
Hair/MUA - Jo Barker, Envy - Hair Salon

I designed and made this Latex Crinoline as part of my capsule collection for my 2nd year (a little refresher for your brains) and today it sold in the PCA pop-up shop which is currently being hosted by my degree, as part of our fundraising (yes, yes we are doing all we can to raise money for our show, see the dedication?) oh and not to forget this knitted dress sold too...

 

 Photographer - Emma Barrow Photography
Model - Jenny Evans, Bookings
Hair/MUA - Jo Barker, Envy - Hair Salon

I'm also thankful for my Daniel buying me a Freddo this afternoon...I find chocolate is a necessity when working on your dissertation (which I am currently NOT thankful for....Sophie will yell at me for that)....

 Who ever thought a frog would make such good chocolate?

...As does endless cups of tea.....or buckets.

Thank You. And Goodnight.

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

Plymouth College of Art - Winning!

Earlier on this month my college, the good old trusty Plymouth College of Art won the award for the Best Stand at Clothes Show Live 2013 :)

....still can't get the image/sound of my course leader Ali screaming in the corridor! Ahah

You can read more about it here on our college blog.

 

 You can just make out my collection hanging on the rails there!

Sugar and Spice

Photoshoot I worked on back in August, inspired by the 1990s.

Photographer: Emma Barrow
Model: Jenny Evans, Bookings Models
Hair/MUA: Jo Dyer, Envy Hair

Shot at the beautiful location of Mount Edgecumbe in Cornwall, here are a few of my favourite shots.

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