Because It's Better Than Real Life

This Laundrette is my childhood, it's where I used to live, in the flat upstairs. Where my Dad would put us in green laundry buckets and swing us about and where I worked for several years. Thought I'd give it a little decorating..

Graduate Fashion Week- Middlesex University Press Show

A week today I had the valuable opportunity to dress backstage at the Middlesex University press show. This was the second of Middlesex's graduate shows, the first showcased all of the work by this years graduates which lasted a whole hour, and it was all incredible. A panel of four judges decided who would go through to the press show; Matthew Josephs- Stylist and fashion director at Wonderland Magazine, Kim Howells- fashion director at Hunger, Keko Hainswheeler- Middlesex alumni, fashion designer and creative consultant at Diesel and Kiko Simoes Gaspar- Marketing and Communications at Vivienne Westwood. I don't know how they decided! 

The university has attracted a very generous amount of press from the show; being featured on Idol magazine as one of the three stand out schools of GFW also on Dazed Magazine, Wonderland, Vogue  and Vogue Italia, which goes to show that fashion does not only revolve around CSM and LCM. Bring on MDX!

Dressing backstage is one of the most valuable experiences an aspiring designer can have, it is entirely different from watching a fashion show, you get to see first hand the work that goes on behind it. Effectively when you're watching a fashion show you are only seeing the aesthetics, when dressing you see how they work as garments; the amount of layers of clothing that is used for one look, how detailed they are, the hand stitching, embroidered labels, the weight, the feel, and what the models think of them. You get to speak to the designers, see their view on the collection and what inspired them.

 We all get assigned a model and a rail of clothes to dress and do line-ups to see how they will look and if any adjustments need to be made.  After the dress rehersals, the models go for their hair and makeup, I have dressed at three shows and from what I have observed, it goes like this; the dressers will be there all day, and the hair and make-up turns up a little later, I never know when the models turn up, they're just there, you know they're models cause well, they're beautifull. Then the hair and makeup will have all the room, chairs, and food, and we always wonder if we're allowed any food... the clothes will be kept all in one place with everyone else, and there's usually an area reserved for sewing and alterations. I was dressing four looks by Jessica Brown, Nuno Lopes de Oliveira, Sian Alexandra Hadnum and Sarah Kate Holmes. The first look by Jessica consisted of a multicoloured knitted onesie with a hooded, crocheted jumper over the top, woven through this was crim which gives it a colurful and futuristic look. The second look by Nuno was layered and completely gold consisting of leggings, shorts, a vest, and a top which was beaded by hand across the top and down the sleeves, I liked that the whole collection was in gold, and stayed true to his glamorous aesthetic. Sian's collection was very oversized, with bold text and print, the look consisted of a large silver bomber jacket, a turtle neck which was unbelievably soft inside and trousers, all of the looks had masks made out of cut up tights, which the models curly hair poked out of the top . Sarah's look was the easiest to put on, I like the soft colours and the imagery, embroidered barcodes, shopping baskets as accessories and hospital gas masks with dollars inside.

It is very surreal how all of that hard work, three years of preperation is finishes in the space of a couple of minutes.

Some photos, unfortuantely whilst dressing it's difficult to get some great photos, as the show is on but here's a few:

Clothes on the rail

My model Reece wearing Jessica Brown design

Lining up. Jessica Brown designs

Jessica Brown 

Sonia Gill Desgins

Georgia Green Textiles

Close-up Georgia Green Textiles 

Lining up for the final walk

Dried flowers. collage. experiements.

i have become obsessed with flowers

incorporated with some knitted lace

Show Day

The Collection lined up in bags

Karen took polaroids of the fittings

The final looks

Design Assitant: Part 3

 The Final Days

The last two days of the internship were the most stressful and seemed to blur into one. All of the work needed to be submitted by the Wednesday before the show, a lot of sewing took place in this time.
As I said before, if I had free time I went to the knit room to help out there. In the morning I went to help Sarinya Rattanasusai, she is a knit student, her work was very colourful and dynamic. I had to knit samples which was later sewn together onto a large cape, I only had time for two.  I hadn't knitted in a while and it was nice to, especially as I have chosen that specialism for the rest of my course.

It's unravelling!!! (sorry)

Then I went back to help Karen. I spent the first part of the afternoon cutting out lining material for the garments, and then the remaining time sewing. Her collections feature very transparent fabrics, in order for them to look neat, different seams and hems must be used. I spent most of the afternoon sewing pin hems. A pin hem is a tiny little hem usually used for lightweight fabrics, they're seen a lot on scarves. To do a pin hem you have to turn the hem in 1cm and sew right at the edge, then cut the fabric away right near the sewing line, after you've done this you have to turn it over again and sew. As well as pin hems I had to do french seams for the inside of the overlay, this gives a really good finish. You have to sew the fabric wrong sides together, cut the seam allowance to 0.5cm, turn it over the right way and sew over it so that it is concealed. 

The overlay had to have a zip which goes through the centre back of the garment, however I also had to make a french seam for the remainder. This was incredibly tricky as the zip is facing one way and I had to sew the French seam the opposite way. I spent a very long time doing this, and I did it pretty well until I realized it was on the wrong side of the dress! 

It was a mad rush to finish all the garments, we didn't have time to put lining in one of the tops so I had to sew a rolled hem, this was tricky as the material used is so thick, also as it is in panels the thicknesses in material change through the whole thing. 

The day of the hand in, Karen sent me to Wilkinsons to get garment bags, hangers, and a toothbrush to brush out the mohair making it soft.

All of the garments made for the show had to be steamed and put into garment bags, on hangers with all of the accessories. A picture is taken of how it should all look like together and placed at the front of the bag. Then put onto the rails in the order they will be taken, and left to the tutors to mark. 

By four o-clock it was over, everone went home to sleep and prepeare for the show the next day.

Design Assistant: Part Two

 Karen Luong

For the rest of the intership I worked with Karen on her collection. She is a weave student, her work consits of light tones of grey and blues and pops of yellow, it's very fresh, clean and sophisticated.
She used light fabrics like organza which cover lightly over the woven garments which are thicker in comparison. This is the line-up of her collection, the first three garments from the left are the ones which were made.
As a weave student you have to work strategically, you can only produce the fabric to the size of the loom you are working on. This barrier has been overcome by many of the students, the weave is made and put into panels on the garment, I think it looks very modern and highlights the details in the weave.
In similarity to knit, the time taken to make a weave is painstakingly long. So each sample made is precious. Especially when light, thin yarns are used, in Karen's work she used a mixture of soft wools like mohair with shiny yarns like embroidery thread. The woven samples were all different but worked together really well, large panels were made which were metallic with ridges and an ombre effect, this was used mainly as the base of the garments and then patchworked with other samples, the smaller samples have more detail and take longer, they have a mixture of different techniques and yarns. The statement piece in my opinion was the mohair bomber jacket, made entirely out of weave, I like the contrast between the fluffy mohair and the blocked yellow parts in the weave.

My job was helping her work on a woven crop top, the woven pieces had to be patchworked together. I layed them out on the table and we had to strategically place them so that we were left with minimum waste. We placed them so that they were symmetrical. I like the mixture of all the different weaves together. I then sewed them together and pressed them down so that they lay flat and cut the pattern piece out. After cutting the piece out you have to get it through the overlocker straight away or the weave will unravel.

Patchworked Weave

Weave Sample- Metallic Ombre with Mohair contrast

metallic embroidery thread- weave sample

Mohair Bomber Jacket before the ribbing and zip is attached

Beauty, Photoshop, Continuous Line

Jennifer Lawrence, Scribbles, Prada, Flower Power, Subtle, Lace.

Design Assistant Blog: Part One

For this part of the assignment we had all been assigned a 3rd year student to intern with during the lead up to their final year fashion show. I have been working with two designers, Karen Luong and Jessica Brown, I was working mainly with Karen a weave student but was helping other students in the knit room.

For the first part I was working in the knit room. 

Jessicas collection was vibrant and colourful, the collection was inspired by the Tron movie,  and incorporated British wool, coloured nylon-stuffed Italian yarn and crin, the crin added a futuristic feel to the garments, they look like wires of electricity. She also used Aluminium to make her trousers, the material is used to line the ground of greenhouses. The trousers added a space age feel to the collection, and they could stand up on their own without anyone using them!..

This is the piece I was working on, I worked on the top layer. The was garment crocheted by hand with four layers and a turtle neck. Two layers would fall at the front and two layers at the back.
My job was to sew square pieces of plastic into the gaps in the garment. The pieces had been laser cut and were made from transparent acrylic sheet, with a shiny finish to it.  Jessica was very organised, she had strands of fabric dyed and cut ready for us to use, I then used a needle to feed the strands through the holes and tie in place, after all the pieces had been tied in I had to flip it all over and then sew the loose strands into the garment so that it is neat.

Working in the knit room makes you really appreciate the work that the students do, as you understand how much time and effort goes into each garment.

Back layer with crin

top layer with acrylic square pieces

 

 Some close ups of the knit 

Part Four: Videos

Here's another little post on videos. I did one a while back on contemporary/ expressive dance, with Kate Bush and Florence Welch (babe). I love danicng, I can't go out without dancing I don't know how people do it, if there's music I'll dace, if there isn't.. I'll probably still dance. I said to my friend the other day, I don't really watch that much TV, I don't have time, what I do with all my time I don't know but I think prancing about aimlessly takes a lot of it up.

I want to start dancing again, properly, I also want to go see a Ballet, the movement and the freedom is inspiring and I can relate that to fashion. I would also love to make a fashion film on dancing....that would be fucking awesome.

Interview

 Louise!!

For the assignment we had to find someone to interview which relates to your subculture. I thought it would be interesting to interview one of my friends because the people you keep closest are the ones that have the deepest effect on your own life. Louise is a very close friend of mine, bestie! You may have seen her looking beautiful when she starred in my photoshoot a few months back. I think she has a very unique style, she always wears rings on her fingers, wherever she goes and a scrunchie in her hair.

How would you describe your style?

Oh lord, erm, comfy in the winter, and more skin in the summer. I look at trends but it doesn't really bother me. I like black because it makes me look slimmer haha..tomboy in the winter, girly in the summer

Yeah I noticed that, a Little Black Dress

YES, I love going out and making an effort, love a LBD, and funky black shoes

What about your scrunchies where do they come from? 

Urm, my hair grew too long then I was in Urban Outfitters and saw them, bought a few, then bam!, 90s came back in so everyone was wearing them, actually.. I like 90s stuff, denim jackets, scrunchies, tartan, skinny jeans, eyeliner.

What about your jewellery?

Urm.. I'm literally a magpie! I look at anything silver and with a gem, I think cheap rings look tacky and gold is too old for me, so silver is perfect and it goes with everything.

Are they sentimental?

Yeah some were once sentimental but now they're not really haha, just memories.

So tell me a bit about Guernsey, what's it like there, life, friends etc...

It's small, 60,000 people. Not many shops do everything so we shop online, or everyone wears the same thing from New Look and it gets so boring. We're always at the beach in the summer. Me and my friends love to drink, cause it's the only thing you can do for fun haha.

So how do you make your style unique in Guernsey? Is there a specific style?

Nah there isn't really a style, just trying to be different, Topshop is a favourite and Missguided, you just don't want to be in the same clothes as everybody else.

Has your style changed since coming to London?

Yeah I think so, I wear darker colours a lot more, I'm not sure. I just like an older style you know? 

More grown up? 

Yeah, can't explain how though, I just don't look at what I normally would have, I'm trying to be more unique, different patterns and stuff. Trying... haha.

I feel like being around different people can affect your style as well, like you and Paddy (boyfriend)

Yeah exactly!! Hahah, when I'm chilling I wear Paddys clothes haha

THANKS LOUISE!!!

PART FOUR: Hangout

The Pheonix

Going back to the subculture assignment.. as part of the blog I had to look for a place where my subculture would hangout, luckily I happened to stumble upon it which I think makes it more real. There are many places which I love in London, Camden, just a train ride away, Brick Lane, Portobello Road but it takes time to explore these places and find somewhere that I really like. Here I just turned up for a gig and it was perfect. 

The Pheonix in Exeter is a "multi-artform" venue, it's a perfect artists' hangout, they host hundreds of events each year ranging from music, art, film, theatre and comedy as well as art workshops so you can enjoy your art with like-minded people. For the day there are several art galleries with new exhibitions to visit, there's a large auditorium for gigs and film, a digital hub complete with editing suites, artists studios, a radio station, sound recording studios and a print workshop, central to all of this is the cafe-bar which serves food and drink for day and night.

I was very observant of the people who went to the event when I looked at them I thought, this is my subculture, mostly young, groups of hippies, it was quite a laid back event so they dressed in what is ordinary wear for a casual night out but there were prominent styles. Everyone wants to stand out in their own little way, there was a lot of vintage clothing and adapted clothing to their own taste.

Backbeat Soundsystem

We went to the Pheonix to see a band called Backbeat Soundsystem. "Laden with groove, stomping bass and dub synths, Backbeat Soundsystem's traditional reggae style draws from numerous influences including funk, ska, pop and dub. The eight-piece band have honed an infectious, bass-led party style and an uplifting festival-friendly vibe." They definitely lived-up to that description,  I loved the vibe of the room everyone was dancing and bouncing and each song just flowed effortlessly to the next. I could imagine me and my own group of friends in London going to a night out like this.

I've kept listening to some of their songs, Fighting Bull, Losing Faith and I like I Spy as well. I would definitely recommend them to anyone who like Reggae, they put a very modern take on it. Reggae doesn't necessarily come into my music taste but they were great live and I would definitely go and see them again. 

Mount Edgecumbe

 By the way...unlike my other posts, with substance and direction and some aspect of fashion intuition, this is a cheesy little post about pretty little flowers cause I'm a girly girl who likes pretty little flowers.

As a student living in London, a diverse epicenter for culture, art and design, I was suprised to find myself most inspired when I left. Two weeks break, a week back in the homeland, sweet Wales and a blissful detour to Exeter for the rest.

In Exeter we took a trip to Mount Edgecombe, we got on a sweet little boat for £1.30 from Plymouth, 10 minuites later and we were there in Cremyll, Cornwall. In a beautiful country park. I practically spent the whole time picking flowers with my boyfriends housemate, a crazed hippy woman who likes to run at sheep, she's great. And telling him to take pretty pictures of the flowers and the view.
We found loads of spring flowers growing on the trees, some were dying and had fallen off, but I find this just has beautiful, they were scattered on the grass beneath the leaves.

 My hat flew off when I was walking and then I thought it would make a cute basket. 

   

Me looking classy as ever with a strongbow 

Me (chipmunk) and Muk. bewt

I kept some of the flowers and pressed them in a book, they still retain some of the colour but have a more rustic feel, they look more fragile and delicate which I like. I've been pinteresting, looking at different techniques with flowers, garlands and eco prints, there may be a lot of flowers in my work form now on...

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Rant: it all began with "free the nipple"

I was scrolling through twitter and spotted an article by I-D on the new phenomenon, free the nipple. The movement promotes sexual equality. They made the point that the only people partaking in this protest were women with beautiful perfect breasts, "we're not all Cara Delevigne, Rihanna or Miley Cyrus", and would people have the same response to larger, saggier breasts? Although I think the same could be said for men, you'd find that the ones that are most likely to bare all in the park are the ones who have been hitting the gym. You don't see many beer bellies on instagram do you?

"free the nipple" source: ID

 Men protested for the right to be topless in public in 1930 and won that right, however, women weren't given the same courtesy. It is bewildering, how the social "norms" of our culture have such an impact on the way we live. Why is it so unacceptable for a woman to be seen topless in public? What's the difference between wearing a bathing suit and wearing underwear? That has always fascinated me, just because something is labelled as such we immediately assume that it only has that one use. The occurrence of the bralette has allowed women to show more skin in public, but what constitutes a bra and a bralette? Does it matter? I say these things but I know I would still be weary to go out in just a bra, even if it looked like a "bralette". I have braced everyday life without wearing a bra, it has actually become quite normal for me now, and it’s comfier. But I love lingerie, "intimates", sometimes wearing more clothing can be sexier than going completely bare. It builds tension, leaves more to the imagination as they say. Take knee high socks, there's something very seductive about exposing just the thigh rather than the whole leg, I feel more self-conscious walking down the street in high knee socks than if my legs were completely bare.

Women’s bodies have always been placed in the public eye through media, maybe it seems more obvious by today’s standards but go to any art gallery and you will always find paintings of the female nude. What is acceptable and what is not? It's the context in which it's presented. The Birth of Venus depicts a beautiful goddess, it is an appreciation of the body, she had two aspects: she aroused humans to physical love or she was a heavenly goddess who inspired intellectual love in them, or both. For our fashion show we ran with the theme of sex/ fetishism and religion. They seem like very controversial subjects but when delving deeper into the subjects I found that they were very closely related. Have you ever heard of sex being sacred? It seems like a lot of people don't see it that way, it can be viewed as sinful, something to be kept a secret, ashamed of. In ancient times, before the rise of patriarchal religions people worshipped the goddess; benevolent, fertile and above all sexual. "The Goddess of Sacred Sex invites us to open to the sacred in our love making, to be aware that sex is a gateway that can connect us with the divine, to see our bodies as sacred vessels of immense power and love."

Venus Goddess

But what makes it seem sinful? Maybe it's the exploitation of sex in today’s media, too much, in your face, get away! It can be viewed in different ways. I think a woman can feel empowered by her sexuality, she who has the power to seduce all men on page 3, or is she a sexual object? Most would say she is. The boundaries of what is acceptable have become very blurred, or maybe it's just instagram that's confused: Petra Collin's account was deleted because of her post of her unshaven bikini line, what was their reasoning for this? It isn't offensive. Rupi Kaur had her image taken down twice, it was an art-piece featuring a girl who left a leak on her period, she is fully clothed and all is shown is a red spot on her joggers and on the bed. Why are these women being ridiculed for what their bodies do naturally? Whether people like it or not, it's life, it happens to all women but we are told to shush. Honestly, how many girls have to go through that phase of worrying, omg do I need a bikini wax?! Why should we have to worry?

I think this is the all-natural "hippy" in me, make love not war people xx

Rupi Kaur 

Petra Collins- unshaven bikini line