The Building bricks of my fashion world...

In my foundation study year, where we were primarily taught about the ideas surrounding art and design, in my pathway choice I chose, obviously, fashion. Being in this majorly creative place and process, I figured I would dabble with fashion design, please bear in mind my past experience of design and using a sewing machine, was literally making a pillow case for G.C.S.E textiles, and a little jewellry making at a Y.S.P class: for my last project, this was a big task.

I based my design ideas around architecture as (heavenly so) in my last year I visited New York City, which was a major influence (prior to my actual NYC visit also- I have loved NYC since I can remember) in focusing on architecture for my final major project.

Our end of year show sadly didn't happen, I didn't get the chance to showcase my pieces because of the floods back in '07. But since I put pencil to paper and started to design my pieces for that show, I have always been enthralled by architecture's influence on fashion, so when I came across this in my email, I was enthused.



These yummy shoes are from the store 'United Nudes' in NYC: the design of them looks so simple yet very elegant, I'm wondering if the shoe comes in any other colour combinations, or different materials, how amazing would it be if the shoes also came in glass, the colour of deep cherry? Crazy maybe...I love a sturdier heel too so these are on my 'if I had an amazing job and was paid masses amount of money to look at gorgeous clothing 24/7' wish list.


p.s I'm sure you yummy people don't need me to say this but.....my designs in 2007- nothing on these lovelies :)

Stylish Duo

Pat Cleveland (right) with daughter Anna van Ravenstein

Beautiful colour combination.

ANOTHER Magazine. Camilla Bidault-Waddington

I'm loving this recent photoshoot for ANOTHER Magazine online.

The styling and the photography was carried out by the model in the images, a regular ANOTHER Magazine contributor, Camille Bidault-Waddington. In the article accompanying the yummy imagery, it reads, the images are 'depicting the visually pleasing world of a young woman in a grandmother’s idiosyncratic Parisian apartment'.

The styling in the imagery is fairly simple, as is the photography but as Camilla states: "My approach to photography is the same as my approach to styling: it needs to be spontaneous, free, and strange,".

My favourite image? The second one down. The floral bed sheets and the curtain material contrasts just lovely with the simple colour palette of Camilla's skirt and sweater set.

Lilac Lady

Ok, so today at work whilst I was practising my menswear styling, I approached a very stylish, elderly lady, who was dressed in a lilac skirt suit (a very stylish one not a tatty looking attire at all), leather short purple gloves, a gorgeous snakeskin grey clasp bag and a stunning hat. Her outfit attracted my attention at first and then once we got talking I began to understand a little bit more about this really interesting woman.

Said hat, was designed and handmade by herself, why had she decided to begin designing hats I asked, 'because every outfit needs a hat, it finishes off the look'. I did ask if I could take her photograph but she said no, so instead after work, I quickly sketched her ensemble and tried to remember her clothing down to the last pearl.

'Zsa Zsa' was her name, I think her agent gave her this name because 'they used to think I looked like Ja Ja Gabor' she said. Zsa Zsa used to model and has modelled for YSL campaigns, which she informs me 'he was very handsome indeed': she has acted in her past too on Hollywood films and tv shows, none of which she would divulge to myself, I have no idea why, maybe she gets asked these questions all the time, who knows, but she just really interested me. It's so very rare nowadays, specifically in the north, to see elderly women dressing so well.

Zsa Zsa has style, you realise this with her accessory choices and the fact that she isn't simply wearing a skirt suit and that being it: she has put effort into her outfit and added her own personality with adding her hat to the ensemble.

After she left I spoke to my boss about her and apparently Zsa Zsa comes into the shop a lot so hopefully the next time I see her she might tell me more....

FOUND styling

These are some outfits I have put together at FOUND.








Some displays I have styled at FOUND. My brief? Jumble Sale...

Hefty Coffee Table Read

Cannot wait for this to come out!

'Rodarte' a 144 page fashion visual, stunning.


Out this september: perfect back to uni gift :)

Vintage Vogue magazine covers

Through twitter a photographer I follow tweeted a link showing an archive of Vogue magazine covers. I followed the link and blissfully looked through the covers from the early 20's, when Vogue tended to have more illustrative covers, through to the 00's covers.

These are two of my favourites.

Vogue 1948




Vogue 1950

Summer Work

Designer Ringlit, sold at FOUND, Leeds or visit website here :)





So this week I began my summer volunteer work. Working in the British Heart Foundation, primarily dressing the window displays and visual merchandising, and also working at FOUND, a gorgeous and very spacious charity/boutique in Leeds.

I have really enjoyed my first week, the hours are brilliant and not very hefty, I have enough time to dress the two windows and four mannequins at BHF in my shift and at FOUND I have more than enough creative time and space to style up plenty of apparel, and may I say the clothing here is yummy and very good quality.

At BHF the process of working there is much more formal and it seems there’s more admin to be sort, the people at BHF are really nice and helpful which is good, and at FOUND it feels quite relaxed and my boss, Vicky is very sweet, kind and helpful.


I started the week at BHF and my first job was to dress our main window, which was hidden behind a huge rail of clothing which, every single time I left the window I had to come through, it kinda felt after the 8th time, that I really was in C.S.Lewis’ famous novel, except it wasn’t as cold as the snowy forest that Lucy finds at the back of the wardrobe.

My aim was to dress the window in summer attire and with the theme of the world cup, yes, that’s right the world cup. So with this I grabbed whatever red and white clothing I could find, I looked for pieces that would suit the BHF audience, specifically in Wakefield were I’m based, the target audience being mainly elderly women. So, I picked a look that a stylish, elderly lady would wear to the pub, maybe for a pub lunch before the match?? I dressed the misbehaving mannequin in a red jersey evening top, short sleeved with red ruffles running along the neckline, some white chinos, an earthy coloured necklace and then simply threw on quite non-chalant, a white blouse (you can’t really trust the weather in the UK so I needed a back up). I gave the outfit a dark brown, wicker material handbag to bring in a natural feeling to the outfit and something light for the summer. I must have done a good job because my shift was only 3 hours and within that time all the mannequins I dressed I sold something from, which is a good sign.

I also had the chance to play with menswear which I haven’t really done before, I rather enjoyed it but womenswear is much more fun to style. For my final mannequin I wanted the look to be aimed at the more younger customer and I styled the look however I wanted, I didn’t really stick to the world cup theme but I’m glad really because I think my final look was my best. I chose a floral blue and orange dress, with a loose denim shirt for cover up, rolled up the sleeves and gave the look some polka-dot wedge sandals and added another wicker bag (BHF had plenty) then whilst having a little look at the books, I came across a really nice looking cover of a book about enhancing your femininity so I put this with my mannequin- the look overall worked quite well, and when I visited the shop today the dress had sold so I definatley seem to be doing something right.

At FOUND, the clothing and the whole atmosphere of the shop feels much more stylish and modern. The music is much better (plenty of 80’s) and the clothing is much more on trend and fashionable than those at BHF, which it should be because FOUND are aiming at a different customer.

I dressed my first mannequin in a festival look- denim frayed edged, shorts, a faux snakeskin creamy brown patent belt, a vintage triangle sweater, short sleeved with a faint pattern on the front and finished the look with a vintage purple and bronze scarf. This is defiantly my favourite look of the week. I will upload pictures of these next week. The other looks included a summer dress with plenty of cute t- party necklaces, an evening look, quite trashy, with a designer made dress, red block bottom and floral top and to this, I added a load of trashy necklaces this looked quite cool; another look was a summer evening look- chiffon peach/ochre shorts with a blue blouse with a neckbow this look however didn’t make it on the shop floor because a customer snagged the gorgeous shorts before they even got a look in from anyone else; and my final look, looked at the trend of underwear as outerwear so I styled a black lace top with white lacing collar with a floral bodice, black and pink, and put silk polka dot shorts to really mix and match the look and give it an edge.

I’ve had a great time so far volunteering; before I started I thought that I might feel a little disheartened with my work because I’m not getting paid, but its something I love; I have free rain of clothes, shoes, accessories, I can use this time to experiment with looks and I basically play dress up for hours.

The Untold Stories

Anyone else absolutely loving the new Fred Perry campaign colour scheme in their advertising?! Beautiful..

Mod 1959




I love the graphic design layout of this footwear image

Footwear 1957

Intellectual Accessory

Absolutely gorgeous and very charming, handbags, designed by Olympia Le Tan, inspired by Olympia's first edition covers of her favoured novels.

Cute.

Not sure though wether this teensy handbag will hold my mobile, my purse, my IPOD, my lipbalm.....but I would sacrifice carrying anything to have one of these snuck under my arm.

Interview Madge

I will go and buy this. I will make a coffee. I will sit in a comfy armchair, with my mug of coffee with this and enjoy....

Fashion in Pictures- 40 Years of Browns Fashion

I really wish I could see this exhibition.

A while back now I read an article on Mrs B. AKA Joan Burstein CBE, the founder of Browns. The article attracted my attention mainly from the image of Mrs B. She is such a stylish, elderly lady, when I'm her age I pray I will look like her.

The exhibition celebrates and embraces the designers the founders of the company helped when they first hit the fashion industry. My favourite- Hussein Chalayan's graduate collection, of course.







Browns: 40 years of Fashion Innovation opens at The Regent Lofts and Penthouses, The Courtyard, 16-18 Marshall Street from May 13

Styling comp: FashionMush

The FashionMush competition is finished, I didn't win but the winning look is gorgeous, the colours are very summery and light. My look however was featured alongside some of the other competitors....yum :)

Viva Cuba

How sexy and effortlessly gorgeous is the current Vogue cover story photoshoot?!

Wish I was in cuba...

FashionMush competition

I recently entered a styling competition, where the brief was to style an outfit on myself, a friend, a model, a mannequin etc showing a smart summer look.

As the promo poster stated that the look needed to be for a formal occasion, I began to think of formal occasions that I could create a look for- a dinner party/BBQ, a work experience interview, a summer wedding: these were the only occasions I could think of for smart/summer, anyhooo as I'm actually looking for work experience now, through my summer holiday, I figured how much more fitting would it be to create a smart summer look for an interview.

So I went with this look: quite smart with summer hints.



I wanted to bring chinos into the look as they're very S/S10 but I wanted to make them that little more interesting, so I added a scarf (worn as a belt) with the colour palette from the Marni catwalk shows, to bring in colour: I'm not a huge wearer of bright colours, so throughout summer I try adding colour to my outfits with accessories. I also liked the crunched up look of the espadrilles with the turned up chinos. With the white shirt, I used it to not only enhance a summer tan but to again evoke that 'smartness' sense you want to create for an interview: the black fitted jacket also helps with this. Although it is quite hard to see on the photograph, the necklace is gold and black, adding a subtle tribal trend piece.

Eleanor Montgomery Atuk

I was sent an email today from the fabulous Habitually Chic blog: a post of a project by Jeannette Montogomery Barron about her pictorial book, celebrating her mother, Eleanor Montgomery Atuk’s clothing and style.

Barron’s mother suffered Alzheimer’s disease before she sadly passed away. Barron used the outlet of photography to help reconnect with her mother before she passed: the book seems almost like a diary of Barron’s mothers fashion and style. The images are stunning, Barron has captured a very delicate and emotive sense in the imagery, and I feel I can understand a little about Barron’s mother and her chic style choices. The charming commentary that stands by the photographs is humble and again evokes a slight glimpse into the family’s life.

My Mother's Clothes from Welcome Books on Vimeo.

MirrorMirror on the shopfloor....

I’m absolutely loving the MirrorMirror project with SHOWstudio.com, collaborating with Topshop.

The idea has come about because of Topshop’s new make-up range launch. SHOWstudio.com have installed an interactive mirror in the Topshop, Oxford Circus store. Customers are able to stand in front of the mirror and everyone from stylists, designers, art directors, illustrators and plenty more fashion creatives make comment on the customers outfits-their comment then magically appears on the mirror in front of said customer, and hey presto, style advice spoken through the mirror, I wish I had a mirror like this one in my bedroom.