Unique LFW

My first fashion blog post featured Unique A/W13 and here I am sitting in my Unique inspired fluffy jumper (unfortunately my student finance doesn't stretch to the real thing.) But once again Emma Farrow has pulled it out the bag, everything about the collection screamed Summer even down to the bronzed models. Flowing water like silhouette dresses along with 70's referenced geometric prints and colour palette caught my eye most. Bottle green, violet, ocean blues, warm butter yellow and a selection of greys made for a individual colour palette on the catwalk, moving away from the baby pastels shades widely featured at London Fashion Week. 

Lots of layers and gentle fabrics to make up a relaxed and comfortable collection that echos lazy days at the beach and long drives with the roof down. 

Check out the Vogue show report http://www.vogue.co.uk/fashion/spring-summer-2014/ready-to-wear/topshop-unique

Image source: WGSN

Emilia Wickstead LFW

London Fashion Week September 13-17th 2013 showcasing Spring/Summer collections for 2014. I've only recently started following fashion week but it's addictive. Here are some of my favourite collections.

Emilia Wickstead is fairly new to London Fashion Week launching her first label in 2008 and ready to wear collection in 2011. Wickstead's collections made up of cornflower blues, peach, lemon yellow, burnt oranges and blank whites. The bright pastel colour palette and large billowing silhouettes really stood out on the cat walk. Tent dresses and candy stripes in silks and satins gave the collection an Alice in Wonderland vibe. 

Image source:WGSN

Victoria Beckham NYFW

Victoria Beckham: style icon, fashion designer and posh spice. Victoria was first introduced into the fashion industry as a serious designer with her spring/summer collection back in 2009. Since then Victoria has consistently presented confident designs to NYFW that scream elegance and simplicity. Being awarded Designer Brand of the year at the British Fashion awards in 2011 also laid firm foundations for Beckham in the fashion world and led to a cult of celebrity followers. Victoria introduced a second label Victoria by Victoria Beckham in 2012, which is one one of my favourite collections this year at New York Fashion Week. 

Victoria Beckham

The 'flirty' collection was made up of a concise colour palette of black, white, greys, fuchsia pink and red maroons. Emerging trends included the rounded shoulder lines, crisp shirts and pleated frills. Triangle panels and geometric applique added a architectural element to the collection creating tone to the very flat fabrics used by Beckham. 

Image source: WGSN

Victoria by Victoria Beckham 

Such a feminine collection with a strong colour palette of peach, coral, purple, lilac, orange and black. The collection is mainly made up of dresses with a clear 1960's reference. Soft floaty silhouettes, fluted skirts, jacquards and textured fabrics create this relaxed style, the playfully elegant collection will definitely appeal to a younger market but still feels sophisticated and effortless . I especially love the cute geo prints. 

My favourite dress of the collection... Want it.

Image source: WGSN

http://www.vogue.co.uk/fashion/spring-summer-2014/ready-to-wear/victoria-victoria-beckham

And how cute did Harper look sat front row 

Summer Project

As of September I will be starting a new course, BA Fashion and Textile design at Winchester School of Art. This was a major decision, as I have already completed a year at Cardiff Metropolitan thats like a 1/3 already done but I just didn't feel like the course there was for me. I chose Winchester because of their incredible links to the industry and the overall reputation of the school, which is part of Southampton University. My decision was also based on the course content, in the first year I will be studying: print, knit, weave and fashion. Compared to Cardiff this course has so much diversity and I really wanted to pursue constructive textiles. I've also always been interested in fashion but shied away because its such a competitive industry, so i'm really excited to try out that module too. I am sad however not to be going back to Cardiff as I made some amazing friends and fell in love with the city. 

Check out WSA course blog : http://www.makefuture.soton.ac.uk/

WSA graduates were also featured on Vogue website and on WGSN 

http://www.vogue.co.uk/fashion/autumn-winter-2013/ready-to-wear/winchester-school-of-art/full-length-photos/gallery/994586

We were asked to do a Summer Project: This is me. The project is based on what we want to achieve, focusing on something we enjoy or taking up something new or revisiting something old. This is a pretty wide brief but what I took from it was to try new things. So I did something pretty adventurous and I went travelling, to me this was all new. I've always been organised but boy was planning my trip stressy mainly because if anything did go wrong it would probably be my fault. But it didn't phew. Together with my best friend Sarah (who I met at uni in Cardiff) we planned a 3 week route around Europe. 

Paris
Barcelona 
Valencia
Rome

(more posts on my travels to follow)

I also wanted to get back into blogging, I only started this up in February but shamefully have only completed 7 blog posts eeek. I think the worst part is that someone might actually read it and i'm really not a fan of sharing my work. I think i'm my own worst critic but it's something I have to get over so here goes blogging.... 

Digital Project

At the end of term 3 we were asked to create a series of digital designs for a 3 week project with guest lecturer Lucy Richardson of Allihopa. Based upon a maritime theme for a hypothetical commission for Cardiff School of Management. 

Moodboard

Jellyfish design

Seaweed design

Shell design

Triangle design

All my own designs and images

I used Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator for the first time in this project.

'City' Project

I'm just finishing my second term of my first year as a Textile Design student and we haven't yet quite sunk our teeth into a hearty topic as we are currently flying through all the stitch, dye and print techniques. Starting in January we were put into 'field' groups basically mixed with all the other art & design hill billies for a 2 week research project. I don't know if you've ever had to work with people you are just lumped with but it doesn't always go to plan, we started off with a brief looking at the 'city' Cardiff. As a group we chose to look at Cardiff Castle the oldest part of the city, dating back to the Romans in 55-400 AD later followed by gothic fairytale update we see today, by the Bute family in 1766 - 1947 AD.

My second city site was also chosen for me, Llandaff Cathedral, 10 minutes walk from my halls, its full of art history and remains the centre of the community even after being rebuilt after the Cardiff blitz. 

I some how needed to link these two places into textiles, I found common ground in the surface textures around the exteriors. Concentrating of the pavings and floorings around these two historic sites, looking back this idea wasn't very adventurous but this image of the cobbled flooring by the castle grounds reminded me of this print by Sonia Delaunay and I knew I could work these surface textures into my work inspired by her style. 

Some sketches

Some more prints