WEEK IN PHOTOS

Boohoo selfie, Leeds Art Gallery trip, -, Bought myself an early Christmas Present, Dylan is finally catching up on Breaking Bad, Choosing fabric is the hardest thing, Pretty cappuccino, Fitting the shop, Celebratory drinks at work.

 

URBAN OUTFITTERS PHOTOSHOOT

For my illustration/artwork for Urban Outfitters I decided to do a styled photo shoot using a couple of old film cameras I picked up from my Dad and in a charity shop. The plan was to use a black and white film in one, and colour film in the other. I wanted to somehow layer an image with embroidery that I would later have to do. I had my photoshoot just behind my house in Leeds, not the most spectacular destinations but I think it fit well for what I was wanting; A fairly simple background that wouldn't distract you from the main subject. The fact that it was quite dingy was a plus in my eyes. 

I developed the black and white film by hand in Uni, but the colour film had to be developed in some sort of machine, it didn't turn out very well at all which is a shame. 

URBAN OUTFITTERS ILLUSTRATION PROJECT

For Personal Professional Practice we had been given an exciting brief for Urban Outfitters. I was to create a fashion illustration or style a photo shoot for a zine that would be sold and exhibited in store. 

I put together a series of mood boards to gather inspiration from street style features in magazines, clothing websites, instagram and Pinterest. 

I haven't drawn in such a long time and i've never been outrageously talented in that medium. I wanted to do something a little different to what I assumed everyone else on my course would be doing. I looked at various trends I could incorporate into my piece, composition and different techniques. Embroidery really interested me from the beginning of my research. I'd never done any embroidery before but how hard could it be?

TAILORING PROJECT BRIEF

My first project brief of year 2 was based around tailoring. I had to chose two words from a list including cushioned, out-of-the-archive, line-drawing, dot-to-dot, geometric, distorted, inside-out... (they're the only ones I can remember). I chose to start off with Geometric and Distorted. I had to create a sketchbook for each of these words, coming up with sample ideas and to get inspiration for my final piece. I decided for this project to do something that i'd never done before and push myself, I wanted to design menswear. I thought it would be a good opportunity to show range for my portfolio.

At the end of the project we are expected to hand-in two sketchbooks of initial research on our chosen words, a third sketchbook of those words combined which we will have designed and sampled from, designs and development of a four outfit collection, an outfit fully toiled, a final garment made of my chosen fabric, a research file, illustrations and a half blazer to show tailoring techniques. A lot of work!

I did start this project in September so thankfully a portion of this work is completed, I shall keep you updated.

HELLO?

I think it's about time I finally came back to blogging. It has been so long since my last post I can't even believe it! I think the main reason I haven't blogged for so long, or even looked on my blog for so long is that my blog became a module for my fashion degree. It became less about blogging because I truly wanted to, and more about trying to churn out posts to do with my project. It's a shame because i've had soooo much to blog about while i've been away.

I like keeping my blog up-to-date with my fashion projects and sharing what i've been up to. For some reason there's people who look down their nose at others who study fashion at university, thinking we sit around all day drawing pretty long-legged stick figures. When in reality it's so much more than that. The amount of work that goes into this degree is immense. I can contently say that last year I fully tried my hardest and I couldn't have done much more on the course to improve. Well, apart from the one awful incident whilst completing my final project of the year... (My final garment was left under my radiator and melted into the carpet) that was traumatising! I did however, manage to complete the year with a 1st Class! Start as you mean to go on and that. 

Second year has been pretty rough so far, to put it politely. Starting with my bedroom window getting kicked in the week before I move into our new house, my basement bedroom literally flooding every time it rained and because of all of this, spending a month sleeping on the living room sofa. Not a pleasant situation to be in, but I am now (almost) happily living in a very large, very lonely 7 bed house with one of my previous housemates. Every cloud has a silver lining, mine being the extra bedroom I obtained, I like to call it my very large walk-in wardrobe. I feel like Carrie Bradshaw!

I am supposed to be moving back into my previous house, depending on whether my letting agent actually does their job, but as to when I just don't know. This is unfortunate as I have been working on launching my very own online vintage shop. Everything is put in place but I just don't feel comfortable bringing all my stock to this "temporary" house in Leeds, then to maybe be told out of the blue I have to move on short notice. I have such lovely things to show you, but unfortunately it won't be until i'm settled for the foreseeable future. Wah. 

Second year academically is quite challenging so far. As i'm sat on my bed writing this post, my floor is completely covered with calico, pattern pieces and half-toiles. My current project is on Tailoring, i've always loved tailoring but not always in the traditional sense, ie. my fetish PVC leotard I made in college. For this project I have branched out and I am trying my hand at Menswear. After 6 years of having to shape clothes around the model having hips and bust, it is surprisingly hard to forget all of that. Don't get me wrong, I love designing menswear, I just have to keep working at it! Another exciting project I have been working on was illustration based for Urban Outfitters! My illustration/photoshoot will be going into a Zine that will be sold at their store and exhibited on the walls. If you follow me on Instagram you can see my contribution, I will be posting about it on here but probably not until the end of next week. I fully expect i'll be toile-ing like crazy, then for a well deserved night out with the fashion girls!  

Also, I think my blog needs a re-design.