WORKING AT THE JULIEN MACDONALD SHOW LFW

Clearly not good at this blogging malarkey by the looks of things! A few weeks ago I was given the opportunity to work backstage at the Julien MacDonald show at London Fashion Week. The show was held in the beautiful Royal Courts of Justice which paired nicely with the opulent dresses being shown. It was very organised and it was clear how hard the staff and the interns had worked prior to the show. Everyone one working was so friendly and helpful it put my mind at rest that there wasn't too much pressure dressing the models. 

Each dresser was assigned two models and two dresses for each of them. The dresses I was entrusted with were the knitwear pieces, heavily beaded and embroidered, not to mention stunning! The models make-up and eyeshadow was inspired by the tall stained glass windows of the Royal Courts of Justice which complimented the slightly gothic grandeur of the gowns, paired with a wet-look gelled hair style.  

 (Via)

(Via)

This was my first 'big' fashion show that I have worked at, having only assisted at my Uni's graduate show and Sheffield Wedding Fair. It was a great experience and I really enjoyed it, I was quite sad it was so quick actually. 

UO X LCA PORTFOLIO

Follow me on ISSUU to see some of the portfolios I have been working on. 

WEEK IN PHOTOS

Illustrating my final piece out of boredom, Yellow selfie, Sophie's 21st, Off home early, Rip 'n' Dip Cat shirt day, Inspiration (love shearling), Back home with my bestie, So much inspiration as i've not done a thing this week!

WEEK IN PHOTOS

Making my leather bomber jacket, Inspiration, Watching the Sex and the City movie for the 4th time that day and designing, Post-hand in Neon Cactus, Drowning our sorrows with cocktails, Inspiration from Alastair McKimm, Leeds Art Gallery visit to choose an inspirational artwork, Inspiration, Best reason for watching Game of Thrones, Inspiration. 

 

WEEK IN PHOTOS

She bites me and wonders why this has gotten awkward, New Years Eve in Carlisle, Experimenting with padding, Hand-sewing the 3D panel, Pattern pieces, Preparing to make a lay plan, Lay plan, The checklist before the deadline ):, Inspiration, Flat drawing, My 3D leather spikes, Sewing together my jacket, My lifesaver after these all-nighters.

 

WEEK IN PHOTOS

Me and Amee, Naomi #selfie, Me Naomi and Lauren, Nightout back at home, Homemade printed presents for Dylan, Found my perfect Christmas Jumper for Christmas Day, I made Christmas ornaments of my kitties!, Pumpkin hates her Santa costume, Mine and Bethany's annual contribution to the Christmas dinner, Family game night, Boxing Day night out, Naomi and Emily, Inspiration, Attempting a layout plan, Interfacing leather is tedious works.

WEEK IN PHOTOS

Having to re-print another tshirt because I burnt the first one with the iron, Back home with my bestie, Great hiding place Pumpkin, It doesn't matter how big they get the cats still try to climb the tree, Charity shop purchase, Blaeu Wall Map, Festive, Sleepy Pumpkin, Inspiration, New Years Eve plans, More Shop research, Bad weather glitches.

URBAN OUTFITTERS FINAL

My final image/illustration for the Urban Outfitters brief. Technically it's two images, because i'm greedy. The embroidered image is supposed to be my only final but I absolutely love the image on the left from the photoshoot, it would be a shame not to use it, so I created a double page spread! 

I'm not entirely sure when the zine will be on sale or when it gets put up on display in-store unfortunately. Hopefully i'll find out soon! Let me know what you think (:

HANDMADE LEATHER CLUTCH BAG

I find buying presents for people so hard. I think the only person I am good at buying presents for is my sister, mainly because I just buy things I like and luckily we have the same taste. This year I thought it would be a good idea to hand make my gifts; a lot more thought and effort goes into it and I'm skint. 

I have so much leather at the moment! I went a little mad whilst fabric shopping in Dewsbury and came back with quite a handful. I thought it would be good to make a little purse or a clutch bag for Sarah, for our uni Christmas meal.

I hand drew a pattern and chose this pretty orangey/tan leather with the inner suede for detail. My poor sewing machine struggled a little with the thickness of the leather but we got there eventually!

I''m really pleased with the result, especially seen as how it is my first ever attempt.  I really want to make more! I have many colours and i'm contemplating making mother a make-up bag, like she doesn't have enough!  Hmmm.

WEEK IN PHOTOS

Screen Printing, Caitlin loosing her Primo's virginity, Stanmore Place Christmas dinner, Makeshift Christmas tree mannequin, Vegetarian Christmas dinner, I made my first ever clutch bag for Sarah, Homemade present from Sarah, Sampling, Printing presents, Victoria Quarter is so pretty at Christmas, Disco ball tree, Tailoring research at The Kooples, Thread shopping, Vintage Dylan, Bored sketching, 3 year anniversary dead flowers, Flower shrine, Midland Hotel.

 

URBAN OUTFITTERS DEVELOPMENT

I originally chose tartan as my trend for this project, but as I was toying with the idea of laying the embroidery over my models face, my boyfriend kindly expressed that he thought my model would end up looking like Mel Gibson in Braveheart. So floral it is! Floral is a forever recurring trend that can be worn throughout any season; whilst tartan on the other hand, on the mass scale is bound to be cast aside  any day now in my eyes. I was crushed when I had bought some vintage tartan fabric with plans of making a blazer for winter, only to see a similar jacket in Primark weeks later. Getting off point now. 

I found an old embroidery book from the 70's in a Charity Shop and it had a great pattern in it for a chair cover. I altered the design quite substantially to fit my aesthetic but it was a great starting point.

 I used 17 different coloured/shaded threads for this piece and it felt like it took about 100 hours. Hmm, that was probably an exaggeration… Let's just say it took a long time. I definitely underestimated how time consuming embroidery could be, this piece is about A4 size. 

I put my photoshoot images and embroidery into photoshop and played around with different compositions, opacity, layering, etc, etc. I ended up with a good amount of final ideas which is great, but not so great when you have to choose only one to submit!

WEEK IN PHOTOS

Judy's Vintage Christmas Market in Leeds Corn Exchange, Pretty purses, Primo's lunch, Monday night pub quiz, Apollo came in for a visit, Festive, Favourite meal at Neon Cactus, Actually managed to get a seat at German Market, Old illustration, Feeling fancy in the Alchemist, Cereal Killer and Cinnamon Rum Punch, The Leeds German Market, Sampling, I don't think I even like Innocent Smoothies but I wanted the hat, The house I live in, Rare with Sarah and a cocktail with bacon in it, I bought treat for the cats of Stanmore place; cat lady for life.  

URBAN OUTFITTERS PHOTOS

Here are my 3 favourite images from my photoshoot for Urban Outfitters. In total I had taken around 70 photographs, half with a colour film and half with black and white. I developed the black and white film by hand in Uni; I hadn't done it for about 2 years so it took a little bit to refresh my memory. I really enjoy film photography, I like having the control and being able to 'photoshop' your images the old-fashioned way. I would have liked to have posted my contact sheet but I left it at Vernon Street campus and I keep forgetting to retrieve it, oops. 

Originally for the photoshoot I was just going to take head-shots because if I was going to embroider over it I wanted it to be simple. I did take the first 10 as head-shots against a white background but they just weren't doing it for me. I was pretty relaxed with the styling for this photoshoot, my sister model dresses well to begin with (which I take full responsibility for) so I didn't have to put too much thought into it. Obviously I wasn't going to put her in something like a floaty dress and high heels, the outfit has to fit in with the surroundings. I love the jacket Bethany is wearing, she picked it up in a charity shop a couple of weeks prior; paired with a velvet top, high-waisted jeans, a tartan scarf and vintage docs. 

I love these photographs. It was made even better when a neighbour's little cat came to say hi and sat on  Bethany's knee. It is called Apollo.

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.