The Fashion For Winter 2011

Its all about Lace, Blacks back!, booted and suited blazers galore and there's always a time for a splash of colour because jewel coloured jeans are in this season! There is glitter for the evening and there's printed tees to dress down in the day!

River Island Jumpsuit with booted heels make a great classy evening wear outfit!
This outfit can be dressed up or down the River Island booted fur wedges can work both ways day and night! Skinny beige jeans also look great with a leotard just a nightmare if you need the toilet!

Jones and Jones I am a big fan of there company andhow they have come about creating garments this particular skirt would go perfectly with some of the jewel colours in this winter.

Basic Tees Casual Chinos and a hoody is a very popular trend among teens this season!

Casual T-shirts and leather skirts this is a great look for evening wear this season!


Coloured jumpsuit with bright statement heels makes anything stand out!

Faux Fur coat with the brown top then mixed with a buckled boot heel this can be a really classy daytime look the handbag below currently in (Topshop) big handbags are in ! Handbags make any outfit.

This outfit works perfectly Gold clip for hair picks out all the gold colours of the embellishments on the garments!

..And last but not least pixie boots!

Topshop Footwear Buyer!

As buying is something I have always wanted to do before I begun the course I have created a folder that consists of Fashion buying information, different markets and all the relevant information I would need to know before beginning a course!

This Top Shop Footwear Buyer really interested me I found all her information she gives about her career inspiring and true about a average day as a fashion buyer! Top Shop is one of the biggest brands on the UK highstreet from mums to teens to petite to tall it provides fashion for everyone!

Here is a snipet from the buyers blog post about a average day as a shoe buyer...


2. What's your general working pattern like?

• MONDAY - Go through the sales pack* and analyse last weeks sales. We generally look at each line and new reaction to see if we need to repeat (buy again)/move on (develop the style) or limit/review anything coming in that isn't working and monitor it's progress.
  
• * The sales pack is usually one big fat printed pack with all the styles in store or at the warehouse due for delivery into stores, including style/line numbers, colours bought, quantity (qty) bought, qty sold, how many weeks is left before product sells out according to average weekly sales and quantity bought.
  
• TUESDAY-FRIDAY varies depending on whats happening but we generally buy monthly and are constantly reviewing the range and adding in new key styles/colours that we need in quickly.
  
• Day to day I tend to be: visiting suppliers to see what they have, in meetings with design working on new developments, trawling the internet and magazines for inspiration, looking at the competition and shopping for new ideas, liaising with merchandisers re: quantity's/dates/price points and ranging, placing orders with suppliers, negotiating prices and dates, visiting TS branches across the country, in range reviews* with management, buyers' meetings looking at the trends and highlighting key items and fit sessions with shoe technologists.
• As a Buyer it is important to keep building relationships with potential/current suppliers as well as ensuring deliveries come in on time, being aware of all kinds of trends-reacting to them and what the competitors are doing in store - the team will always go Comparative Shopping (Comp. Shop) and produce a report to share with the team.
• * Range Reviews - working with the merchandising team, a review is compiled of the previous season/or months performance - so the products both best-sellers and worse sellers (Dogs) are analysed and reviewed to understand what the consumer liked and disliked.

Starting to create Uni Portfolio

From all my efforts last year I felt it was important to get big canvas prints of my final dress design here are the photos I used! My outcome looked great and this has started my preparation in time for my university interview...

(There are more photos to come of my final canvas print and how I did this)

Collaborating interesting fabrics in to design work...

As part of my current pattern cutting brief one of the tasks is to collect a wide range of interesting fabrics I have used some from my previous brief on sustainable fabrics as shown on image below.

I have then started to create a design based upon using new design ideas and 'interesting fabrics' This is what I have come up with.

- The trouser design has three parts and the materials are layers on top of each other and slashed at different levels .

-There is also going to be a big flower feature on the waistband of the trousers using inspiration from my previous brief (from the colour pallet) I will be using a series of jewel colours.

- The flower petals will have different weights of interfacing as this will create the petals to fall in different ways.

Colour?

As you can see from the above picture I have selected colours that the trousers will feature. I have bought 1/2 a metre of fabric to start experimenting with!

Front Hip Pocket

-Front Hip Pocket

-Slashed pocket with a welt

Firstly I ironed the interfacing on to my front trouser ensuring in was stuck down.

I then lined it up with my facing sewing a 1.5cm seam allowance.

I then nicked the seams and cut in half.

- Sew a retaining tow to the facing.

- Iron the facing.

-Sew a retaining tow to the facing.

-Iron the facing.

-Sew a 1.5 seam allowance joining the pocket together.

-Cut material on the bias.

-Sewing the bias strip to the pocket.

-Then cut a 1.5cm seam allowance in half (reduced)

-Apply the bias binding to the pocket

-Press

-Sew a retaining row to fix the pocket to the trouser front and waist and side
-Join the front trouser to back trouser at side seam using a 1.5 seam allowance.

-Overlock to make a closed seam.

Jason Brooks

Opinion

Mood

Media

What aspects of their work inspire you?

How would you then use this in your work?

What market level?

Jason Brooks

Jason brooks created a series of illustrations for the well-known clubbing brand Hed Kandi. I feel his work reaches the target customer of a young lady who likes a glamorous lifestyle. His work features a lot of kitten eyes and big lips creating a feminine pose.

I would then use his illustrations in my work. His drawings he creates lots of soft feminine lines and sometimes uses reputation-creating unity in his designs. I would use the inspiration for a colour pallet and using fabric that body hugs as many of his Hed Kandi illustrations show club wear.

The mood of his work is very up beat as he illustrates for a club scene using a lot of adventurous colours.

The market level his work would aim at would be young clubbers in the age range of 20-30 as this is Hed Kandis Target market.

Sustainable Fashion Essay !

In my current unit I have been studying it’s all about working as a designer for a label that is concerned with the issues surrounding sustainability. The term Eco fashion can mean many things, I see it as something has been made that considers environmental issues and social impact a product may have through out its total lifespan. Another term for this is ‘carbon footprint’

Sustainable fashion is all part of sustainable design. The purpose is to create designs that respect the environment and help poorer communities in developing countries. Clothes and accessories that meet the criteria are usually made using organic raw materials such as cotton grown without the use of pesticides; re used materials such as recycled plastic from coke bottles. Eco fashions don’t involve the use of harmful chemicals and bleaches – and are made by people earning fair wages in safe conditions.

Eco fashion has always been seen as green and not very stylish! But over recent years developing techniques and more designers wanting to include these issues in their collections Eco Fashion has a new face designers are now incorporating sustainable practises into modern clothing. On trend fashion but with all sustainable issues covered.

Celebrities, models and designers have really started to promote Eco fashion. One fashion designer who I have looked at Stella McCartney I found particularly interesting I never knew all her clothes considered environmental issues. All Stella McCartney stores, offices and studios in the UK are powered by Ecotricity, a company that invests the money its customers spend on electricity into clean forms of power like wind. Stella McCartney shipping bags are 100% biodegradable. They were developed exclusively for the company so as to degrade without polluting the environment. Stella’s fur policy is totally none existent NO FUR!

It is amazing to see that every thing she does she makes sure the most complex things are done in an ECO friendly way! Even the taxis are booked through an eco company.

So what materials have the most harmful effect of the environment?

The repurposing and recycling of textiles is sometimes considered the most innovative and responsible mode of eco-fashion. By using plastics or past garments to create new on trends this can be a great way of not harming the atmosphere. Although cotton is often viewed as a quintessentially “natural” fibre, its production has, in fact, often been especially damaging this is a big debate in the fashion industry its un matched to any other fabric in terms of comport softness and durability However it is grown with a array of toxic chemicals resulting in the deaths of thousands of people in developing countries! Are we un aware as a consumer that buying a cotton top could result in the death of a person?

Furthermore, waste materials from dyeing processes have historically been one of the most conspicuous forms of pollution. Today, there are a number of sustainable alternatives to harmful dyeing practices. For instance, clothing by Katie Brierley, designer for Isoude, uses natural plant dyes and embraces the disappearing art of traditional hand dyeing.

The use of fur, feathers, and animal skins in fashion is a subject of debate. Long used for warmth and protection, fur is always on and off the catwalks. Increasingly viewed as a luxurious status symbol in the 19th century a lot of viewpoints have changed due to acts of animal cruelty.

Overall and in conclusion to my findings I think companies can do a lot more to help developing countries and the environment. It’s amazing to see how sustainable designers ca n act on these issues and create such fashionable outcomes. I’ve always thought sustainable fashion was just bin bags!

Colour Page

Before I began to design I needed to determine the colours I wanted to use in designing I decided to take through a small selection of block colours purple, pink and red.

And the more neutral colours Black, beige, grey and brown. This will help me when designing my garments that I can then work to a colour pallet.

When it comes to colour mixes I must insure the co

lours go well together here is a image of a girls hair which shows the types of colours I want to use in my garments giving me a striped effect.

I also want to bring forward the whole block colour effect. This image of shoes shows a selection of my colour pallet.

Asos Green

I have been given Asos green as the company I am going to be designing for. I have been researching into various areas of how ASOS green promotes this on their website. At first I thought Asos green room was one brand but it calibrates with Made, People Tree, and Asos own brand Asos Africa.

So what does the range consist off?

- The range is about stylish but affordable prices between £15-£50

- For every item sold by Asos Africa the brand will donate £5 to Soko Kenya

-Jessica Ogden designs for the Asos Africa range (she has recently designed for Fred Perry)

- The Green Room is a selection of Asos which is dedicated to brands with a social and environmental ethos.

Here is a page from the Asos website about the products they offer:

TRENDS LACE/JEWEL COLOURS