Zara Taylor blog inspiration

Zara Taylor is a blog I regularly look at I find her blog really interesting. She puts her own label on her blog by using photo shop to illustrate her name almost like her own trademark. Her blog is all about her vintage jewellery It's something I have never looked at before 'vintage' Vintage is very big in London and the demand for vintage jewellery and clothes is rapdily increasing in demand.

Many celebs wear Zara Taylor's jewelery from the likes of Millie Mackintosh, Caggie Dunlop, Kelly Rowland, and Jessica Jane Clement.

The jewellery designs have been featured in many fashion magazines like style, and are beginning to trend. I think Zara Taylor's blog is great inspiration for me as a designer because it gives me a sense of what fashions are trending. The price range of Zara's Jewellery is not expensive with prices ranging from £15- £50 this would definitely make her market level high street. This range of Jewellery would be good for a boutique range in Top shop or a boutique range in London.

Magazine Features...

Kelly Rowland wearing Zara Taylor's designs in her new music video.

Made In Chelsea cast trending the designs!
Jessica Jane...

First spec drawing of final garment!

I have named all my garments after Roman god's and goddesses, my first design I have named 'Flora'. As part of my final major project I need too learn key skills on Adobe Illustrator and create fashion sketches of my final garments! Here's how I got on with my first spec drawing...

Front view
Back View

Prodiga Fashion!

Blogs I look at…

-http://www.missmilliemakeup.co.uk/

‘The Made In Chelsea Star, Millie Mackintosh has fast become a fashion icon for young women. Her girlish dress sense mixed with her confidence in whatever she wears has generated a huge fashion following’ – Prodiga Fashion

Millie Mackintosh is one of my favourite celebrity fashion icons. She has a really simplistic style but stylishly carries of all the new in season trends. Millie is a star of the TV show Made In Chelsea and very in to fashion! She promotes certain boutique ranges and vintage fashion. One recent boutique range is ‘Prodiga Fashion’ Millie is the brands new ambassador. From looking at her blog posts regularly I have began to become really interested in the brand Prodiga Fashion and what its about. Prodiga specializes in luxury designer womenswear I love the style of the garments because the brands focus is hand embroided fabrics. Prodiga pitch their garments the a high end market with hand embroided fabrics being their unique selling point, this is very similar to my final major collection. I am creating simple patterns because pattern cutting is not my strongest point however I am focusing in creating stunning embellishments to make my garments stand out. Overall I feel this brand relates to me as a designer.

Lay Plans...

Before creating a lay plan I need to know the importance they have in the fashion industry. No business wants to create waste as they would be loosing out on profit. This is why its important to consider the use of lay plans whilst manufacturing my final collection.

"A lay plan is very important in industry because it prevents wastage, the more fabric you waste the more money you loose"

"When cutting out fabric pieces for a product the pattern needs to be arranged on the fabric economically. This is called lay planning it reduces the fabrics waste"

The importance of blogs in the fashion industry...

"Online personalities have become a widely accepted norm"

A blog can be a format transforming written text into a form of presentation on a online level. This allows blogs to be branched out over the net into various different categories. However the most common form of blog that exsists is ' The fashion blog' As is the case with any group, certain bloggers have acquired a larger following than others and are therefore considered to be the leaders of the online community. Such names include Scott Schuman of The Sartorialist, Garance Doré of her eponymous blog, Bryan Grey-Yambao of Bryan Boy, and Susie Lau of Style Bubble.

The blog has become a platform not only expressive of one idea, but of many. Through one post, thousands of comments can be elicited so as to create a dialogue. This forming of dialogue allows a way to explore a information and images allowing for discussion and dissemination of news and information within the fashion industry.

Blogs have now flourished into an establishment of new media press and a new wave of fashion industry celebrities. In addition to such, the public display posts and through photographs and information and discussions blogs have slowly made their mark of importance in the fashion industry and this way of learning and displaying your personal thoughts and feelings online has become more present in society.

It was admitted that the public does seem to have a voice in changing industry made decisions, however, such is only possible with the aid of already established members/bloggers of the industry. The barrier between the public and the industry still exists, although the blog format permits a split in the two sides.

Close Fitting Bodice Block

Creating my close fitted bodice block

- I traced the close fitting bodice block which was my first draft.- I removed the darts from the front and back panels.- This meant the front panel was divided into two sections.

- I then added 1.5 seam allowance to each pattern piece.

I then laid the pattern pieces on my fabric creating as little waste as possible.
( picture for lay plan )I joined the two faces together.

This is a photograph of the toile.It is perfect on the front panels however the sidepanels are too big so I will need to reduce them.
The sleeves are too wide so I will need to reduce them. Shown on picture (pins mark this)

I need to alter my pattern pieces to make sure my bodice will fit properly. I then drew on the areas I needed to alter and added my seam allowance.

These are the changes I have made to the back. (pictures shows where back has been adapted)
On the front and back bodice I have enlarged the neck opening. I then tried the neck line on the mannequin. I needed to alter it again slightly.

(picture of neck)

Here is my finished Toile, netting attached to toile shows the technique I am going to be using to make the skirt puff out (giving the effect of an under skirt)

Trend Prediction- View magazine!

View magazine Trend prediction:

Here I have selected two different pages in View magazine that fit in with my theme.

Picture1:

Uses a lot of structured lines in garments and uses a similar colour pallet to what I am using. The designs look very armour like,so the trend prediction relates back to my Roman final collection.

Picture 2:

The hourglass silhouette, which I have used in my final designs. I looked into sixties fashion this is where my inspiration came through also from looking in trend prediction magazines this is something was predicted for 2012 spring/summer.

Tim Walker 'Like a doll'

Tim Walker is a British fashion photographer. His style is a colourful mixture of humour and darkness this is very distinctive in his work. I looked at Tim Walker because I feel his work applies to my market level as he uses the idea of dolls being people. Tim uses quirky looks from fall collections of Louis Vuitton, Stella McCartney which I sourced inspiration from originally to help me source current trends for 2012 and how they were shown on the catwalk. It is interesting to see the garments being styled as this is a big marketing pitch for many designers to advertise thier garments in Vouge to get consumers to buy into the brand.

Pattern cutting- development of my skirt front

SKIRT FRONT

1. I traced the front skirt block. Which was my first draft.

2. I added 10cm extra flare to the centre front and 10cm to side.

3. I took a line down from the bottom of the dart to the hem. This measured 59cm.

4. I then measured 59cm on the hem. Shaping the skirt to fit.

5. I then extended my hip line.

6. I slashed up the dart. Removing the dart.

7. I could have simplt slashed and spread the dart but that would have only given me 10cm. I wanted 20cm.

8. I added 10cm to the area I spread the dart. I then measured from the top of the waist to the hem 59cm which is the length of the skirt.

9. I marked this and then removed the excess length

10. I then repeated this process on the skirt front side panel.

11. I then checked the length on all pattern pieces to check they were accurate.

SKIRT BACK

1. I repeated the process on the back skirt. The only difference was that I had to slash and spread two darts, adding 5cm to each edge of the draft this then matched the size of the front skirt.

2. I then added 1.5cm seam allowance to each pattern piece.

Jones and jones...

Jones and jones have a similar style of skirt I want to create for my final designs. I have taken some pictures of the design of the skirt and some of the features used. This could help me in my FMP.