Out of my design coma

Ah how refreshing it is to...momentarily hang up the towel, so to speak. The past month was definitely an interesting one. The fashion show went down. Have some photos!

Photo Courtesy of Sarah Cassidy

Photo Courtesy of Steve Norton

Photo Courtesy of Alice Eaglestone

As I came to the end of making this collection, I really started to hate it. Why? I don't know, may simply be because I kept looking at it nonstop. I guess I can compare it to eating the same thing over and over again for a week. You just get tired of it, right? However when my mate Helen came to the rescue with male models, and I put my outfits on them, everything just clicked! I loved everything I made and my models were absolutely fantastic with all their swagger.

Footage Courtesy of Monty Kimball-Evans

It was a tiring two days, really. The venue was gorgeous, but there was no air circulation so all our models were practically dying and such of the heat. But they were all awesome! Mine were so amazing, in fact (and I felt so guilty for making them wear Autumn/Winter in the summer) I bought them all ice cream and nice cold drinks and insisted I bought them all a round later on at our after party. I cannot stress how amazing my models were. They knew exactly what they were doing, they knew what they were wearing, they didn't mind that I gave them wet socks because there wasn't enough time to dry them properly for the third show -- They were just amazing.

After our show in Bristol, some people were chosen to show their whole collections at Graduate Fashion Week in London and some others were chosen to bring their garments along. I brought my big distressed coat with me because that seemed to be one of the favourites. That same coat is actually going to New Designers as well so that will be interesting. I had no idea I would have been chosen to show my work at either show in London, but I'm honored that I was! More later about New Designers! Stay tuned, people!

Whoa-hoooa. A Month down the line

See how easy it is to get swamped with work and life? SEE?! Absolutely swamped and quite drained and all we had to do was one outfit. One. Just one stupid outfit. It really puts everything into perspective when you get your new brief for the real thing.

Life's been like a whirlwind of crap lately. We had terrible news last week about one of our coursemates causing our assessment to be postponed and a serious funk went around uni. No one went in really and when they did, the mood was off. Just nuts really...but I managed to have Thanksgiving to kind of cheer the mood up a bit. I cooked and cooked and I managed to feed a good bunch of people. They seemed to enjoy it as well so that was brilliant. Should have dinner parties more often. I had another Thanksgiving as well on Saturday which was even more of a success because I fed even more people and made a good chunk of money (which I won't be able to use because away it goes to rent...)

Anyhoozle, it's been difficult getting back into the swing of things. I keep wishing for snow because I got my first taste of first snowfall of the season on Saturday. Stacey and I were properly excited and kept staring out the window going "It's snowing! .....It's still snowing! ....It's snowing more! ....It stopped >:( " It snowed this morning too. It was so exciting!!

Ahem, now back to this whole fashiony side of my life again. I finished my jacket and annihilated my trousers, but together it looks quite nice. I managed to fit the outfit to my good buddy Horigan and it looked quite nice to be honest. Toile that is...I haven't had a chance to try the final thing on him yet, and I wont find out until tomorrow as well. I don't know if he can make it in time or if it will snow even. Please please snow! I'm ready for this assessment but at the same time I just want it to be over and done with. Totally tired of seeing everything I've worked on in the past 2 months. Lame.

Now to consume some more mulled wine and sort out the research for my final collection. At the minute Stacey, Slawa and I are sorting out a critical path so there is no way any of us will fall behind over the next few months. I will be so organized that it will hurt me. Promise.

RIP Melissa Smith. Love and miss you, girl. This year's for you!

Where did I go?

Hey. It's been a while. No excuses though. I haven't been that busy where I haven't had the time to post - it just slipped my mind. *cough* for over a week...

Anyhoozle! We got our brief yesterday for creative practice....basically we need to promote ourselves like mad and have a mock interview at the end of the year. A bit unsettling because the work is piling up and I'm barely swimming through it, to be honest. I'm so ridiculously relaxed and work is slowly getting done, but it's aight! It's all cool, bruv.

Here's some fashion news! I've done a nice little colour palette and customer board. I need to do a mood board next so tomorrow is a computer day! My eyes will die but that's aight! =D I'll come out with loads of pretty designs. Promise.

Here's who I'm comparing myself to!

Mercibeaucoup

John Galliano

Juun J

Quite similar, but again quite different. I feel as if I should be doing really incredible things, but I dunno...I feel a bit flat. I want seriously incredible pattern cutting...my collection doesn't feel fabulous enough. I think I'll just do my showpiece just to do it, but change alot after the deadline. Would that be silly?

I think I'm moving away from my original research. I'm kinda forgetting the Korean aspect of this. I'll nail this. Fingers crossed! x

Acid and The Hippodrome

The acid dye workshop I had today was rather dull..I do love me a bit of acid (dye of course) but it just so happens that the workshop as a whole was a lil' shit. It's good that I have the knowledge on how to professionally dye lovely colours onto silk and wool but meh. I wish it happened last year.

But I've decided I'm gonna use wool as one of my fabrics :)

We had a meeting about the fashion show and how we need to designate jobs to everyone to make the workload more reasonable for everyone. I'm quite excited about this fashion show. We still have a helluvalotta fund raising to do, but the end result should be radical.

Ah and for my interview today. Talk about intense. 10 girls, one theatre. Ha sounds like a bad porno, however that's what it was! We had a maths test and individual interviews in these quite rooms, I was actually a bit nervous :/ I hope I get the job though cos my other potential job fired me before I started. Haha yep, on the way to uni this morning I got a call from the cafe and the lady said that she had someone else and she didn't need me for Sunday. At least my weekend freed up. =D And I wasn't bothered anyway but I reeeeeeeeally hope I land the job at the Hippodrome. I'd be well happy.x

Business...Creative Enterprise?

At noon today we had a talk about the new module about business. It was really interesting, but do I want to do a presentation about my "business". This and Visual Culture run the same amount of time...I would like to know more about business, but would I enjoy stressing out about my business module file AND my showpiece at once? I suppose the same thing could go for the dissertation. Actually, writing about my options now is making me start to lean toward this Creative Enterprise business. Bah. I still have all night to give it a good think!

I felt rather productive this morning. It was a nice cycle:

Wander around library, pull out a book, browse, scan the hell out of it the book, repeat.
Wander, book, browse, scan, repeat.
Scan, scan, scan, scan, repeat.

Bulked out my picture file a bit more, but I do need to actually have a good look through it and do some studies from my pictures. What good are they if I can't get anything out of them, eh? I'm thinking about doing my sketchbook in InDesign so it's nice and clean and I can change pages without having a panic attack when I want to go in a completely different direction with my work. I think I may start that tomorrow, but in order to do the whole InDesign thing properly, I'll need to reformat my Mac. Shocking, but I want it all fast again. The amount of Adobe ANYTHING files slows my Mac's pace down to the speed of an old lady who just got a hip replacement. Anyhoo...

Karis (one of my lovely housemates) came running up to me in the Library today and explained that there was a steampunk workshop starting up this year. Is that lucky or what? So Slawa (another one of my lovely housemates) went down to the Fabrication room with me to hear what it was all about. The technician seemed really excited about everything so bing! I signed up with the quickness. First workshop is on the 21st. That gives me enough time to design some things for it! Happy times.

I also get to meet with the International Recruitment officer on Friday and I get to go to the Bath Fashion Museum on November the 26th so eveything's coming together! Oh, how efficient I feel!

I must steal that book off of Stacey (the last, but not least of my lovely housemates) to aid with research! But for now I'm going to curl up with a cup of tea and draw for the next 5 hours. ...or at least that's the plan. Maybe I can squeeze in a few episodes of "Come Dine With Me" too. Just sayin'. x

First day back!

Surprisingly, the first day wasn't too bad. I managed to knock down a shelf in the library and fill up a file with photos! Huzzah! We had a reeeeeeeally long talk about out brief which happens to be for our showpiece! ...I feel like a bit of a dunce cos I know that what a showpiece is, but I don't as well. It's that "wow factor" that never seemed to catch my attention (or maybe I just never pay attention? Who knows.) So why not try to familiarize myself with showpieces from well known designers?

I'm assuming that this it the showpiece for Marni's SS 10/11 collection. I think it sums up the whole collection pretty well actually. Take a look for yourself. My tutor said it didn't have to be a piece that blinds you or something, but it needs to be enough to stand out...at least subtly.

This brief sounds fun, but sadly, it stressed me out a wee bit because I wasn't so with it over the summer. I should have done more research, but no use worrying about it now! For the rest of this week I shall be drawing like a crazed artist, you know, one of those types who lives in paint stained trousers and always has dirty charcoal covered hands. Ha...

On a lighter note, I got to have a tutorial and talk about my ideas and the tutor I talked to was really inspirational! She gave me loads of advice and supported my ideas. One thing I need to do is send an email to the International Recruitment officer. My tutor said to get a better grasp of my market in England, or Korean even, I need to actually get proper opinions about boy bands in Asia and fashion. Basically I need to ask the recruitment officer if she recruited any Koreans so I can ask em questions. A bit shifty, but everyone at this university is mad so I don't think I'll cause much of an uproar asking for a supply of willing Asians.

Additionally my tutor said to go to Bath Spa and go to the Fashion Museum. I planned to anyway so I could really get a grasp on how Victorian clothing was made. All I need to do is call the museum and demand alone time with the garments =D Should be simples!

Took out some magazines today to check out how to layout my sketchbook. All things will (try to) be considered! My presentation this year will knock someone out - pow pow! ...or ya know, at least keep them interested! I'm quite excited about this year and I also have that sense of dread hidden behind all that excitement. This year shouldn't be too bad, should it? x