trend predictions for spring summer 07...

i've been looking on wgsn for trends next summer. I've popped a colour palette on my mood board below of the trend i feel my collection will work the best in. That is 'Identity'. The trend is summarised as,

"We all want to belong. We all want to be individual. Connect to others by telling your own story. Create your own club. Celebrate the original. Have pride in your origins and learn from history. Embrace your core values."

From WGSN-edu Internet site. This i believe is were i am going with my collection. I'm embracing my past, my family tree, and celebrating it through my own creative interpretation. I am using my own family identity as my inspiration and mood.
From Trend predicted colours I am interested in using;
• A balmy, bright palette is balanced by bone white and restrained dark shades of mud pie and walnut.
• Intense British brights instead of South American suggested brights.
• Sugary shades, plastic pink and peachy are paired with dark tattoo tones for extra bite.
The market i am aiming for from the trend list are;
• Semi-tailored soft separates.
• Pretty beachwear with attitude.
Styling trends i would like to press forward with are;
• Edited indigenous silhouettes inform grown-up, confident looks.
• Restrained, cleaned-up culture-mixing contemporises clothes.
• Styling is graceful with an effortless charm in the form and movement of the garment.
• Innovative tailoring construction.
Suggested materials are listed below but i intend to choose a range that suits my collection best:
Technical shells, synthetics, plastics, lycra.
• Printed chiffons, crepe silks and damask suitings.
• Intricate needlepoint and skilled lacework.
• Fine interlaced wovens, blanket-like raw and slubbed.
• Soft tailoring, slub wovens and structured satines.
• Cotton blanket wovens
And finally, pattern trend for s/s 07 are as follows:
• Hispanic street art and tattoos.
• 50s interiors version of indigenous art – the print has space to breathe.
• Contained print and edited placements.
• Geometric ethnic.
Stylised tropical fantasy prints and over sized painterly blooms.
• Tattoos and street art on printed sheers.
• Broad stripes – feature misprint bleed effects.
• Overprinted black-and-white imagery.
I am really pleased with the pattern trends as they perfectly match in with what i wanted to use anyway, the 50's interior art, and broad stripes! i couldn't believe it when i checked out the website! good ow!

final thoughts of the day...

final thoughts and ideas for today put into a slide show below. I've just discovered a great dvd on the fifties so i'll try and post that on asap. all images below are copy right so dont bother boys and gals. thank you honey bees xxx

I created a Slide Show! Check it out!

future direction themeboard...

I created this theme board to shoe where i am going with my collection ideas. I think I'm going to design a spring summer collection, so I've been on to the wgsn website to check the colours and themes for next summer. I want my collection to have a quirky yet feminine edge, and i love cut and pasting my designs onto photos. This isn't one of my designs, but it gives you an idea of my thoughts. My collection is based on 1950 fashion scene and Russian Matryoshka Nesting dolls. My collection will be highly shapely, with a mix of mini dresses and over sized shirts. They will have great impact either through shape or colour. I think i am focusing on the Great British Summer Time, as i get the feel from my research that that is what Brits lived for, fun and frolics, after the war deprived them of all fun. I want to celebrate 'British' so if anyone who reads this can comment on me to see what you think defines BRITAIN and whats typically BRITISH that would be great. I'm going to get another questionnaire together to ask people of the 50's era what they think is or was typically British in the 50's.

daneille scutt....

i love this new designer that was introduced to me by holly bednall. She is is international textiles and I've been researching into her more and found her MA graduate collection. She has done amazing things with print and i really love her use of shape. This is the contemporary feel and look i would like to have to my final collection. It is feminine with a high class edge. I also like her use on singular colours in her garments. I'm not sure if we have to have a season in mind to design for yet, better find out really!!!!

V&A museum 1950's and 1960's fashion exhibition...

i went to london this weekend and ventured into the V&A. the exhibition was primarily of the 1960's but there was quite alot of 1950's and earlier garments on show case. I found it very informative, picking up some british designers of the 50's period that i hadnt discovered in my research already. For example Hardy Amies, Horrockses ( i think this designer is british, it said the designer had a large influence in 1950's fashion scaene, bringing Paris 'New Look' to boutiques and department stores across Britain.) Norman Hartnell, John Cavanagh, charles creed, and parisian Worth. There was quite a bit of Claire McCardell, New York Designer & creater of whats said to be the start of the USA style, creating the 50's day dress with nipped waist and full skirt. I really like her designs, they seem to sum up the change that happened in the 1950's in my mind. Full of colour and fun, and very feminine.
I took lots of pictures and popped them into the slide show below. I love the 1960's baby doll dresses. I want to use this effect in my designs but in the form and influence of the Russian Matryoshka dolls.

I created a Slide Show! Check it out!

Accessories ideas...

My ideas for my collections accessories are to create large charm necklaces and bracelets. These will consist of my Russian craft influence, Matryoshka nesting dolls and any British 1950's trinkets, key shapes, toys, etc. I think they will look very effective, as the bigger the better is best for the catwalk!
COPY RIGHT ON ANY IDEAS FOLKS I POST! thanx.

working hard, then run an eeand and get a FLAT!!!

what a day! been working on my sketchbook today for my final collection ideas, then ventured out to take my papa on an errand, then get a flat tyre!!!! on my gosh how annoying! as if I've got time to mess about with a flat, i had now idea of what to do either! daddy tezza to the rescue!!! what gave me a flat was a blooming great big nail! how i picked it up i don't know! ........ so in conclusion, what a waste of a day!

on a lighter note though, I'm off to London at the weekend! yeay! Christmas shopping here i come, i think the best thing to do is buy a present for someone else, then two for me......you get my drift! tehe. I'm also off to the V&A to try and get some info and research on 50's design and fashion for my collection ideas.
mixing work and pleasure! love it!

Fnord: Annie - Heartbeat (MSTRKRFT remix) 50's Dream Vid

a mix of a contemporary music with a 1950's short film. I love the film as it all about the 1950's vision. Post war and looking to the future, stream lined and mass produced goods, new technologies, the glamourous house wife and new look fashion! this film shows how i want to use the 1950's as an influence on my designs. It wont be the only influence and i am still using my russian crafts - russian nest dollies - as inspiration, but it is to be where i take my colour palette from and design shapes. The film is American which is a down point as i want my collection to be about everything british, a celebration of 50's british style, but as my research has lead me to believe, America did the same things, design wise, as britain just on a more extravagant and wasteful manner. I will be on the look for british films though, but i must admit they are proving hard to come by!

RSA signed sealed and delivered!!!

HURRAYYYYYYYYY I've handed in my RSA PROJECT!!!
i was very pleased with my presentation and felt i got really good feed back from ann and cristie. I am a very very very happy bunny as my work has also been selected to be entered for the competition!!!! only 10 places were available and I'm one of them!!!!! yeay! (sorry, I'm quite competitive) tehe.
I'm going to post my boards on line as soon as I've shrunk them!

Blouse design complete...

here is my final blouse that i created for the rsa project. I have over lapped my rsa work and my final collection thinking on this as i want to create oversized blouses and mini dresses for my final collection. So this has been quite good practise. I found the pattern making and the construction fairly easy for this style of blouse, so intend to challenge myself even more, with more complex blouse designs for my final collection. I found working with the organza/ voile fabric the hardest! the material moves all the time so cutting it was a right mare! but luckly the blouse worked, all notches and sewam points joined so i was a happy bunny!