Mood board, collection 1

Exotic reptile patterns and spots and the bold patterns of butterflies will combine with soft floral’s to create an exciting, bright print collection for spring/summer 2011. The colours are based with ivory and mushroom with soft tones of spring green, arctic blue and yellow, hints of gold, bright emerald and sapphire and splashes of fuchsia and black. Hand painted prints will form the collection with screen printing for added detail, on light silk fabric.

My Initial Ideas!

These are some of my initial design ideas, using floral and abstracted butterfly patterns with screen printed dots and patterns taken from the reptile drawings. The idea is to use hand painted print combined with screen print on a silk fabric.

I think the bright, bold colours work well with the watery patterns, as it shows them up well. The dots also add another diamension and extra detail. I am now thinking about combining some of the prints together to create a more detailed outfit as a whole, with more going on.

I have decided to do two collections for Indigio, and first I am going to concentrate on a print collection. I have not done much print before so this is a good opportunity to improve my skills and learn and perfect new techniques. I have learnt how to do hand painted prints using procien dyes and a clear screeen to paint onto, and I have found watery techniques to be really effective in bright colours. I have been using the patterns from butterflies and also the floral shapes from the jewellery exhibition for inspiration.

Valentino s/s 2010

I love Valentino's Spring Summer collection which has a vintage, delicate feel with feminine details and a really soft colour pallette. This beautifully embellished dress has really inspired me to do something with light fabrics and with embroidery detail. I love embroidery, and I think it works well with the cutaway element, which also looks great against the sheer fabric and combined with beading. I feel I now need to go and do lots of embroidery and cut-away samples!

Alexander McQueen show S/S 2010

I loved the Alexander McQueen spring/summer 2010 show, which I unfortunately didn't get to see live as the internet seemed to crash, but I found all the images on style.com. The colours are vibrant and lively, and the prints are detailed and rich. I love the way he has combined aspects of different print into one dress making a mix of colour and patterns. The structured dress shapes are sharp and bold to add to the impact. I like the colour story he has used with bright colours against a neutral pallette of browns and creams.

Indigo Project

I love 18th century fashion details, and also like to look at vintage pieces for inspiration. The centre photo of embroidery is 18th century and has influenced my colour story as well as some ideas of sampling I will be doing for embroidery. The beading and delicate details of the vintage pieces has inpired me to do something quite soft with light fabrics and maybe beading and lace details.

This piece is really unique with the bold appliqued blue shapes against the delicate sheer fabric and lace, and I like the contrast of it.

My current project is to design a collection of fronts to exhibit at Indigo, Premiere Vision in Paris. The collection is for Spring/summer 2011, and the brief is 'Cabinet of Curiosities. I have decided to look at nature for inspirartion, drawing from the pattern details in the butterflies, birds and lizards.
I have been really inspired by the symmetrical shapes of the butterflies, and also the geometric shapes in the birds wings.
The lizards textures and reptile skins have inpired me, and I have been drawing from these references as a starting point.

Inspirations

I went to the V&A museum to get some inspiration for my project. There is an amazing new gallery of 'Jewellery throught the ages', which showcases beautiful pieces of delicate jewellery. I loved the detailed diamond pieces, like this 19th century spray ornament. The floral pattern has inspired me, as well as the florals in the gold plague, which is an 18th century piece.

Alfies Antiques Market in London is an amazing place to get great inspiration from antiques and vintage fashion. I was really inspired by the beautifully ornate photoframes and jewellery elegantly decorated with diamonds and patterns. The vintage colours of gold, bright blues, dull greens, cream and rust have inspired me too.

SHOWstudio images...

Jacket from the installation The Sound of Clothes at ShowStudio

To see the Gareth Pugh Film visit to web address below...

http://www.showstudio.com/project/fashionfilm/insensate

SHOWStudio

Last week I visited the ShowStudio exhibition in at Somerset House, Fashion Revolution and was really quite inspired by what they are showing there. It shows a really interesting new take on fashion and design and how technology is really coming to the for-front of fashion. I loved the way you could really interact with the designers and you got a real insight into their thoughts and inspirations behind the collaborations. The main thing that I came away with was how important computers and technology now is to designers and how it can enhance and change what we do. It also showed quite an artistic slant on fashion which was new and innovative.

My favourite piece was the Sound of Clothes: Synaesthesia by DANIEL BROWN / NICH RYAN, 2006. This was a really interesting piece where you could interact with the jacket, by touching the screen, with different parts making different sounds. The idea of a music making piece of clothing is really fresh and innovative and something that would have been impossible without the technology of today. It was also a gorgeously made lace, vintage looking jacket, which I adored.

The fashion films was another part of the exhibition that really inspired me. It shows films of collections by the designers, such as Gareth Pugh's dark, emotional film of his a/w '09 collection. It is a really inspiring way to show a collection and gives a real sense of theme and emotive feel to the concept behind it, and has inpired me to possibly want to do something similar for my final collection.