Fairy tales...

I am now on my final project, and panic has just set in. As I am going to uni to do a costume course I wanted to look at creating costumes ready for theatre. Theatre has always been a huge part of my life and one of my earliest memories is of helping my Dad build sets ( as well as I could when I was 6) for an amateur production of Into the Woods ( my Dad played the wolf). So I wanted to use this love of fairy stories for my final pieces.

I have decided to look at Red Riding Hood, Cinderella and Jack and the Beanstalk. I Can't wait to start making my costumes.

Modern masters, and now to end...

This is my final image, I am very pleased with some elements of it but I'm not overly happy with the editing. It is still something I struggle with but I do feel that I am slowly getting better. I wanted to try to make the modern image blend into the background, I blurred the edges and tried a few different effects so that it would not stand out from the background.

I really enjoyed the photo-shoot, it was short but sweet. I didn't need a huge range of poses and managed to get the perfect image really quickly. The hair and make-up I wanted to keep quite plain, I think the painting shows Salome's raw natural beauty and I thought that if I went over board with the hair and make-up it would detract from my models beauty.

I did not need any props for my photo-shoot, my dress was made with time to spare and I did not have a back drop. I feel my organisational skills have improved greatly in this project the only thing I may do differently another time would be to paint my own backdrop. The reason I didn't have a backdrop was purely for cost and unfortunately I didn't consider any other options, for instance painting a smaller image and scanning it into the computer. The part I enjoyed the most was definitely the design process, I feel it is one of my stronger areas. I was not overly pleased at how my print turned out, although I did samples I should perhaps have done a few more. I really enjoyed getting a chance to do something different with this project and I did find it a challenge trying to get into the mind of a stylist rather than just a designer. I do feel that I would have liked to have done more to my dress and perhaps added more print but because I stenciled the pattern on I don't think it would have turned out clearly as there would be too much detail.    

Modern Masters, the Art of Fashion...

These are a few of my designs for my modern masters project. I want the material to be slightly see-through and the print which I will probably stencil on will represent the tattoos/illustrations on her body.

The bottom illustration is my final design I like the simplicity of the style of dress and I think if I am using a stencil the pattern is not too intricate and has a greater chance of being successful.

Modern Masters...

For my current project I have to style a photo shoot to look like a classic work of art. I decided to look at Gustave Moreau's Salome.

I think this picture has a beautiful vulnerability to it. She seems sad and its almost as if she doesnt want to be there. You get the feeling she is being used and feel so sorry for her. I love the added illustrations over the top of the painting they add a mystery to it and perhaps an indication to where she is from.

Lets go sailing...

This dress was designed for my Shape and Structure project. We were not allowed to find inspiration from anything organic it had to be man made. So I decided to look at Ships with sails as I wanted the garment to have a slight fluidity to it that would be difficult to achieve if my influence had been something with more structure. Apart from the designing I did'nt really enjoy this project though I can't forget the knitting which I loved.

Ethical Fashion...

Should all fashion be ethically produced?
There are always people fighting for and against this question. On one hand there is the ethical and moral fight and on the other the economical. There are many concerns about the exploitative working conditions for people who make cheap clothing for the high street. Adult and child workers are often under paid and abused, the cheap high street clothing means that only a tiny amount of the money goes to the people who make them. Alot of textiles that are produced in these factories are treated with toxic chemicals, they damage the environment and can be transfered to the skin. These unethical practices not only affect the people who make the garments but also the imediate environment. Growing cotton has become unsustainable because of the damage it as done to the Aral Sea in Central Asia, it has shrunk to 15% of it's former volume because of the amount of water needed to produce and dye cotton. Growing cotton uses 22.5% of the world's insceticides and 10% of the world's pesticides. These chemicals are harmful to the world.
Animals are also produced unethically, for their fur and skin. Designers such as Stella McCartney do not use Fur or leather in their designs. In an advert for the animal rights organisation PETA, she said: 'we address  ethical or ecological questions in every other part of our lives except fashion. Mind-sets are changing, though, which is encouraging.'
In an ideal world all fashion would be ethically produced, however for now we have to resign ourselves to the fact that it's not an ideal world but it's changing. People are fighting for a fairer world and slowly wining.

Thomas Heatherwick...

My very favourite artist/designer is Thomas Heatherwick. He creates the most beautiful sculptures including Bleigiessen, I have admired this sculpture for many years. It is created using thousands of glass beads suspended on wire. It is around 5 storeys high and you can just about see it from the street.

I have never managed to view it inside, unfortunately it is situated in an office building and you can only visit on the first friday of the month. He also created the B of the Bang which was designed as a monument to the 2002 Olympic Games. Unfortunately before its unveiling in 2006 a tip of one of the spikes fell to the ground. The name for the sculpture came from the phrase coined by Linford Christie. His studio, Heatherwick studio was established in 1994 to create exciting projects. http://www.heatherwick.com/