Giles Deacon concept

Since making one of Giles' dresses I have been interested in looking at his work which has linked perfectly with the researching designers task. His latest A/W 13 collection was inspired by Black Adder, yes my exact reaction what on earth is Black Adder???

Well heres your answer, Black Adder is an old BBC 1 sitcom which each series was based in a different time periods. Looking through Deacons collection you can really see this inspiration coming through as theres lots of over sized puff sleeves, tight bodices and flowing silk dresses which show different eras of fashion.  

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UPDATE

So I have come to realise I haven't updated you all with my work progress for a while! So here you are...

Up to know I think that my college work is improving everytime we get a new brief, which is what I enjoy most and watching how my work changes. I also like the excitment I get from trying out knew ideas and developing ideas further. This weekend the UK has been covered in head to toe in snow, yes I couldnt resist going sledging but its just been a pain and not allowed me to go to places I have wanted to be! But I suppose theres been worse care scenarios and I should really stop complaining and just get on with it as I have lots of things to look forward to, such as some trips, event and of course London Fashion Week with college! I just cant wait.

Here is some of my textile samples I have been creating as part of my textile design brief.....

 Knitting

with rope

with wool- the grey was my 1st every sample of knitting so please excuse the wholes haha

Printing

Lino

 Lace

Sashiko 

 Manipulating fabric

 Origami and Elastic bands

Hand embroidery

Recycled materials

Heres a sneak peak at my shape development work for my first seven deadly sins thread... can you guess which sin it is?

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Fashion Design cycle

That image doesn't look very eye catching at all- boring

Since being given the task of researching about the design cycle I knew I had read about it before could remember where and I was determined that I couldn't mix it up with the product design cycle which I already know all about. The last few weeks I have been searching for this one book at home and tonight I have found it!! (sigh of relief haha) And over all of the internet I couldn't find it in a clearer way (not only the diagram) which has proved to me that the cycle is almost like a hamster wheel haha. (A quote from the book not me!) 

The book I got it from is called Fashion Design and its by Sue Jenkyn Jones. Im made up I found it as its got everything in such as pattern cutting, the history of fashion, all about fashion capitals, marketing- basically a little bible. Im actually surprised how many book I have on fashion, could start my own library but there just so handy and helpful to have.

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Comparing shoots and outcome

1st shoot

2nd shoot

Final shoot

Well, we've come to end of our styling brief :( and at first I couldn't understand why the 2nd years liked this brief so much but looking back over it I've really enjoyed it myself and I would happily do it all over again, I think I enjoyed it because I was able to create things and let my ideas just flow (also I was able to let my inner bossiness out).

My first ever ever fashion shoot was my Vintage/Tank shoot which I worked with a partner to do, I enjoyed doing this task as we were able to bounce ideas off each other to create better outcomes and a lot more ideas for our work. I also found this shoot good because we had a longer period of time to sort things out and plan all our ideas out which allowed use to have a set of strong images. 

The Le Ballon Rouge shoot was the 2nd shoot and the day we got this task I had such a head ache and I was going away to London that weekend so I was in complete panic mode.. On the train that night I don't think I shut up about it all the way to Euston!! In such short amount of time we had to plan and prep and get everything we needed was stressful but an enjoyable stress if thats possible? I think considering the time period we had to do this task, I think my outcome is strong and in the future I hope to make them even stronger as this idea is unique to it's self. With the 1st shoot being completely different to this shoot, I found I liked working by myself a little bit more as it allowed me to be a tad more creative with my ideas but I did enjoy working in a team because for the theme we had our ideas grew stronger together.

The final shoot was my least favourite at the time but now looking at my outcome, it is my favourite haha. I thought for this task we would have longer to plan and prep as it's the 'final outcome' and all that but hey what was I thinking?!?! NOPE I had 4 days to do absolutely everything... which yes included making the jacket, I think at some points blood, sweat and tears where added in to the coat!! Then on the day my model didn't come and all that jazz but in the end it all figured out and worked even better than I had originally planned so fate was on my side. I enjoyed this task a lot as it allowed me to play with ideas and create something into real life. 

I really cant chose which shoot I enjoyed most as I liked them all the same and I liked the challenges I faced whilst they took place! I did learn a lot from this brief such as always consider the target audience, colours have a meaning, images in magazines have a story behind them and always express and write down your ideas. So yer Im sad/happy to be leaving this brief behind as I have enjoyed it but I am looking forward to see whats up next, I might even make some of my own shoots.... Or I could even end up as stylists, who knows. 

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Le Ballon Rouge

In college we watched the film Le Ballon Rouge which is a french film set in France many years ago, it doesn't have any talking in it its just an audio backing track and its main focus is the visual imagery. The story is all about a little boy and his relationship with the ballon. It's a rather cute story if I'm honest and I would have never chose to watch it in a million years but I really did enjoy it and would happily watch it again. The film can be linked to all kinds of things from the psychology of colour (the use of red, white and blue= the french flag) to the influences it has had on other visual imagery.

The films Influences

Banksy

Miss Dior

The film has influenced all kinds of things including adverts such as the Miss Dior campaign and the Mark Ronson 'Bike Song ' video (link), these are pretty obvious one,s in fact and if you only look at them you can tell straight away. But since thinking about the influences this film may of had it clocked to me that Banksy' (the street artist) girl with the balloon really looks like it could have been inspired by this film because it sort of represents a relationship with a child and a balloon using the same colours as in the film. 

Sony Advert

Im a Celeb

One more influence.. Now everyone watches saturday night telly at some point and most people have seen the bouncy ball advert! (the Sony Bravia advert that is). Well, I thought Le Ballon Rouge may have inspired this advert but when I have looked further into it I was wrong and it has nothing at all to do with it but still I feel it has a link to it because of the ending of the film with the different colour balloons. Linking onto the Sony advert the recent I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here Trail, Celebrity Cyclone 10000000 per cent reminded me of this advert and if they never took any influence from the Sony advert then pigs can fly backwards because the multicolours balls flew down the hill the exact same way as it did in the advert besides one the advert there weren't any starving hungry celebrities floating around.

From the task of watching the film and analysing it we got given a mini photo shoot task which meant we had to take an influence from the film and use it in a photo shoot, I chose a super simple one and picked the ballon (who'd have thought it hey?!?!). I wanted my shoot to look stylish and modern so when researching I chose to use a black balloon and use another item to covey the red into my shoot.

Planning for my shoot

Zara red shoes

The red top- Topshop

Trousers- American Appearl disco pants

I wanted to be different can you tell?! I never used a model which is a lot harder as you cant boss anybody around haha (oops). I used lots of clear thread and hangers to create a figure which I think worked really well! And I really enjoyed being creative and using trail and error to get a strong out come.

The Shoot

      

Here is some of the images I took, I have picked a final two and edited them so I shall post them up soon! 

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London- 1

V&A Ball gowns 

Norman Hartnell

Vivienne Westwood

Alexandra Mcqueen

Jullien McDonnell and Zandra Rhodes

Vivienne Westwood

Alexandra Mcqueen

On my trip to London this weekend I visited the V&A, I completely fell in love with the place, the dresses, the art and the building. Its all just amazing! I spent nearly all of friday walking around looking at the amazing pieces of art they have there, I even checked out the Ball gowns and Hollywood costume expeditions which are defiantly worth the money. I can only say that the Victoria and Albert museum is one of my favourite places of all time. After finishing there I went for a lovely meal in China Town, I had never been to China Town before and I was really surprised! The atmosphere around there is like being on holiday it's such a cool place and theres amazing food everywhere.

oxo