Haute Couture, Fast Fashion and Ethical fashion; Can they really exist side by side?

With the latest trend of cheap fast fashion from shops like Primark, is Couture slowly dying a natural death? It seems that couture just isn’t relevant to general consumer any more, with the interest becoming less focused on quality and exclusivity and focusing more on being able to style their own individual image cheaply and quickly using the catwalk as just a heads up on the next fashion craze. The recession also seems to be fuelling fast fashion but is the awareness of environmental and ethical issues causing changes to the consumer’s decisions when buying clothing? These issues are also causing problems with couture with the opinions that couture is just an unattainable hobby for the rich. So, can Couture, fast fashion and ethical fashion work in harmony to create an ideal fashion, which in my opinion, is greatly needed. There definitely needs to be a fashion revolution but can these three very different types of fashion survive without major compromise?

Ethical fabrics are definitely becoming more readily available and affordable, and with the range of types of ethical fabrics rapidly expanding, I really do think that couture could have an ethical future. This future has really already begun with the Eco conscious Haute Couture designer Linda Loudermilk, who uses environmentally friendly textiles for her creations. Linda says, “We aim to give eco glamour legs, a fabulous look and a slammin’ attitude that stops traffic and shouts the message: eco can be edgy, loud, fun, playful, feminine (or not) and hyper-cool.”

The demand for ethical fashion is on the rise and so far couture seems to be changing with the times and surviving at the same time. However, can fashion be fast, ethical and affordable? The growing awareness of environmental and ethical issues has seen some big retailers like Tescos and Primark to offer their customers ethical options but there still seems to be confusion about what it really means when they label there products with ‘organic’. There needs to be a call for retailers to be more transparent about their labelling and informing the consumer exactly what they are buying. Another main problem is, can the price remain low while being ethical? I believe that with the growing demand for ethical products there is no reason why the cost should be affected excessively. With companies such as People tree already matching high street store prices with their ethical alternatives, it seems its only a matter of time before ethical clothing will be filling the shelves of stores like Topshop and Dorothy Perkins. However, in my opinion, fast fashion is fuelling a ‘throw away’ culture so can it really ever be environmentally friendly and ethical if people just throw it away when they are bored?

What ever happens to haute couture and fast fashion remains to be seen, but I believe that the future is definitely being shaped by a need for greener living.

Exhibitions: Is there a new way to display?

They way an exhibition is displayed can create different atmospheres and moods so could the presentation almost be more important that it exhibition itself? Can an exhibition’s success be due to creative presentation and how ‘interactive’ it is or can this take away the focus from what is actually being exhibited?

During a trip to London I visited 3 Fashion related exhibitions, Nick Knight ‘Show Studio’, Norman Parkinson ‘A very British Glamour’ and the fashion gallery at the V&A. These exhibitions were all presented in different ways creating, I felt, 3 very different atmospheres and experiences.

Show studio was all about pushing the boundaries of how fashion is displayed. Nick Knight used technology, lighting and music to create a more interactive exhibition. I found the exhibition exciting and interesting but unfortunately I feel that I possibly missed the point. It was a new innovative way to display fashion

but where was the fashion?! In my view the exhibition was more about how many different ways the subject of fashion could be displayed rather than the fashion itself. Don’t get me wrong, I loved how interactive the displays were and how you were drawn in to even the smallest details but it all came across as an opportunit

y to show off! I left the exhibition with mixed feelings as although I enjoyed my time there wasn’t really sure what it was supposed to be about; Fashion or Display? If it was fashion then I think it was slightly of key and if display was the focus then it was definitely closer to what was achieved The display techniques used, however, could hold an exciting future for exhibitions by drawing new audiences in who wouldn’t necessarily have chosen to go in the past.

At a complete contrast to Show Studio was the Norman Parkinson and V&A fashion gallery exhibition, which themselves were completely different to each other.

The Norman Parkinson exhibition was displayed in very traditional way. The photos were framed and hung in three white walled, light rooms. The atmosphere was quiet with only the sound of people’s shoes against the wooden floor. It gave a very stereotypical image of a traditional exhibition but was this what was needed. The focus was on the beautiful photographs where it should be and left me wanting to see more. To me this exhibition didn’t need technology or music to create interest but could the quietness and stillness come across as uncomfortable. I know many people who would have taken one step in and backed out again without something drawing them in like interesting displays and music. However, could fancy displays really make them more interested in the photography itself.

The last exhibition I saw was the V&A fashion galleries. I could have stayed in this exhibition all day but really that was more about my passion for what was being exhibited and nothing about how it had been displayed. The displays themselves were very basic. The garments were displayed on stands inside glass cabinets. The only lighting was directed at the garments which created an almost eerie atmosphere. Again, like the Norman Parkinson exhibition, it was silent apart from the sound of other people moving around the exhibition.

V&A Fashion galleries

Due to the problems that light can cause to fabric lighting is a hugely important factor to how garments can be displayed. However, the use of lighting could have been more creative and music, wall displays and technology could all have been used to create a more interesting attention catching atmosphere. Prehaps the next step for exhibitions is to bring the innovative display ideas from Nick Knight’s Show Studio and combine them with the traditional ways of displaying objects in an effective way but at the same time ensuring that the focus isn’t taken away from what is being exhibited.

There are pictures from Show Studio and Norman Parkinson in one of my previous blogs.

R.I.P Alexander Mcqueen

What a major lose to fashion, you will be sorely missed but never forgotten...

Is there a future for British fashion?

With the current recession and the global need to live more environmentally friendly what does the future hold for British fashion? The fashion industry is the second largest employer in the UK with the financial industry being, unsurprisingly, the biggest. This shows just how important fashion is to our society. It seems that even on a political scale British fashion definitely has an interesting future.

There are possible plans of providing £24.5m to SkillfastUK (which represents employers across the fashion and textiles), ensure fashion retailers have access to financial support to try and avoid further bankruptcies, and abolishing the employers tax for a year for the first 10 jobs created. The support provided on this scale will have positive results on all levels of the fashion sector. There are also plans to introduce schemes that will provide 3-month paid internships and funding for work placements to help graduates gain employment within the fashion industry.

Environmental issues are also continuing to be tackled with a push towards creating a more sustainable fashion industry with the government launching the sustainable Clothing Action plan, which will promotes and supports ethical companies. There is also a definite rise in the demand for the knowledge of where and how our clothing is made. These demands are increasing the pressure for the fashion industry to be more ‘transparent’ with their labelling.

I believe that the current recession is actually having an overall positive effect on our society, and subsequently, the British fashion industry. The growing awareness of ethical an ecological issues are making consumers make better choices when purchasing clothing and having positive effects on the whole of the fashion industry. With designers like Stella McCartney becoming role models in ethical fashion, my opinion is, British fashion has an exciting future. Ethically and politically, there definitely seems to be huge bridges that are beginning to be crossed.

Amazing prints from Alexander Mcqueen this Sping/Summer!

End of term...phew!

Very glad that this term is over, been a tough one! Don't really want to talk about our final presentation as its really couldn't have been much worse! I will give you a tip though, "I'm sorry, but we really don't know what we are doing" is definitely the worse opening line i have ever heard some one use! Now i know we weren't as prepared as we could have been but its not the the first presentation we've ever done so their really was no need to make us all look stupid! Any who... Its over just hope my work is good enough to survive our disastrous team work! Just about happy with the results and i have to say Kay is a star!!! She is also fantastic at what she does!! She managed to create an amazing print for our jackets and she made each of our fabrics individually designed to match our designs. Below are the prints she created for my jacket. I couldn't have turned out better! Its as if she read my mind!!

I think that although our jackets are very different styles they still look like a collection so the end result is great!

Below: L-R: My jacket, Amy Burns's jacket, Patrick Jaspers Jacket.

Hope you agree but i think that they look fantastic!!

This week we also got our briefs for our Professional project, which are all live competitions too. There were 4 to choose from but i have decided to do the brief based on colour. Its from Society of Dyers and Colourists and the brief is to‘To demonstrate the creative, imaginative and original use of colour in either fashion or textiles’. I am really looking forward to this project and have loads of ideas already!! Time to research!!!

London Trip

Went with my class up to london for the day this week. We went mainly to see the Nick Knight Show Studio exhibition at Sumerset house but also to try and see the Norman Parkinson exhibition.

Show Studio was good but where was the fashion!!Ok, so there were a few garments placed around the exhibition but the main display were mostly about celebrities! However most of the exhibitions were interactive. Your able to colour and draw digitally on to three giant Naomi Campbells! I did think it was an interesting way to display things and the use of technology was great. Plus they have a live studio where you can watch photo shoots! Below is Junya Watanabe and Gareth Pugh.

NaomiCampell X3

Went to see the Norman Parkinson exhibition after lunch. Really love his photography but thought the exhibition was quite small!

Also managed to see the Courtaulds gallery which was amazing!!

Manet

Degas

It was quite a successful day in London!

Exciting news!

Ok so its been a little while but i've been very busy!! But i found out today that myself and Sam have been picked to enter the FAD competition!!! Im really excited and very shocked!! But what was very strange was none of our group were particularly happy about it! It was a bit weird as the tutors had already explained that although they could only put 2 names on the entry form it is a group project so its really the group that got entered. I could understand disappointment but nobody said anything!!!

But then again am i really surprised?! Team work is a concept that i think has alluded our team and unfortunately im starting to think its a lost cause. But work wise it seems to be going well which is the main point so lets just hope we can get to the end of term with out any major downfalls!!!

Some of my Faves this A/W

Alexander Wang

Versace

John Galliano

oh dear...

What a disaster!! We had our first group tutorial and i don't think it could have been any worse. Couldn't seem to get the team together before hand so we could at least all turn up at the same time!! Plus we hadn't had the chance to look at each others work so when we did all get there we had no idea what each other had done and didn't really know what was going on!! No the best impression to give when 20% of our mark is based on team work! It kind of went down hill from there really!

Any who...the project its self seems to be going quite well which is the important thing. I've been doing some research and have found some really inspiring images. Below are images of 1947's new look and verushka the supermodel painted to blend in with the background, 'urban camouflage'. I really love this idea of making our own camouflage. We are going to be able to collaborate with a Textiles student during this project so we could do some really amazing prints.

Team meeting No 1

Ok...so first team meeting could have been better. not so much discussion. But deep breath, all teams have teething problems, don't they? However, not unhappy about the themes chosen. actually have had a few thoughts already so feeling pretty good. The theme put basically is about surviving industrial breakdowns and war, make do and mend and recycling. The main colours will be; oranges, browns, greens, camouflage, greys and gold. Its been decided that it will be a spring/ summer collection, although i kind of think that the themes and colours would be better suited to and autumn/winter collection. Never the less i have started my research and have found some really interesting images already.

New Term, new year, new brief

Got my new brief this week. Its called Traces and is also part of a live FAD competition. The aim is to plan, research, develop, design, cost and create a minimum of 2 outfits which must include 2 jackets. for my assessment i will also have to construct my chosen jacket design. I will be working in a group of 5 including myself. The others in my team are Amy Burns(Designer), Patrick Jasper(Designer), Sam Mason(promoter), and Natalie O'Brian(promoter).

The design brief is all about memories and how in a digital age we may be in danger of losing our memories. Technology has made it to easy to erase or edit our memories. We must include a personal memory and a collective memory

Im quite excited about this brief as their are so many things you could do. Cant wait to meet up with the team and discuss our ideas.

Work Placement:week two

I was lucky enough to spend some time with the Marketing department during my second week where I learnt about the work that they do there. They have a lot of jobs to do and usually tight deadlines to work to. Their main jobs include organising point of sale for the stores, creating catalogues, advertising, fashion shows, maintaining Beales’ website and store promotions.

One of their more exciting jobs is organising fashion shows and while I was their they actually had a fashion show in Bournemouth square as part of Bournemouth Fashion Weekend. To promote this they created leaflets that had all the details of the garment that were shown to try and generate new sales and customers. They handed out these leaflets during the shows and also had them available in the stores.

This was their most recent show to take place, however they also held a charity fashion show in May this year raising money for the children’s hospice Noami House, and promoting George Davies’ latest women’s wear brand, GIVe, which Beales will be stocking from this October. They had to close down the whole of the forth floor of their Bournemouth store during opening hours to do it, but it was a great success and worth the effort as they raised over £1000 for Noami house!

I really enjoyed my time in the Marketing Department and learnt a lot while I was there. It was a really fast paced environment with a lot going on, and you definitely need the ability to multi task and work to tight deadlines to work in a Marketing Department!

To be a Buyer you have to be a strong, confident person with a strong commercial knowledge and the ability to buy products that will achieve the best possible profits.

It was a great end to the week and I was sad to leave as I had really been made to feel as an important part of the team. I have learnt so much from this experience and will be keeping in contact with Jo in the future. This genuinely has been an amazing opportunity for me and will hopefully help me achieve all that I want to in the future.

After working within a buying department I still feel that design is the path I want to take at the moment but as my dream would be to one day be to run my own business the experience I have gained from my work placement has been vital.

Work Placement: week one

My placement was at Beales head office within their Lingerie Buying department and lasted two weeks. During that time I also spent a day and a half in their Marketing department. I chose this placement because although I have opted to do design in the second year of my course, I want to gain as much knowledge of the Fashion industry as a whole as I possibly can. I feel that having this knowledge will make me more desirable to future employers and also give me more career options.

To get this placement I had to attend an interview with Jo Sotherton, Director of Buying. I prepared for the interview, but I have to be honest and say that in hindsight I think I was a little complacent and not very nervous as I have attended many interview before and assumed it would be the same. How wrong was I!!!

Firstly, I turned up 10 minuets early, which I hoped would give me a few moments to compose myself, however, Jo must be psychic and came down the stairs as I walked through the door. We then went straight into a side room and the interview commenced. Jo started by telling me a little about the company, who I would be working with, what I would be doing etc. It was a lot of information to take in and I was a little in awe and quite like a rabbit in headlights, but somehow managed to answer in sentences when she asked me questions (which is something at least, but don’t ask me what I said!!). I was then shown around the building and the interview ended with Jo asking if I had any questions. I found that as my brain seemed to have gone on holiday, I didn’t have any. Jo told me to arrive at 8.55am on my first day and I left the building feeling a little deflated and hoping that the professionalism that I knew was in there somewhere would return during my placement!

So, what is Beales all about? Well I will start with a bit of history. John Elmes Beale, who was actually the Mayor of Bournemouth from 1902 to 1905, founded Beales in 1881. The company’s flagship store is in Bournemouth and it started to expand in the 1960’s, which has resulted in 11 stores across the country. Today they have stores in Bournemouth, Poole, Southport, Bedford, Bolton, Winchester, Yeovil, Kendal, Tonbridge, Worthing and Horsham. They are not all called Beales, however, with their Southport store called Broadbents & Boothroyds, their Yeovil store called Denners and their Bolton store called Whitakers.

During my first week I learnt all about Suzy’s job as the administrator. Suzy’s main job is to keep control of stock levels within the stores. She showed me how she processes the replenishment orders making sure that the correct amount is ordered and she is not ordering too much or not enough. She also receives customer special orders from stores that have to be ordered separately and in addition to the replenishment orders.

Suzy also creates presentation boards that Jo uses in sales meetings. The boards have to be quite structured and include information about the individual product such as the cost price, retail price and amount sold.

below is the buying cycle Beales works to:

I learnt a lot about how they achieve this during my first week. A strong communication between the different departments is key to accomplishing the best possible outcome.

My jobs during the first week were to do the replenishment orders, special orders, create spread sheets of products sold/not sold during the spring/summer season, create price matrix, check if orders had reached the stores, close completed orders, check cost prices in new catalogues and create new barcodes for new items.

Fashion Show at the Opera House

I write to you as a very happy person! My finished garment from my Fashion vs Sports project was chosen to appear on the catwalk!! I couldn't believe it when my name was called! It was so exciting to see my outfit going down the runway, although during the show i was backstage dressing one of the models! We had decided however, that my my jacket wouldn't go down the catwalk because the top and trousers stood out more on there own. And it was definitely the right decision because the colours looked really bright on the catwalk! Brilliant experience and the show was amazing! Well done everyone who was involved! The fashion show has made me really excited about getting the opportunity to have a whole collection on the catwalk! 

Burberry Prorsum Sprig/Summer 2009

Absolutely loving this!

its all good!

I should hopefully be doing my work placement at the london office of Peclers!! Ill be working as a researcher and i really cant wait! it'll be a brilliant experience and sooo exciting!

I also had my toile review yesterday and it went really well! My tutors liked my designs and that i was well prepared for the review. But now the real work begins! ive got quite a lot to be doing, including; CDP: finish sketch book, construct garments, north face theme board and presentation board, B&M: put together folder and finish promotion board, PPRD: This blog!

I have completed one unit this term so far. The unit was lectra and i had to use the lectra softwear to make a pattern for and make a loose fit jersey t-shirt. i found it a very useful unit and it would be nice if im able to create my patterns using lectra, aswell as on paper, for my sportswear project. 

Although there is a lot of work i really am enjoying the course so far, i cant believe its almost the end of the second term already!!

a quick note from me...

Finished toile for top yesturday and my pattern for my trousers. Also found the fabric i want to use. I have to get it from america and it took me ages to find it but my designs will look so much better if they are in the correct fabrics.

Kind of enjoying buying and merchandising but theres quite a lot of info to take in. We have to create a promotion board for this unit so im doing quite a lot of work on illustrator.

Started jacket pattern for my toile. ive had to do lots of samples to create a correct pattern for the front panels. its taken me ages but i think im almost there. Also been working on my illustrator technical drawings. It takes me a while but i think im getting the hang of it!

Kind of enjoying buying and merchandising but theres

quite a lot of info to take in. We have to create a promotion board for this unit so im doing quite a lot of work on illustrator.

Hello 2009!

New design project is Sports v Fashion... my honest first thought was 'oh crap!', but i'm actually really into it now! I think that at first i was worried because i my knowledge of sportswear is very small, however, that meant that research was absolute essential. The amount of research i have done has really helped and i'm a lot more confident about the whole project having done it.

I chose to use 1920's sportswear as my inspiration and i will be using hard wearing performance fabrics such as Gore-tex and ripstop. My 

philosophy will be something like 'Tradition meets Innovation' and i will be creating a collection for a collaboration with The North Face. So far so good but it does mean that i will have to construct a jacket, t-shirt and trousers for my finished outfit... no pressure there then!!! I'm actually quite excited about the construction part, its going to be sink or swim i afraid but i enjoy a challenge!

Note to self:need to start C.V and covering letter!!!    

Will be starting Buying and merchandising this afternoon. i think i'm going to learn a lot from it and am kinda looking forward to it to!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

First Term Update

So its been awhile... lots to talk about then!

Last project of last term was all about the philosophy. Create your design using inspiration from your philosophy. I kind of went quite arty with this one because apparently my last projects needed more. i did enjoy this one though as i felt i had a bit more free reign than the last project.My philosophy was 'Take only what you need from the earth, respect all that lives and grows upon it'. I was generally happy with my finished work with this project so its all good! However, what i found quite odd during the first term was that we had tutorials for our design projects on the deadline days! Each time i left a tutorial i wished i'd had the help during the project and not at the end! Advise isn't very useful if you get it to late. Oh well, new term, new tutor, new project, which i'll come back to later!

Fashion debate went well, we won the couture debate but lost the fashion ethics one, on the grounds that although ethical fashion is the way to go the against team had worked hard to find a plausible argument.

Got all work in on deadline days so not too panicked! Plus got given next Design brief early so that we could do research over xmas hols. bonus!