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