Shoeaholic !

I love love love my new shoes beautiful!

Its a fact that a girl can never have to many pairs of shoes ...

Shibori 

Finally started to group my prints and I can confidently say I need to stop with the shibori! 

Through out the last couple of months I have been working on various surface textures such as wool, silk, weaved silk, cotton, jersey and leather using the technique shibori to create patterns through colour, Overlaying the process to built up a three dimensional surface. 

The finer matt fabrics such as silk, cotton, jersey and leather have been the most successful the colours compliment the fabric and show a clear repeated print/pattern. Where as the weaved fabrics are to thick to absorb the dye fully, leaving areas un-shiboried  and lacking detail. Due to the weave the areas that have been shibori become merged into the background leaving a dull blurred surface, which appears messy and washed out. Although I still want to experiment with textured weaved surfaces I think best solution would be using silk weaving as it has a professional finish and is more defined and structured. In the mean time I have selected successful prints in which can be developed further through placement, scale and colour. 

I will return to the unsuccessful samples in due and try other processes such as discharging or embellishment. 

selecting the most successful samples 

Grouping samples 

Grouping samples 

The samples themselves consist of a lot of bold prints and colours, in order to break away from the busy surfaces a more structured simple print needs to be introduced to create a balance, possible through a different process. Introducing Black and white Photoshop prints may help to group the samples together and see whats working as a collection. 

Creating a Character

Collect images that would describe the character that my collection will be designed for. This will allow me to get a clear idea of who my consumer is and what they are looking for in a collection.  

words to describe my consumer would be:

• Luxurious 
• stylish 
• rock chic
• 70s
• attitude
• exclusive
• Big hair 

Gathering pages from magazines 

Mick Jagger 

David Bowie 

Collette Dinnigan

Fall 2012

Colour Palette-  grey, black, gold, silver, white, navy, sky blue, dark pink

Garment shapes-  pipe trousers, pencil skirts, off the shoulder tops, 3/4 round neck t-shirts.

Length- above and underneath the knee

Textiles Techniques-   lace, embellishment, dip dying, repeat pattern discharge,  

Prints-  polka dots, floral lace

Fabric- velvet, lace, silk, feathers, sheer. 

Key details-   3/4 sleeves, flared hems, round neck, pipe trousers, 

Looks-1, round neck lace top and polka dot flared skirt, 2 feather embellished top and dip dyed with geometric printed trousers, 3 dip dyed skirt and top with cross hatch and polka dots, 4 black and white geometric lace, 5 feather snood, heavily embellished top and lace skirt, 6 sheer embellished top and skirt contrasting in metallic tones, 7 geometric embellished pattern, 8, lace and embellished skirt.

Accessories - long lace and embellished socks, 

Style.com Review by - Meenal Mistry 

Collette Dinnigan opened her show to Blondie's "One Way or Another," an indication that the designer's usual prettiness was getting a punk makeover. The tip panned out, but for the most part it was the result of styling (though a little silver beaded shift did give you an edgy Joan of Arc-meets-Balmain vibe). Dinnigan finished her parade of dresses with the wayward touch of little back-seamed lace socks dotted with winking crystals and slouched into killer studded Louboutin pumps.

"This stuff can all get a bit too ethereal-fairyland, and it's like floating in too much mystery," she explained after the show, which was curiously called Fairy Tale. But some tales are more believable than others. Mystery was kept to a minimum in Dinnigan's mostly un-tricky silhouettes that let the material and embellishment speak for themselves.

And they did. No amount of the Undertones and Garbage on a soundtrack can distract from the fact that these dresses are made from exquisite stuff, particularly the custom laces. Check out the perfectly engineered placement of scallops on Dinnigan's lace tees, and the polka-dot motif at the hem of a dress that echoed the paillettes at the neckline. One aberration was the woolly yarn-loop embroidery that would appear to be a nod to winter in this rather un-wintry collection, but felt a bit crafty and wrong in this context. To stay warm, a better choice was the velvety black coat with a barely there trim of lace petals on the pockets and back. It's the kind of thing that might be chosen by Stevie Nicks—a woman who knows how to work romance with a different brand of darkness.

Personal Review- This collection has been inspirational as it uses arrange of processes that clash through texture and motif, creating an uneasy clash yet at the same time contrasts one another.The dark Gothic colours capture the rock and roll vibe which I am trying to create. This collection has give me a perspective of how to collide processes and colours. The floral and geometric motifs compliment one another capturing new romance and Gothic Architecture. This of which works with the images i have been working from.

How it would work in my collection- The heavy overworked motifs and techniques creates a busy exciting surface texture.Creating a strong contrast through processes and texture other then colour, this is something I would like to introduce into my own collection as it allows me to experiment with over working processes. As well as creating a clash between textures. Although the collection uses heavy processes the use of luxurious materials creates an exclusive look. 

Sass Bibe 

Spring/Summer 2013

Colour Palette-  white, black grey, orange, gold

Garment shapes- pipe trousers, loose sleeveless tops, quarter jackets 

Length- above the knee

Textiles Techniques-  laser cutting, embellishment, beading 

Prints-  geometric and floral repeat patterns,

Fabric- sheer, silk, knit, cotton, feathers 

Key details-  round neck, synched waist, sleeveless, 

Looks-1- pipe trousers with lacer cutting and heavily beaded round neck/ sleeveless top,2- embellished tops and loose flared trouser with sheer and cotton, 3- pipe trouser, round neck silk top and heavily embellished quarter jacket, 4, halter neck heavily embellished straight dress, 5, metallic neck and waist detailing and sheer  slit gown, 6, feather skirt and knitted embellished round neck jumper, 7, low v cut playsuit with draped sleeves and trouser legs, 8, feather black skirt and embellished high neck. 

Accessories - Thin Waist belts 

Style.com Review by Jo-Ann furniss

Presenting something more stripped back and stark this season, the duo was working in the vein of "the traditional modernist," according to Heidi Middleton. There was a play on the masculine and feminine, particularly in the use of the tuxedo, as well as on light and dark—yes, this was another predominantly black and white collection for Spring. There was discernibly less of the embellishment and ethnic folderol of seasons past. While it might not have been Le Courb modernism they were looking at, a sense came through of the Deco (or maybe disco) kind, the kind with a small M.

When embellishment was used, it was done mostly with precision and control, such as in the edging of a cape or to enhance the structure of a dress. And when the designers went for it, it was still with a certain element of restraint: Witness a controlling grid pattern to encase fluoro orange shells, the intense use of small, oblong silver paillettes, or the almost military-style embroidery on the last looks of the collection.

Personal Review -

This collection uses slick modern garments shapes that present the modern feminist, strong, structured and luxurious. Controlled embellishment is used to add decorative surface texture through geometric shapes and floral laser cut motifs on leather. The black and white colour palette makes it professional and slick injecting orange through embellishment to enthuses texture. 

How it would work in my collection-

The collection looks overall very professional and luxurious jet is still playful through heavy embellished areas. This is something I would be interested in introducing into my own collection, high end women's wear. The garment shapes themselves are a mixture of structured and loose which would work well with my leather and silk samples. Using the geometric beading as inspiration I would like to experiment with beading on my own samples.

Photoshop

Recently I have been working on my Photoshop skills to develop prints for my collection in which will be used for Indigo, working from the inspirational images such as Gothic Architecture and Textures. 

Creating a pattern through selecting areas of an image and repeating them using the fill tool.

 Sketched effect through rotating areas of the image and overlaying them.

Flipping the image and overlaying to create a symmetrical effect.

Repeat through curved lines, rising up at the centre.

Simple clear repeat subtle for processes such as discharging.

This print in comparison to the previous is quite flat, using line drawing. 

Creating texture through Photoshop using various sketch effects.

This print would work well as a repeat as there is no clear line to wear it starts and finishes. 

Taken from images of stain glass windows,

Flipping and layering a print. 

Experimenting with repeat.

Adding more detail to existing prints.

Experimenting with rust colours introducing a colour palette. 

Creating movement in the print.

clearing up areas of the print subtle for discharging. 

Slightly to much going on in this print blurs out the detail. 

Baroque Print 

Ethnical floral 

layered Baroque print working from the centre.

Detailed Three Dimensional print 

Simple geometric black and white contrast 

inspired by celtic nots.

 Psychedelic/ floral

exploding 

Although I have used Photoshop to develop my prints the images themselves lack texture and can appear quite flat, therefore will be used through screen printing techniques such as Devore and Discharge.