Thursday 25 November 2010

Music to the ears...

This is my current playlist which is getting me through my dissertation while I am sat in the library right now:

1. Kate Bush- Running Up That Hill
2. Bjork- Play Dead
3. Red Hot Chilli Peppers- Snow
4. Mumford & Sons- Little Lion Man
5. Counting Crows- Mr. Jones
6. Bat for Lashes- Daniel
7. Fleet Foxes- Mykonos
8. The Cranberries- Free to Decide
9. Heather Nova- Heal
10. Imogen Heap- Come Here Boy
11. Jack Penate- Pull My Heart Away
12. Jimi Hendrix- All Along The Watchtower
13. Jose Gonzalez- Heartbeats
14. Kings of Leon- Knocked Up
15. Kings of Leon- On Call
16. Lisa Loeb- The Way It Really Is
17. Maroon 5- She Will Be Loved
18. The Pretty Reckless- You
19. REM- Losing My Religion
20. Rilo Kiley- Close Call

...BLISS!! ..There are many more...but I should probably carry on with the dissertation...

Dissertation Survey...

So I have conducted a survey regarding my dissertation topic: The Evolution of the Female Form, which I would appreciate very much if you had a spare 5 minutes to fill out- anyone is welcome to do it, please provide coherent and detailed answers :) I am thrilled with the feedback I have had already, and flattered at the amount of people who have filled one out for me! Thank you! Access my survey at: http://www.surveymonkey.com Much appreciated!

All Walks Project- with Caryn Franklin

Today was a very eye opening and inspiring day; Caryn Franklin, former editor of ID magazine, host of the Clothes Show Live and all round Fashionista gave a talk on the project she is working on called All Walks Beyond The Catwalk, which is a project based on embracing all shapes, sizes, races and ages within the Fashion Industry, founded by herself, Erin O'Connor and Debra Bourne.
I was excited to attend this talk, as I am basing my dissertation around the evolution of the female form over the years, so this was very interesting and inspiring for me! At first, I thought the project was going to be about completely discarding the 'Size Zero' from the catwalk and to campaign about using 'Real Women'...which personally I don't believe in as being quite naturally petite myself- I find this rather discriminating (although I am a healthy size 8 I should add!)
However..this was not the case...Caryn explained that the project's aim is to incorporate all types of women- all diversities, rather than replacing one idealised body shape with another; which I am a great believer of and think this is an amazing project and I think it will be truly succesful! Caryn Franklin was such a lovely lady and I felt extremely priviledged to have met her and heard her views. 


Follow the project on Twitter and on Facebook


 We were given the question, 'What does the body mean to you' and asked to write our answers on a large piece of canvas, which shall be exhibited at The National Portrait Gallery in February next year, as part of a collaboration from designers, models and photographers involved in the promotion of All Walks.

Here are a few examples

♥ Your Body!! 
 One of my messages



One of my favourites! 


By my good friend Rakhee Tailor x 




Another one of mine... 




The lovely Caryn Franklin and I

Monday 22 November 2010

CHANEL no 5 - Audrey Tautou


I adore this latest advert for Chanel No.5 featuring Audrey Tautou...I always love the Chanel adverts, but this one is my favourite by far! It is so beautifully filmed- the cinematography and mise-en-scene are both stunning, it is more like a short film. This just heightens my need to live in Paris once more...♥

Ralph Lauren 4D- Fascinating!



My tutor just showed us this in one of our seminars - I'd heard about it but not yet seen it for myself. It's crazy how much the future of fashion is developing with all the innovative ways of displaying creativity!

Friday 19 November 2010

Trend Forecasting Pack: A/W 2010

Following the previous Street Style post, this was the trend pack which I produced: Cocooned. I was inspired by the vast amount of fur, chunky knits, tweed, earthy and autumnal tones seen from my street style research, and decided to base the trend book on these elements. I gave the title Cocooned, as I felt this was a good umbrella for all the fabrics listed. It also sounds quite luxurious- which is definitely a word to describe fur!




We were given free reign on how to produce the book and what content we supplied, so I decided to do a photo shoot as styling is my main love! I used my good friend Natalie, who has recently been signed to Storm model agency.

Tuesday 16 November 2010

Hauntingly Beautiful...

But if stars, shouldn't shine, by the very first time, then dear it's fine, so fine by me 'cos we can give it time, so much time with me... -Stars, The XX

  
Absolutely stunning...that voice! I could listen to it all day...along with Kalib's from Kings and Adam Duritz, Counting Crows...beautiful and so enigmatic! As soon as I heard 'Crystalized' in the Summer I fell in love instantly and HAD to own the album. I was very pleased to hear they had won The Mercury Prize 2010- truly deserving winners!


Street Style

For a recent project we had to compare two different areas within London, looking at street style. I chose to look at Brick Lane and Argyll street, as they are both very stylish areas with visible contrasts and comparisons. Here are some of my favourite images from my research.


BRICK LANE


This was a beautiful little boutique called Heba. The layout and display was exquisite!


ARGYLL/ REGENT STREET



From this research we had to analyse the socio-economic factors, demographics, history and current trends spotted in each area. Following this we then had to create a trend forecasting book, inspired by one of the trends which was apparent within both areas; interpreting it into our own style and translating it through conceptual imagery as well as in an editorial content.