Christmas Fair Goodies

Making and creating

Making some cute little needle cases and pin cushions to sell at the Christmas fair. The fabric is my own print design, but think it adds a touch of class to these beauties.

Needle cases and pin cushions

Getting crafty!

I have found some cool blogs and sites to give me ideas for making and creating at the crimbo fair.

Take a look at.... Poppy print and purl bee. Now I just need to make and create. Coming soon......

Trend Union!

Trend union winter 2012/2013

Shopping-

This has turned into a design experience in itself. The environment becomes furniture, the manequines each have roles, tags become finished pieces, shopping bags become more like handbags, the tape adds accent colours and the labels add graphical print.

Sanctuary-

A focus is put on less, and better design with emphasis on strong form and hidden detail. The minimal approach.

Fresh colours and an idea of local materials, even world brands are adapting the idea of connecting with the local environment. Textiles become close to the earth, from the earth. For example undyed, natural cotton and linen for a natural hue.

Streaming-

Consumer co-creation is appealing and futuristic /high tech materials are being used more readily. We will see and introduction of futuristic styles and lightweight materials.


Monomind-

Man and woman dress the same with the allure of the architectural shirt. We will see a strong revival of the shirt, bowtie and cufflinks.

On-line-

Retail as an app. Shopping in the consumer’s own time and on their own terms will increase.

The online shop is of lines and architecture. Package equals linear beauty.

Sharper tailoring means edgier detail and decisive contrasts. Patterns are stark and linear reflecting the Bauhaus manner.

Fabrics should be noble and luxury.

Army and navy-

Industrial, masculine, functional. A serial form of design is seen with a repetitive style and essence of essential within clothes.

General store-

Functional products with essential needs.

The general store is a place of warmth. It has a cosy, authentic feel. Checks and patterns being a key trend.

Vagabond-

Economic pain=chance to be an outsider to extreme consumption that is big in society today.

Recycling and sustainability is key.

The economic uncertainty gives us a chance to be an outsider to extreme consumption which is big in society today.

Boyfriend-

Tailoring makes a comeback.

Dress together as boy and girl

Tintin-

Mackintosh raincoats, checkerboard check, diamond shapes.

DIY-

Retail environment=creative tools and textiles-one of a kind- links to recycling waste.

Embrace crochet=embellished lux.

Caravan-

Foksy colours,

Scarves-

Scarves are now an object of function, a source of unlimited income for luxury brands. “A square of textile that is able to sustain a brand’

Bloom-

Now to become a brand.

Nostalgic dresses and cardigans.

Theatre-

World as a stage and humans are the actors. Drama of everyday life.

Colours are full bodied and dramatic.

Moving Image-

Films/patterns as diologue.

Noir-

Japanese dress

Dominating fashion.

Bordello

Marriage

Credits: Lidewij Edelkoort.

Spring summer 2012
Earth

Out with the Old in with the new

Getting rid of that skanky old coat lining!?....a neat and smart way to update your old coat or new one as I did.

I bought this new winter coat for a steal of a price at £18.00 but hated the leopard print lining in the hood. So I decided to get the needle and threat out and take matters into my own hands!

For the Love of colour

Colour Lovers!


I had totally forgot about this amazing website.... I have been coming up with some new colour palettes to use within my work. These are all based on buildings from Amsterdam. Check this out.

Studio Visit

Jill Godfrey


Jill Godfrey is a textile designer who specialises in lingerie. She was kind enough to invite me to her home at showed me what she gets up to during her daily life as a textile designer.



Jill has been working has been working for 32 years. She started in 1980 and in 1992 took maternity leave, and worked part-time for a few years. In 1994 she began to work freelance and eventually went back into employment in 2004 until becoming redundant. After 2 years she then went to work at courtaulds in Nottingham.

Now she works for herself again as a freelance designer, often finding she is more of an adivors and misses the creative part slightly. She finds that often young graduates and young designers lack in technical experience and employ her to 'resolve' their designs which they can then use.

One of the main pieces of advise she could give me was to research the market and know your customer. To try and improve technical skills and to get work experience in a larger company.

Jill does the designs on illustrator. To begin she will scan a quick drawing/sketch into the computer and then draw over it in illustrator. Only one side needs to be drawn and then it can be flipped. No exact size is needed because a size guide is given in the technical package.

The technical package is done on excel and is what the manufacturer uses. It will include stitching numbers, history of the design, bill of materials, construction notes, size guides and a mock up of the garment. All of the above needs to be very exact due to oversea manufacture.

It was really interesting to talk to Jill and she allowed me to have a better understanding of design to manufacture work.

The wisdom age

The future is here...

Today I attended my first event hosted by the trend boutique.

The day involved a 4hour lecture from LSN global entitled 'The wisdom age'. The reason for its name?.....well, we live in an age that is overloaded with information and technology, often we feel overloaded with information form magazines to blogs, to the internet. But its how we analys that information. Analyised correctly can give us a wealth of wisdom and facts.

Analysing data is key to big companies such as tesco. Data is only useful once they have learnt what it means.

Key quotes/books to look up:

• Nicholas Taleb. Author. The black swan - Basically looked at how we develop and learn from our mistakes. The walkman to the ipod
• Nichola Carr. Author.. The shallows:what the intent is doing to our brains. " ...now i zip along the surface like a guy on a jet ski"
• Joseph Stiglitz. Nobel Laureate economist. ".....its about the size of the pie, not the pieces" Discussing social equality.
• Nichola Carr. Wall street journal. Discussed the danger possessed by privacy. This could be a barrier. Is he right? TOday we are not private at all, we have twitter and facebook to show what we are thinking rather than a locked diary. Is this not simply more dangerous?

We were shown a film called Ten/Ten which is about the trends predicted from the past 10 years, whether they were right and what happened in reality. You can find the same video here......click.

The main ten areas that were discussed were:

• The power of 1 (Autumn 2000). Brands reach out to consumers. Key words: Customerisation, Consumers, personalisation, simplify, bespoke. The consumer quest for individuality during economic uncertainty, consumers favour brands that stand for authenticity. Future: Consumers understand branding values. DIY Culture.
• Consumanism (Autumn 2004) Need for values that are responsible and ethical. Forcasted: Citizen brands. Future: Social Pathways
• Nu- Austerity (Autumn 2005) Make do and mend culture, making consumers realise their products. 'Fewer and better approach' Future: Inconspicuous consumption will become a positive value.
• Womenomics.(Spring 2008) Key words: Emotional, evolutionary. Rise of affluent young women. Female run business: power houses. Importance in technology.
• Nu Luxury (Spring 2004) Multifaced, artistic culture. Key word: Bespoke, move towards the realm of inconspicuous consumption.
• Masstige- Mass market and prestige, designer quality, conceptual.
• Homentertainment. (2008) Staying in is the new going out. Key words: Cocooning, intamacy. Brands have to consider the manner they arrive at the home.
• Blesiure (Autumn 2008) Blurring of business and leisure. Always on the go.
• The fifth scenario (Spring 2009) Every business needs to change with time.
• Contiuality Culture (Autumn 2009) Social network and suffocation.

The personal information economy

Trend drivers

-share it all culture

-Worth of the web

-Self worth trading

-Quantified self motivation

-Personal reputation management.

Beyond Retail

-Unique customer experience.

-Brands need to think about friends, fans, ambassadors

- Retail theater.

-Synthetic selling

- Social selling

The 'just not generation' and what they want- business/brands should aim at these people. With little money they want to invest in products not join the throw away society.

-Polarised brands.

-Co-selling

-RIP culture (repair it yourself)

This is a brief overview of my notes....as you can imagine, there was loads!