'Drawing the line'

Debbie Smyth's threadworks walk a tight line between drawing, 

textiles, craft and art, attracting fans and commissions along the way.

Smyth uses ordinary pins and thread to 'draw' large-scale graphic scenes, mainly of 

urban and industrial landscapes. The drawing is actually a series of lines, plotted 

with pins and then outlined and exaggerated in black thread.

This picture below was found in 'Embroidery' magazine september 2010 issue in the college library. I spotted it on the shelf and thought what a really creative and interesting way of using thread what a great idea for our display. As a group we agreed and thought this would look really quirky and eye-catching at the clothes show live event.  

Here is our groups attempt for out display. I was thinking this would look great on the back wall in large font also maybe playing about with the large stencil font too to see what looks most interesting and quirky as a logo.

Clothing in Culture & Context

Contempary and Historical fashion and textile developments, with reference to to social, political and art historical context - relating to Business & Marketing and Creative Media. 

Exoticism and Nostalgia
London’s Bohemia 1967–1973

'Second hand furniture, old houses, old clothes… Oh God, those vast, whitewashed rooms with bare floorboards and a mattress in the corner with an Indian coverlet on it…. The pure asceticism of the late sixties.' Angela Carter, novelist

In the late 1960s futuristic themes gave way to exoticism, romanticism and nostalgia. Drugs, the counter-culture and the hippy trail to India suggested an alternative to the commercial fashion scene. Rediscovery of Victorian artists such as Aubrey Beardsley and William Morris stimulated a revival of historic and rural styles. The result was an eclectic combination of the ethnic, the antique and the psychedelic.

Many of the clothing trends of the early 1970s originated in the decadent milieu of London's bohemian quarters: Chelsea, Notting Hill and Kensington. These districts offered a faded grandeur that appealed to those with limited budgets and boundless imaginations. Large derelict flats and empty retail spaces offered an ideal environment for pop stars, artists and entrepreneurs to develop alternative approaches to life, business and fashion.

EXOTICISM AND NOSTALGIA LONDON’S BOHEMIA 1967–1973

Sweater, Bus Stop, 1968. Museum no. T.151-2000

Sweater
Bus Stop
1968
Knitted wool
Museum no. T.151-2000
Given by Sue Binns


Lee Bender opened a Bus Stop on Kensington Church Street in 1968, next door to Biba, and went on to develop a successful chain of twelve boutiques nationwide. Her earlier designs looked back to the 1940's with accentuated shoulders and waists. This jumper, designed with a traditional Fair Isle pattern, brings a wartime look up to date.

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In the mid-fifties Audrey Hepburn, who originally came from Holland, and the French star Leslie Caron popularised a Left Bank gamine look as reinterpreted by Hollywood. Hepburn's huge 'doe eyes' became a new fashion in cosmetics; both she and Caron wore their hair cropped short, yet softly curling in a 'chrysanthemum' cut. Because they were Continental stars, they disrupted class-bound British stereotypes of beauty, as did Brigitte Bardot. When Bardot married Sasha Distel, her gingham and broderie-anglaise dress was copied everywhere. In 1950, Jean Seberg, who had appeared with cropped hair in Otto Preminger's film anout Joan of Arc, starred in the first French 'New Wave' film Breathless; her short hair became part of the new youthful sophistication. 

UCAS Personal Statement....

Today I started my personal statement, I made a rough copy and notes on what to include using the UCAS website to help me. I want to make sure I show as much enthusiasm and knowledge as possible to avoid by application getting rejected. Here is a list of more universities I have found courses that I'm interested in:

UCLAN - Visual Merchandising & Promotional Design - 1FT

Stafffordshire University - Creative Writing and Journalism 3FT

Staffordshire University - ECCI 1FT

Staffordshire University - Events Management 1FT

Nottingham Trent - International Fashion Business 1FT

London College Of Fashion - Fashion Management and Retail

London College Of Fashion - Fashion Buying and Merchandising 

KO Creative

KO CREATIVE is run by Kerry and Oliver, who are a Stafford based company who have experience in Branding, print and digital design. They began seperately gaining experience and portfolio and have now joined together to create their own branding company. They do work for small local businesses as well as bigger companies. The Stafford College Fashion Business & Marketing group is working closely with them during our Clotheshow Live 2010 project where we must promote and market the Stafford College Fashion courses. They will work with us for direction with our ideas and to put them into practice. 

I found them quite inspiring as they weren't very old and have made themselves quite successful with very clever logos and branding ideas. They wish to help us as a group with our logo and name for the Clothes Show Live 2010. Looking at their website and the pictures of their work i am very excited to have them helping us ( www.kocreative.co.uk ) Picture above shows how effective it can be to grab the publics attention by doing simple and cost effective things. Kerry explained that the logo for 'THE MET' was literally made from mdf boards nailed together with a light in side which didn't cost alot at all which you can see in the picture below taken from their website.

Portfolio Planning

Today was about discussing what is needed in a portfolio. Obviously everyones would be different as it reflects what we are interested in and what career we want to pursue. I've made a list of what i want to include in my portfolio:

• Life drawings
• Mood Board from Alice In Wonderland
• Mood board from Fashion show
• Pictures from Fashion show
• Media article
• Photo shoot pictures
• Pictures of exhibition 
• Costumer profile boards
• CAD work
• Work experience reports
• Target market boards
• Pictures of all promotional material

Firstly i need to make some changes to these pieces of work then get them professionally photographed to put into my portfolio in the correct size. 

Open Days

As I am very interseted in becoming a Visual Merchandiser I need to research what qualifiactions, skills and qualities are needed to become one. So after much research from various websites :- www.careersadvice.direct.gov.uk
www.ehow.com 
I have found that I need to ideally top-up my foundation degree to have a greater advantage of becoming a Visual Merchnadiser. Next thing to do was look for universities and courses that have a top-up degree for Business and Marketing Fashion.


Nottingham Trent university have a BA (Hons) International Fashion Business Degree 1 year course which sounds perfect for me! I've booked a place at their opening day for 10/11/2010. I'm very excited and eager to see Nottingham univeristy as I have never visited so as its all new to me its quite intriguing also.

Origami 3D

I need ideas to display the stand and i thought to use origami in some way would carry on the structured theme perfectly. So I found this image in google form simply searching " Orgimami Shapes" and this is what popped up! I instantly thought this would be a great display for our stand, I was thinking using them as huge collums either side of the stand. This would look really dramatic and effective and draw alot of attention towards us. It give a gecian feel which I like as we havnt got a distinctive theme as of yet. I'll be experiment these skills further to see weather its ideal and realistic for our stand.

Geek Chic!

As in "très chic" which is french for "way cool." I totally agree. 

The Peak of Geek 
So now we emerge into the 21st century—an era of emo-rock, wine tasting, board game parties, and tweed blazers. This is unfamiliar territory for the pop-culture enthusiast used to the easily recognizable lexicon of cool. Geek chic takes the conventions of pretty, sexy, and popular, and turns them on their head. Take, for example, the lead characters from the ridiculously popular TV show “The O.C.” It is not Ryan, the bad boy with the smoldering stare who has garnered the affection of teen girls everywhere, but rather Seth—Seth the school outcast, Seth the Comic-Con attendee, Seth the indie music lover. Seth the geek.

Still, Seth is not by any means the prototypical TV nerd; he is no president of the chemistry club. Rather, he embodies all the elements of recognizable geek chic, sporting obscure band names on his T-shirts and spouting inane but bizarrely captivating facts about literature, history, and video games. He isn’t the smartest kid at school, and he doesn’t need to be. Being geeky is no longer equated with conventional intelligence. It has much more to do with possessing indepth knowledge of interests or obsessions outside the norm.

Rob Ryan

From having seen his distinctive paper cut-outs displayed in department store Liberty and in pages of Vougue I have grown very found of Rob Ryans pieces of work, he uses great detail and the designs are very intriquete. Using the shoe design with cut-out lettering in the heel and hanging them from the walls would look querky and would appear really eyecatching to students at the event. As a group this would be very time comsuming to produce a numourous amount for the Clothes Show 2010 but  Below are examples I have tried out to see how effective this would be. 

We plan to experiment with this technique by using Vogue pages to cut out lettering and fashion images for look book ideas.

Promotional Ideas

My ideas for promational material are using resin and placing querky little objects in different shapes or in blocks like the picture above. Placing buttons into blocks was suggested as a group, i think putting the Stafford College logo inside would be a even more acheievable way of promoting the College this way they would be a great piece of promotional work as its quite creative and different so the students can take them away to inspire them to study at Stafford College in the future.

As origami is what were going for I thought as a really cost effiective and quirky way to make promtional goodies for potential students for 2011 at Stafford College. Im going to experiment today further on this incorporating the college logo into the designs.

Visual Display Ideas

While reasearching origami techniques I came across this book (above), I found this book really inspiring with easy and effective ways of making origami. Below is my example of origami butterflies made with coloured printing paper. This is would be great for our visual display by hanging them staggered from the ceiling.

Here is a photograph I have taken in my local TopShop store in Stoke-On-Trent. This is what inspried me to use origami hanging from the ceiling. I love how simple and effective this looks and how cost effective it is. I think this is a great way  to entice students and parents to the stand.

 

Covering a complete wall with oringami cranes (see picture below) in different colours looks really effective. I am goin to experiment and post pictures at a later date. I want to experiment with different shapes and colours to go with the garments on display which are black and white checks and stipes, reds, greys and whites.

Personal Planning

Thinking about how to display and present my business portfolio, I want to keep a professional yet unquie look but also it needs to be easy to transport as i will be travelling to interviews. After a great deal of researching various websites and stores I came across this idea of having my name embossed into the front cover of the leather book. It not only looks perfessional but smart and different to what most people my have which is what I want as it;s always good to stand out from the rest! This can be purcased from http://www.portfoliosplus.co.uk/ at quite reasonable prices when quoting what design you would pacifically like.