FINITO.

White shirt from my graduate collection. Photography by Danielle Carlyle. 

Its been a chaotic, stressful, heart attack inducing few months but I am happy to finally say, my graduate collection 'Sartorial Nights' is now complete. Hallelujah! 

After dealing with tutors leaving, fabric nightmares, organising events,15hour days, photoshoots and too many all nighters, the relief of having finished is unbelievable....but I am already missing the daily stressful routine! (glutton for punishment much?)

Now I've caught up with sleep and feel like a human being again, it's back to portfolio preparation for Graduate Fashion Week in London next weekend, photoshoots, website admin and trawling through blog posts I started and never finished. 

Oh, and I might squeeze in the Jubilee and my 22nd (ugh) birthday next week. Wish me luck.

EYES LIKE WILDFLOWERS.

1. My studio space where I seem to spend most of my life at the moment

2. Street photography in London by Robert Frank, 1951

3. Tailored jacket toile with close up of the style line in the front piece

4. Summer sunset at my Dad's house...the colour inspiration for my collection is the last colours of the sky at sunset 

5. Shirt toile...inspired by a men's traditional dinner shirt 

6. Image of Italian men's street style by The Sartorialist / Marlene Dietrich

7. Front and back details of shirt

8. Image from 'African Queen' photo shoot in Harper's Bazaar December 2011 issue  

My inspiration and samples for Look One of my current collection which is titled 'Sartorial Nights'. 

I KNOW YOU WANT ME.

Lanvin Fall 2011 by Steven Meisel

Two reasons why this is one of the best campaigns I've seen in a while; 1. because its Lanvin, and they can do no wrong in my eyes and 2. because they are showcasing some of my best drunken dance moves...

The somewhat awkward dancing by Raquel Zimmermann and Karen Elson really brings the beautiful Fall collection to life with a great injection of humour and plenty of hair flipping and shimmying.
Proving that awful dancing can be cool...though perhaps only, I fear, if you're wearing Lanvin...

WAVE TO YESTERDAY.

On this lovely, sunny Monday, I am pretending to do uni work..i.e sunbathing in my garden, catching up on this months magazines and calling it 'research' and apparently obsessing over Natalia Vodianova.

Magazine galore |  Natalia Vodianova for Love magazine Issue 6 by Alasdair McLellan | 'Funky Fuschia' nails | Masculine shapes paired with feminine sheer fabrics at Stella McCartney |

Happy Monday!

MASTERS OF STYLE.

Gucci S/S 1991 by Lance Stadler

I recently took a trip down to one of my favourite places in London; Somerset House, for the 'Masters of Style' exhibition celebrating the stories behind Italian fashion.

This photographic display featured the work of the six biggest Italian fashion houses; Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, Salvatore Ferragamo, Gucci, Missoni and Giorgio Armani as well as some of the worlds most renowned photographers such as Mario Testino, Peter Lindbergh, Steven Meisel and Steven Klein.

I was particularly interested in going to visit this exhibition as my theme for my third year collection (as you may have guessed from recent posts) is based around Italian culture, architecture and style. 

As I expected, it did not disappoint. The selection of images on display were handpicked by the individual designers and accompanied by their personal reflections. This gave an interesting and rare insight into the inspirations and reasoning behind the themes, styling and history of some of the fashion houses.

Unfortunately the exhibit is now closed so if you missed it, never fear, as there is an accompanying book that is available to buy from the Rizzoli bookshop at Somerset House.

Below are just a selection of my favourite images from the exhibition... 

 Dolce & Gabbana S/S 2011 by Steven Klein | Prada S/S 1997 by Glen Luchford | Prada S/S 1989 by Albert Watson | Gucci A/W 2008 by Inez Van Lamsweerde | Armani A/W 1990 by Aldo Fallai

FREE FALLIN.

 photo sources: The Sartorialist|Flickr

Current fashion inspiration: Italian summer style vs Renaissance architecture.

laid back shapes. easy glamour. light knitwear and midi skirt combinations. flashes of decorative prints. colour and print clashes. masculine shapes. and acres of tanned flesh.

it's all about classic dressing with a Mediterranean edge.
- the starting point for my third year womenswear collection...lets see where this leads me.

FALLEN ANGELS.

 

Source: Vogue

Riccardo Tisci is God.

Well, the God of Haute Couture that is...
Tisci's Autumn/Winter 2011 Couture presentation for Givenchy was a collection of exquisite,
ethereal creations in subtle shades of white and gold. Inspiration came from birds of paradise, angels and clouds which resulted in the models appearing like fallen angels in Armour.

"Purity. Light in the darkness. Pure. Soft. Fragile. A Romantic dream"
or just simply, Perfection.