Saturday 29 September 2012

black is the new...


...trend for Spring 2013 it seems. While black is always a necessary wardrobe staple, regardless of the season, it seems to have taken over all of the colour on the catwalk. Head to toe black and monochrome are popular looks with some dense fabrics (or at least, for summer) mixed with sheer.


Above are examples from Christian Dior, Balenciaga, Haider Ackermann, Viktor & Rolf, A.F. Vandervorst, Alexis Mabille, Jonathan Saunders and Martin Grant. Perhaps this turn to black is a reaction to the economic recession and the connotations of depression associated with it. Maybe it's just a good idea.

Thursday 14 June 2012

millie mackintosh


I'm not one to gush or blog about celebrities, but I was doing a bit of summer style spying for my up and coming holiday shopping trips, and came across a number of style snaps of Millie Mackintosh. Originally this blog was going to be about her style (because I love it and wish she would style my entire wardrobe) but then I fell in love with these photo shoots. No one can pull of white like she can (no, not even Kimberley Garner). These pictures have been pinched from the St. Tropez campaign, FHM and the Metro.

Thursday 7 June 2012

when life gives you lemons

So I've now finished another year of university and this leaves me time for this, that and the blogging. The Jubilee has just passed and although it's a great celebration and a lot of fun, it's not my cup of tea. And so with red and blue out of action, this leaves us with yellow:


I would go as far as to say that pastel yellow is my least favourite colour of all time and always has been - but add a hint of lime green and it leaps right up there to my top 5 colours this season. What should we call this colour? Acid yellow? Lemon lime? Lime lemon? I have no idea. But I love it. From right to left (why not?) we have Oscar De La Renta Spring 2012, BCBG Max Azria Spring 2012 and a statement handbag taken from Topshop Tumblr.

Monday 23 April 2012

intergalactic wargasms


Naked and green. Definitely didn't see that one coming! But an enjoyable shoot nonetheless and a lot of fun traveling home on the train (and doing the weekly shop to Asda on the ride home with Ma) with a green face. Only one person stopped to ask me about it while the rest stared at me as though I were a real life alien. This is my favourite shot from the day, but to check out the rest they're on here, a spread in Monolith Magazine, put together by Lore Oxford.

Sunday 25 March 2012

turban chic


This shoot was just some fun in the studio for Rachel's (Elyshia Style) lens class at uni. The theme for the day was white and her tutor brought in this chiffon cover up, a sample given to her by a designer at a photo shoot years ago. I love the buttons on it. Rachel paired it with the nude shoes, arm bracelet and turban. Huge fan of the turban. 

And well, in the other picture, it's just the bracelet on it's own. But there were white velvet trousers involved! I cropped those out just to keep it simple. I've put the link up above for anyone who wants to check out Rachel's blog.

Thursday 8 March 2012

a nightmare in bohemia


Just finished a design brief on menswear and subcultures. Menswear I can deal with, subcultures not so much. I couldn't be more pleased to see the back of this project. I went for bohemianism, so it's all loosely inspired by that. It was a commercial project so the designs and colour palette aren't too out there.


My jeans were a natural bull denim that I dyed marbley-brown. This task in itself would be stressful enough without being confined to a shallow plastic tub with a kilo of denim, two small packets of dye and only a wrist length pair of latex gloves between me and marbley-brown hands. Turns out in the end I was only left with one black thumb. Could of been worse. For example, how I happened to have chosen the thickest denim known to man (or at least Fabric Land) which consequently broke three industrial machines. THREE, industrial machines.

And so this disagreeable six week process I persevered with, is the reason I have not blogged. Not that I have regular readers eagerly awaiting my next post! But it is a disappointment to myself and my OCPD to have gaping holes in my blog post history!

Saturday 28 January 2012

protective undergrowth


So this project was for our Fashion Realisation unit. The first part, we had to come up with a new brand following some market research, as a group (I can't lie, it's really not my favourite way of working; "I work well as part of a team" is not my first choice of clichéd response for application forms/interviews... I am extremely anal-retentive - the first step is acceptance right!?). Anyway, ours was called VINCENT. That is actually the name of my mum's cat, I liked it so I added it to the list of possible names, others included Morton, Seminal and Piano? And the girls chose Vincent so there we have it.


The second part of the project was to develop a trend, taking inspiration from the general trends of Autumn/Winter '12 and gathering our own primary influences. Then using this, we had to create a silhouette, colour palette, design details etc. to design a collection for our made-up brand.

So I looked at the Eco-Hedonism trend, and developed ideas surrounding protection, nesting, swaddling, coddling, cocoons and juxtaposed textures (all kind of depicted above on my mood board and design board - click on them to make them bigger/clearer) took some buttons from my button jar, stuck them on a leaf and photographed it. Stuff like that. There's a big ol' sketchbook from this project but I handed that in, so I may put some pages from that on here but for now this is it!

Wednesday 25 January 2012

"do forgive me"

 
Since the tender age of 2 I have been a huge lover of Tim Burton (or, so I've been told). Yesterday I found an editorial spread from Harper's Bazaar, October 2009, shot by Tim Walker; click here for a cheeky peak. I'm particularly fond of this shot, as it's referenced characters from two of my favourite films as a child, Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands, (yes, as a child - I have strange parents). 
 
I recently got around to watching Corpse Bride and subsequently decided I'm going to teach myself this. But we can't solely credit Tim Burton for that, that beautiful tune is the genius of Danny Elfman, a whole other story entirely.

Sunday 22 January 2012

la maison curieux


In the past I've been particularly interested in Martin Margiela's experimentation with identity (and concealing it) - this would explain the histrionic sweeping hair dos and possibly the neutral colour palette. This is the Spring Summer 2012 collection from Maison Martin Margiela. There are hints of deconstruction but with the main emphasis on the shapes and silhouettes. Dramatic draping and cowled tops with cowled bottoms. I like the functionless details of the skirt on the right with the adaption of the classic white shirt.

The mix of fabric density and white with beige and darks is an intriguing choice for spring; when I came across this collection I genuinely had to check that I was in the right section and hadn't accidentally wandered into winter! I guess Margiela will do as Margiela does!

Wednesday 18 January 2012

management and marketing


These are some illustrated designs (for a project I finally handed in yesterday... woop!) drawn on illustrator. This range plan is for my Fashion Management and Marketing project; a marketing report on a high street store, followed by a proposal for a niche idea. Thought I would suck at it but turns out I did alright! I chose Topshop and my niche strategy was a celebrity collaboration with Olivia Palermo. Yes, I have gathered that a lot of people hate her but I don't - she is gorgeous and has great style, what's not to like?! 


These are screen grabs from my presentation assessment. I do love a bit of PowerPoint but public speaking has never been one of my strong points! In fact, I'd go as far as to say I'm allergic to it - it brings me out in a rash (...and there's shakes, and there's stuttering. And there's also bright red ears? It's not a good look.) But thank goodness that's now out of the way! 

For some reason the writing on the images has gone all blurry, thanks blogger, so if you click on them... they might bring up the bigger size and not be blurry. But I don't know about that until I publish this post so we'll have to see!

Thursday 12 January 2012

atelier mayer


Here are some of the results from the talented stylist Rachel Gumbrill's promotion project for Atelier Mayer. She managed to nab some gorgeous stuff (that we didn't get lipstick on) back in December for her Lost in Translation themed shoot and above are a couple of my favourite ones. Click here to see her lookbook and have a browse of her blog Elyshia Style.
I'm Hettie Glen, I'm 22 and a half and currently studying for a degree in Fashion Design.

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