Bank holiday

Well its been a really busy weekend for me, what with it being my last ever shift in my retail job. Which ive very happily swapped for a better paid office job! I then had my ill attended leaving night out and spent all of the bank holiday recovering with.
Cant wait til this months payday, i can finally go on a rather massive shopping trip :D

College Lull

I have to say I miss college already, and its only just the start of August!
Part of me actually wishes that they had sent us work to do over the summer. I can not wait til September to get started again!

London can't keep me away!

After a fascinating fortnight of working in London, the capital couldn't keep me away that long as I happily returned for a weekend!
(Don't worry, details of the second week will soon follow! I haven't forgotten about that)
During this visit I was promised a trip to the zoo and so I was super excited, only for the rain to dampen both my plans and spirits. So I didn't get to go to the zoo, or Hyde Park, or an outdoor book store. No big deal. I did get to return to Oxford street, Carnaby Street, visit Harrods and drool over the designer lovelies! All in all it was fun, i went to the national gallery and see the new Harry Potter film! I do love london

Technology hates me

And I hate technology. This week my credit card saw a rather large spend on it after my mobile handset broke, and me being unable to live without my social networking [and blog updating] I had to splash out on a Sony Ericsson X8, which I have came to grow and love.
The second blow to my credit came after my sewing machines needle snapped, and nearly killed me, then started to make a god awful CL-CLUNK sound every time I pressed the foot pedal. It then began to snap my thread and chew up the spool thread. After all this havoc of pulling the machine apart I rendered it broken. I suppose the upside is that I do have a very shiny and beautiful new sewing machine, which is a hell of a lot better than my previous Argos bargain model, a beautiful Bush sewing machine, complete with 24 stitches and a two thread thing.
So now I have no money and two very pretty, and expensive, new gadgets. Although I am now officially afraid to turn on any other electronics incase they decide to break on me too, I definitely can't afford to replace anything else!

More London

After surviving a second week in London I couldn't wait to update my blog, unfortunately I've came home to a messy room and mountains of coursework. I'm really sorry but my coursework is most important as the deadline is on the Monday morning and it is currently Friday night! It will have to be an all nighter, but I will get this done and write about my second week really soon.

Doodles and Drawing...

Its such a complete shame that I don't have access to a scanner down here in London. All the drawings and sketches I've started to do down here could easily be used to create pattern and be enhanced on photoshop with the use of my graphics tablet! I feel like I'm missing out on a huge opportunity to do alot of coursework down here. Although I have had a really good chance to decide what I would like to do and have gained some textile designers names which I want to make my work look similar to. The names Collier and Campbell definitely struck a match in my creative mind. When I return home I will create some inspiration boards based on their work and will analyse what I like from their work and how I would see myself doing something similar. I will then do more drawings both traditionally and graphically, then design and create my samples and then my final piece. I have decided to create a garment front based on my chosen era, the 1990's, but instead of just copying the 1990's, I am going to take inspiration and transform it into present day fashion.

M&M Heaven

To my delight and wonder I have discovered that London's very own M&M World is set to open on the 16th June 2011. One might consider their great luck when they had already set a date on the 16th to visit such shops around the Piccadilly circus. I do think I may come home with my own weight in M&M's. In utter excitement I decided to scout the website for products, and to my delight I discovered you can personalise your own M7M's by choosing colour, images and messages. Get in! To buy your own personalised M&M's I'd visit Their own website if I were you!

Oxford Street

Today I am giving into all temptation and going on a shopping trip to Oxford street, on the hunt for a new summer jacket. I have already discovered a shop called Pull & Bear which is rather similar to H&M in terms of product, price point and promotions. I found two really strong contenders for my new jacket, but since I'm in one of the fashion capitals, I have decided not to buy from the first shop I go in, and look everywhere I can. Shops I'm interested in going to, that aren't in Newcastle, include: GAP, Zara, United Colours of Benetton and Urban Outfitters. I can feel my bank balance screaming at me in uttermost fear as I prepare to hit these high street giants. I am excited!

End of the first week

At the end of the first week I have to say I am feeling absolutely pleased with how it has turned out. I think I impressed the people I am working with, since they were able to outline a task and I was able to get it done with very little supervision, which is always a skill in itself. I think I made myself vocalised, if I was unsure I always asked someone for help or tips. I've came out of the shy and timid barrier I'd wrapped myself in on the first day and have spoken to everyone in the office, and am known as "that sweet little northerner" by the production team. I do suppose its good to be known and recognised than to sit there unnoticed. I'm very eager for the next week, as there is promise of a busy photo shoot for the autumn promotions we are carrying out. Heading home for the weekend was definitely a good idea, except for the stress that was caused for getting on the actual train, which involved forgetting train tickets, a sprint with a suitcase, failure to decide what to eat, the train platform not being announced until 5 minutes before due arrival and trouble finding my seat on the train. Luckily the ride back to London was a lot smoother and has left me actually more excited than I was this time last week!

More London

On the Thursday I was fortunate enough to sit in on a whole floor staff meeting on marketing strategies for the next calender year. It was really interesting as I work in store so I was able to get an insight on what was happening behind the scenes and how they would get their points across on the sales floor. A lot of the points made were ones that I could understand and see how they would transform what the customers think and change their ways on shopping. The meeting got a lot of points raised and it was really detailed in the marketing strategies Debenhams would use. They explained a five point plan on the main marketing focuses and what the plans would be to execute these to ensure that the customers were getting the best deals in sight on promotion, what the Debenhams brand is and giving the customer what they want in terms of delivering the brand to them through adverts and promotions also. After the meeting I then continued my Brand profile spreadsheet until I had summarised all of the debenhams brands, this task did take the best part of two days, as there are a lot of brands in Debenhams and they each have a different voice, angle, targeted audience and customer profiles. Working through the profiles was actually quite rewarding as it gave myself a good chance to rekindle my knowledge of the brands we sell and acknowledge that there is something for everyone at Debenhams. In the afternoon I had a meeting with someone from the Marketing Research team who told me what the job entailed, what they did, and what they used the information for. She told me all about out recent "Feel Fabulous" Adverts with the song "The Sweetest Feeling". Apparently they tested the original slogan "Feel Famous" and the customer profile did not react positively to that, thinking it felt cheap and tacky and unobtainable, so using the research they changed it to what it is today. The also used focus groups with the advert to help chose the final cut, including music which changed from "Sweet Caroline" to "Sweetest Feeling". This really showed to me how powerful the Debenhams customers voice is to the company, as we carry out customer incentive surveys on store experiences, as well as carrying out focus groups, have  online surveys and asking customers when they have finished shopping in store. It was at this meeting that I pitched the idea of having XS sized clothing in our menswear range, due to the high demand and loss of sales to other popular retailers. The research team promised to look into it, thinking that it was quite a good angle that they had previously carried out in women's wear, to the expansion of available sizes from size 16 to 22, and that they could possibly look into doing the same for menswear. At the end of the day I left the office feeling pretty good after an accomplished day.

On Friday it was the sample sale which i had been preparing the garments for on the Monday. In the morning I was instructed to check over the garments and write down descriptions and prices onto a spreadsheet so that we could keep track on what we have sold and for what price, because it was a sample sale and for charity nothing was priced over £5, with the exception of two large vases for £7.50 each. This surprisingly took a while as there was a lot to be sold. I was then sent to collect some carrier bags for the sale from a rather massive loading bay and made friends with a Londoner. After this the conference room was free, the location for our sale, so myself and another girl in the office set about setting up our mini sample sale. I was told that this was a small collection for a sample sale and that they are usually fast paced and manic. I started to feel a little nervous considering I wasn't used to dealing with manic shoppers. After setting everything up, I was informed that there was more items available and went to the large loading bay (again) to collect them. This involved a trip down in a rather large and scary elevator, and then back up again. When I got back to the office I sorted out these items and found a bracelet and ring that I had my heart set on. After putting the new stock out it was now12:25, the sale didn't start until 12:30 but there was already a crowd of eager shoppers waiting. When it finally turned half past I let them in and a mad rush spread about the room. A lot of people tried to barter their price but the phrase "But its for charity" seemed to set them back in their place. by 12:50 the mad rush had ended and I was left in a room with still quite a lot of items left. It was then to be told that at 1:00 prices would be void and we would run a "fill a bag for a fiver" campaign as a final push to move the stock. This proved pretty successful, and by 1:30, when the sale closed we were left with a single rail and a few bags left of stock, not that bad if honest. All in all we raised over £80! For the rest of the day I was left to clear the sale and put the items into a large box that would be sent away to be dealt with. I then was set the task of packaging Marc Jacobs perfume for the winners of our Debenhams heritage competitions and composing a congratulations letter for them. After the 10 winners were all sorted, I thanked my lucky stars that I don't work in a gift wrapping chain, as I am absolutely awful! This lead to the end of the day, and the end of my first week in placement.

Collier Campbell

Yesterday I was fortunate enough to be able to visit the Collier Campbell exhibit at the National Theatre. I have to say I am in love. I love the organic of their drawings, how imperfections are shown, such as pencil lines and writing. I also love how neatly and crop it looks when it is printed onto fabric. I would like to do something like this in my timeline project.

This weeks outfit

This weeks dream outfit from Dorothy Perkins

Denim Dress £32

Floral Wedges £35

Belt £10

Leggings £10

Ring £7.50

Necklace £12.50

Fiorelli Satchel £59

Total: £166

College work floundering?

Whilst having so much fun working 9-5 in London, I do worry that my college work isn't getting as much attention as it should be, what with the deadline being a little over a week. I do have a special situation, what with being down in the Capital while all of the supplies and equipment are back in jolly Newcastle. I have came armed with a laptop, photoshop and my graphics tablet so I reckon I might do more work based on my CAD work and do garment flats for my design developments, well, that's if I get the time to separate from my bustling lifestyle of eyeing up clothes and Mulberry bags on Oxford Street ;D

London Calling!

After what has been one of the best weeks of my life, I have to say London has grown on me! Arriving on Sunday with what seemed like enough clothes and bags to last me a month, let alone a week I braved the tube. Luckily I didn't get lost and managed to get to where I was staying with very little bother, but an aching arm and a dislike for my dated wobbly suitcase. I spent the rest of the day resting and preparing for an early night ready for my first day at my two week work placement in the Debenhams Head Office Marketing Department.

This was were I came across the London transport system in rush hour. It took 5 full tubes for me to be able to get onto one. I managed to find the place alright and got there on time, which is always a bonus. I met the team and after some introductions, tours and inductions I was ready to start work. I was given some research tasks to do on the computer, which gave me a chance to rekindle my Microsoft office skills, which is always a good thing when being based in an office. I then was taken to a room with all of the old advert outfits in and had to organise each section into each division such as: menswear, womenswear, childrenswear, accessories and home. I then had to price the items so that they could be sold in a charity shop which supported Breast cancer. Sadly this task took a lot longer than anticipated as I forgot to take off all of the original price tags and had to go through them a total of three times. After this I met more of the team and was sent on a mission to go up and down Oxford Street and write down what stood out in the shop windows, such as trends, promotions, advertisements, colours and discounts. I honestly did not know how large Oxford Street was! And after going down one side and up the other I think I became acquainted with every shop there. And also had racked up a dream spend of well over £5000!!!! (Don't worry, I was professional and only bought a £1.15 bottle of Coke!) Upon my return I started on a power point on all of the trends I saw, I decided to focus upon the most popular and gave examples of stores which were using these tactics, trends and such. I must have done something right as my new boss was impressed and even showed her own boss who was also impressed! All in all, a successful first day!

The second day was a little different to the first, in the sense that the Marketing team was in a whole floor meeting all day and unable to give me any jobs to do. So I began my day in the other head office team, inside their Oxford Street Store. I had a two hour long induction, including all of the dull and cheesy health and safety videos, which I must have seen about a million times seeing as I work for the company already! I was then sent to the Business and Selling Support department and got to assist their manager by looking at details for her, and also ordering new staff uniforms, which was an easy enough task, but made all the more difficult by an unhappy computer who decided to run about 1mph! I then spent some time talking to various department managers, one of which thought I was actually a manager myself! I wish! After that I went onto the sales floor and learned about how their own menswear department was ran, what standards they carried out, what brands they carried, and how they handled their own staff members. I have to say it was completely different to how my own menswear department is run, in the matter of standards, policies, recovery and even sales preparation. Because I am bias, I do think I prefer how my own department does it! Again, my second day wasn't too bad, but I'd basically just done my own job without getting paid for it.

On the third day I was back in head office, where I was supposed to be. I was impressed as I'd managed to catch a train AND get a seat. But then swiftly realised it was heading in the opposite direction I was supposed to be traveling. I swiftly left the train at the next station and headed in the correct way. Unfortunately the whole seat thing was a fluke, but I did manage to squash myself onto the next train. Today at work I met the man who voices the Debenhams CD! I have to say I was a little star struck! For my main task I learned about the database that the marketing team uses to place job requests for advertisement that they then send to the production team. After a few tutorials I managed to get my head around it and began to take details from clients and other stores and put them onto the database, filled out the correct forms and emailed them to the production team to create them. I had to make my instructions as clear as possible in order for the brief to be correctly achieved. Once the production team had completed the task they then sent a digital and hard copy over for my to proof read and check over. If I didn't like something I would write on the changed and send it back, but if it was all okay I would sign it off and return it for the production team to send to the printers. I only had to send one thing back, but the rest was alright. In total I think I sorted out about 5 advertisements and a computer desktop background. I don't think I did too badly. I then had to proof read magazine and newspaper advertisements for our upcoming sale and ensure all of the prices and details were correct and spelt correctly, and sign them off so they could be sent to the relevant papers to be printed. (So if you see a Debenhams advertisement in the Sun on Thursday 9th June, I proofed that!)  After that I then began to create a spreadsheet on given information about brand identity's, target audience profiles, ages, and what the brand is about. I didn't manage to finish all of it so I'd be picking up this task tomorrow. All in all, a very good day!

Fashion show

 These are my images which were taken at the final show. All of our garments fitted together really well and I am really pleased with how they went down the runway. All of our garments have a certain similar element which bonded them together in our collection. I think that our collection collaborated very well and had a cohesive element, which was shown in our accessories and constant use of pattern and colour. The models hair was all styled similarly and overall our collection looked really effective.

Salvation Army Fashion Show





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Off To London!

Well, in two or three weeks time. But its still the same principal. I've blagged my way into two weeks work experience in the buying and marketing department at Debenhams head office in London, and need less to say, I can not wait!
It has came out of my own pocket to get down there, but this might actually be my big break to try and get into University! Plus any experience in the industry can't be bad now can it?
I get to go shopping too for some work gear! And you know me, any excuse to shop is certainly a good one.

Fashion Show!

Well we hosted our final fashion show at As You Like It in Jesmond, my new favourite place on earth. The décor of the venue was beautiful. Not one wall was the same, the chairs were comfortable and all unique. I would love to create my own house in the style of this place!

The show was a raving success, the models all looked beautiful. The music was fantastic and the garments were all finished. The crowd seemed to love all aspects and we made a lot of money for the Salvation army.

As I was not modelling I attended the event armed with my camera determined to take all the best shots of my groups collection. My camera had other ideas. The flash seemed to interject all of my images and the people in front seemed determined to spoil my shots. Luckily some other members of the group managed to get some decent shots. I will add these images to my blog soon

Final Piece

 

These are my final pieces. Here I have created two similar style presentation boards, made to fit A3 paper. I really like the colour and the presentation style I used as I think it is very neat and the whole page is very attractive. I have used subtle patterns which are eye catching and really suit my garden party theme.

Plan for my final piece

This is my plan for my garden party themed final piece. Here I have mapped out ideas for two potential pages that I could produce. Both pages use the same similar layout, with decorative backgrounds, and drawings of my main inspiration for my CAD work. I will include image flats of my CAD work and write about what my thought processes were in the project and I may include the concept of colour swatch squares

CAD Inspiration

This is my A3 mood board on inspiration from CAD illustrators who focus on fashion illustration. I really like the image flats that have been made and would definitely like it if my image flats could even compare to these. I really like the subtle colour pops and all of the detailing that has been placed into each garment. This has definitely shown me that I have my work cut out if I want my final piece to live up to the high quality and detailing that I have set myself up to. Luckily I think I have really thrown myself into this CAD project and I do hope that all the hard work that I am putting in will pay off!

Another Cute Pattern

I really think that this is a cute floral pattern. I would love to create a pattern similar to this for my garden party project, as it is cute, original and just screams garden party!

Yukki-Chan

This artist, Yukki-Chan is definitely my favourite CAD illustrator. I absolutely love the mix of natural drawing and all of the detail, depth and texture included in her images. I love how the images are so flat, yet they just come out of the page in such a beautiful and elegant manner. I love the colours chosen as they have so many layers. From far away they are bold and look realistic. Up close they are so much more! There is so much detailing and they are so pretty! I wish I could create images as complex yet simplistic as these. I particularly like how the colour is the main focus of the images, as the body features such as the limbs, faces and hair are all white images.
Yukki-Chan is definitely a major inspiration to myself and this CAD project.

AT Rock&Roll

This is my second mood board, inspired by the illustrations created by AT Rock&Roll. I decided to choose this artist because of the bright colours and eye popping detail in each work of art. I wish that I was as good at my CAD work as this artist because of the depth and layers used, as well as the raw illustration and mix of colours. My favourite image is the Rock & Roll Lifestyle image with the mix of blue and pink colour and black layered image. I think that this is really successful, and very popular with modern prints as it creates eye catching depth and makes the image more exciting. I think if I have taken anything from this artist, it will be the inspiration of colour and fearlessness within my design. I would also like to take away the idea of layering in a less than average style, as it is far more exciting than the standard method.

Victoria Ball

This image shows my mood board that I have made in inspiration to the CAD illustrator Victoria Ball. I have chosen her as one of my chosen artists because I love the simplicity of the images she composes. I love the mix of photographs and illustration, because to me that is simply my style. I love the phrases and quotes she has chosen ass they are very feminine, famous and linked to fashion meticulously.  One of the main reasons I decided to do a mood board on Victoria Ball was that she chose fashion images. My favourite image is the lingerie which depicts the message "Curve, The loveliest distance between two points" Mae West.
I love the illustration and I love the message as it is utterly feminine and I love the floral patterns chosen. This image in particular has inspired some of my CAD illustration of the underwear, because it is beautiful and has helped inspire my floral obsession.

Floral drawing

As you can see, I've been having fun with my copy and paste technique, using the same basic image flats and simply changing the design on each. The image was half drawn by myself on my graphics tablet, and mirror copied and pasted to create a full image flat which is symmetrical and identical. Since I enjoyed the success of the image flat I decided to have fun and play with drawings and designs on adobe photoshop. Overall I really like the floral drawings, and would actually consider buying these garments myself!

More CAD

I think I'm having far too much fun with this graphics tablet! This is my first attempt at fashion images, using my graphics tablet, some obtained templates, and photoshop. I have created two garden party garments which both have similar floarl patterns, which I have based upon the floral pattern I had found in a box [displayed in previous post]
I am really impressed with the result, and prefer this method to regular drawings, as the can easily be edited to show changed in colour, resized or even have new pattern added, at the touch of the button. It can be saved and sent anywhere in the world at the touch of a button, and copying it won't waver the quality.  Don't get me wrong I do enjoy doing traditional drawings, but I think that I may become more inclined to start digitally enhancing my images because to be honest, I prefer it this way.

Examples of CAD

Here are some examples of my first play around with CAD software. There is my first plain design and a design where I have injected pattern and colour

CAD fun

Taking the project on a little bit more of a kickstart, I've been playing about with my shiny new graphics tablet. I have to say I do have a lot to learn, as it isn't anywhere near as simple as I'd of assumed.

I've been hunting high and low for pattern that I can use on my proposed image flats. I found this beautiful pattern on a cardboard box that was just lying around the house, so I scanned it into my computer. I've also been looking for real fabrics that could be used for my image flats.

Ready for CAD

Because I'm totally stoked with this CAD project, I decided to realise my dreams of owning a graphics tablet and bought one. Well yeah, I do have to wait around 5 days for the lovely postman to deliver it. But after that I'm all go to become a lean mean CAD drawing machine!
Since it totally appears that design assyst doesn't appear from college I think I might have to give photoshop a go, since I really do enjoy spending quality time in front of the PC, I do actually think I'm starting to prefer computer created images to raw drawing styles. Don't worry though, I'm not being trapped into the digital spell permanently!
All I can really say is that I can not wait to do more with this project.

Garden Party Gone Mad

I have to say, I do think that this garden party obsession is getting carried away! My mozilla firefox browser skin is a pretty garden party pattern which is just totally me!
My mothers day present was a beautiful miniature tea set covered in a beautiful floral pattern.
And to add to the obsession, when I go clothes shopping I'm automatically drawn to pretty florals and demand to try them on. I am pretty much addicted to flowers and all things garden party related. I'm pretty sure I actually spent a few moments longer looking in the garden selection in the super market, what with picnic baskets, cute plastic cups and plates. I feel like the mad hatters tea party gone wrong!
But to my excitement, and possible final nail on the crazy coffin, I have learned that I am to continue the theme of garden party throughout the new CAD project. So, I don't just get to use exciting new programmes like design assyst and photoshop, I get to use them with the thoughts of garden party as my inspiration. Double win for me. I can definitely say that while spring has just sprung, I am in full swing with this floral trend obsession.

Day Five

Today is the last day of the project, therefore everyone appears to be in some mad rush to get everything finished. I, however, appear to be the only one to remain calm. This may have been because I did not have any garment assembly to undertake, which may yet be a good thing, though I am still unsure about this point.
On reflection I still feel a little low about the fact that I feel my part in the assembly of the garments seemed to stop after the initial ideas and playing about, which possibly was my own fault. In this project I definately feel more like some sort of researcher/artist/inital player aboutarer than a proper designer, so I will take this point and ensure that through the next project I givd myself a bigger more key role within the group, instead of hiding all reserved in the background. I have to admit, it isn't me just being lazy. The point is that in our group we had more people than garments to be made.

The Play-suit Continued

This is the front of the play-suit which Jaye constructed and models. You can see the transformation from the frumpy dress to the figure hugging play-suit which I think Jaye wears very well. Here you can see the detailing of the belt that we have styled it with, although the garment is not complete, regarding the beaded straps which will replace the string ones.

The Play-suit

Jaye did a really good job of constructing the play-suit. We decided initially to leave the back open and Jaye has done it in a really classy and effective way. I think that it actually flatters her figure very well. At the moment she is using string for the straps, but this will be changed for pearl coloured beads taken from a necklace. We have styled the play-suit with a tan coloured belt, which matches the outfit perfectly

Day Four

After a week dedicated to my blog and finding inspiration the group met back up at college to see how far progress had went on with the garments. Jaye had taken home the play-suit to finish the construction. We thought that this would make sense seeing as she is our model for that outfit. The ugly green dress has been totally transformed into a very wearable outfit that looks absolutely lovely on Jaye. She has definitely done a good job on the garment, seeing as it is totally complete. Sarah was also our model for our second garment and she had taken it home to complete also. On day four the garment was still being constructed and has little left to do until it is complete, but she is doing a good job and I am sure it is going to look amazing on her too. I do feel a little like a weaker member of the group at this point, seeing as most of the complex parts in constructing the garments was undertaken by the two other members of the group. I feel a little low today as I am feeling left out and worried incase my team members get the idea that I'm just taking them for a ride, which I can assure them I am most certainly not.
As a group we have started to bring all of our collection together to try and see where it can be brought together and what we would need to do as a team to make sure that they are all styled similarly and go together successfully as a collaboration. We decided that we would style our models in bare feet and choose hair accessories that are similar and tie in with the garden party theme. We also want to style the models with ribbon ankle bracelets, which Sarah has offered to construct. 
At this particular point in time I still feel quite low, but I am completely excited for the final garment fitting tomorrow, and also for the fashion show!

More Designers

I felt I should get all the inspiration I could find, in order for me to explore all options for my garment ideas, so here are more designers whose Garden party garments have really helped to inspire me and have especially caught my eye.
Mark Jacobs Spring 2011 had some selected garments which I felt inspired me and also caught my eye. Overall his collection was far more retro, but I did feel that all of the items were individually beautiful, well sculpted and shared beautiful silhouettes.I absolutely love the rich colour choices as they are both bright, but also more subdued, as they are more of a jewel tone than a bright tone. The garments are really eye catching, and I particularly love the sculpted flower included on each garment as it ties the collection together.

Another collection which had garment that inspired me was Topshop's Spring 2011 collection which contained some bold colours and heavily constructed garments with immense detailing. I chose this particular collection as I want to mimic some of the detail ideas for my own collection. I like the cute and playful lengths of the garments and also the hair styling of the models, as it is very playful and eye-catching.

D&G's spring 2001 ready to wear collection has also greatley inspired me. I absolutely love how they have chosen to include lace into their floral garments, as I think it is very subtle but also very easy to add into my own designs. I admire the cute fresh feeling I get from all the crisp white fabric and subtle injections of colour, as it just looks so natural and so garden party esk. I have fallen in love with this collection because it screams my sort of styling and these clothes are exactly what I would love to wear myself this summer.

Breathe Couture; My New Style Crush

I discovered this brand on one of my many trips to google during this project, and I have to say I am in love! Breathe Couture Features really cute garden party accessories and jewellery. I really love the styling on their shoots and feel like they really reflect the garden party theme!

I absolutely love the flowers and how they are the focus point of the necklace. The image on the left is my favourite because of the larger flowers being surrounded by beautiful beads and smaller flowers. The necklace looks very expensive and actually even designer. I know that I would sell my soul to have a necklace as beautiful as that one. The image on the right also caught my eye because of the pale pastel colours as it is very subtle, but very beautiful. These accessories scream garden party to me. If it was humanly possible I would love to style the groups collection with items as similar to these.

  I really love the colour of the garment used in the picture. The dress is beautiful and eye catching and the style screams garden party. I like how it was photographed outside as it just adds to the theme. I lace collar around the models neck is both beautiful and elegant and screams look at me! The model in the back has a black version of the collar, but I have to say I prefer the white one. I love how it has jewels added into it, because it just makes it even more elegant and to me, more desirable. I would have liked to have used this sort of style in my garments, but with the fabrics we were given it was not a conceivable idea. 

I LIKE.

Felling a severe need for inspiration I took to the web to search for anything floral or garden party themed, such as dresses and accessories which took my interest. Here are my findings:

This image taken from the TV show Project Runway depicts garments made from flowers, grass and leaves. Whilst the garments are absolutely beautifully sculpted and crafted, I fear the raw materials may be a little too eccentric for this current project, but I do seriously admire the texture and dedication and feel it ties in well with my Garden Party Theme. The tiny pops of colour are also unique and inspiring and I could easily use this in some of my own garment ideas.

This Juicy Courture ring is the perfect example of Garden Party Fashion and accessories. I have to admit I have completely fallen in love with this beauty of a ring. The one on the right is an absolutely amazing bank balance crushing Christian Dior beauty, coating over £1,200. Where as the one on the left is a cheap imitation at only £77. On this occasion I'd happily settle for either!

 These D&G shoes are also the perfect example of the best Garden Party accessories. I know if I could, I'd definitely be sporting at least one pair this season. I love the detailing on the heel as it is a real focal point on the shoe, and any lucky lady wearing a pair would feel like the belle on the high street. The flower detailing is also an amazing feature of the shoe!