White project

Just a little sketchbook work from the start of a new project, thinking around the word 'white'.
More images here...

Inspiration and design

Portishead - Only you

One of my all time favourite songs, and filmmaking. In some ways it embodies the project I'm trying to work on. The sense of leadenness, the movement of floating. Haunting, longing and loss.
I've been watching it over and over whilst I design, but however I try I can't capture my ideas in a static, drawn form. They lose the ethereality. I hope I can regain that when the clothes are made, as I've tried before.

Vote if you love me!

*Update*
My dress came in as a runner up! (It wasn't counted on the highest number of wow votes, but wows as a percentage of all votes.)
Anyhoo, winning wasn't the important part for me, truly. The wonderful comments and votes meant so much to me, thank you for warming my heart.

*Original post*
Or at least if you think my Paper Doll Dress is a WOW! :D
It's the last chance...
Deadline 15th February
(They ask you to register to be able to vote, sorry.)

Bless my mum, she's been clicking through all the entries on Stylemob to see who is winning so far. Apparently it's very close. Apparently I'm just in the lead *faints!* Bless my sister for her amazing pimpage skills *heart!*
I'm truly and utterly amazed by the response to my dress; I'm lost for words!

Meanwhile I've been doing some serious retail therapy...

Colour

Each season or so I find a different way to make a colour palette which includes purple. In the past I've been inspired by dairy milk chocolate wrappers, glimmers of light on oilslick hues (when petrol prices shot up, gah!), and the chromatic abberations of old black ink. Any excuse really to use my favourite colour; though in truth it's a particular shade of dusky plum.


Recently I've been returning to nature, using natural dyes to make the most amazing colours. What better time to appreciate them than twilight, when magic is in the air and the heady scent of fragrant blooms swirls around us.
(The photograph is my own, taken with my Holga camera; I dyed the samples of fabric myself too.)

Trends

I love keeping one eye on happenings out in the big wide world, though I try to stick to my own little path throughout it all. Here I've picked out a few trends which I happened to be a part of anyway. If someone told me I should be making pink things next season, I would carry on regardless! Find the influences that speak to your soul.
Click on the images if you'd like to see them bigger!


The search for meaning, life caching.



Scrapbooking, handmade craft.



One of a kind



Ethics.

Some interesting links:
The fruits of imagination - Handmade
Interview Naomi Klein
Scrapbooking: The new Paste-up
The shift to the raw and the homemade
Inside global fashion trends
Trendwatching
The future laboratory, conscience consumers and the new austerity

Inspiration

A bar of chocolate (dairy milk, large!) is helping my lemonade hangover, so I've decided to share my inspiration. If you've ever wondered what might go into a clothing collection, here's your chance to find out!
In the beginning...
Much brainstorming and tea drinking to come up with a concept, one which could be lived with for at least a year. I've been wanting to combine fashion and my photography, so... How can photography inspire clothing design?! tada!


This evolved into 'why do I take pictures of certain things?'
For myself it's reliving emotions from the past reflected in the present, allegories of private thoughts and feelings. A response to my culture and thousands of years of family history; that of living memory, through stories told, to the whispering of the world around us.


The environment, my surroundings, have always influenced me. I've grown up in England but also spent some time in Finland. I'm intrigued by the Finnish side of my heritage. I've never lived the reality there, only snippets of life; holidays, escapes. I see the magic, not the daily drudge.


Duality runs through my veins. On one hand I'm Finnish; minimal, quiet, melancholy, stark, with a touch of dark romance. On the other I'm British; maximal, eccentric, detailed, rich, with a nice cup of tea!


The character of time-worn buildings fills me with awe (living near Cambridge I'm spoilt for choice!)
One especially vivid memory is of my Father taking photographs of windows. At the time I thought it odd, but now I find myself drawn to them too. The idea of windows filtered through into rectangular pattern cutting, mitred corners, and the ability to look through a garment by using cut work applique.


The composition of a photograph is also important to me. From these I explored the idea of repeating lines, transforming them into hand-knit ribbing (via pleating, but apparently pleating has been 'done' a lot by students recently).

I'd love to hear what inspires your work! I hope to share some trend and market research next time...

Wheeeee!

I got a first!!! I'm utterly gobsmacked!
I'll be celebrating over tea and biscuits tomorrow, and the pub on Friday. :D It's late here and I should be asleep, but I'll leave you with my Dad's video of my catwalk show. Enjoy! (I fancy I'll explain my designs later in the week, once I've returned to this planet.)