Nottingham - Online Vs. Offline

The Nottingham online vs Offline conference was helpful as it showed how technology could be used alongside fashion and debated on if catwalk shows would be taken over by fashion films.



Pam Hogg's - To kingdom come

The conference helped show how technology had started to be used with fashion, whether it be new technology that allowed different designs or whether it was new ways of advertising fashion i.e. Ralph Lauren's 10th party where holograms were shown on the UK flagship store, or if it could be used to give more context to a catwalk show, such as Pam hogg's "to kingdom come" fashion video that was sent out a month after the catwalk show was seen.

Ralph Lauren's 10th Anniversary

 Luke Foy talked about how with more technology that people can more widely see the catwalk shows which people couldn't see before, and how it has helped the brands but could also be said that they have become more high street rather than designer because of their wider audience, and that he doesn't think that with the growth of technology and video streaming that catwalk shows will be replaced with video's as it would lose some of the atmosphere. I especially found Luke Foy interesting as he had opinions and put them across well with many examples and really understood how important catwalk shows are and how to create an atmosphere that will keep the events alive. I found this incredibly inspiring and have since done more research on him and looked at more events that he has organised as he understood technology but understands the importance of events as well.



Designers from Offline Vs. Online

Digital Innovation in Fashion.

"In celebration of 10 years of digital innovation, RalphLauren.com presents the ultimate fusion of art, fashion & technology in a visual feast for the 5 senses. Watch as the London flagship at 1 New Bond Street disappears before your eyes and is then transformed into a series of objects and images rendered in 3-dimensional space." I found this really inspiring since I enjoy working with technology and am looking for other ways to use it since I think that it can give another dimension to your work even if it isn't directly linked i.e. fashion films for catwalk collections.

Pam Hogg

This is Pam Hogg's Spring/Summer 2011 collection, the story behind this collection is quite hard to see, however here offline and online converge well as there was a follow up video released a month after which showed a small fashion  film and also showed the idea's behind the collection. This reminds people of the collection and I think makes it far more interesting as you get a greater understanding of the collection which makes it memorable and adds another dynamic to it.

Nicholas Oakwell

This is show was an example of why offline can be better than online and more effective, this collection is a Couture collection and is of course expensive, they are designed for special occasions and a fashion film would not be right. Luke Foy explained that here they used the 5 senses to make this collection more special, Before hand there was champagne and canape's and during the show when a new dress came out there was a smell that came out with it as well as people being sat so close that they could touch the dresses as well as having the right type of music so as to create an atmosphere. He explained that meanwhile the collection could be put in a Fashion film, it would have lost some of it's impact because the atmosphere would not have been created nearly aswell.

Burberry

This was another interesting fashion film, it used holograms which changed outfit when they walked into each other and combined music, fashion and technology in their show. This video shows off outfits however I think that you miss some of how the clothes actually move and it loses some of it's quality however does perhaps gain a little more wow factor as it is new technology and has been rarely done.

Photoshop...

The Beginning...

50%...
(extended hair and background via clone tool)

I enjoyed this and learnt valuable skills, I have really enjoyed the Photoshop classes and am thinking of investing in Photoshop since I think I could learn a lot more from it, that could really improve my work, especially since it would help when taking pictures of items to put in my portfolio since these will eventually be looked at during interviews for jobs and I don't want to have bad photograph's in my portfolio. I also hope that by the end of the year  I will be able to start again with the beginning picture but vastly improve my Photoshop skills to enable me to be able to produce a better picture.

By the end of the year goals....

By the end of the year, I want to have improved many of my skills so that I can score higher in the second year and won’t need to practice them as much and also because I’d like to do a year out in Milan and don’t want to come back from a year out and have poor skills because I’ve not sewn as much and done it regularly, I’d like to be able to do a dart at a good standard even if I haven’t practiced it once a term.

I will improve my garment construction skills by making some extra garments at home as well as improving my samples. This will help me improve my designs and final items as I will be more confident in my skills so my designs can become more complex and simple final items will improve because they’re quality  will be better which I learned from the future labs seminar that consumers will be looking for in the future.

I want to improve my mood boards and final design boards as I struggled to do them in the clothes show project and feel that I worried more about the boards than my actual designs and got distracted.

I also want to expand my knowledge of fabrics as I saw many new fabrics I hadn’t seen before when we went to London to look for samples. I am going to do this by fully completing my “fabric glossary” and trying to find rarer one as well since I think it would greatly widen my design capabilities.

Future Labs - Nottingham

Hand out from "The Trend Boutique"

We attended the future labs meeting where the economy was discussed. I found this interesting as it addressed what consumers would be looking for in garments, a higher quality than before the recession so that they last and also showed us that we shouldn’t be aiming towards the middle class as well as showed us more about our consumers. I found this really interesting since it is future trends and this will still be relevant when we come out of university especially since we are expected to double dip and have another recession. It also told us skills that we needed to develop as individuals such as garment construction since people are looking for a higher quality and also simpler clothing since they won’t buy items simply because they are embellished and they want them to be multi-functional. 

V.A.R.K. Questionnaire

Designer - Boudicca

For my hat module I was given the designer “Boudicca” to start with. I have found this really interesting as I enjoy futuristic fashion and this designer is one I would have chosen had I known about them. I enjoyed being given a designer that I didn’t know since it allowed for me to broaden my knowledge and to find a designer that I really enjoyed.

I like their colour scheme which often includes white, gold and black, since these are colours that I myself would use and contrast well as well as looking futuristic. They also use materials which play on the current Fetish trend which I have also enjoyed looking at since the materials used in the Fetish trend are not one’s that I would necessarily use but do like the look of and has allowed me to experiment more.

They also have a more artistic side in that they’re close are not easy to wear and often play off on lines of symmetry and angles that do often not match up and are uneven. This is something that I have enjoyed looking at in the past and has been a real inspiration to my hat. 

Photoshop Fruit Face