London Fashion Week

So much for me blogging every Friday huh!I need to get into a blogging routine properly. This week has been pretty hectic hence the lack of blogging. My freelance deadline was on Friday so I was rushing to make last minute alterations to my designs. Since then I have been frantically reworking my entire portfolio for two interviews which I had in London on Friday(one for a design assistant job with a clothing supplier and one for a 4 week internship with Mary Katrantzou). On the bright side it wasn't a wasted trip as I got the internship and I was also asked to do a project and come back for a second interview for the job. Fingers crossed my project is good enough to land me the position!

Anyway enough excuses for my blogging incapabilities!

As everyone even remotely interested in fashion and textiles knows Friday-Tuesday was London Fashion Week where designers showcased their AW13 collections. Spring/Summer collections were a monochromatic shock and the designers' Autumn/Winter collections have been a continuation of this featuring in Meadham Kirchoff, Fyodar Golan, Jean Pierre Braganza and Sass&Bide. Vibrant red was injected into a large proportion of the catwalk collections, although this colour combination creates an oriental feel in some design,s these three colours(red,white and black) have strong associations with both communism and fascism causing the collections to become quite emotive.

Black and white trend.

Black,white and red trend.

Left: Russian Communist propaganda poster from the 1920's, Right: Fascist Nazi swastika from the 1940's.

Despite this predominantly being a Print blog I feel I should give a nod to some of the other catwalk trends; chunky knitwear being a particular favourite of mine, I can't wait to get my hands on a sister by sibling style thick scarf. Thick knitwear also featured in the collections of Rohmir, Bora Aksu, Apu Jan, Jale Hurdogan and Mulberry. Another Autumn/Winter 13 knitwear trend that is set to be extremely popular, judging by the amount of designers who included it in their collection, is the polo neck. The 1970's neckline is making a huge comeback- Sister by Sibling, Daks, Eudon Choi, Jasper Conran, John Rocha, Mulberry and Pringle all championed the return of the polo neck in their collections.

Chunky knitwear trend.

Polo neck knitwear trend.

On the opposite end of the neckline spectrum is the emergence of deep v-neck dresses. Although they look extremely sophisticated on the catwalk models it will be interesting to see how this trend filters down to the high street, deep v-necks are extremely hard to wear #braproblems and without the bra there is always the fear that one might pop out inappropriately. Despite this designers such as; Peter Pilotto, Emilio De La Morena, Julien Macdonald and David Koma all included v-necks in their designs. The V-neck trend also filtered into the seasons' knitwear with Sass&Bide and Jonathan Saunders introducing v-neck knitted sweaters.

Deep v-neck trend.

One trend I was extremely happy to see in the AW13 collections was the presence of art deco imagery. My most recent freelance brief was to create a collection of designs using black and white decorative imagery in which I chose to use art deco shapes as the inspiration, I can't explain how happy I am to see it in other designer's collections, it means I may have a hope of selling some designs.

With films like 'The Great Gatsby' set to hit our screens this year it is no wonder that fashion has turned to the past for inspiration. The glamour of this 'golden era' is something the designers have imitated throughout their collections. Holly fulton uses art deco geometric imagery as a staple in her print designs and her AW13 collection had some fine examples of this. I was surprised to see that Temperley London had also looked to the deco designs of the 1920's for inspiration, the mirrored layout of the prints mimic typical art deco style and the dropped waist "flapper"dress also makes an appearance in the Temperley collection. 

Temperley London's collection- art deco style bodycon dress, drop waisted "flapper" dress and print close ups.

L'Wren Scott is another designer who's AW13 collection drew direct inspiration from "The Golden Era" with art nouveau designs*and obvious references to the paintings of Gustav Klimt.
*NB: art nouveau was the art movement that pre-dated art deco it comprised of decorative imagery, natural colours and curved lines, art deco was a direct reaction to the end of this movement and it caused geometric shapes and bold flat graphics to become popular.

L'Wren Scott AW13 and Gustav Klimt comparisons.

One final print trend, which doesn't come as too much of a surprise for the Autumn/Winter season, is animal prints. I've never been a huge love of animal prints but I do love the black and white animal prints shown by Preen(leopard print) and Burberry(giraffe print) and the pointillist style of Holly Fulton's tiger print.

Animal print trend.

So there are the trends I've picked up on from London Fashion week, when I get the chance, hopefully at some point this week, I will also blog about New York and Milan. 
Bye for now x 

Recent Purchases, New brief and LFW!

As I said I would, I indulged myself a little at the weekend with some birthday shopping... and as I felt a little down about being a whole year older the indulgence seems to have continued throughout the week. 

Bag River Island, Earrings Topshop, Shirt Zara.

For so long I have been wanting some American Apparel disco pants but, despite not being the most frugal person, £75 seems a little extravagant. Imagine my delight when I came across daisystreet.co.uk's range of £22.99 disco pants. Doing some quick calculations I came to the oh-so-logical conclusion that by saving myself around £50 by not buying the American Apparel versions I could afford to buy two pairs of daisy street disco pants instead of one.

Daisy street disco pants in emerald green and navy.

Aside from my shopping antics, I have been carrying out mountains of research for my new freelance brief on decorative black and white imagery. Geometric shapes taken from Art Deco jewellery and Holly Fulton's graphic print placements have been the main influence behind the 6 design ideas featured in the collection. I would love to be able to share them on here but can't due to copyright laws etc but I can share the images that have inspired the designs. 

Black Cherry's collection, featuring 12 of my designs so far, is currently in Sydney and is set to go to Melbourne, London, Milan and LA in the coming weeks so fingers crossed my designs will catch the buyers' eye.

With London Fashion week just around the corner next weeks blog entry is set to be be full of catwalk trends for A/W 2013. Hopefully the designers will provide some interesting textile candy which I can feature on here. Ciao for now x

Monochrome springtime shocker

As a colour enthusiast I'm not usually a fan of monochrome, but I could not be happier to see the Black and White takeover of the Spring/Summer 2013 catwalk. What a refreshing change from pastel florals, who'd have thought- black and white in spring!

Another springtime shocker was the dominance of geometrics on the catwalk from diagonal stripes to the checkerboard designs championed by Louise Vuitton. Designers seem to have all shared a desire to return to the 60's in their SS13 collections. Many used bright, borderline garish, pops of colour to brighten up their designs (Issey Miyake, Balmain, Unique and Holly Fulton) yellow being a particluar favourite.

The best from the high street:

A disappointing lack of yellow, but, let's be honest, yellow isn't the most commercial of colours as so few people can wear it well. Still a promising response to the catwalk from the high street stores. As it's my birthday weekend I intend to indulge myself with a little monchromatic shopping fix. 

That's all for now x