Pre SS14 collections.

Clover canyons resort 14 collection takes inspiration from Cuba and its African and Spanish colonial heritage. Mirrored prints consisting of Spanish tiles; Cuban cigars; exotic fruits and brightly coloured florals make this collection vibrant and exciting and work well alongside the black and white graphic element of these prints. Although Clover Canyon is an American brand, the high level of detail in the print designs would sit perfectly next to British designers like Mary Katrantzou and Peter Pilotto.

My favourite piece in this collection has to be the jumper shown below with the graphic print of an old Cuban woman with a coloured headscarf and a Cuban cigar, this print adds so much character and humour into the collection and is an excellent conversational piece.

Despite my recent complaining regarding Cavalli's Just Cavalli collection I actually quite like the designs featured in his resort SS14 collection. He continues the oriental theme featured in his AW13 designs but uses completely different imagery to create a fresh, light feel. I love the image reference to Hokusai's wave painting and how he has combined the imagery with the snakeskin. 

Hokusai's wave painting

My favourite piece in this collection is the leopard print swan, I love the idea of using different animal skins as a fill pattern and intend to try creating some of my own sketches around this idea.

The hand sketched detail in this swan reminded me of the work of Emma Shipley, an MA Textiles graduate from the Royal College of Art who launched her label at London Fashion Week in 2012. I first saw her work at Premiere Vision 3 years ago and have been fascinated ever since. It's so rare to find someone whose designs are entirely hand sketched and knowing how much time and effort has gone into the creation of these designs adds to the beauty of them. As Cavalli has done in the swan artwork, Shipley uses animal skin prints but in other natural forms like leaves and florals, I love this idea and can't wait to create my own artworks inspired by this.

When I finally get chance to start creating some designs for myself I want to have this level of detail in all of the artwork.