Dressing at fashion week

The Final day was now upon us, feeling that we had missed out on the backstage activities i was so pleased when asked if i could give a hang dressing a modal for the Ashely Isham show and jumped at the chance. I was introduced to the modal...trying to be as friendly as possible it had no effect she was very grumpy. 

It was a new experience, looking at the clothes of such high quality, detail and uniqueness. i was  suppressed at how much work goes on backstage, how many people were involved and the busyness. There was a sudden buzz, each modal had to changes and it was all system go. within minutes the show was over and people were leaving. As a souvenir we were given the dress sheet for our modals which had a photograph of the modal on and the outfits she wore.

On/Off presents

It was now the third day in, Pam Hogg was the main show of the day. Not releasing how popular she was that evening i found myself reading 'love' magazine where it had an article about her along with a photograph spread. 

The show that interested me most off all from the week was On/Off presents this featured varies designers with the theme to re-use, this being my main theme across my design work, an issue that is very important to me. I found it really inspiring to watch the show and was so glad i got to see it and take many photos. This was the high light of my week.....as well as seeing Gok!  

Thoughts and Emilio

The Second day of fashion week was now here, after the first day we had soon released it was not so much of a glamourous affair, it was hard work with allot of standing around and involved lots of un-inspiring jobs i.e hovering after the shows. However this was over powered by the occasional chance to get to see a show, meet the designers and some celebrity faces. The main job role i had was standing outside with the on/off umbrella showing people where to go, this at times was fun but after a few hours out there it got very cold. The team tried to change us around as much as possible but due to many people not showing up this was quite difficult for them. 

Sundays shows included Rocky S, Krystnof Strozna, emilio de la morena and Sado. Working front of house for all of there events i didn't get a chance to see any of the shows, however the most popular was emilio ( image shown above), knowing this from having to turn people away at the door. I was keen to see what his work was like and tock it upon myself to find this out. 

Designer name: Emilio de la Morena

Origin: Spain 

Career highlight: “Having one of my dresses bought and displayed in a permanent exhibition at the Museu Textil e Indumentaria de Barcelona.” 

Design background: Emilio studied at Central Saint Martins and the London College of Fashion. He has worked for Rafael Lopez and Jonathan Saunders. 

Name three things that are inspiring you for autumn/winter 2009: “The work of Spanish sculptor Eduardo Chillida; pop art; colour.”

 

London Fashion week 2009 Hannah Marshal

When arriving in London on friday we were all excited about the week ahead and all thinking and wondering what it would be like. After finding the hotel and getting greeted to two blue mouse traps in our room, it wasn't the best start to the week. However we then unpacked and went our for some a meal and some drinks, not realizing this would be the only time we would have to relax until after the week had finished. 

Arriving at the science museum , we were first showed round and told a basic brief this included what was going where, job roles and what to expect. 

The first show was  new designer Hannah Marshall along with her muses girl band Ipso facto. Marshall's "a/w 09 collection is inspired by insect skeletons, this includes intricately paneled dresses, her signature skin tight leather, python, stingray and chiffon materials. This was both beautiful, fierce and delicate. " Elle mag.

Tesco Clothes go online!

I have now worked for Tesco Clothing for nearly two years, this has provided really good experience for the career path i wish to take in the fashion industry. 

Over the next year Tesco will be investing £19 million in lowering clothing prices, making clothing budgets go further for the customer and helping customers dress to impress for less. 

" customers can rest assured that low prices are here to stay. the garments are from the same suppliers and of the same quality". Terry Green -  clothing chief executive.

Due to the success of sales in 2008 the company have decided to sale clothes online, the aim of this is to reach more customers as many stores sale non or very few cloths. this will enable those that don't live near an 'extra' store to still be able to shop and pick up Tesco's fashion bargains. 

Lectra

A new program that we have started to use, to aid design and manufacture(CAD) and (CAM) in the textile and fashion industry. We have begun to use this program to create pattern pieces to  make a jersey t-shirt. At the start i was quite nervous about using this equipment as it looked quite scary and complicated, still not confident  about using the program i am getting increasingly aware of the tools and what you can achieve with the machinery. Knowing how the program works and once you have got to grips with the different functions and what they do i can see that it would really speed up the the design and manufacturing processes saving companies a large amount of money.

Last week we were visited by a Lecta representative, she gave a presentation on the other products the company offered and the constant  research they were undertaking  to create new products and to update current equipment for the textile and fashion industry sector. From this it is cleat that Lectra is defiantly leading in this type of technology and seems like it will do for some time, making the jobs for the people in this industry sector quicker and more accurate  .

http://www.lectra.com/en/index.html

Here is an example of the design program by Lectra (top left)

Buying and Merchandizing

With the introduction of the buying and merchandizing unit my initial thoughts were that i really didn't think it was for me, however within the first half hour i became griped and really interested in the different careers that were available in a fashion companies head office. Jo's experience as a buyer makes the lessons very interesting, i feel we get a personal insight to the world of a fashion buyer from the stories she tells and the lessons learnt. So far we have covered the roles of a buyer, merchandizer and garment tech, the role of the garment tock has really appealed to me as it involves working with the buyer and merchandizer as well as work doing work/adapting pattern blocks, checking garments and where they are produced. This has attracted me so that i have now tock it upon myself in finding out more about this role and have started looking for placements in this area of work.