Steampunk shirt modelled by Tara

 Here are some of my photoshoot pics of my steampunk shirts, Im very pleased with the outcome and feel My model has given the right feel to my shirt.

This is my fave photo, I think my shirt looks great on  here.

Fall/winter Chanel 2011

How exciting is this though. The atmosphere must of been immense!! How I would of loved to been in that crowd. Even better how i would loved to of  been back stage, seeing all the commosion going on. Absolutly amazing!!  I love the fact that coco chanel is still being celebrated today. I mean imagine a life with out coco 'Gabrielle' chanel, we'd probably still be wearing corsets and unnessesary clothing. And a massive round of applause for the amazing Karl lagerfeld. appreciated world wide, I would love to meet him one day and ask for any tips he has to offer me. ;)

all I can say is OMG

OMG i have never seen such fantastic fashion shows than chanel, this is mind blowing, and I would hate to think how much it cost :s...

If this is'nt inspiring then i dont no what is

chanel website

Here is the chanel website, with fashion shows, photo shoots, ready-to-wear etc, it really is how a website should be, I'll keep this in mind for future prefrences.

http://www.chanel.com/fashion/7#7-chanel-fashion-show

Branding project

I have been given A project for branding, so far I have really embraced and enjoyed it. I am expected to work in a group and come up with our own brand, we have to have a name, and logo for it. The group had debates and brainstorms on what to call our brand, so we eventually came up with the name 'Tempest' Which in the dictionary means storm. so we came upo with the slogan, Tempest, taking the fashion world by storm. we will cover shop reports where abouts in the market we are and each have a collection to design as our indivdual work. I chose to do childrenswear, As did steven so we compromised as a team and decided that I would do casual wear and he would do partywear.

My customer profile is based on children who aspire to be just like mammy, so my collection will consist of little grown up clothing. I decided to call my childrens wear for tempest; 'Tempest mini me'.

Each collection for every season will have a different name and story behind it. I have also created my own logo for Tempest mini me which is 3 little girls who each will have there own colour scheme's and collections and will be included in every story.

So my inspiration is called the enchanted garden. which is full of magical going ons and everything a little girl could ever dream of.

I Have spent alot of time on this project already, and intend on spending as much time as possible on it, to make it just right. I thourouly enjoyed colin reid coming in and giving us tips and help on how to get the best from this project. I enjoyed listening to his stories and I was very humble that he was there spending his own time with us.

 I want to show him the next time his in as much as possible and what I have done. So intend to work really hard and get every thing nearly finshed. Hopefully he will like it, but I also respect his opinion and if not right I will correct the problem asap.

Here is something that can inspire me for the theme:

The enchanted Garden

My icon

I came across this video and this is exactly how I feel about coco chanel, I cant explain how much she inspires me. when I loose sight in every thing and loose motivation which i dont normally do, as im a very positive and self motivated person, but every now and then my energy levels will drop and I often feel like I will never make it as it seems so far away!! but I will watch coco before chanel , coco & igor, or read a book about her, even watch a you tube video and my adrenelin will rush to the top of my head and send shivers down my spine, And then I relise why I really want this career, I dont feel this way about anything else and that in its self shows I was born to do this. I think: Imagine waking up every day to that feeling knowing I am doing something I have wanted to do as a little girl, fufiling my dreams and aspirations. So when getting my motivation back my work improves and my passion floods back in.

karl lagerfeld

I love that karl Lagerfeld has took over for chanel, and kept her spirit alive. He is genius, and even though I respect and look up to the man alot, I am very quite envious of his fabulous job (my dream job) he is so inpspirational. Here is a video of some of his amzing collections for chanel. he keeps her presence and whole idea of fashion alive yet has his own twist on the collection, each peice is timeless and totally insinc with the present, they never date and are always in fashion, That to me is genius and I think any designer would crave to design timeless peices that never dated.

Finished steampunk shirt

Here is my finished steampunk shirt, which I am extremely pleased of, Ive been dreaming of making a finshed garment for as long as I can remember.

Even though its not my preffered style I worked to the breif and created a steampunk, quirky shirt.

I used different tones of gold & bronze's, for the buttons, some were bigger than others and all had different pictures on.

When the girls from the industry came in to give us feed back on our shirts, they said to me that mine was overly designed and that I could of got 3/4 different shirts from just 1. Maybe's I was abit over enthusiastic and because it was my first design I wanted to fit in as many things as possible. But then again when I researched steampunk garments I came across mant enthusiastic ones, and I got the impression of steampunk being quite fetish like. which is why I wanted my shirt to be quite sexy and edgy at the same time. Thats where the suspenders came in.

In all I have really enjoyed this project, learning the whole outcome was exciting, from inspiration boards, colour & fabric boards, to designs and flats. It has been amazing going through each step. Espeically looking at my finished peice. Coming from my brain to paper then to become an actual real garment is amazing. I cant wait for future pratical projects and actually using my newley developed skills in the real world.

I have learned so much that will last me a lifetime I just cant wait to learn more.

steampunk shirt process

This was the start of my twill  for my steampunk shirt. I had to do a twill first incase there was any alteration that needed to be done or if something didnt look quite right. I really enjoyed working in the sewing room and learned alot. Id much rather be doing pratical work, as I feel I learn much more when I do it myself than when I watch some one else do it. I will put the stages of my shirt through out this post and you can see the process i over went to get to my finished peice. I think this will also be good for me as I can reflect on what i have done and how I did it.



Once the bodice was done i added my coller and placket, and the frill down the front of the placket, which will be on both sides on my final proper shirt. I loved the process of making my shirt and could'nt wait to see how the next thing was done. When I first started college and we had our first go in the sewing room I was so nervous, i did'nt even no how to sew a straight line!!! But with determanation and concentration my sewing skills eventually got better. I learned how to thread the machine by looking at the already threaded machine next to me and everytime I sewed a new part of my shirt I thouht my sewing had  improved immensly.

There were parts of my shirt I found really difficult and i made lots of mistakes through out there process but I would sit and unpick the error and start again until I got it right. And if there was apart I really struggled on my teachers Lin & Dorothy were a big help and would help me out on anything I needed, either by showing me how its done or starting me off for me to finish. But with each mistake I made I gained a new skill and new that, that mistake would not vbe made again.

What my final shirt will look like

Here is the start of my final proper shirt, as you can see the middle is not sewn together, thats because the bottom part of the shirt is tight and the top part is loser.

When I sewed the mid section together I had to measure and line up the darts so the would be a perfect match. if they did not meet then that would meen my pattern was wrongly measured and i would have to go back and correct it. but luckily it was fine, as i done that process with my twill.

So once that was complete I added the frills and placket.

 Soon after i made my coller and attached it to the bodice before i added any arms as its easier to put on when theres less on the shirt.

when sewing my sleeves i found the leather arm to be quite difficult, as it was quite stiff

ROYAL WEDDING GUEST DRESS LIST

GUEST DRESS LIST

Not only did Kate's dress impress there were other fabulous designers clothing that rolled into the Westminster Abbey.

First off I'll start with Pipa, Kates sister and chief bridesmaid, there has been alot of testimonal about whether she should of worn white! In my eyes i dont think she should have, even so some people say she stole the show, but with no doubt at all no one stole the show from the beautiful princess to be on her very special day.

Though Pipa's dress was stunning and she looked beautiful herself, their may be some reason behind her wearing white. I read that bridesmaids and ushers etc should dress similar to the bridie and groom to keep evil spirits away, well with no doubt there will be no evil spirits showing up in this marrige.

Victoria Beckham did not dissapoint yesterday at the most watched catwalk in history (The royal wedding), She wore a boat-necked navy dress of her own design with a pretty, scooped asymmetric hem and short sleeves, and a jaunty pillbox titfer by Philip Treacy. Her very high shoes, custom-made by Christian Louboutin and costing well over £1,000 and her large envelope clutch bag, too, was by VB, made from lizard skin and possibly costing more than the royal reception and honeymoon together.

Sir Elton John, one of the most esteemed celebrity guests at the ceremony, arrived with civil partner David Furnish at just before 10am.
While Sir Elton wore a black tail coat and grey trousers with a purple tie, Furnish went for a black suit and grey waistcoat.
But despite a lot of the celebrities going for darker colours for the ceremony, there were some who stood out from the crowd in bright outfits.
Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, went for an all-blue outfit - a royal blue dress, shawl, gloves, hat and shoes.

Joss Stone, usually famous for her bare-footed hippy style, looked smart in a tight red dress, with matching shoes, bag and a cream-coloured hat.

Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie also used the occasion to flex their fashion muscles, with Beatrice wearing a nude coloured jacket with interesting hat, and Eugenie opting for an elaborate blue and green dress designed by Vivienne Westwood and matching hat.

Princess Kate's Amazing dress

I thought Kate looked stunning in her Alexander Mcqueen dress designed by Sarah Burton. All I was waiting for was to see what it would be like and it lived up to it's expectations. One word to describe it 'Amazing'.

Royal bride Kate Middleton's wedding dress is an ivory gown with lace applique floral detail designed by Sarah Burton at Alexander McQueen.

Made of ivory and white satin gazar, the skirt resembles "an opening flower" with white satin gazar arches and pleats.

And Kate's bridal flowers contain a touching tribute to her husband to-be - her bouquet includes sweet William.

The dress's beautiful, intricate train measures just two metres 70 centimetres - modest in comparison to many previous royal brides.

The train and bodice are decorated with delicate lace applique flowers, handcrafted using the Carrickmacross lace-making technique, which originated in Ireland in the 1820s.

St James's Palace said the bride chose British brand Alexander McQueen for the "beauty of its craftsmanship" and its "respect for traditional workmanship and the technical construction of clothing".

Kate worked closely with Burton, who was widely speculated to have won the coveted job to create the historic bridal gown, on the design.

"She had a vision in mind that she wanted to support the Arts and Crafts tradition," St James's Palace said.

The Arts and Crafts tradition advocated truth to materials and traditional craftsmanship using simple forms and often Romantic styles of decoration.

The dress's lace design incorporates the rose, thistle, daffodil and the shamrock - the four floral emblems of the United Kingdom.

The soon-to-be Duchess of Cambridge, who usually wears her hair fully down, choose a "Demi Chignon" for her wedding day instead.

Her tiara - the little known 1936 Cartier "halo" - was her "something borrowed" and was loaned to the bride by The Queen, a tradition for royal weddings.

The veil, which falls to just below her waist, is made of layers of soft, ivory silk tulle and is decorated with a trim of hand-embroidered flowers.

The top secret dress, which up to two billion people watching across the world were waiting to see, has sleeves - appropriate for a religious wedding in the holy surrounds of Westminster Abbey.

Kate's ivory satin bodice, which is narrowed at the waist and padded at the hips, draws on the Victorian tradition of corsetry - a hallmark of Alexander McQueen's designs.

Down the back are 58 gazar and organza covered buttons fastened by Rouleau loops.

The underskirt is made of silk tulle trimmed with Cluny lace.

The lace applique for the bodice and skirt was hand-made by the Royal School of Needlework, based at Hampton Court Palace.

Workers washed their hands every 30 minutes to keep the lace and threads pristine, and the needles were renewed every three hours, to keep them sharp and clean.

Individual flowers were hand-cut from English lace and French Chantilly lace and hand-engineered onto ivory silk tulle to create a "unique and organic" design, St James's Palace said.

With the lace coming from different sources, great care had to be take to ensure that each flower was an absolutely identical colour.

Kate's shoes were also hand-crafted by the Alexander McQueen team.

Made of ivory duchesse satin, they also featured lace - hand-embroidered by the Royal School of Needlework.

The bride's earrings were a touching wedding day gift from her parents, Carole and Michael Middleton.

They were created by Robinson Pelham and are diamond-set stylised oak leaves with a pear-shaped diamond set drop and a pave set diamond acorn suspended in the centre.

They were inspired by the Middleton family's new coat of arms, which includes acorns and oak leaves and was created to echo the tiara.

The earrings are the bride's "something new". For her "something blue" - a blue ribbon was sewn into the interior of her dress, while her "something old" is the traditional Carrickmacross craftsmanship used to create the bridal gown.

Kate Middleton's bridal flowers are a shield-shaped wired bouquet of sweet William, as well as myrtle, lily-of-the-valley and hyacinth.

New york trend report

Vogue's Harriet Quick sums up the emerging trends from New York Fashion Week

• A new feel for richness, detail and sumptuous fabrics flourished through the NYC collections taking many shapes and forms - see Proenza Schouler, Rodarte and Thakoon
• At Donna Karan and Victoria Beckham new shapes emerged like the wrap skirt, the midi length and a u-turn of the body con va-va-voom trend that dominated last winter.
• Androgyny was the calling card with Alexander Wang and Phillip Lim delivering luxe utility
• The romance with the Seventies is still in the air - as seen at Tommy Hilfiger, Michael Kors and Marc by Marc Jacobs.

best bits London Fashion week

This video inspires me so much, I sooo badly want my designs walking down a catwalk at London fashion week. All those designers had to start from somewhere so why not me. Dreams can come true if you work hard for what you really want.

Boards

My designs were inspired by my mood, fabric and colour boards which gave me an idea of what fabrics and colours I am going to use. Along with this I was also inspired by tonnes of research on steampunk  and what the steam punk customers want.

 Fabric Board

 Inspiration/Mood board

Colour board

My boards are still in working progress as I am not 100% happy with them I will post the final boards when fully complete.

Steampunk Flats

From my design ideas i created flats of the garments, so I can see where the stitching, zips, proportions, etc will be, when I come to cut the pattern for my shirt It will be alot easier. I think I have drew my flats quite well apart from it needs a few tweeqs here and there, I could of done them a tad larger.

Steampunk Shirt design FDA fashion

 Here is my design ideas for my steampunk shirt design

 I have included lots of chains and pocket watches

I have used alot of frills on the garments   

 I like the idea of a tightly fitted bodess

 I have designed extented suspender belts and will use alot of leather

From my reseach Steampunk to me looks quite fetish and sexy

Thats why I want to create body a skimming shirt which fits to all the ladies curves



Steam punk shirt design

here I came across some SteamPunk fashionista's getting interveiwed about there veiws and likes about steampunk etc, It will be very hepful with my current project, as I am designing and making a shirt for steampunk. this video gives me a little insight on the steampunk industry.

coco befor chanel, coco's first collection

This is my favourite part of the film, I get shivers down my back everytime I watch it. I get overcome with emotion when she slightly smiles, at her accomplishment and success. I love her so much because I feel i can connect with her. Its an amazing film and cant get enough of it.

How to get the Chanel look!

Coco Chanel changed womenswear forever and offered us women a more laid back way of wearing clothes, she gave us an alternative to wearing layers and corsets. Coco Chanel has had such a big impact on the Fashion industry and her designs are still been worn today, her clothes are chic and timeless so here is a few tips on how to get the famous chanel look. As she once said "FASHION FADES, ONLY STYLE REMAINS THE SAME" Coco Chanel.

1. The LBD (little black dress)   Chanel is famous for inventing and wearing the classic LBD. Her favourite colour was black and she contrasted white with this colour making it very Parisian and Chic.

2. Pearls and Beads  Coco Chanel used to mix genuine pearls with rope after rope of fake pearl necklaces. Wearing the real thing Coco was known to add a strand or two of fake pearls making it seem as though she was wearing lots and lots of genuine pearls. As she wore "opera length" pearl necklaces, the effect was stunning.

Stripes  Coco Chanele first introduced the "mariniere" t-shirt in the feminine fashion in 1917 at her shop in Deauville, France. And since then it never went out of fashion. Women all over the world have adopted this chic, iconic look, and designers started re-creating the stripes in different cuts for their runway looks, making from the "marinière" one of the most important trends in the fashion industry.

Quilted Bag  Ohh la la... The Chanel classic quilted handbag is true Parisian chic, it just oozes class and sophistication and no matter what the current trends are, has a classic timeless design that has lived through many a fashion era.

Tweed Jacket  When Coco Chanel, circa 1926--died in 1971, her classic tweed jacket could have died too. She herself had kept the look alive for more than five decades. How much longer a life did a thousand-dollar jacket deserve? Ask Karl Lagerfeld. In the 20 years he has been designing the label, he has reinvented the jacket for society women and rap stars alike.

Two-Tone flats  "A woman with good shoes is never ugly" Coco Chanel used to say "They are the last touch of elegance". 50 years ago chanel launched her famous two-tone shoes she nicknamed  souliers.

And of course to top it off the Chanel No5 perfume.

 

“It is the unseen, unforgettable, ultimate accessory of fashion that heralds your arrival and prolongs your departure.”