FD Fashion Show, Newcastle College SS11

As if i have just noticed that I never actually published any photographs from my final catwalk show last year, my tea cup inspired collection. So here's a little over view of the garments and accessories that I made :)

p.s. the catwalk photographs were taken by my lovely girlee smiffle :}

My shirt dress - light weight cotton with a dusky pink silk dupion section, edged in cream chiffon with tiny mother of pearl buttons.

This is a close up of the rose which I drew by hand, then had it digitally printed. I then machine embroidered it onto the shirt dress.

Little close up to show chiffon edging and tiny pearly buttons.

This is the back of my dress. I drew the rose then created a repeat print which was then digitally printed onto a light cotton fabric. The dress is again silk dupion and the printed fabric panel is edged with cream chiffon.

My favourite garment!!
These palatso trousers are made from a cream chiffon with a dusky pink silk dupion waist band.

My dress is made from a dusky pink 

silk dupion and a floral printed section, edged with a cream chiffon. The print was hand drawn by myself and created into a repeat pattern.

This is just a little boob tube top made from appliqued digitally printed roses to be worn with my trousers.

Catwalk Show SS11:

Tea Cup Collection

&

'Swan Lake' inspired evening dress

 

 

Joanna Feeley : Trend Bible

Joanna Feeley, founder of Trend Bible, took the time out of her busy schedule to give us a presentation. After studying at Newcastle College, she went on to further her degree at Kingston University. Before graduating, she realised she needed to get ahead of the crowd and instead of waiting until the end of year show for recruitment agencies, she went to New York with her portfolio to seek out the agencies. Joanna was able to find work and after completing her degree, she was able to take a job at American Eagle. During the time had Joanna being offered the job and the few months it had taken for her to complete her degree, the brand had grown from a small business with just a few designers, to a huge company with multiple offices and a huge design work force. This job created a huge amount of opportunities for her. Joanna invested all her free time into the company, researching things that she thought were going to be huge future trends. Her work was recognised by the company and they created a trend forcasting job, which before, the company did not have. Her work allowed her to move back to London, forcasting colours, fabrics and themes for Topman and other Archedia companies, New Look men, Calvin Klein men's wear.
Joanna took a huge risk moving back to Newcastle to set up her own Trend Forcasting company but since 2007, she gone from running a small website in her flat, to a multinational company that supplies trend forcasting books for the fashion industry, car manufacturers, interior design companies and supermarkets.
Joanna's presentation about her life and her company seemed an impossible story and was such an inspiring talk. She made us realise that it doesn't matter where you live, you can still be just as successful as if you had been working in London, New York or Paris. She also allowed us to view her children's trend book and her home trend book, which sell between £800 and £2000. We were lucky enough to hear about her new trends, 'Voyager, Libertine, Collector and Epicurean'.
She explained that trend forcasting can be self taught, which for a fashion designer, can be a great skill. From her presentation, I have taken her advice to look for trends emerging in street fashion and in other industries, not just the fashion industry. Art and Design exhibitions, every day news, science, food and automotive industries are just some of the things I will research to pick out developing trends.

Colin Reid

We were lucky enough for designer Colin Reid to come and speak to us. Starting his career young, and being fortunate enough to grow up in Hawick, home of Pringle Scotland. He began an apprentiship in the factory, developing his knowledge in the manufacturing of fine fabrics. He then went on to translating designs into patterns for manufacturing. From this understanding, he was able to build up his portfolio, which he presented to the company. He was then offered the job of designing for the Pringle Golf line. After earning his degree in fashion from Kingston University, he moved to New York where he worked with Donna Karen, designing for DKNY men's wear range. From this experience, he was offered an interview with Calvin Klein and went on to help rebrand the company, including the CK logo. After 12 years in USA designing for numerious red carpet celebrities such as Liv Tyler and Gweneth Paltro, Colin moved back to the UK and is currently taking the time to work on his own cashmere line.
His work has allowed him to travel the world and meet the most prestigious people in the fashion industry and the presentation he gave was very inspiring. After his talk he saw each member of the class individually and allowed us to talk through our final major project ideas. His enthuiasm for the subject I chose gave me the confidence to really get into the research and design aspect of the project.