New Blog Focus

Hello again everyone!

I realise in the last post I said that I had moved and that I would not be using this blog anymore. That is now not strictly true. I have still got a new blog which will be my main focus for personal leisurely blogging, but at the same time I will be continuing to blog here. The reason being is that last year, I started this blog as a fashion blog, as a project for university as part of my professional studies module. At the end of the year I thought that this module was over, hence my moving to another personal blog, but this year we are doing professional studies again, so I need to keep using it.
However, we now have to blog differently. We have to choose our main area of interest within our study and specialise in it, blogging about this in a more focused way instead of blogging about the course and fashion in general. My main interest is definitely blogging itself, so I decided to base my blog on that; hence its new name: The Meta-Blog.
So this is the cutoff point. I know that before I blogged about fashion and university and sewing, and the posts are still there as I don't want to lose all of my work from last year, but now I will only be blogging about, well, blogging. I think it will be a strange concept to do this, but nonetheless I am looking forward to doing it. I like a challenge.
I have a few ideas for posts I can do soon so watch this space...

Ciao,
Lauren xoxo

I've moved!!!

Hi everyone!

This is just a quick post to let you know where I'm at. I realise I have quite a few active followers who check my blog and since I haven't posted in a long time I thought that I would let you know why incase anyone is interested.
So as I said when I started this blog, the purpose of it was a professional studies assignment for uni. This module is now over, so whilst this blog will stay in place, and I may think about still posting things in the future maybe, I will mostly be inactive here from now on.
I have, however, started up a new blog. It is different to this one on that it is more personal; a lifestyle blog kinda. It's not for any assignment or purpose really other than my own enjoyment, so the subject matter will probably be more varied, and it will be much more informal.
I'm now over here, and I'd love it if my readers would make the switch with me to my new blog! I've appreciated your interest so very much over the past few months. :)
More posts to follow elsewhere, and I hope that you'll be reading!

Ciao,
Lauren xoxo

Professional studies hand-in day - My Evaluation!

Hi everyone! So, it’s hand-in day for the professional studies module! So here’s my written evaluation of the module now that it’s over.

The main things we had to do for the module were in two parts. Firstly, we had to create this here weblog of which you are currently reading, and post relevantly to our course and lectures, and secondly, we had to write a report of a minimum of 500 words on a chosen job role within the fashion industry, and research the job role ourselves and get interviews from experienced people where needed.

For my report, I chose to do it on the job role of a fashion designer, as that is the job that I think I would most like to pursue within the industry, ideally. I was lucky enough to get an interview via email with the owner of a vintage shop in Middlesbrough called Ticky Turner vintage, who has done everything from scratch for her business by herself and is successful, so she had relevant experience within the industry for me to learn from. I found this very inspiring and informative, and it gave me a lot of information to put into my report. Also, I used a number of different websites and books to research the job role, and things like which qualifications are needed for the job, and what skills you need to be successful. I found this part of the module challenging and informative but it was not particularly enjoyable for me. I think that in future to do better on tasks like this, I should use information from a wider range of sources to gain further knowledge.

As for the blogging part of the module, we had to create and run our own fashion blog, and post about topics that interest us but also were relevant to the lectures we received. I did this by posting about topics like contemporary styles of presentation, fashion ethics, and current fashion. I also posted about the work that I was doing as part of my course. To gain more hits on my blog, I used skills that I had learnt in my professional studies module, like publicising my blog myself and being professional, and through doing this I actually was offered space on blog hosting sites who publicise and promote peoples’ posts to get them read and noticed by more people, which proved to be a success. I also did things like linking other social networking sites to my blog so that it was accessible in more ways. I chose blogger as my blogging platform because after researching fashion blogs, I found that it was the most popular platform for fashion bloggers to use. I found this part of the module very easy because I had already had lots of blogging experience previously running other blogs, so I knew all about how to write and how to format my blog. I really enjoyed this part of the module as I like working with computers and social networking and blogging is a hobby of mine anyway. I think if I had to do it again, to improve I would ensure that I posted in more regular intervals.

Overall, I have found the professional studies module interesting and informative and I have really enjoyed it!

Lauren xoxo

Current project: Visage denim

Hey everyone! Just thought I should give you a little update on what I'm working on at the minute.
Our design and make module has two parts: the MoreMile project which I already told you all about, and the one which we're currently working on, which is a denim project. We're currently working with a company called Visage who have set us the brief and that is who we're designing for, choosing either New Look, Internacionale, George @ Asda, or Next as the store to design for as those are their four main clients. As research on these, we all went out into these shops and looked at existing denim products that they sold and took pictures of them for analysis.

 

 


We went to Manchester to their HQ a fortnight ago and it was very informative as we got to meet some of the staff and look at the collections that the company are currently working on.

Like the MoreMile project, we had to pick a theme. I've noticed that a lot of current fashions have a sort of artsy, bright, bold, abstract feel to them lately, so I decided to use abstract for my theme. Here's some examples from Celine's ready to wear collection:

Here's my moodboard for my project on my theme of abstract. I chose New Look as my client because I think that they have the youngest target audience who are more open-minded to bold styles that go hand in hand with abstract styling.

I'm still currently in the toileing stage so I don't have any more pictures yet but what I do know is that I'll be using a really interesting technique I just learned called TR pattern cutting in which you draw lines through dart points on a toile to make a new pattern with lots of abstract shapes, it's really cool so you should check it out!

Ciao for now,

Lauren xoxo

Pechakucha Presentations

Hi guys! So a few weeks back in professional studies we learned about a presentation format called Pechakucha which I'd never heard of before, and I wanted to make a post about them because I think that they're a really good idea. The basic idea of these presentations is to get across key pieces of information in a short space of time preventing rambling thus boredom and all kinds of such catastrophes. The format is 20 slides, which advance automatically and have no text on them, and last for 20 seconds each, so it's 20x20. You can do a Pechakucha on absolutely anything, but they're really popular within the design/creative community. It's even become such a craze that people hold Pechakucha evenings (ngl I really really want to go to one of these) which are casual social events where a little group of people each do a Pechakucha and drink and have snacks and things and I think it's all different kinds of adorable! Aside from that though I think for people like me it's a great format because I really struggle with things like presentations because I get anxious and I worry that if I have to read off a screen then I'll do something silly like stumble over my words and everything will go wrong, but since it's so quick there's no time for nerves and because there's no text on the slides you don't have that awful (and boring) reading-off-the-screen thing going on and it just feels more natural altogether because you just look at the image on the screen and it kind of jogs your memory into speaking about the image so that it's spontaneous and it feels more like talking to a friend than 'doing a presentation'.
Anyway, I just thought that it was a really cool concept and I really want to go to one of these Pechakucha evenings! Hope you guys found it as interesting as I did!

Lauren xoxo

Fashion Ethics: American Apparel

Hi guys!
A while ago I was thinking about Fashion and ethics. I feel like it should be thought about more, because in general, I think a lot of people, me included, don't think about where their clothes come from, or what values the places they shop have, or whether they agree with the way in which that company operates. It's a very interesting topic for discussion. On this topic, for a few years now one brand has been catching my eye in the way of Fashion ethics: American Apparel.
Previous to checking them out, I'd heard a lot of bad things about American Apparel. Over the years they've had a lot of bad press due to people saying that their advertisements are overly sexual and they over-sexualise the models in their campaigns. From all this complaining I was expecting them to be a company with no morals, living up to the bad name the press had given them. However, when I checked them out myself, I was wrong. And so were the press it seemed.
American Apparel actually have more sense of morality than most other companies. Firstly, all of their clothes are sweatshop-free, meaning that their workers are paid fairly and work in safe, comfortable, and not overcrowded environments. Secondly, they don't discriminate on grounds of race, religion, sexual orientation, age, gender, or anything else when searching for employees and models. Another thing that I love about them is that on their site and in a lot of their advertisements, their models aren't all dolled up with loads of makeup and perfect hair. I'm not against people who wear lots of makeup at all, but we all know that usual models are a world away from how ordinary people look, so when I saw the fresh-faced, average-looking, but still inarguably stylish and sexy models on the AA site, it was quite refreshing. American Apparel also believe in clothes that are not fashionable, but stylish, in that they're simple, well-made, flattering, classic and easily coordinated, as opposed to outrageous modern trend clothing that goes out of fashion as quickly as it came in, making their clothes long-lasting and economical. And the cherry on top of it all is that as a company, they actively support and fight for rights within the LGBT community; they've done a lot of work on this in the past and a lot of their t-shirts have pro-LGBT-rights slogans printed on them.
And as for their "overly sexual campaigns", after checking them out I really think it's been totally blown out of proportion by the media. Sure, there's some nudity in places, and sometimes the models aren't wearing underwear underneath their clothing, but it's done in a tasteful way. It's not provocative and sexual, it's more liberating and appreciative of the human form, in the way that an artist would photograph and paint a nude body. In a way, I feel that American Apparel's ads are less sexual than other companies' ads purely because they acknowledge that a body is a body and we all have one and that's okay and it's okay to show it because it's just a body, not a sexual object used to sell products, as other companies do with their provocative advertisements.
Needless to say, I'm hooked. Not only do I support everything they believe in, but their clothes are awesome, and I find that things I've bought around two years ago are still stylish right now: they never lose their aesthetic appeal. I order from them all the time, I'm a total AA junkie. Sure, some of their items are a little more pricey than you'd find on the high street, but at least you can sleep soundly in the knowledge that you're wearing an item made in a sweatshop-free environment by a company that respects human beings from all backgrounds and that has values and morals which are good and honest. And that's something you can't put a price on.
American Apparel, you have a huge thumbs up from me.

Lauren xoxo

The Dorman Museum

A while back now me and two others on my course went to the Dorman museum, Middlesbrough, to do a workshop with a local artist who taught us how to draw textures like feathers, which we thought would be useful when doing fashion illustrations. We went into this room they have called the "bird room" which is filled with taxidermy birds and nests and eggs and it's fascinating. We used those as reference to draw from life, using lots of new techniques and media. Here's one picture I ended up with; a negative drawing of a birds' nest done in graphite and eraser:

While we were there, we also had a look around the rest of the museum, which was really good. I took some pictures while I was there so you guys could see what it was like. There was also a medieval torture exhibition on when we went which was really fascinating; I got lots of pictures of that too! Click here to see them.

Lauren xoxo

Oil Slick pictures: Inspiration

Hi guys, here's a quick post just to show you some of the photography I did of oil spills on the ground as primary research on my theme for the MoreMile sportswear project! Click here to see them.

Lauren xoxo

The Bowes Museum: photos from my visits

Remember I while back I said that at uni we were going to the Bowes museum? We've been twice so far, First time we looked around the whole museum, second time we saw the Laura Ashley and the Tailoring exhibitions. I took a lot of photographs while we were there and I've now got them on Flickr so you guys can see what it was like. I really enjoyed visiting the museum both times, it was very interesting and also quite inspiring. There was a lot of Rococo and Baroque styling in the architecture which we were learning about in Material Culture studies at the time.
Click here to see the photos!

Lauren xoxo

L'wren Scott: saying goodbye to an amazing woman and inspiration

Hi everyone, as you've probably heard, quite recently the Fashion designer L'wren Scott very sadly passed away. As sad as it is to normal people, to me it was more. She has inspired me so much with what she has done and given me so many ideas, and to me she was an amazing woman who is very under-appreciated and often overlooked and I truly believe she's one of the best Fashion designers to date; she was definitely one of my favourites. I even based my Visual Communication project on her LFW collection (I posted about it earlier here and here). I look at her and I see strength, individuality, and style which will never age. I felt it was necessary to at least make a post dedicated to her and her life and work, as she has brought so much inspiration to me. Rest in peace L'wren Scott, 1964-2014.

1.5k hits!!!

I haven't posted for ages but people are still viewing my blog every day and reading my ramblings, and as I've now reached 1500 views (woohoo!) I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who's reading my blog and keeping me motivated to do it, you're all amazing! :)

Lauren xoxo

New term, new project!

Hello! So yesterday was the start of a brand new shiny term and it's all very exciting at the minute because that means that having handed in our visual communication and design & technical modules now, we are starting a whole new project! It's a design-only project and we are going to be working with a company to their brief. The project is on sportswear and we will be working with a UK-based company called More Mile, and designing for them a range of sportswear and running shoes. To do this, we will be completing another sketchbook like our previous design project and composing range plans on boards using Adobe Illustrator. Now I'm not usually a big sports person myself by any stretch of the imagination (however I AM forcing myself to the gym tonight!!!) but I am actually really really excited about this project! It's a short one lasting only 5 weeks but I feel really inspired and have already picked out my theme and started working, and we aren't even receiving our intro talk from the company until Thursday! I just want to throw myself into it and really knuckle down and produce a lot of different ideas. I don't know why I'm so suddenly enthusiastic but I am really glad that I am! Maybe it's because I'm excited about the opportunities working with a client to a brief could bring. Maybe all the tea I drink has gone to my head. Alas, it's a good thing either way.
Updates to follow!

Lauren xoxo

Connect with me on LinkedIn!

Hi everyone! Just a quick post to let you all know that I'm now on LinkedIn, so feel free to add me as connections! Click here to go to my profile :)

Lauren xoxo

Visual Communication: The big hand-in!

Hi everyone! really sorry I've been a bit quiet for ages again, hand-ins have been hectic! The big ones are done now though, so I thought I would just write a quick post to tell you about it. Okay, so the first hand-in I had was for visual communication; the module that the work in the previous post was for. This one was made up of two parts, hand-rendering and IT, which eventually came together in three final boards depicting a chosen collection, garment flats of it made on Adobe Illustrator, and your final illustrations of the collection which were made by hand-rendering first and were then scanned in and coloured digitally. If any of you missed my previous posts on this module, they can be found here and here! There was such a huge rush towards the end of my time up until the deadline and I was like a woman possessed trying to get it all done! I managed it in the end though with a whole three minutes to spare!!! (Time management isn't my strong point at all as you can tell!) Here's my final three boards for the project!

I'm really pleased with them, especially the last one with my final illustrations on!
Alongside this we also needed to hand in a sketchbook showing evidence of hand-rendering work and experimentation with different media. This bit was the worst and I didn't get much sleep getting it done! There was loads of work in it by the end though so I can't post every bit of it on here, but here are the best bits, and a few edits of them I did on photoshop as experiments!

Josephine Bowes' Dress, Bowes museum, from life, Oil Pastels.

Kate Moss, from reference, watercolours and fineliner.

Vanessa Paradis, from reference, ProMarkers and Adobe Photoshop.

Photoshop experiment from a reference of an Estee Lauder magazine advert.

Final Illustration 1, Photoshop.

Final Illustration 2, Photoshop.

Final Illustration 3, Photoshop.

Final Illustration 4, Photoshop.

Experiment in drippy inks, from magazine reference.

Hand studies, from life and magazine references.

Feet studies, from magazine references.

An eye, Biro Pen, from reference.

An eye, graphite pencil, from reference.

Negative drawing of a bird's nest done on a workshop at the Dorman Museum, Middlesbrough. Graphite crayon and eraser, from life.

Montana Forbes study, ProMarkers.

Freya Flavell study, Watercolour.

Freya Flavell study, ProMarkers.

Ilse Valfre study, Oil Paints.

Hajin Bae study, coloured pencils.

Sabine Pieper study, Oil Paints.

Sky Ferreira, Biro pen, from reference.

Edits, Adobe Photoshop.

Hope you enjoyed seeing my work! I'm really pleased with how it all turned out. I'll be updating my art blog with it soon. I also had deadlines for my technical folder and my design project too, but I'm still yet to get decent phots of it, but I will make a post on it when I've got some!

Lauren xoxo