What It Is To See Inside

"Now then now then"

I felt it was probably about time to introduce a few of my inspirations. Normally, my ideas just come to me in a strange vision but there are a few constants which I always look to for inspiration and general well being. I have had it said to me that these inspirations are fairly evident throughout my work, making it what it is. I like to think they give it all a touch of true quirkiness within the boundaries of my own imagination.

Image of film director Jean-Pierre Jeunet

I am one of these people who love a good cultural film. I have a bit of a 'penchent' for French cinema in particular and Jeunet is definitely one of my favourites. Amelie is the most well known, and my most influential film, that he has directed. I occasionally treat the film as a bit of a bible, to be honest. I love the way of life she leads and the sepia tinted views that rule everyday. The fact that it is all completely unrealistic seems to pass me (wearing rose-tinted glasses) by. Delicatessen is another Jeunet film I absolutely love. It is much more sinister than Amelie in plot but still holds a similar charm. A particular scene with the main character and the shop owners wife checking the squeaky bed springs is particularly memorable, and incredibly well choreographed.

Image of Jacques Tati in character as Monsieur Hulot in Mon Oncle

Much as I love Jeunet, my favourite of all favourites is Jacques Tati. Mon Oncle, in particular, never fails to make me smile and is the one film (along with episodes of Spongebob Squarepants, oddly enough) that I watch when I need cheering up. It brings out my 'old fashioned' side and reminds me that the simple pleasures in life are often the best, removing any unnecessary complications made by new technology. And yes, I do struggle with technology! I think the main things that truly inspire me about Tati's films are his simplified way of showing you that some things don't need to change. Hulot himself hardly speaks in the films, he is virtually a mute (similar to Mr Bean in that respect) leaving most of his simple humour down to odd facial expressions and strange physical bumblings. Watching the other characters around him get infuriated with his simplistic ways just adds to the humour. Hulot's films make me long to live in 50s and 60s France.

Yes, that's right, this is me. Image of my first birthday and a damn fine cake made by my mum!

"Alright alright, this is here for a reason y'know..."

This hilarious image from all those years ago (I was born in '87 so this must be '88) represents my childhood. I feel I had a truly fantastic childhood and have so many bizarre and hilarious memories, which I quite frequently draw upon to use in my work. Luckily, my Dad fancies himself as a bit of a photographer so I have a lot of photos of things we did when we were younger, which makes for great research images. I count myself as being very lucky to have such a solid family, and my Mum is a living legend. My memories of my childhood revolve around really small things like the smell of the tin I used to keep my spelling words in at school and the plastic cups we used to have (visible on the table in the picture above) with pink hippos on. These are the kind of invaluable memories that a lot of people lose but, for some reason, I seem to have an incredibly good memory for really small and insignificant things and am quite grateful for it. One other memory I must mention is me and my sister dressing up as rabbits using 3 pairs of knitted white tights; one for legs, one for arms and one on the head for long, dangling tubular ears. 

"We were obviously very imaginative as children"

One of my research photo from my Final Collection

I feel this interest I have in my childhood greatly affects the choices I make within my work. For example I generally choose things such as toys (above) or baking (below) to use as some form of inspiration. I love the innocence and naivety of my work and ideas as it really allows me to explore my themes much more as they hold such personal reference. A lot of people describe me as being quite young and naive. I don't necessarily think this is the case but I can understand why they might think that, and to be honest I don't feel it's a particularly bad thing. 

Oh yea, I must point out I make damn good cakes.

Photo of some gingerbread men me and my friend made.

(It was her idea to put boobs on them)

"I gave myself tummy ache cos I ate too many of them..."

I use a lot of my own photography in my work as it lets me see things in a different way than just ripping things off of google and such. Plus it's also quite satisfying looking through a load of photos you've taken that day, sitting down to edit them and print them out. Plus, as I mentioned before, I love memories, and there is no better way to preserve memories than in a photo.

My photo of a small fishing boat on Deal beach

My photo of a baby running around the boats on Deal beach

The images above were for a research project I did in the summer, 2007. I took a few good photos that day and got some really high contrast images of clouds. The two above are a couple of my favourites from that day. Deal beach holds a lot of memories for me as my Nana lives there. As children we used to go and stay with her once or twice a year and, other than Christmas and my Birthday, it was the one thing in the year I really looked forward to. I guess I wanted to preserve these memories in a more idealistic manner which is what inspired me to take these images in this way.

 

One of my photos of a Crab Spider

"So... what's this White Balance business again?"

I tend to call this 'the sneaky crab spider' as originally I was just taking photos of the flowers and didn't even realise the spider as there. He was probably watching me intently with all eight eyes. This one was taken after I found he was there. It is mush more focused on the spider, rather than in the initial images, where I was oblivious. And I hate spiders.

I suppose the only other thing left for me to mention right now is my absolute obsession with reading. I personally feel it should be compulsory to read books. It's such a personal thing to do and really allows you to be imaginative within someone else's story. I don't really have many favourite authors as such, I just appreciate a good story. I love Philip Pullman's Dark Materials, I like a good Steinbeck book and I have recently discovered Iain Banks and Haruki Murakami. Some of the best books I have read are the Adrian Mole series by Sue Townsend, they are truly hilarious. I think the best way to get into book is through recommendations, although I do occasionally buy a book if it has a nice cover. Whoops.

All images subject to copyright

Mon Oncle

This is the industry project my course did in conjunction with the co-designer of Peter Jensen. Basically we had to choose a muse to base our designs around that would give us unusual ideas and shapes. I used Jacques Tati as my muse and chose to focus on mass production and how it shaped 1950s France.

France is a country filled with exciting tradition and whimsical ideals, that the French people, and indeed the rest of the world, idealise and love. Tati's films all have very simple humour, largely based on physical acting from Tati himself who plays a happy and old fashioned character called Monsieur Hulot. The films revolve around Hulot's way of thinking, battling with the new technologies that invaded France in the 50s and 60s. I wanted to capture this contrast of 'old vs new'.

The above are three of my illustrations

These illustrations are markerpen and fineliner. My designs encorporate the 'too-short' trousers that Hulot wore in most of his films, accessorized with stripe socks, pipe and umbrella, also synonomous with Tati. The contrast of old and new fits in with the use of crisp suit jacket shapes mixed with the hand done screen prints of robots which I designed.

Photograph of my final screen-print

This image is a scan of a potato print I did as a trial for my screen print. In some respects I think this is more successful in that it looks much more unique and rustic. It was also very fun to do! I have since encorporated a lot of potato printing into my prints as I have found they make good background textures when used in Illustrator.

"Umm... long live the potato.... ?"

All images subject to copyright

The Real Chicken Run

My illustration of a layered dress outfit

Once again, this project is based around some rather unusual inspiration. It originally started being about birds in general but I got distracted and started to concentrate on chickens. Being a vegetarian, I found it really interesting to take photos of the iside chest cavities and skeletons to get shapes for pleating and embroidery. I warn you now, this project is not for the squeemish!

My photograph of chicken wishbones

The wishbones largely inspired the print I used on this strapless top design. I felt that a print using wishbones was a more discreet way to encorporate my theme into the garments, rather than my original idea of using a print with crows and chickens in. The top pleated part was inspired by the same ribcage image as the shorts (below).

My photograph of wishbone dress

One repeat of my wishbone print

One of my illustrations of the wishbone dress and jodhpur outfit

Seeing the illustrations allow you to see the outfit in full, in the situation they were intended to be worn in. The style of the illlustrations give a slightly dark and sinister mood. The models are quite skeletal and reflect a lot upon features seen commonly in birds. Especially using paper cone beaks and giant chicken feet.

My research photograph of inside chickens

The photograph above really interested me and inspired a pair of shorts. I used the ribecage to inspire some pleat shapes and the patterns down the breastbone was used as a central embroidery pattern.

Photograph of shorts, inspired by the chicken ribcage

One of my illustrations of the shorts outfit

I thought it would be a bit more interesting to play with proportions and give them uber long stick legs and huge chickens feet. Illustrations are a mixture of fineliner pen, watercolour, markerpen and food colouring.

Along with the model illustrations, I also did a lot of research illustrations of anatomical objects. I got really interested in the bone structure of feet and created some really bizarre block colourings and panelling ideas. I encorporated it into a few of my designs but felt it worked better as research rather than a literal tranlation.

Collage of images and my illustrations from research

All images subject to copyright

Build Me A Tower and I'll Wear It : Some Designers and That

I feel I need to explain where a few of my ideas come from, starting with a handful of my favourite designers and collections. Generally, when the new season of collections come out, I sift through it unleashed and tend to save bits and bobs that I really like... So here are a few. These are all from recent collections as I felt it was more relevant to use images that have inspired work I have done in the last year or so, in my third year of uni.

 Alexander Wang AW 08/09

I loved this collection due to its 'borrowed from boys' appeal. The oversized trousers and jackets worn with the uber cute shorts and leggings screams of something super wearable, cheap and transferable between seasons. 

"I will 'av two of zees..."

Kirrily Johnston SS o8

I loved this collection so much I emailed the link to a load of my friends at uni. Everything about it was fresh, beautiful and billowing. It had a well fashioned Arabian theme, even including a lack of visible flesh due to the long, front seemed leggings. Flashes of colour amongst swathes of sandy beiges was a real break from the sleek city chic full of greys and acid greens.

Miu Miu SS08

Miu Miu SS08

Miu Miu SS08

Miu Miu SS08

I absolutely loved this collection from Miu Miu, I think it is probably my favourite collection that they have ever shown. I looked at it a little bit during my final collection and really loved the performance and circus feel to it. The cute little collars and panelling are such well thought through details, everything just works. 

Peter Jensen SS08

Peter Jensen SS08

Peter Jensen SS08

I do love a bit of Peter Jensen. We had an industry project with them in the third year and I absolutely loved it. They base all their collections on a muse and outfits are taken from images and videos of each muse. I loved the beaded jacket in the image above. It was apparently hand beaded and took weeks to make. To me, Peter Jensen are an example of inspired, fun and wearable fashion.

Spijkers en Spijkers SS08

"Build me a tower... and I'll wear it"

This collection also held a lot of inspiration for me in terms of my Final Collection. I took a lot of photos of building blocks (I bought some and had great fun building towers and photographing them!) and encorporating them into panelling ideas. I think Spijkers en Spijkers have done this on a very successful level and I have spent many many days lusting after this dress in specific.

Images courtesy of vogue.co.uk and are subject to copyright

So... Why All The Gnomes?

"First things first"

These are images of my Final Collection from my university degree show. The research, and subsequently, the Collection, were based around one of my favourite films, Amelie. I wanted to characterize the 'colourful oddballs' that embody the film, and make it so lovable. I like to base things on unusual sources of inspiration and this collection is no exception. Garden gnomes, Russian Dolls and wooden building blocks are a steady influence throughout.

The following images are photographs taken on a location shoot in King's Cross. Basically, we charmed our way into a block of flats and went up on the roof to use it as a backdrop. The rooftop was truly amazing (I have the photographer to thank for location seeking) and was covered in an assortment of red bricks and yellow chimney pots. Unfortunately it rained most of the day, but this probably enhanced a few of the photos, especially the sky. Jeunet himself super-imposes clouds into his films if there aren't enough natural ones! Sadly Nigel, one of the gnomes we used, did get smashed, however his brother Arthur lives on.

Photographer - Laura Potts

Model - Eleanor Kerr-Smith

Clothes and Styling - Lora Sutton

Printed Yellow Dress and Purple Trousers

Yellow Wadded Playsuit and Purple Grow

Red Circle-Panel Dress and Printed Yellow Grow

Green Bubble Coat

Black Jumpsuit and Printed Yellow Bag

"Now what's this then?"

These are swatches from my print design for this collection. They are basically big snowflake shapes made up from Russian Dolls and Garden Gnomes. The yellow version appeared on the dress and bag and the purple was used for linings in the green coat and purple trousers. The print is in vector Adobe Illustrator format and one repeat (each sample above is one repeat) measures 40cm x 40cm, so makes much more of an impact on fabric. See the 'Printed Yellow Dress' image above (from the King's Cross shoot) to see it on fabric.

These images below are from a photoshoot in London which me and my course mates paid for, to use in our Graduate Fashion week brochure. I was quite pleased with mine so I thought I should put them up. Unfortunately, I have no name for the model or the photographer, otherwise they would be credited.

"Oh yeah, the shoes are DMs by the way..."

I feel I need to give a quick credit to those established companies who I bought and used accessories from. The shoes are white Doc Martens, the coloured tights are a mixture of American Apparel and Jonathan Aston at mytights.com. I made most of the accessories but there are two watches from Argos and one from Swatch. 

All work and images are subject to copyright.