Best Buy!

Just purchased a Markus Lupfer sequin lips jumper from asos in the sale!! Love it!

KNIT: Pitti Filati, Florence.

Pitti Filati is an international yarn fair held in Florence, Italy twice yearly. Great for sourcing yarns for next season and future collections as well as discovering new yarns and techniques.









Above are some knit designs and patterns, produced on shimas and industrial machines. Below are some garments using a chiffon over layer on top of the knit (as seen on JW Andersons AW10 collection) and the final garment is produced with a holding technique.

CREATIVE COLLABORATION: Jeffery

Recently I was asked to knit a character 'Jeffery' from an illustrated book, 'Jeffery Goes West' created by Carl Hoare for the shoe company Jeffery West shoes. Below is one of Carl Hoares images for the book.

Click here to visit Carls website.




Below is the Jeffery I created on the domestic knit machine. Hopefully to be photographed and used as the front cover image. Isn't he sweet?

GFW: Kingston

The Kingston GFW show was sensational, everyone did really well but below are my personal favourites.

LIVE PROJECT: John Smedley

The brief for John Smedley was to create an 8 look collection that focused on either, outerwear, underwear, daywear or evening wear etc. I chose to concentrate on underwear/loungewear. Below are my final boards, knit samples and a little blurb about my research.

Click on any image to view larger.



Line Up Board




Technical Board



Knit Samples





Design Development Board




Mood Board

John Smedley is respected not only for its heritage but also its ability to move with the times. Bearing this in mind, I decided to start researching into quintessentially British outdoor pastimes, such as hunting and fishing. Whilst visiting the ‘Van Doesburg and the International Avant-Garde’ exhibition at the Tate Modern I noticed similarities between these modernist art pieces and the tartan and checked panels within my research. I wanted to attempt to reinvent this classic, conformist look by bringing in modernist imagery from the ‘De Stijl’ movement. I discovered a knitted swimsuit in Spitalfields market, which inspired me to concentrate on undergarments in my design work. The combination of the three elements started to inspire my silhouette as volumous outer layers over knitted undergarments.

Please click here to visit John Smedley website.

KNIT: stencils

Here are close ups of the knit samples I used in the Sibling project. As my research was inspired my Basquait, Street Art and Haitan Voodoo I decided to use spray paints and fabric paints on top of the knit.

I knitted a plain grey sample and used a stencil with fabric paint so I could have this beautiful 2 headed beast on the knit.

I was influenced by Jean Michel Basquait and used his image of a crown that I made a stencil of, then used fabric spray paint. It washes very well which I was rather surprised by.

LIVE PROJECT: Sibling

Line Up Boards



Technical Board


Colour/Knit Board



Mood Board


Sibling are an innovative and sometimes outrageous (think sequins and leopard print) menswear knitwear company. We were given a brief by them to design 6 pieces for a capsule collection of knitwear and accessories. I initially started to research into Jean-Michel Basquiat, then into street art and Haitian voodoo. I then developed knitwear samples (see above) based on these themes, with some of the samples I used fabric spray paint stencils.

Click on the link below to view their site.
www.siblinglondon.com

DRAWING: vintage spitalfield find.

I bought this beautiful vintage feather cape from Spitalfields market today (only £20)

LIVE PROJECT: Brooks Brothers

The brief for Brooks Brothers was to create an 8 look collection including some outerwear pieces with smart and casual looks. I chose to research into 1960s space age fashions and the beginning of the space race, looking at painters and artists from that era. Below are my mood board, line up and technical drawings.














Click here to see the Brooks Brothers website.

LFW AW10/11 Round up.

I write for the fashion blog dry-clean-only so there is a full round up of all fashion week shows, presentations and events attended, please click the link here to view all the articles. Although I will say that the Pam Hogg and Louise Goldin shows were a personal favourite as was the Aitor Throup, Sophie Hulme & bStore and Louise Gray presentations.