This Weekend I...

Click to read my thoughts on Aintree's Ladies' Day fashion.



My hair-spiration was Alexa Chung, in actuality it's probably closer to Steven Tyler.



"He's totally an up-and-coming designer so they are practically an investment", she said to her boyfriend, to convince herself as much as he.

Dotty's Styling Factory

The fashion industry in the UK is worth approximately £21 billion to the economy, and employs 816,000 people; however I think young people are unaware of the scope for different careers the fashion industry holds. As a teenager I thought that designing was the beginning and end of fashion - how I thought those magazines I worshipped dropped on my doormat every month, how clothes arrived in stores, or how window displays were made, I don't know; the designers obviously magicked everything there with the power of their minds. Even now I am frequently astounded by the jobs available, with thoughts along the lines of "you get to do that for a living?!" - starting with the buyers, merchandisers, and marketers, and stretching all the way to stylists, photographers, and editors. I especially love all the new media and etail job titles - Social Media Managers, Corporate Social Responsibility Assistants, User Assistance Architects, et al. Mindblowing..!

So when The Style Factory gave me the opportunity to run fashion workshops for teens I was delighted to pass on my fashion career-related knowledge. The Style Factory makes the fashion industry accessible for young people, running pattern making, recycled fashion, and even "create your own fashion label" workshops in the North West, and for two days this week took over an (enormous!) empty unit in Runcorn's Halton Lea shopping centre for Fashion In The City. As well as the t-shirt printing, headband making, massages and make-up tutorials already running, yesterday I held styling and visual merchandising workshops using clothing from Room31.co.uk and a couple of props I'd brought along myself. No prizes for spotting the difference I'm afraid.









It was inspiring to find that kids are enthusiastic about window dressing and working in the fashion industry. They were incredibly creative, using scraps of fabric and rubber gloves to make ingenious displays. By far my favourite moment of the day was asking an 11-year-old girl what they would like to do as a job one day. "This", she said. I hope that I helped inspire her to pursue a career in the industry I love so much!

The Peplum Project

I've made clothes before, but they've tended to be made from scraps of fabric I've wound around my body, bothering my mum to pin in place, then sewing messily together on my sewing machine. "That'll do", I thought, despite the item being somewhat mangled. Nobody ever sees the inside, right?

Well, what tends to happen is that I don't wear said homemade clothes, as they fit badly, or are just downright poorly constructed. Happily I have now learnt the error of my ways, and have constructed a skirt correctly - from designing the pattern to the final pressing - and am overjoyed with the result!

The most exciting part for me was the digital printing. After designing the pattern it was printed in the art block at university. Imagine having one of these printers at home! You'd never have to buy an item of clothing again.








From the initial Photoshop design (I played with pixellating images) to the final stage, steaming

For those who are interested, the skirt's pattern is a basic skirt block, using my own measurements. Each piece is overlocked, then sewn together; I used a 20cm lapped zip. I printed 1 metre of fabric and had just enough left over to make a peplum, using a gathering foot to create the frill. Add a waistband, et voila, my finished skirt!




I enjoyed making it, but I'm afraid I won't be taking orders any time soon - the amount of unpicking and resewing I had to do almost drove me nuts. The whole process really made me appreciate just how hard garment producers work, and how difficult it is to get clothing as perfect as it needs to be for a shop floor.

Worn with a simple leather tee here to really show off the colour and pattern; I can see myself using colours from the print to wear on top and clashing it with other patterns. Utterly wearable!

Visual Madness

Check out my mad crazy visual skills! One of the reasons I chose my degree is that along with studying business, marketing, accounting, garment production and Photoshop, I got the chance to install a window display for a visual merchandising module. Today was the big day.

Initially inspired by Stella McCartney's spring/summer 2012 collection, I looked into tropical prints and vintage Hawaii; I was also helped out by my friends at Oasis, whose current collection of printed dresses fitted my idea perfectly.

I am super pleased with the result. Unfortunately due to the sun being so bright today the pictures didn't come out too great, but here they are for your perusal:

I Want Candy!

Although we are only nine days into spring/summer 2012 (if the glossy magazine's advertising is anything to go by) I am already crazy about candy-coloured outfits.

For me, it began with the delicious Louis Vuitton campaign; Kati Nescher and Daria Strokous in their Sundae best.




Then I found model heavyweights Frida Gustavsson and Lindsay Wixson hanging about on Brighton beach for Mulberry, with some pretty awesome oversized Brighton Rock.




Finally, as if that wasn't enough to send me into a sugar coma, this season's Vogue Collections features a double page spread of lovely, Loveheart-shaded goodness..




I was craving to create a moodboard that looked good enough to eat!






One valiant fashionista attempted to style the look using items of her own, which proved difficult as her summer wardrobe was bursting with last summer's brights. One part Parma Violet to another part Refresher, it's a good start.. but maybe for now stick to Rainbow Drop nails.

Stylish Nights in Manchester

The article above (click to enlarge) is the result of an evening's running round town chatting to and taking pictures of fashionable strangers for Stylist magazine, which, in my opinion, is the best women's weekly currently available. I tried to prove that my city is just as stylish (I say even more so, but I'm biased) as London; I think we nailed it, Manchester.. don't you?!

Also click on the image below for my write-up of shops and bars to visit in the Northern Quarter, which is the area I concentrated on in my search for style, and a natty little video of me saying "lovely" and "awesome" a lot in a very camp way. A very accurate representation of me, even if I do say so myself!



Note to self: brush hair more often

For each shot, the new Canon's new IXUS 220 was used. It's a snazzy little camera, not much larger than a coin purse, but still great at shooting in dark places, like bars and clubs. In fact, Stylist are giving you an opportunity to win one - upload your best night-time outfit here to be in with a chance of snapping your way around the bars of the Northern Quarter.

One Black Dress, Many Ways

A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by the lovely Stephanie, aka the Wardrobe Angel, to see if I'd like to assist her with styling a video. I of course jumped at the chance.

So many of us own so many items of clothing, but still complain that we have nothing to wear (I am guilty of this, too, as my boyfriend will attest). The Wardrobe Angel clears out clothes which do not suit your shape or lifestyle choices turns them into cash for you. Then, Stephanie will reorganise your remaining pieces into outfits for you - even adding labels - making getting dressed in the morning a no-brainer. The Wardrobe Angel blog is also very useful for clothing tips and tricks, should you not require the full service right now. There are super sale-shopping tips, and the ongoing theme is "shop your own wardrobe"!

The concept of this video is "One Black Dress, Many Ways". As explained, the dress is a basic, black, shift-style dress - there is likely to be something very similar in your wardrobe. Stephanie and I styled the dress according to different trends and occasions. For example, there are heritage, Parisian, and beach-ready looks.

Take a look at the video yourself - I personally am incredibly impressed with the production, and Stephanie's strong on-screen presence! If Gok ever takes a sabbatical, you know who to call...

Here are a few of my favourites:

These are beach, Parisian, party, and heritage times two. My camera makes the dress look almost glittery - I promise it isn't! As you can see, we re-used things as much as we could to create a "capsule" wardrobe.

I hope the post inspires you to go shop your own wardrobe, and create some fantastic outfits! 

Friday Moodboards

Woohoo, it's Friday! How has everyone's week been? I've been busy busy, and as mentioned in my previous post, we've finally started doing some proper work at uni. We did Photoshop moodboards today, so rather than writing a proper post (it's far too hot to think properly, and besides.. it's Friday, gotta get down) I thought I'd share my two with you. I realise they're very rookie Photoshop user but.. well, that's what I am.

I'm really sorry but I don't have image credits for the first board, as my tutor sourced them all. All the images from the second board are from praytoprada.tumblr.com and style.com.

I hope you all have a great weekend in the sunshine!

Merchandising Oasis accessories

Last week at work we had a massive delivery of new accessories, and I was asked to help merchandise them onto the shop floor. Anyone who knows me will realise how ridiculously excited this made me..! There's nothing I enjoy more than moving fixtures & fittings, and making merchandise work together.

These are the parts I worked on:

What do you think? Would you have done anything different?