Shopping spree in River Island anyone??

Gossip girl, 90210 and desperate housewives

Soooo much good fashion inspiration tv on at the mo!!Defo check out 90210 and gossip girl for lush outfit inspiration!!!and ok its not exactly fashion inspiartion BUT i HAD to give desperate housewives a mention since it starts again tonight and im soooooooo excited!!!

Celeb style watch

After being rather unimpressed by the oscar outfits that most of the celebs chose to wear this year, I decided to ahve a lil look at what they've been wearing for the last few days going about their lifes, and...... I was much more happy with the outcome!!!! Here are a few of my faves...

Jeremy Scott and Adidas Originals

Another sportswear/designer collaberation that's happening is this one!!

Im really excited about this one because I love both adidas originals and jeremy scott-a match made in fashion heaven!!!

The collection is sooooo perfect for my personal style-lots of leopard print and sequins!!! According to Scott he looked to his friends such as singer M.I.A. to inspire him with this collection, thinking about what they would wear!

My fave piece has to be the gold trainers with wings on them!!They remind me of something from the Mario computer games.LOVE LOVE LOVE THEM!!!

Sergio Rossi for Puma

Keeping up to date with the latest sports/fashion collaborations I came across a small feature in vogue about sergio rossi and Puma working to gether to create a capsule shoe collection.

Soooo I thought id have a lil look at what it was like!!

The idea was to create a collection that combined Italian luxury and sport lifestyle.

The shoes are based on the traditional Clyde Puma trainer, and are available in 2 high heel versions or a flat pair.

I love how the new styles, materials, and colours bring a traditional cult design up to date and urbanised.

Louboutin Love

As any fashionista will know Christian Louboutin is a french shoe designer, whos designs with trademark red soles are loved globally!!He's my fave shoe designer(with a bit of Gucci!!) unfortunately I cant afford them yet(one day) but here are my two faves from this season!LOVE THEM!!! I think there'd look totally hot with this seansons hot pink and tangerine coloured clothes!!

Lectra and Jersey workshop evaluation

Today was the hand in deadline for our Lectra work and jersey tshirt.
I found the Lectra quite hard to get to grips with at first, kept forgetting all the controlls. But i evantually got into it and actualy enjoyed it on the last lesson-typical!!
The jersey long sleeved top i was really dreading doing because i hate doing the sewing and everyone was saying how hard jersey is to sew, BUT I actualy really really enjoyed making it. I found it really easy just using the over locker and jersey is soooooooooooooooo much better than any other material ive used!!Im also happy how my tshirt turned out and think its the best garment that ive made so far this year.!!!!!!!!!

Lush Leggings

Leggings were first around in a major way in the 80s, but for the last few seasons they've come back!! It started with the calf length ones and now there are loads of varieties around!!

Im obsessed with them!!Its actualy quite scary how much i LOVE them!!!!!!!! I think American apparel does the best ones in loadsa bright colours and different materials.LUSH LUSH LUSH!!

Soooooo Ive got my top fave ones for you to have a look at!!

American apparel zip leggings-£39(above)

American Apparel tricot leggings-£28(left)

American Apparel gold leggings.

American Apparel tricot leggings in blue.£28

Topshop denim effect leggings-£22

Sourcing the product

In our last b&m lesson we looked at sourcing material, where it comes from the pros and cons of getting it from certain countries and the different ways of importing
The main places that the uk sources from are:

• Europe-Italy, Portugal, Polland, Turkey, Romania.
• Fair East
• Asia
• Middle East

Each place has a particular fabric that their known best for. For example Italy is good for true knitwear, if its highly embellished and embroided then India's the best bet, and Bangladesh for basic jersey fabrics and woven products at low costs.

It was actualy quite interesting to hear about how you source the fabrics/product and the diferent importing options that are on offer-which one is going to be more cost effective, but also get your product back in time.

Jo told us abit about her experience on buying trips, visiting the factories and all the different countries that you get to travel to. It sounded absolutely amazing going to all these countries, but at the same time really stressful and jam packed!!!

Work Placements

last wednesday i think it was, we had a talk about our work placements with Sarah Charles, where we wanted to go and all that jazz!!!
some of the stories she told us actualy rather scared me, particularly that about working for a certain british designer!!!or where we should go for a devil wears prada experience!!scary stuff!!!
I really want to work as a stylist at a magazine!!I don't really mind where that much to be honest or what i do!!Obviously working on a shoot would be AMAAAAAAAAAZING but tbh sorting samples in a cupboard sounds preety dandy to me-lots of preety preety clothes and shoooesiees!!!
so we'll have to see what happens!!!!!!
Watch this space!!!

Buying and merchandising tutorial

On Monday we had our tutorials for the brief that we were given.
For the brief we had to take our sportswear design, split it into 2 and come up with 2 different ways of styling that garment for either a magazine spread or buying page. You have to think about the customer and brand or shop that your stylinf it for. I chose Topshop, so the customer is obviously going to want to on trend, fashion forward and not afraid to experiment.!!!Which is always good when putting together an outfit!

I've got together a variety of accessories and clothes that i thought i could style with the outfits, and started putting different possibilities together!!

Jo said that what ive got so far is good and that i need to decide things like whether im going to do the magazine spread or the buying page, pull a through more outfits together, and whether to draw my outfit on illustrator or scan it in!!!!!!!!!!
At the moment i think il try and draw the design in on illustrator, to extend my skills on it!!

So here goes............

"Dress SHABBILY and they remember the dress;
dress IMPECCABLY and they remember the women"
coco chanel

The Promise

I love the outfits, hair and make up in this Girls Aloud video-The Promise.Its all 50s inspired, one of my fave fashion eras!!Click on the link to check it out!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSMosULG5GI

Lectra

Lectra is a computer programme in which you do computerised pattern cuttin on. We started this this term. Im not the best on computers I have to admit, and at first i found it quite confusing, but after a few lessons ive managed to get more use to it.
Today we finished off the pattern for the jersey t-shirt that we're going to be making, so im all set to start sewing now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kate Moss Style book

I love reading any fashion book, whatever shape or form it may take and for christmas I was given a Kate Moss style book that i really wanted, and so far it hasn't dissapointed!!

Kate Moss is one of my style icons and this book takes you through how her style has evolved and the influences on it. It's full of loads of inspirational pictures of Kate and comments from her and others about her outfits and style in general.

I would thoroughly reccomend this book to anyone who is interested in Kate's style.

"Clothes go in and out of fashion, but that's not real style.

Style has to be classic"Kate Moss

Buying and Merchandising

This term we're starting the buying and merchandising unit. I was really looking forward to starting this as promotion is the career path that i want to follow, and so far it hasn't disappointed.
WE've covered the basics of what exactly a buyer, merchandiser and the assistants do in their job which was very useful. This week we looked at putting the collection together and the different aspects you have to think about such as who your customer is and then thinking about their lifestyle-job, magazines read, socio economic group.
We looked into price architecture, and how a balanced range must incorporate lead, mid and prenium price to achieve maximum results. Under price architecture you also come across a price matrix which places shops on a scale deending on their fashionability and price. This allows you to see the competitors in your area of the market or where there would be gaps.
Finaly analysing history is another imortant factor in collection buliding and decing what will be in store next season as it helps you to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, and oppotunities.