Touch sensitive

Better late than never! I remembered earlier I hadn't yet made this post... During GFW (a long time ago now), one of my dressers' happened to be browsing through the twenty//2 gfw newspaper and discovered a shoot of one of my pieces.

I always find it interesting to see and how other people perceive my work and it's quite amazing being able to take a step back from it and look at it from a different perspective...

Photography- Ali Kepenek

Fashion- Adam George

The best of graduate fashion 2013!

Before I even begin this post I feel I should explain that by 'best' graduates I just mean a few of my favourites. There are a ridiculous amount of incredibly talented graduates and so many amazing shows that it's pretty impossible to write about all of them. 

So I've just picked four that stood out to me (the majority of which are textile or knitwear based). Seriously, the amount of incredible textiles, print and illustration around this year was insaaaane!!

(All images from WGSN)

Chen-Yu Wang

Although I didn't actually get to see the Ravensbourne catwalk (a huge regret of mine now), I only had to browse all the photos afterwards to realise what a strong class they had. In fact, the majority of my favourite collections were Ravensbourne graduates, and in terms of textiles and print they were definitely well up there as one of the strongest universities. My ultimate fave however was Chen-yu Wang. I absolutely fell in love with her knitted 'eye-ball' jumper- in fact I've barely been able to get it out of my mind since I first saw it... The whole collection is wonderfully playful and imaginative, but I actually think one of the reasons I love it so much is because I actually find it to be quite sinister at the same time. There's something about her pieces that makes me feel quite uncomfortable, but somehow that just makes me want to wear them even more..

Leanne Warren

Another Ravensbourne graduate, Leanne's illustrations and prints inspired by religious iconography were absolutely breathtaking! It makes me wish I'd included more of my illustrations and print into my own collection, but I guess that's always something I can do more of in the future... For now though I'm just going to continue to sit back and admire hers, and carry on wishing that cropped t-shirt was in my wardobe...

Cassandra Verity Green

There were a number of CSM collections that caught my eye this year however, Cassandra Verity Green's was the only one that really took my breath away- the cascades of  pastel "seaweed" combined with the transparent cut-outs and multi-coloured ruffles were beautiful as were her cropped leggings layered underneath. I also fell in love with her little gold-fish bowl backpacks, although I'm not convinced the fish would have had such a great time, but I guess it got people talking....

Hannah Williams

I think it was originally the use of colour that attracted me to Hannah William's collection- it had such a surreal feel to it that after only seeing a couple of photos at GFW as soon as I got home the first thing I did was google the rest of it- and I am so glad I did! It's not until you examine the pieces close up that you notice exactly what it is that makes this collection so special. By cleverly moulding silicone (I'm not exactly sure how, but I sure as hell would like to know), she created garments with the illusion of chunky oversized zips, seams, pockets and layers of beaded jewellery. I can only imagine the other possibilities she can go on to achieve with this technique, and as the winner of the womenswear award I can hardly wait to see what else she gets up to in the future!

There were so much incredible graduate work this year, I only wish I'd had more time to browse through everyone's portfolios. The ones I did get to look through however were incredible- I especially loved Grace Cook (from De Montford)- I made a direct beeline for her knitwear as I was snooping around, and it's only made me want to study knitwear more!

For now though I'll leave you with some Zion. T (thankyouuuuu eatyourkimchi)

Hannah xx

GFW- Northampton

Graduate fashion week already seems an absolute lifetime ago now, so trying to write this post now is slightly harder than I thought it would be, and so I don't waffle on too much I'm just going to write about a couple of collections that mean quite a lot to me...

Starting with my own... to be honest it was all a little bit of a blur, and I spent the majority of the Bath Spa/Northampton show feeling like I was going to throw up, so I was incredibly relieved that none of my nylon tubes shed on the catwalk (as we all dramatically envisioned), no one tripped over the jellyfish and died (although to be honest if she'd fallen in that I'm pretty certain she'd just bounce straight back up), it generally everything went pretty smoothly.

As lovely as some of the press releases have been on my work, I still look at it and criticise every little detail that I know could have been better. What's most depressing though is there's still so much more I want to learn and so much more I want to try out, buutt I guess that's what an MA is for! 

The main inspiration for my collection came from a trip to Japan last summer where I spent about three weeks pretty much falling in love with all their modern architecture. I came back home and just spent weeks drawing from all the imagery I'd taken (and wishing I was still there) and my colour palette of blues and soft greys just kind of evolved from all my drawings, paintings ad colour swatches. My actual final pieces came from me modelling directly onto the stand with shit loads of nylon tubular crin- lengths knitted with broomsticks to create oversized jumpers, folded into hundreds of loops and tied into oversized bunches to create "jellyfish" like structures. 

There are quite a few details that couldn't really be picked up on the catwalk, one of the being the little hand-knitted and hand-dyed squares stitched in a gradient onto blue stretch net, and the devore skirts (one of which took about two months to scrub out with a tiny toothbrush).. I could probably talk about my work for the rest of life, but I'd bore the shit out of you all, so I talk a little bit about two other textile collections that really stand out for me...

The first is by Emma Parker. I seriously spent the majority of this year just staring at her work thinking "oh my God this is incredible, why the hell isn't this my collection?!" Then looking back at my own work and wanting to spit on it in dusgust. But seriously, I don't think I've ever met anyone who's as clever as she is in the way she manipulates and experiments with every media she uses. She used fur in the majority of her collection, but in ways I'd never seen before. It was so exciting to come into the studio every morning to see yet another new and amazing creation in her work space. Her use of devore was something that I really loved as well as again, it was used in a way that not many people had thought possible...

I'm not gonna lie, her collection was probably my favourite out of our year group (and quite possibly the whole of GFW), so I feel pretty privileged to have been there watching it grow and evolve into this amazing creation below...

Secondly is Kiran Bassan's collection. 

Her collection is quite literally an exact reflection of her personality- bright, vibrant, fun and just generally pretty damn amazing!

And as many of you are probably already aware it was her beautifully layered hand-printed pieces that bagged her the Zandra Rhodes Textile award! I can't even begin to describe the painstakingly long hours she spent hand printing metre upon metre of jersey, silk and organza, (then waiting for each layer to dry before doing it all over again), not to mention the time she spent shredding her over-sized kimono type pieces... 

It got to the point where we were quite literally crying whilst pinning fabric onto the backing cloth (seriously, if I never had to pin again I'd be the happiest person on the planet)! 

I'm sure she'll agree though that every painful minute spent slaving away in the print room definitely worth it! Her work is absolutely beautiful and I am proud to say I was the first ever person to try on that orange jacket at the front! (Hellll yea)!

I'm so immensely proud of everyone, and although I only mentioned a couple of people in this post I have to say that I loved every single one of the collections we showed this year, and I feel so privileged to have worked alongside so many talented and creative designers.

 I can safely say I wouldn't be the person I am, and my work wouldn't be what it is now without the support and encouragement of everyone in my year, in fact I can't actually imagine how I'm going to get by without them....

Oh God!

I'll shut up before I start getting too soppy, and instead I'll leave you with my favourite photo- the finale :)

Goooodnight!

The beginning of the rest of my life..

So, graduate fashion week is officially over. The long nights spent wrestling with metres of tubular crin and sweating over a boiling bath of dye have finally come to an end! This sounds like it should be a good thing, and I should probably be out celebrating my new-found freedom (I can have a life again)?! but I've found I actually feel the complete opposite. Three years spent throwing myself into something I absolutely love has been incredible, and despite a fair few break-downs over print mistakes and shrunken tubing I can safely say this past year has been incredible! So incredible that the thought of it all being over, having no uni work to do and having to move out of the house I've spent living with my best friends for the past two years is making want to crawl into hole and cry. Buuttt as everyone around me keeps insisting (and what I've also been trying to convince myself), this is just the start and I guess the next few years spent discovering what I want to do with the rest of my life will be pretty damn exciting as well...

It better be.

Anyway, for now I thought I'd share a few more recent images of my work (and a little work in progress)--I'll make another post later this week on my final collection and the gfw catwalk--

Studdioo space 

Initial experimentation with tubular crin

The beginnings of my knitted jumper-- I got rid of my face because it was gross okay..

Disperse

I'd been dying some samples of tubing I've been working with recently and I thought the frayed ends were beautiful- Note the darker tips of the fibres, hnnngg. Trying to figure out a way of constructing my pieces while keeping this effect... 

MERGE

It's been an ongoing joke between the fashion/textile department that after working 24/7 on one project, you end up kind of becoming it. 

In my case it is definitely true. Of course you design in a way that caters to your personal taste, but as you spend every second absorbed in your work it's really easy to begin seeing it everywhere and generally begin merging into your studio... 

So many times my friends have drawn attention to the fact I usually dress like my work, so much so that during my second year my tutor actually attempted to throw me into my sketchbook shouting "YOU ARE YOUR PROJECT! YOU ARE THE PERFECT REPRESENTATION OF YOUR BRAAAANNDDD!" 

The other day me and my housemate Amy were working in the studio (and by working I actually mean taking photos of our double chins), when we both noticed we were once again dressed like our work, so of course we had to document it..

Awkward...

How does she manage to look cute?

As you can see my (quite boring) sized 18 powder blue knitted jumper and leggings ensemble merges pretty well with my studio full of squares, lasercutting and random translucent things, whilst Amy is looking all pretty baby pink jumper and printed skirt surrounded by her delicate insects and soft knits...

For now..

Hannah

Helen Bullock for Sibling

 I absolutely fell in love with Helen Bullock's illustrations for Sibling's A/W menswear collection, and as her style is fairly similar to my own illustrations I found it pretty relevant..

I haven't posted much these past couple of weeks due to personal reasons, but I'll be up and running again as soon as possible! I have so much to update about my work now that I'm back working in the print room and getting my portfolio ready for Graduate fashion week, so I'll be sure to share it all with you soon!

X

I have not failed, I’ve found 10,000 ways that won’t work.

Our tutor emailed us the above quote by Thomas Edison and it seems quite fitting at the moment.
Despite the fact my final year seems to be going rather smoothly at the moment, I still manage to create extra stress for myself by worrying about what to do once it's all over. It's an exciting prospect, yes, but at the same time I feel completely overwhelmed by the whole idea of throwing myself into the industry.
Don't get me wrong, I can't wait to start working and putting my skills and everything I've learnt over these past three years to good use, but as much as I keep trying to push them away, the "who the hell is going to want me to work for them?" thoughts keep creeping up on me and sending me into panic mode!

I don't know if it's the same for anyone else wanting to work within the fashion industry, but I spent pretty much my entire adolescence being told it'll never happen for me, that's it's "too competitive" and that I won't be good enough. Thankfully I've always had incredibly supportive tutors who've helped me believe in my potential (which I'll always be grateful for), and a creative Mother who will always support everything I choose to do. However, even to this day I cannot seem to escape the few negative individuals who seem to find it acceptable to try and put me down. 

So guys, this is my poor attempt at being all 'deep and meaningful' and trying to turn worry into something positive? 
I look back now at my little thirteen year old self and her notebook of frilly designs and wish I'd ignored everything I'd been criticised for. I look back with a sense of regret at the time I wasted which could have spent practicing instead of being too afraid of being ridiculed. 
On a positive note though, I've always been told criticism makes you a stronger person (I'm still yet to find out of this is actually true), and I know I'm definitely not the only one who'd been told they cant do what they love.
I also know that I'll at least attempt to use the negativity to push me further and prove them wrong..


Right this moment though I'm off to introduce my housemate to Parks and Recreation because she's clearly been missing out!
For now

Hannah

Another Low...

I don't think Low Classic will ever disappoint me! 

Their A/W 13 collection is as beautiful as always, and although I would class their pieces as quite simple and wearable, they have something about them that makes them so much more than just minimal fashion. I cannot explain how excited I get over everything they create, and it literally kills me that I cannot buy any of them... 

Most of these images are from Style Bubble (I can't find them anywhere else)!

Ciment pleating

Every year at Uni Ciment pleating usually come and visit us during the first term and let us loose with all their samples (they're very trusting).. If you haven't heard of Ciment pleating before now then I'll give you a brief intro.
Ciment pleating ltd are a family company who specialise in pleating (although I'm sure you've already gathered that). Basically, by creating intricate moulds they are able to steam fabric into some of the most intricate and beautiful pleats I've ever seen. The process actually looks really simple, but I was given the opportunity to try pleating one of the moulds, and it's pretty difficult and incredibly time-consuming! 
They cover a wide range of different pleats including your standard flat and box pleats, to crystal and sunray prints however, the most breathtaking have to be the range of "fancy" pleats, that make even the most dull of fabrics look incredible!

I absolutely the trellis pleats, and they had a fair few moulds that I could imagine working really well on a few of my finished products (whether a scarf or a small detail on a garment). So exciting!
Oh and I've finally started to work back in the print room again! Although it's still early days and I'm currently experimenting with colour sampling, but I'll be sure to give you and update on that soon!

Hannah 

Half way..

I can't get over the fact we only have six weeks until we break up for christmas- ohmygawwdd!
I'm starting to think my tutor's might by right when they said this year will fly by... I've been trying to think of what to do with my life after I've graduated.. Masters? Interning? Teach abroad until I know for sure? God knows... Maybe I'll just take my plan B and become a crazy cat lady 50 years earlier than I'd planned..

Anyway, the majority of last week was spent putting off writing my dissertation proposal, however I did squeeze in some time to paint and experiment with line a little more... Oh and I thought I'd include a- kind of- outfit post, which is basically just me showing you why I don't often make outfit posts... I find I always resort to the most basic black clothes in my wardrobe, because literally everything I wear to uni gets covered in paint or dye, so sadly I don't really own many exciting clothes... crryy. 

P.s Please ignore the ends of my hair, the blonde I had put it about a year ago still seems to be fighting it's way back...

Week5? Week6?

I thought I was well overdue an update on my Final major project (I was working on my dissertation last week, so didn't have an awful lot to update), but I've been in the studio for the past two days and I think things have developed a little further... 

To put it briefly, I'm now beginning to focus on elements of my research I think are the strongest, and starting to push it further. At the moment I'm really enjoying different weights of line- delicate pencil contrasting with strong, sharp linear edges. I've also started including more organic structures after buying some plastic/net tubing last week (a whole 16 metres of it in fact)... Drawing from little 3D structures such as the little wire squares I threw together when I was bored have actually proven really beautiful, so I think the majority of my idea will probably come from "happy accidents".

Anyway, I'm really enjoying how it's coming along at the moment, and my tutors seem really enthusiastic about it as well which is really encouraging!

I'm about to throw a load of gothic makeup at my face for halloween, so I'll leave you with some photos of my studio..

Hannah