it's a strange day, no colours or shapes, no sound in my head, i forget who i am when i'm with you, there's no reason, there's no sense

"utopia" by goldfrapp

so my final major collection has reached its deadline and i have completed my two looks and sketchbook, it's been a rocky ride, but very enjoyable, i hope that my hard work has paid off and, fingers crossed, that i get a high and reasonable mark for it! after i finished my garments, i thought i would play dress up and do a mini photoshoot with my garments, with the thanks and wonderful work of my best friend, kerry o'shea and my bedroom!

 there are a lot more photographs, but due to time and this only being a quick post, i have a few of my favourites from the bunch, as you can see, i have made a sleevless box top, which has a low v-neck back too, the neckline has been printed with scissors prints, which have been printed by uses dylon image maker, which leaves a disstorted paper residue, i have also made black viscose drawstring cropped trousers with a "pussy bow" tie at the front to elongate the legs and create a clinched in waist. my other garment is a sleeveless simple dress, also bearing a v-neck back with the same image maker scissor images printed vertically on the dress, i have also found a thick waist band that would be used to clinch in the waist, giving it a more curvous, feminine frame.

for my two looks/three garments, i aimed them to be suitable and appeal to a teenage market, relating to more of the street style subculture. with my theme of "edward scissorhands" being stereotypically labelled as an gothic, eerie and strange film, i wanted to keep aspects of that, but create a more fresh, up-to-date vibe with a urban feel, and i believe i achieved that well.

i also had fun recreating the famous make-up of edward! i achieved this by dusting talcum powder over the face to create a pale and flawless finish and by using black eyeshadow to create the sad, tired expression of edward's eyes and to deepen the hollows of the eyes, i also used it along my cheekbones to create those gorgeous glass-cutting cheekbones that depp has naturally, lucky guy!

and now awaits the fashion show on the 28th, i will be modelling the trousers and top, and a work collegue, friend and fellow fashion student, annalise ord will be modelling the dress, hopefully someone will take pictures or a video of the showing and i can post it, so watch this space...

you see, before he came down here, it never snowed and afterwards, it did. if he weren't up there now, i don't think it would be snowing. sometimes you can still catch me dancing in it

a memorable quote taken from kim as an older lady in edward scissorhands

seeing as my final fashion show to showcase my FMP collection is coming shortly (28th june, shitttt!) i've been thinking about music to walk to, i want something simple, but effective, with a simple beat to walk to, and i had the perfect song choice to fill those shoes.

"intro" by the xx

this song, or instrumental is an all time favourite of mine, it generally gives me goosebumps when i listen to it, and i think it's simple, yet very effective enough to portray my clothing, along with strong beats every now again heard in the song, i think it would be awesome if i could do some dramatic lighting effects for my catwalk, i know my collection will only be shown for roughly about two minutes, but i want it to make an impact and something unforgetable, i hope i will do this song justice! thank god for the xx!

you poor sweet, innocent thing, dry your eyes and testify

"sweet sacrifice" by evanescence

three weeks left to make for my final major project (FMP), in case you have forgotten, i chose to base my theme on the 1990 film, edward scissorhands, starring the beautiful johnny depp and the wonderful winona ryder. i watched the film back during the half term in feburary (i think?) and it brought back a lot of nostaglia from a 90s childhood, and the whole essence of innocence that edward has and being a misjudged character from start to finish really captured my attention, such a powerful love story.

moving swiftly on, i wanted to create three ready-to-wear outfits for my collection, but based on the time scale we had, and too much poncing about with samples (in which i still need to do some, oopsie!), three different looks was just going to be too much, less time, more money spending! but, i narrowed it down to two. the first look is a simple dress in which i'm going to use dylon image maker to print scissors vertically down the dress to leave a distorted and distressed look. the second look is a basic v-neck summer top, again using the image maker to print scissors onto, but i'm going to lay the print design just around the neck, with this, i have also made black, baggy and over-sized drawstring trousers, to clinch in the waist to make the trousers appear more baggy on a slender frame, much as seen in the film istelf. i used some beautiful black viscose fabric to create these and they fit like a dream! and they have pockets! never been so happy in my life with them.

hopefully, when i have time, i will scan and upload my sketches of my final design, and also some photoshoots of the completed garments, with hopefully some good hair and make up, dark cupid bow lips and cheekbones that could cut glass, mmm!

peek in the shadow, i come into the light, you tell me i am wrong, you better prove you're right

"scream" by michael and janet jackson

i have a feeling that i have already used this mighty song by MJ and janet, but not too sure, but who cares, it fits well with what i am going to write about.

at the beginning of the year, i was assigned to design and make costumes for six dance students for a production called "fortress". the dance was based on visiting a "room" inside your mind, a place that isn't very pleasant, and wanting to break free, but being restricted from escaping. i had some ideas of tie-dying the fabric to create some dark, muddy and bruised like colours, lots of browns, yellows, greens and soft purples all bleeding in together. i finished the production on the 28th march (which i'm now writing about nearly a month later, but y'know), and all i can say is, HALLE-FUCKING-LUJAH! it's a real shame, because i was really excited on trying something new and something outside of the fashion world and creating something for the stage, but within this unit, i found it extremley stressful, due to other commitments outside of college, such as my part-time job, my final major project, fashion marketing and my home life too, and i found some people to be really insensitive and not as understanding as i thought they would be, and it also seemed that the whole thing was unorganized.

BUUUUUT, apart from that, i stuck with it, put my blood, sweat and tears into this unit, and managed to design and make all six of the costumes (even though i only really had to make one, so i better get noticed and some credit for this!), and at the end of the day, there is nothing more satisfying than seeing something you have worked so hard on, being worn by someone else and thinking, "yeah, i made that".

i have some process of the making pictures that i can upload, and i will eventually scan in the sketches that i did,  once i recieve my folder back and i'll find out what grade i achieved. i do also have some pictures of the dancers in rehearsals wearing the costumes, but due to the dancers' privacy, i won't, but here is one of the final photographs of one of the costumes on a mannequin:

i know it's a simple design, but it took ages to stitch onto the leotard! and i wanted the dancers to do the talking, happy to say, that i'm proud of it!

and i find it kinda funny, i find it kinda sad, the dreams in which i'm dying are the best i've ever had

"mad world" by gary jules

tried to think of some sad, emotional songs for this post, and that was one of the first that popped into my head, not to mention it's a cracker of a song, but anyway, today is a very sad day.

i'm a huge fan of dorothy perkins, i might aswell live in the store, i find the quality immpecible, the designs and sillhouttes are beautiful, all for a very good, affordable price, cannot stop using my account card everytime i see something (not to mention i can also use it in topshop, bhs and miss selfridges, winner!) but the sad part is, that i've just found out that the store in my little town is closing down!! i'm so annoyed, angry and upset, now the only clothes store that will be there is new look, meaning everyone will be wearing exactly the same thing. now it's probably gonna be turnt into yet another coffee shop or pound store, like we don't have 78568 of them already.

i signed a little book they had, and wrote mostly of what i have written on here, the whole book is jammed packed! maybe they may change their minds, it's good to see that other people feel the same way from what i've read in the book, i'm gonna miss the staff too! lovely people, lovely clothes.

okay, my work here is done..for now.

words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup

"across the universe" by the beatles

i am possibly the most saddest excuse for a fashion student/blogger, but it's all rush and go, college, work, college, college, work, work, rest, driving lessons, work, college, but you get my drift, i haven't had a lot of time to post, but now i do, here it goes...

it's crazy to think that i will finish my two year fashion course in around four months time, it's quite scary to be frank, and with sticking to my guns about not going to university, it looks like i will be working in my little cupcake bakery haven until i can find something along the fashion pathway. but nevertheless, our final major project has arrived and thinking hard and changing my mind so many times throughout the christmas break and half term, i have finally decided the theme i have settled on, and it is.....

yes, the fantastic tim burton's "edward scissorhands"! i only watched the film recently through half term, and it brought back so much childhood nostalgia, oh the 90s! edward scissorhands is a fanstastic character, with his shiny leathers, thick belts, studs and chains to the oversized "borrowed bill's (dad's)" spare clothes and braces, the whole costuming is brilliant, colleen altwood is a genius. i want to portray he's innocence and isolation throughout my project, with such sinister and harshness in his clothing, edward really is a gentleman and adorable, and not to state the obvious, that everyone, including me, fancies the pants off johnny depp. i'm hoping to create three looks, and i want to stick the the monochrome colour scheme that edward wears throughout the film and i want to try and make the looks more wearable, to fit the female body and to give it a modern twist, but with keeping and respecting the film, with picking iconic elements shown, i also think a oversized tee with a graphic print of edward's face would be really cute, and a la topshop, and of course, you can't forget the scissors! i'm really exicted to see what outcomes i can come up with, watching the beautiful johnny over and over again as "primary research" as well as taking a trip down childhood memory lane.

i've got a pocket full of pretty green, i'm gonna put it in the fruit machine

"pretty green" by the jam

first day back at college after what feels like a million years since we broke up for the summer! 9:15 till 5:15, seemed like a drag, but it suprisingly went quite fast and even though i felt like i was dying from fatigue, i really enjoyed my first day back as a second year fashion student! the future of this upcoming year looks promising and very exciting! my lecturer explained today that our course has been entwined with costume and theartical design, and we are hopefully, depending on what groups we're put in, are making a costume for the performing arts students (in drama) for one of their upcoming shows or a costume for one of the dance students, but that's not all, we will be assessed on not just the clothing, but helping with how we want the lighting to help bring out the best in the fabric, paying close attention on hair and make-up and lots of other things, and i can honestly say, i am buzzing! theatre and performing arts has always been another interest of mine, and it's great for not just my course to be a stereotypical "fashion" course, this also helps us branch off into different directions within the fashion, and now, THEATRICAL INDUSTRY! i'm so excited on how this will be for me and my classmates, college just got even better