Flowers in Fashion

I have always loved taking a natural inspiration for projects (as you can see from past posts) and I particularly like how flower forms inspire the fashion designer. Many designers can create beautiful silhouettes and colour palette's from the simplest of flowers, like the daisy for instance for Marc Jacobs. The examples above are from Junya Watanabe, a designer who loves to create in fabric manipulation and with texture and colour. It emulates if not exactly, petal forms and folds perfectly. I would absolutely love to experiment some more with fabric manipulations to become as great as Watanabe. I think my work would be just as inspiring if i took the same inventive imagination and figurative forms. The one image is of an unknown designer, and they have used a very clear idea by draping the fabrics very similarly, almost exactly as the flower from which it's inspiration has come. Intensely Inspiring, if I do say so myself :)

colour colour all around

Theoretically speaking I take my colour palette from the changing weather and stages of day. Twilight, dawn, sunsets, moonlit skies, starlight, and the blanket of blackness on a cloudy night. I always believe that a natural colour palette provides the greatest of inspiration. This summer I was proven that colour can come from anywhere. Unusually, the place to prove the colour theory was at a volkswagen show at Margham park. Amazing. Above I have provided you with the necessary inspiration to start your own colour palette. :) enjoi!!

illustration fascination

Minjae Lee is a Korean painter, only 19years old! His ethereal life like beauty's hide a dark and dangerous mood, quite the juxtapose to their beauty. I love his use of colour, where it is quite abstract in some examples, but more constrained and strict in others. His linear sharp ladies are surrounded by scatty doodles and floral representations. Absolutely beautiful!

Linn Olofsdotter has worked with many top brands as a graphical illustrator creating such things as album covers, magazine illustrations and even graphics on clothing such as Levi T--shirts. She has also helped brand television networks such as MTV. Her main focus today is on editorial fields such as fashion and advertising with La Perla being her main attribute. I particularly love this work for it's use of colour and how Olofsdotter has made the scene seem whimsical and light. It reads a very fresh and new vibe

Nikki Farquharson is a 24 year old freelance designer living in London. She has a great passion for colour, patterns and typography and has produced many books and featured in numerous magazines.She has also done such collaborations with Benefit Cosmetics, Fujifilm, Nike78 and many more. I love her use of mixing photographical images with pen and paper, and she demonstrates that she is unafraid of patterns and crazy forms and shapes, and that she definitely has a great eye for colour.




After looking at coolhunter for inspiration for this mighty blog of cool, I found some amazing illustrators that I found it to be only fitting that they were included in my very own library of cool. They feature similar  techniques and amazing skills. To be honest they were the reason that over the summer I got quite obsessed with illustrating, especially with different techniques. It makes sense to experiment in every way shape and form possible before choosing a media, look or silhouette. The same goes for what I intend to do with garment construction and designing. It's all about thinking outside of the box. Not to have a closed mind, and not to be afraid of many failed attempts before perfection is found. If at first you don't succeed try try try again!

illustration coalition

I absolutely love illustrating. I have gotten quite obsessed with it especially with not going far from work. (being on call for a shoe shop is going to some extremes some might think) I drew a lot from the h&m magazine. Though that might sound lame, the layering of clothes and the poses created a beautiful silhouette. I do however intend on using Vogue, Lula and Pop as more invested influences. Using the inspiration from the illustrators I also intend on experimenting with photoshop and other mixed medias. I have started but further investment in time is needed in order to create masterpieces.

I won't be beat

 I tried to copy different male models from 10men magazine

Looking at pretty boys and the conventional male helped me 

draw just a little.

 An attempt at Taylor Lautner. A slight obsession with the Twilight

books and films were a great influence for me choosing my male muses.

Rpatz is the conventional manly man, his face is very angular, perfect for 

drawing, and a great similarity to architecture. 

Being obsessed with illustration over the summer, and with the tons of practice I had I thought illustrating male faces would be a breeze. I was wrong. there are so any differences between the male and female anatomy, and even though us women carry a lot more lumps and bumps the males flat contours have proved more difficult to draw. Using a fine pencil, barely touching the paper creates perfect delicate lines, beautiful and soft exactly what is needed to create a pretty female face. But a man's face. A male face has angular features, hard and structured. The same features can't be created with the same fine pencil. But I will not be beat. Practice makes perfect as they say. 

Mighty Menswear

 Banana Republic

 Bottega Veneta

 Christian Dior

 Comme des Garcon

 D&G

Pringle of Scotland

All images from style.com

I officially love menswear!!! On a trip to london I practically had to be dragged away from the shop windows. Originally the trip was to see how a collection is put together, i think I have a real understanding of how to do this now. But shop windows adorned in black and khaki everywhere, classic hiking boots and tucked in trousers in to socks. B E A utiful. I'v included some examples of the ones that really caught my eye. I can't wait to start tailoring now, making coats, shirts and trousers. (exhales a longing sigh) I can't wait!!!

Native Dreams

  Maison Martin Margiela

The amazing book read over the summer

The potential in inspiring a fashion brand

Over the summer I read an amazing book. It tells a story of the american civil war and the conflict between the american army and the native americans. I love the native american principles and always have. A great character in the book is Kit Carson, he's an american soldier but used to live with the natives, so is torn when his duty is to burn the village. It could create a great story for menswear, a collaboration between the soldiers and the natives rather than a conflict. Something I also adore is the closeness and admiration they have for nature. I looked at fashion and nature and animals in connection with each other and they were some great examples especially within the mightier fashion brands such as Maison Martin Margiela. The colour palette will work especially well with autumn/winter and the clear inspiration from nature will create great silhouettes and/or embellishment. I can't wait to start the new project. Autumn/Winter 2011 here I come!!