Last Minute Work

Tomorrow is sort of our first Quality Control (QC) Check. We've had one, but that was for sketches and flats of 1 design. Tomorrow is a fit check so we need patterns, a muslin version, and pictures of fit. 

I am doing my sustainability project for my 1 design and I am pretty excited for it to come together. however, I have yet to actually start it...and I'm meeting with my model this afternoon too. So tonight will be spent, not doing my French homework but in the lab working on my piece. 

Since I'm using already functional garments I don't see the need to create patterns and a muslin version, hopefully this is okay. I have to deconstruct a dress and then put the skirt back together again but that shouldn't take too long since I'm just gathering it and using an elastic waistband with no zipper. the top is a different story. I'm using a striped button-down top and I need to hem it, take it in, possibly remove the pocket on the front, and change the sleeves. I do also have to pattern heart shaped pieces since I plan on cutting out a heart on the back of the shirt and also placing little hearts over the shirt in various places. It's hard to fully describe but i'll post pictures tomorrow!

More About London & Classes

The way study abroad classes work at London College of Fashion is that there are 3 required classes for 2 hours each and then you can pick up to 10 credit hours worth of electives, giving you a total of 16 credit hours for the semester.

The 3 mandatory classes are: 
1. Fashion History, Art, and Artifact
2. British Cultural Studies
3. Theoretical and Contemporary Fashion Studies

The electives available are:

1. Draping (4 Credits)
2. Creative Design, The Process (3 Credits)
3. Corsetry (3 Credits)
4. Creative Footwear Design - Style to Street (3 credits)
5. Shoe Making (3 Credits)
6. Mastering Millinery (3 Credits)
7. Styling (3 Credits)
8. European Fashion Studies (2 Credits)
9. Fashion Drawing (2 Credits)
10. Fashion Speed Sketching (1 Credit)
11. The Perfect Moodboard (2 Credits)
12. The Perfect Photograph (1 Credit)
13. Creative Eyewear Design (3 Credits)

As of now I am "signed up" for corsetry, shoe making, and millinery. I'm thinking about adding either the moodboard class or speed sketching. I figure why not go ahead and take the full 16 credit hours since I am used to taking 18 almost every semester.

I will keep you posted because I heard we get to switch around our classes the first week, and nothing is final yet anyways.

Spring Plans

Guess who will be attending the London College of Fashion this coming spring semester??

-ME!

I got my notice last Wednesday and I have paid my deposit so I am officially attending LCF!

I can't wait until January rolls around I get to fly over there and settle n for an amazing semester abroad.

Stay tuned for more information regarding class descriptions and more.

My LCF Application

I officially applied to London College of Fashion! After a lot of confusion, a late application to Purdue, and lots of rushed scheduling of meetings, I applied! 

The application is a lot like other applications. It asks for your information, college, GPA (both accumulative and major), transcripts, a picture for your ID, an essay, and then 2 letters of recommendation. There's a few more pieces of information it asks for but that's just medical and housing type stuff. But the part I wanted to share is the pictures of my 5 pieces of work I sent with my application. I had to pick 5 pictures that show a variety of my work and it took me a while to figure out what pictures would show off my skills and a variety of work. 

So here they are:

1. Starting with the picture above on the left- it's of my models Eric and Gabby from this past spring's fashion show. I chose a picture of the back because it gave me the best view of Gabby's dress and how his vest matches her dress. Also, I just think they look really great like this!

2. My shoe project from over the summer! (above on the right) I think it's a good variation of work because who makes shoes out of cardboard and paper that you can walk in?

3. On the left is my collared top I made for class last semester (spring 2014). It has a black lace bow with a tortoise shell button.

4. On the left is a pastel piece I did in AD114 last fall of a sculpture I made.

5. Lastly I uploaded a picture of 2 pages from my portfolio. It's a project from last year where we created a line of dresses using optical illusions as inspiration.

Pop of Pink!

So a few weeks ago I decided to try and dye my hair pink. I didn't want it to be permanent so I tried finding a brand that would work. After asking my very hair coloring savvy friend I settled on Garnier's Color Styler wash out pink hair dye. 
My friend Hale then helped dye it for me one evening. I wanted to try that tie-dye effect and not completely dye all of my hair. I thought it would be a lot of fun to try something different  than the usual dip dye or ombre effect. Right after Hale put the coloring in my hair looked bright pink and I was a little overwhelmed. I had really hoped for a lighter shade, but the box did advertise a bright bright. I woke up the next morning and after showering it looked a lot better. I was happy that the color wasn't as intense anymore and I loved how Hale had made it looked when she dyed it. 
The only down side to the experience was that instead of lasting the 3-4 washes/days it stayed in for about 2 weeks or so. It wasn't great after the first week, it made my hair look oily and gross for a bit. I borrowed Hale's natural shampoo and washed my hair multiple times one night and it helped a lot. 
I might try a different color another time, maybe the blue. I think as long as I'm prepared to wash my hair with the natural shampoo (or dish soap) after it's been in too long I'll do it again.

Paper Shoes

I just realized I never wrote a post about the paper shoes I made for my summer art AD106 class. They didn't turn out how I had originally planned but I liked them a lot and I got a 100% on the project.

The project requirements were that the pair of shoes (yes 2 shoes) had to be created solely from paper and cardboard, no fabric materials at all. They needed to have a minimum of a 2 inch heel/lift/platform and you needed to be able to walk in them for 60ft+. While 60ft was the minimum you needed 80ft to get full credit and any foot after 80ft was extra credit, but you could only get a 100% on the project no matter how many feet you walked. 

Another requirement was that the shoes designed needed to have a minimum of 3 colors. Originally I was very certain I wanted my shoes to be red, black, and white. Just like most of my designs usually are those three colors. However, when I went to the store the prices and selection provided weren't great at all and I ended up choosing a black sparkly glitter paper and then blue and silver hologram type paper. 


I made the first heel as sort of my prototype for what I wanted the structure to look like and went from there. One idea I decided on was making the heels have a strap like a pair of sandals. I was going to have some ankle strap be decided against it because I thought it wouldn't help me with the walking. Then I played around with the idea of spikes or flower petal like cardboard pieces around the ankle. However, with the paper choices I made those didn't look too great. Finally I liked the idea of having little triangles connecting the platform to the heel. I thought it would help me with stability. 

 The picture to the right is my final design. It's not the best craftsmanship but I was the only person to do high heels this way (not just a platform lift the whole foot length/size) and I was the only person to really take a risk creation wise. The colors looked pretty stellar too actually. I called them my galaxy heels. For the walking test I got maybe 10ft and the heels were breaking. I essentially slid my way all the way down to maximum extra credit on floating heels because my platforms were so strong. Essentially the triangles needed to be way more stable and I probably shouldn't have walked around in them so much immediately after finishing make them because I might have worn them down a little too much. Overall it was a great project and I'm really happy I went with my idea to do high heels even though it was difficult. I love projects like this and I think it just backed up my idea that I'd love to make shoes at some point in my career. Plus, it was just a lot of fun to work on over the summer!