Humming Bird Meadow Dress

As you can see, Humming Bird Meadow dress is finally complete. The attention to detail is apparent, with crisp pattern matched seams, a flash of scarlet for lining to add the extra bit of specialness and finished with my own design label

Vintage Photographs post war 1940's - 1960's

Nan in her 1950's New Look Dior style dress

flying was such a glamourous affair! No hen/stag parties via easy jet! 

Being smart, even on the day away from the factories meant 3 piece suits on the beach!

as well as full jewellery!

post war fashion, nan and her friend taking a stroll
 

Pure -White Leather Embelished Collar

Pure - White leather & lace collar with applique flowers from my self designed fabric finished with crystal buttons and opal beads £45 to purchase

Front detail

Left Collar Detail

right collar detail

Whilst at Gawthorpe I was able to work on a new leather collar design, carrying on from the Venician Renaisanse inspired collars I produced for my degree work. I stripped the leather colour back, opting for a pure white leather then embelished with white lace (hence the Pure name) and finally with the laser cut petals from my self designed fabric. Rather than laser cutting the collar, this was all worked by hand, therefore making the collar much more cost effective.

Gawthorpe Hall Day

What a marvelous day I had at Gawthorpe Hall! I was honoured to be asked to display some of my degree collection at Gawthorpe for one of their pop up costume events where the lovely curators work like honey bee's to bring out a selection on vintage dresses and paraphernalia to display for 1 day only.  The point was to show contemporary textiles nestled next to the traditional, giving an insight into the changes within the textile industry.

The visitors were absolutely lovely and it was a rare chance to speak to people who were genuinely interested in your work.

The Hall is simply stunning and the tea rooms leak and potato soup simply gorgeous so next time any one is in the Padiham area, Gawthorpe is definately worth a visit! 

leather studded collars

Following the success of my laser cut leather collars and chokers as part of my degree collection, I was commissioned to add a studded leather collar to a dress which would match her Jeffrey Campbell Lita spiked ankle boots

degree collection - couture gown and laser cut leather collars

Well it's been a busy few weeks getting ready for my final degree piece with involved thousands of hours of sampling, refining my dress patterns which are self designed and putting together a gown which incorporates contemporary corestry, laser cut leathers and silks which are again self designed using adobe photoshop and illustrator and finally using traditional courure sewing techniques to bring the whole piece together. here are some images from my degree show

Venetian inspired silk evening gown with laser cut leather detail in degree show setting

Silk bodice corset detail with silk chiffon and laser cut leather embelishment, finally brass religious icons that represent the byzantine fascade of St Marks Basilica, Venice

Full corset detail showing marbling self designed fabric which represents the marbled fascade of St Marks Basilica, Venice, the laser cut leather represents the window detail of Dodges Palace, Venice

The silk formed cups of the bodice with the sweeping silk chiffon straps represent the domed roof of St marks Basilica, Venice

In a less embelished state to give a more simplistic and fluid gown

Laser cut leather and silk chiffon collar with silk chiffon laser cut embellishment,  commissions now being taken

laser cut leather collar

silver heart pendant with diamante cross on suede ribbon, commissions now available

St Mark - Caught Between Heaven & the Deep Green Sea

I am so pleased to present elements of my final B A Hons collection. The result is a culmination of many hours developments and sampling. Please enjoy..

Bodice Detail

laser cut leather and chiffon collar

Laser cut leather and silk chiffon collar detail

laser cut leather and chiffon detailing to satin bodice

back detail with laser cut leather strap

Full version of FIA Bodice and Skirt

Skirt detail

photshoot styling

Venetian Glamour

My work has continued to evolve during this project. I am finalising positions of the leatherwork and embellishments at present yet today I feel that I am at a stage where these can be applied to the dress permanently.

Venetian Evening Gown is coming along

Well its been a manic few weeks trying to refine self designed and calculated dress patterns but finally, through the bones of the calico, the vision is becoming realised! Here's a few images of how the dress is starting to emerge

Back Detail in leather, silk satin and silk chiffon

Floral detail, the club shape petals represent the window shapes of St Marks bailica and Dodges Palace, Venice

Taking the leather strap of the back detail to see how this wold work,  layering up the floral detail

still needing its skirt and leather detailing however progress is being made

as a more commercial offshoot, there will be dramatic collars and simpler chokers such as this to tie in the renaissance style

Calico toile sampling - now just which style to go with!!!

Decisions, Decisions! I've been holed up in my office so long designing for my Final Intergrated Assignment for my BA Hons and I think i've been in here so long I can no longer see the wood for the trees! I have had such a good/frustrating time trying to sample my ideas that I have produced a good few so can no longer decide which one to go with!

Just one of the designs...

Any feed back suggestions are welcome and please bear in mind that these are all very rough mock ups of how the final design will look. I have included a snippet of how these will be further refined to ensure a perfect fit for the individual wearer and also a picture of the fabrics the final gown will be made from

The fabrics being used to create this piece will be these below which were designed by myself. To the left is a silk satin, centre at the back is a soft blue nappa leather and to your right is the fine light silk chiffon

Tweeking the final calico of the bodice to ensure a perfect fit, this is a bit harder when you are making for yourself! I need to be slightly ambidextrous at times when pinning to myself and trying not to move too much to ensure the fabric is not moved out of place!

As can be seen below, the calico needed refining and is a very rough mock up of the final design. It is produced to help the design come to life off the paper as often a paper version does not throw up any problems with figures etc

A fish tail gown, the tailors dummy is quite rounded on the stomach and hip area so for a true perspective, it will need to be tried onto the clients body to then tweek and refine

peplums are big this season and this reminds me of the architecture of Venice and the domed roof tops. The skirt is very simple and fluid to offset the peplum detail. The design when completed will have a the fine chiffon for the skirt

The linear pleats represent the columns of St Marks Basilica, the paper pattern attatched is a mock up of the leather work design which will be laser cut once refined against the final design. The strap detail will be neater and more accurate obviously on the completed garment

The rippling fabric above represents the water element of Venice and again the  paper pattern is representing the leather work detailing

As I am going through calico like a hot knife through butter, I have started to make  small calico's of  the  skirt detail