Fashion WA turns one

Saturday the 28th of August, all of who's who in the fashion world of Western Australia gathered in Claremont to celebrate the first year of Fashion WA. Amongst the who's who were the 'who's them?' that were the helpers for the show. I was lucky enough to be one of these helpers for the day, to make the night as special as it proved to be.


It began, for me, around 1:00 when - around the back of Claremont hotel, down an ally way, up some industrious looking stairs and through some grey doors - I found myself in the gallery, namely the 'Grey Door Gallery'. Small and cramped, the Gray Door Gallery was small but artistically decorated with purple paint and street art on the walls. From the ceiling hung 3 lights, each contained by a painted birds cages. A small Bar sat in one corner, a DJ set in the other, bright gold 70's style couches around the edge and a small T shaped runway in the middle.



Inside there waited about 200 gift bags ready to put together by the helpers which included 2 other students from Curtin which I hadn't met before. Once these were done, we were able to see (and touch!) the garments that were going to be on show later that night, before sorting and steaming them.










Even though we were mere helpers, we were still able to mingle when the guests arrived (after a quick outfit change). The night was amazing with 16 models wearing 16 outfits by 16 different designers.

At the show;


Danica, Jade and me


Me


Here are a few of my favourite pieces;


PINCHANDSPOON


OF CABBAGES AND KINGS


LITTLE GRACIE


Photos from WAtoday(Matthew Tompsett
More photos at
http://www.watoday.com.au/photogallery/lifestyle/fashion/fashion-wa-first-birthday/20100830-13y26.html

FashionWA.com new look website is coming soon!

xx Cordelia

Stripes, Checks and Florals in fashion

When you are given the brief, Pattern and the Body; Stripes, Checks and Florals what comes to mind? Upon receiving this, images of pattern clad models, almost lost under a sea of colour come to my mind. You begin to consider how you may be able to place these patterns together to create an aesthetically pleasing, and maybe even a wearable result. Could you use small patterns with large patterns? Similar colours maybe? Or something to break up the obscenity? After these initial thoughts, I began to think of ways to have stripes, checks and floral in a representational manner, rather than having three different types of fabrics competing for attention.

Firstly, I thought of material made into flowers, for example checked fabric made into a rosette. But even if that combined two elements in one, how could that ever go with a striped dress or blouse? This kind of internal debate continued until I had to step back and look at the brief from a different angle. This idea came to mind; if I was going to try and represent some patterns to down size the clash, why not go the full turn? I decided to try create a garment which had stripe, check and floral by using absolutely no striped, checked or floral fabric. Good idea. But… how?

Firstly I had to consider all the ways to represent each factor. I then had to pick one from each representation which, when put together, would not still clash (or even throw a whole new obscenity my way). I decided on weaving fabric for checks, bundled fabric for stripes and iron on flowers for floral. Thought had to be taken when putting these components into a design as too much of each would also result in another horrible clash. I decided on having a neutral colour, as I believed doing this would ensure I hadn’t added another factor into the garment, taking attention away from the main three. I decided on a silky cream fabric for most of the dress. For the lined bundle which is around the middle as a sort of belt, I decided on a sheer fabric. The light look and feel of the fabric, I thought, would stop this section weighing the garment down, and from taking all the attention.

So has my journey lead to success? Well, I have made a garment that has stripes, checks and floral. The dress is full sized and wearable for a size 8-10 (standard Australian sizes). And, from my own expectations, I have placed them all together without any clashing effect. What do you think?




(close up on weave detail of bust)

Cordelia xx

Pretty but Powerful; Concept in fashion

This project required us to re-create, re-think and re-design; that is, we got to go on an op-shopping spree, taking what we found and making them awesome! Feel free to skip straight to the pics, but for the concept behind the collection, read on;

Pretty but Powerful; What’s it all about?

Pretty but Powerful explores the juxtaposition of beauty and supremacy and broaches the question that asks “why is there a line drawn between the two?”;


The “I am beautiful/powerful” concept board outlines the concept in a representational manner. Firstly, it shows a man- masculine and powerful- baring the words “I am Beautiful”. As he fits the stereotype of powerful more so, the viewer automatically begins to consider why he is beautiful. We can come to the conclusion that it must be because of his power. The women has the same basis, but from the other angle. She fits the beauty stereotype but bares the words ‘I am Powerful’. She therefore must have power in her beauty. This concept was the basis for my collection.

The garment style and fabric are the basis in representing the concept. The lace represents the ‘pretty’ due to its delicate and fragile form while the leather represents the ‘powerful’ through its strength and durability. Together with the way the fabric sits, and positioning on the body, the fabrics show the two aspects. What particularly shows the concept, however, is the result reached when adding the two fabrics together. Leather and lace together creates a quite aesthetically pleasing result; the leather does not dominate, they do not clash in texture and the colours of each work well. The clothes presents a certain harmony between the two aspects, showing that maybe there is no segregation at all;

Beauty is power and power is beauty.



This garment was made out of an old leather shirt-style jacket and a lace dress



This Dress was made from an old corset, some lace, and one of those sheer masquito nets you have over your bed. Quite easy and it looks great, if I may say so myself...

The last outfit is the professional pic up top. We were all very lucky to recieve a free professional pic by photographer Penny Lane. The skirt was made out of a curtain, I just re-styled the top and jacket.

Anna Sui inspired dress...

Since I'm back at Uni now, projects are about the only interesting fashion thing I'll be doing. This was a 'dress' I created for one prodject where I studied fashion designer, Anna Sui. I was interested in Anna Sui’s tendency to celebrate the cheap, unlike many fashion designers. I was also interested in the way she mixes colour, pattern and texture together. By taking these two aspects into account, I created this piece.

I found that Anna Sui often uses many patterns, colours and styles together within the same garment. I also found this quote which acted as a major inspiration to my peice;
“There is an artistry in Ms. Sui’s mix or art and fashion:
she celebrates the cheap and asks you to question the
expensive” (Alex Kunczunski, New York Times 2009)

I hoped that by making a dress similar to the style of Anna Sui, and incorporating two major influences, patterns and celebrating the cheap, I successfully conveyed Anna Sui as a designer as well as showing my individual style.

As a big fan of recycling, restyling and opshoping, my aim was also to show that people do not need to spend ridiculous amounts on clothes, and can quite simply create their own, quite inexpensively. Although like many designers, I was showing an exaggerated version of this idea...





Yes, it is made out of rubbish; plastic bags, old clothes, cardboard, paper...
At least no one could say "it looks like rubbish"... it was meant to:)

xx Cordelia

STYLEAID Recap

Some of the models in my group, after the show...


STYLEAID on friday night was; fun, exciting, rushed and... glamourous. I, and the other 'dressers' for our selection of models each had assigned one model to dress ON THEIR OWN. That would be where the 'rushed' adjective comes in. Even though some lovely person took pity on the first timers and gave us another person to help out, the few minutes allowed for dressing seemed like only seconds with the posistant "hurry up!!"('s).

There were many different designers there including such wonders as Andrea Wolf, The 'Antipodium' crew, Arj Selvam Flannel, Garth Cook and many others. Although there wasnt much time to look at even half of the garments, let alone take pictures of them all, from afar the effect was amazing. Tammy, the model I was dressing, wore three beautiful garments, each of which I managed to get a quick snap before she dashed off again.


This was Tammy's first outfit, a creation by Ae' Lkemi. Apologies for the quality of photo; the room was filled with smoke machine smoke.


This the second outfit, it had a similer style from the front, with a folded over top. This dress was absolutely georgeous and was by Timothy Godbold.


Tammy's last outfit was this bathingsuit by Kooey.


The exciting, fun and glamour(?) of backstage :)

Uni starts again tomorrow, so from now on there will be nothing more on my mind than that. Luckily for you, a fashion course means my next post will still be about fashion!
Toodles,
xx