Happy New Year to all, my blog has been pretty quiet over the last couple of months, busy working hard. Work at the moment is including Dashing Tweeds, and weaving for Holly Fulton for her exciting new chunky cloth collection, can't wait to see it at London Fashion week. I will post photos up soon, as think they are all very exclusive at the moment. Also been visiting Savile Row to meet all the tailors there. Have been helping out with photo shoots, and out sourcing all the Dashing Tweed cloth around the world, and helping with designs for their new jacquard and hand woven cloth coming out soon!

Impactt has been busy as ever, helping the world of ethical labour standards, and its great to see all the great work the team is doing all over the world.

Banke Kuku's scarf collection going well. The scarves should be arriving any day soon from India, so fingers crossed for the great launch for London Fashion Week as well. Photos again to follow soon, but don't want to ruin the un-veiling before all the press is out, and the look book is complete!! Will post the photos as soon as i have them!!

Take it easy and will be in touch soon!

QUILTS QUILTS QUILTS ...

The quilt exhibition at the V&A is a definate must go and see. When you say quilt you think your nans old blankets, but what was on show was a collection from the ages of all different types of quilts. The work and intricate stitch work that went into all pieces was beautiful!! and the progression into the modern day pieces was a great contrast between the ages. It made me want to start stiching all my clothes after I saw the show, and makes me appreciate all the quilts and stitch work i see out and about now!! so many more design ideas can be taken from the show and think that will inspire more designers all over the world!! Go see it you wont be disappointed!! xx

New ideas ....

Well all has been going a little crazy over the last couple of months ... with the exciting ideas of starting a new company with fellow Chelsea graduate Banke Kuku. After helping with the set up and weaving of her first scarf collection. We decided with the demand and sure beautifulness of the pieces that we made, we thought we could make something really big with these ideas.
Obviously I would love to bring as much sustainable ideas into this business venture. So we would love to get get our pieces hand woven out in India all fair trade of course!!!
so am in the process of researching where to get things made etc, but there are so many great organisations helping people that we would love to be involved with!!
So next steps are designing, market research and finding funding and where to get the pieces made, so i will be posting up as i go along, and share with you some of the great gems of the weaving world I find!!!
watch this space!!

Wow just found these eco products and thought the colours were so great and structures so bold, they really inspire me to research more into functional and simple contemporary design!!

Fashioning an ethical industry events ...

2nd - 3rd of March held the F.E.I. Fast Forward conference at the Rich Mix in London.

It was a great conference, hearing from lots of different and inspiring people from all different areas of sustainable and ethical fashion. Its amazing to know how many people are so passionate about making the garment industry better, thinking and taking into account all aspects and how we can make the production etc better for the people involved.

The 2nd day of the conference was an open discussion  which was great to talk to strangers from different background brought together to discuss different areas of work they are in. I joining in with a chat about education which was really interesting, hearing all about how tutors can influence their students into thinking where and how their clothing is made. which is the first steps in them using their skills and fashion knowledge to inform their friends and determine their decisions when they are working in the industry later on. 

However I did perk up and talk about what students should do when they leave. I understand it is not their responsibility to put us into employment, but a little help would be nice, or steering us in the right direction and teaching us skills that will be useful in the industry we would like to get into.

Though I think that its amazing that tutors are taking on the responsibility towards sustainable design at the moment. and look forward to more conference like that as it just gets my brain ticking with more that I could be doing!!!

The Runway Showroom

Also working in the runway showroom now, this is based up in Camden. A great showroom showcasing new designers within men’s and womens wear. Great to see the diversity of what is being produced at the moment, where they get it produced, and how much things cost when your making this in smaller runs etc. Going from internship to paid work has kept me afloat, but great to learn the ropes and then get on with my own things when I can. Also its teaching me so much about how I should go about starting my own work, and learning from other peoples mistakes and best selling points. So have been researching new designers, buyers and learning how to run a shop at the same time, again all great experience and improving my skills within even more areas of the industry.

So that’s me for the mean time, all that I have been doing and will be better at keeping my blog up to date with my designs what’s coming up and more that I learn etc, with more photos, galleries I visit or more comments about talks I go to?

Work Placements

Other placements have included learning more about the interior woven textiles industry and helping Salt UK. I was called in to give an extra pair of hands as the owner of Salt UK was going to America and needed all the samples and portfolios ready, so that was where I came in. Was great to see the array of fabrics again they have developed over the last 10 years or so. Also learning how they do their finishing, what they use, and learning about how long this all takes. They jumping into more of the fashion and accessories industry I helped Margo Selby out in the production studio. This was a great set up, the shop on the ground floor and the production going on in the basement. I was helping with trimmings, pattern cutting, packing up boxes for orders etc. Again a great chance to see how a different company works, and how they do things. Also interesting to see and meet ore people in the same boat as me, all doing placements to learn more and fill up their C.V’s, but also a little bit sad as the majority of people working their were actually on placements, so all either not being paid or just the travel expenses, and this is how companies are running their production. I understand we are in a recession and that companies do not have the budget but the thoughts always go through our minds that … yes we are learning so much… but how can we keep doing this for so long and not be paid for it. I know we talk about the developing worlds and all the work done to help poverty and increase their minimum wages and work ethics etc, and I know this is in another league, but when you asking so many people to work for free to make your products you have to ask the question ……..