London Fashion Week - Sophia Webster

During London fashion week I had the pleasure of working for shoe designer Sophia Webster, I interned for a short while helping with the production of her show. When we arrived at the location for the show it was a very minimal stripped back church like building, and I was unsure of how they could transform it into something more "sophia-esque". When i arrived on the day of the show I was amazed at how quickly and efficiently the space was created. The workshop run by Rhea Thierstein introduced me to work of set designer Shona Heath. Shona was working on the Sophia Webster show, and I had the pleasure of watching her create amazing props, sets and costumes out of ordinary objects. She utilises her imagination and a huge range of recourses to create these designs. Although the concept for my shoot is very stripped back and minimal, this has inspired me to experiment in future with props and set design

Set Design & Makeup

This week I decided to test out some make up looks that I could use in my shoot. I tried them out myself to get a rough idea of what I think will work well, but for the real shoot  I have found a make up artist through the university that will assist me on the day. I started off by testing some simple tribal like markings across and around the eyes. I also realised that this style of make up was easy to colour correct in photoshop, so with the simple use of one colour I could edit each style to my preference in postproduction. The initial idea of tribal marks came from a recent issue of ID magazine,  and I thought that with the theme being based upon body adornment this would work well. What I later discovered once I had styled the clothing, was that the use of tribal markings for makeup appeared a bit cliche for the theme of diversity. Following this discovery I decided to simplify the idea of tribal markings, with the use of brightly coloured eyeshadow, I softened the look by suggesting tribal marks. I also experimented with the idea of soft paint, painted across the eye area. The paint accentuated the idea of the marks,  making the appearance of the make up more obvious and bolder which I think relates to my idea more. A worry that I had is, if the make up too colourful and bright it could draw the attention away from the garment, so above on my computer based make up faces I have suggested the use of white paint across the eyes. This idea will also brighten eyes.  The last experiment with make up was the combination of eyeshadow and lines, I would like to test a variety of combinations with this idea before I decide to use it or not to use it.

Following producing some make up ideas we had an amazing workshop with set designer Reah Theirstein. She showed us multiple ways of creating amazing sets on small budgets, and loads of ideas for creating unique backdrops. This workshop helped me greatly because I was planning on only using a white studio background to accentuate the idea of the garments. After the workshop I thought of loads of other ways I can do this by using more interesting sets. During the workshop we were asked to create our own sets, I experimented with the use of projecting imagery onto a subject. For the materials we had at the time I thought this was a great idea and will definitely help me to produce future concepts in set design. But when I came home I decided to create suggestions of set design in photoshop. Bellow, shows my illustrations and suggestions of set design, there are a variety of different ways in which I can create a set on a budget and the ideas I have demonstrated consist of simple materials such as: reflective paper, acetate or plastic, post production and simple use of materials. I will further experiment with these ideas to decide what one works best.

Isamaya Ffrench is a makeup artist who is currently the beauty editor of i-D Magazine. She is well known for her super-saturated palettes which rebel against fashion’s bored, minimalistic habits. “For her, make-up is paint, and skin a canvas.” I got inspiration from her work while I was looking through the "beautiful issue winter 2014" in ID magazine. The images were very linear,  depicting bright bold lines around the face, accentuating features such as cheekbones eyebrow bone and lips. I was interested in her style as it seems quite simple and it relates closely to my idea of tribal marks. As I began to research her work, I discovered that as well as using sharp linear markings, she has a tendency to create soft, chalky markings. Above I have attempted to portray her style using some of my own ideas. I intend to use a real makeup artist for the final images, these where just some experiments.

Prompt 6 - Final Images - 1205

Skip My ProgrammePROMPT 6:

Prompt 6:

As a group, look through the group work you have created so far and prepare three potential sets of 5/6 images for critique in next week's session. The same image/s can be used more than once, and the sets can combine images from different prompts.

The images below are what we chose as a group that we thought could work well together as a final set. We took these images to the peer critique and later decided which ones we were going to use for the final 6.

What was mentioned in the critique:

• The images should not be restrained to squares (although this display was simply presented for our blog)
• The images without a face work better with the designer
• The monochromatic tint on all the images work really well
• Some images work better with different sets of images

We went away after the critique and thought about what our peers and tutors had commented and used these point to improve. It was quite hard for our group to decide which images to choose ,as it was made clear in the critique most of our imagery was strong. 

Prompt 4 - Set Design - 1205

Set design includes all the scenery, furniture, backdrop and props an audience see. A set designer's job is to design physical surroundings that gives the audience information about the brands concept.

• suggest the style and tone of the brand
• create mood and atmosphere
• give clues as to the specific time and place of the action

Ive decided to contrast to the previous style of work i have recently looked at. Looking into the set design of brand "House of Hackney" House Of Hackney is a clothing and interiors label specialising in British made goods with a store on Shoreditch high street, based in the East London shopping district of Central London. It plays on traditional English design and the products, with the exception of the Italian bed linens, are made in Britain. House of Hackney is a print-based lifestyle brand and each season the brand emulates a specific print throughout the store.

Set Designer Suzanne Beirne has designed amazing sets for House of Hackney editorial shoots. They are fun and exciting and i think they represent the brand really well. She has also created Window displays one i like in particular was the one inspired by the great British seaside. 

"How did you bring it to life?"

"I was really inspired by the beach scene in the film Death in Venice and so tried to create a story around the products, a feeling that our girl was having a great time on the beach and had just left her deck chair to go for a dip in the sea. Although as much as this product looks great on the beach, it would work just as well in a garden. I set about making the props that would help set the scene, like covering a rubber ring in the Palmeral fabric, as well as some retro sunglasses and a bucket and spade, then I created a House of Hackney green cocktail complete with Palmeral umbrella and collated product like the note books, wash bags and ice cream. Once I had everything I set it all up to look like the Hackney girl had been enjoying the sunshine, writing notes, drinking and generally chilling on her lounger, I wanted it to look luxurious, chic and decadent, everything that the brand stands for. The scene was completed with the sand on the floor and the giant Cacti."

Prompt 4: 

As a group, Explore set design and bring in a number of LARGE scale materials that can be used for creating sets. 

Together finalise/manipulate/add/transform your set design images. You may develop your images anyway you choose, but consider how to enhance the aesthetic of your designer by working with the form, colour and texture you created. The images can also incorporate additional drawing, collage, digital manipulation in any way you as a group choose.