12 Days Of Christmas

Over the Christmas holidays we were set a project which was to tell a story of our christmas using 12 images or 12 fifteen second "instagram style" videos. The idea of using 12 different images that represented our Christmas came from the song "12 days of Christmas", I knew that most people would take an obvious approach to this title and invent different ways of recreating each day of the song through imagery, but I thought that doing something like this will come across as too contrived and obvious. I decided it would be a good idea to carry my camera around with me over the Christmas period and just capture things i found interesting. So this is what i did, and on day one i came across a house covered from top to bottom in christmas lights, the lights were extremely cheesy, contrived and  tacky. Although I initially set out to photograph non-cheesy elements of Christmas, I discovered that the fun and fantasy of Christmas  lies in the  bright lights  that celebrate it.

After discovering the brilliance of tacky christmas lights I decided to give my project a point of direction so that it wouldn't wander off pointlessly. I then started looking closely at lighting around this time of year, recognising that everything was lit up brightly and beautifully, whether it be tacky or not. The images grouped together above  show different aspects of lighting that coincide with the theme of Christmas; winters sun, fairy lights, candles, shop displays etc… I tried to vary up the way in which I captured the lighting e.g. shadows, blurred light, close ups etc.. I did this so that each image was completely different from the last, I thought this was an important concept to keep throughout my work, so that each image represented something completely different, capturing my Christmas  experience as realistically as possible .

Independent Styling Shoot

Over the christmas holidays me and my friend decided to produce another styling shoot together, the "inspiration travels from overseas from the masters of minimalism in design, Scandinavia". In this shoot the aim was to capture the innovative, distinctive and bold ready to wear shapes, whilst keeping a minimalistic touch. I decided that a neutral backdrop would work well for this shoot and I knew a renovated pub at the end of my road that would be perfect… The neutral grey tone of the pubs exterior was muted and soft which contrasted really well with the prominent, sharp visuals of the clothing. 

Another aim for this shoot was to promote the clothing and accessories worn by the model in a fun and inventive way, it was agreed that we needed a full body shot to really capture the essence of the outfit and close ups on the two major accessories; Vagabond shoes and Acne bag. A composition that couldn't of worked better even if we tried was the depiction of the Vagabond shoes with the colour coordinated cat perched perfectly next to her feet… This shot was a perfect way of portraying fashion in a unique and dynamic way, I am really pleased with the results and I have decided that I will try and incorporate more quirky responses (like the cat) without making the images look to contrived. 

Editorial Shoot Inspired by Fashion Galore At Somerset House and Dazed&Confused

Fashion Galore - Isabella Blow

"Photograph of Self portrait on napkin, by Isabella Blow"

Fashion Galore at Somerset house show cases the life and inspirations of the late Isabella Blow. From the discovery of major style icons Phillip Treacy and Alexander McQueen to the relics of an old family estate which greatly influenced the majority of her work. Blow had a "traditionally edwardian" childhood, with parents who were high society, glamorous and mysterious, yet the exhibition reveals that her upbringing was decidedly unglamorous. Though her family had money for generations, her gambling grandfather lost most of it. When Isabella’s father died, she and her sisters were left only £5000 each. Isabella inherited her grandfather’s careless ways, and spent far too much on things she could never afford: a “very Bond” silver BMW, the most expensive hotel rooms in the world, and, of course, clothes—an infinite variety of clothes, many of which, “no matter how expensive, would frequently end up on the floor, ripped and covered in stains.” After working menial jobs around London, she gained entry into the fashion world by interning for Anna Wintour at US Vogue.

"Photograph of shoes from exhibition, shoes by Frizon, Maud,"

The exhibition is retrospective, nonetheless Blow's fearless, eccentric, provocative, humorous and almost impossible to miss style shines through with vigour. Exhibited, are selected garments from her very own wardrobe as well as memoirs disguised as jigsaws, piecing every aspect of her life together. Here show's an odd pair of Maud Frizon shoes worn by Blow, as she was soon promoted to stylist at VOGUE, working on fashion shoots by day and partying at night, she was spotted by Andy Warhol at a gathering wearing this pair of mismatched shoes… And the rest is history !

Then, in 1992, Isabella's attention was caught by another young designer; Alexander McQueen. She bought his postgraduate collection for ₤5,000 (which was paid in weekly instalments of ₤100 and delivered in bin bags) and set McQueen up in the same London flat so she could nurture him, too. By this time, she was working at British Vogue where she championed other up-and-coming designers, like Julien Macdonald, Hussein Chalayan and John Galliano. She also helped launch the modelling careers of Honor Fraser, Stella Tennant and Sophie Dahl

"SS/08 Collection, La Dame Bleue Phillip Treacy for Alexander McQueen."

Blow married at Gloucester Cathedral in 1989, dressed in a velvet gown and a gold headdress designed by Philip Treacy… This is when she discovered the Irish milliners talents. She offered him his own flat in London to design hats and would personally advertise his designs wherever she went, rarely leaving the house without one of his masterpieces placed on her head. "I'm a walking billboard," she declared. "That's my pleasure." Later in 1992, Isabella’s attention was drawn to another young designer; Alexander McQueen. She set McQueen up in the same London flat after purchasing his postgraduate collection for £5,000. - which she couldn’t actually afford, so she payed him in £100 instalments every week - And soon enough she was the middle man of his sale to Gucci, creating his own label there.

Taking inspiration from the exhibition we were asked to create and shoot a three page editorial using clothing which is currently available on the high street for a style magazine of our choice. The final editorial had to represent our chosen masthead as much as possible, we had to consider everything from type face to layout and imagery to fashion. I started by taking inspiration from the Fashion Galore exhibition and creating some mood boards based on the work produced by blow that I was most fascinated by. At first I felt slightly daunted by the brief, because Blow is such a fashion legend with a completely unique style, but as i started to combine my initial inspiration with a renowned magazine masthead, ideas started to piece together naturally.

The Collage of images above [from left to right] show photo shoots produced by Blow and editorial photo shoots I found in the magazine Dazed&Confused. The shoot "London Babes" styled and produced by Isabella, with models Honor Fraser, Bella Freud, Plum Sykes, and Stella Tennant evokes a sense of sassiness. The realness and casual nature of the photo shoot make the images personal and easier as an audience to relate to, the images do not just "celebrate" the clothes trying to be promoted but the lifestyle that the clothes live by. I found some images in the magazine Dazed&Confused that also depicted a believable concept, the images seem unedited and genuine which i personally think is more effective than staged imagery.

This set of images show the eccentric side of Blow's exhibition that I wanted to include in my editorial, and the more achievable option to portraying this. I took great interest in all the headwear designed by Phillip Treacy that was exhibited, but not having any skill in making headwear or many interesting materials to work with in under a week, I decided to simplify and merge the designs into a more practical idea - HAIRSTYLES ! 
On the left I have created a concept board which demonstrates how I would like the hair and makeup to look in my editorial shoot… Bold, eccentric hair styles with subtle, understated makeup. The hair will relate strongly to Blows dreamy, unconventional style, whilst the makeup will stay natural and realistic in order to stay relevant to my audience.

In order to remain fashion conscious and be current and up to date I referred bak to the trustworthy fashion forecasting website, WGSN. Here I found next seasons trends: trapeze-shaped coats, sportswear, oversized boxy t-shirts etc… With all this information I felt ready to start collecting clothes and choose my models… 

Burberry Industry

We have currently started a new project called 'Industry.' The aim of the project is to examine connections between our own work and that of other related practitioners. The supposed outcome of the project is to produce work that is relevant to our chosen practice that can be used in our portfolios, and to encourage research and understanding of the industry that we wish to work, in my case i will focus on the promotion side of things.


 We were put into groups of 8 depending of what position and what designer label we decided to work with and initially were asked to interpret some given quotes and use them as a starting point for the creation of a design/promotion concept. We were asked to imagine that the whole design and promotion team of our brand had fallen horribly ill weeks before a massive fashion show, and we were being held responsible to promote and design the new AW14 collection.

                      "There are massive gaps in this essay

                                 It is broken and rewound 

                               Not always knowing and yet searching 

                        Respond 

                       Exchange 

                   Converse

                                           Be a traveler in this novel even if only for a while"

My team is working for Burberry and comprises of 4 fashion promotion students and 4 fashion and textile students which i feel is an equal balance to work with. We started by interpreting the quote and depicting meanings and messages from it that could be linked to our show, and here is what we came up with…

 "Author's own,Group MindMap"

When brainstorming as a group:

- we came up with the concepts of travel, protection and decay, barring in mind that Burberry is a slick, swerve and prestige brand. We decided as a group that it would be appropriate to demonstrate the theme of decay through the promotional aspect of things to maintain Burberry's signature look.  

With further research and delving deeper into historical reference and themes, we discovered new concepts that would improve our original ones, keeping a continual theme throughout that tells a story. 

We discovered that in 1911 Burberry became the outfitters for Roald Amundsen, the first man to reach the South Pole, and Ernest Shackleton, who led a 1914 expedition to cross Antarctica. A Burberry gabardine jacket was worn by George Mallory on his ill-fated attempt on Mount Everest in 1924. 

In 1914, Burberry was commissioned by the War Office  to adapt its officer's coat to suit the conditions of contemporary warfare, resulting in the “trench coat”. After the war, the trench coat became popular with civilians. 

Based on the theme of travel we also discovered that in the 1940's Women would make garments out of silk maps that were used in WW2, this discovery was perfect for our design team because now they had an inspiration for a pattern that they could incorporate into our travel collection designs. 

Once we have discovered several really inspiring starting points we thought that it would be a good idea to start creating moos boards and concept boards to help inspire our design and promotional ideas. 

Our boards incorporate images that relate historically to Burberry but they also incorporate the idea of travel through maps and passport stamps.The aspect of time and decay are demonstrated through the images that we have used showing cracked paint, rusty clocks, the original 1800 London Burberry Store etc…

 "Author's own, Independent concept board"

The colours that often appeared with decay were creams, whites, blacks and rusty oranges or reds, this inspired our leading design work colour schemes…

Photoshoot

 "Author's own, Burberry themed photo shoot"

Here is the photo shoot that i produced in conjunction with my other Burberry related work. The images show the model [Joe] posing in Burberry style clothing, i styled the images making sure they still had Burberry's prorsum values e.g. slick, stylish and traditionally British… I chose this model because i think his look is iconicity British, and with the decayed, abandoned location  it contrasted flawlessly with the pristine look. I chose a verity of outfits for the model to try on based on what our design team had produced as well as keeping it typically Burberry. The design team were designing for the A/W14 collection so shirts, polo necks and scarves were incorporated in to the designs as well as the iconic Burberry trench, i experimented with the way the outfits were styled, combining blazers and polo necks to shirts and scarves.  I am extremely happy with the shots that are composed against the door with the dark red and white paint peeling off, i think the lighting if perfect, reflecting the red onto the subject making him appear glowing and fresh faced, exactly what i was looking for , for this shoot. I am also fond of the  slight appearance of the burberry check , which also works perfectly with the red door and the tiny fragment of red in the pattern. 

The four images above are ones that i was most happy with, I like the way that the model is moving but also the way I have managed to capture the movement without blurring the garments. It adds character to the images and catches an essence of reality which i think is good when promoting clothing because it allows real people to see the clothing in action and to visualise it from a realistic perspective.

Promotion-Burberry

Personal Promotional Work:

An idea i came up with to promote the fashion show was to hold an event at all the prestigious department stores in all the major fashion cities such as Paris, Milan, London, NewYork & Japan… The event would be open to the public but published on fashion blogs in advance for fashion students/bloggers to attend. The event will consist of people being able to design there own postcard using a range of pre-designed stamps based on the Burberry AW14 collection. It is a free event allowing people from any background to participate, we purposely made an event that created no language barriers so every could have involvement and we would receive as much publicity and promotion as possible. The postcard would have some details of the BurberryAW'14 fashion show and can be sent to any one any where free of charge on behalf of Burberry, following in many fashion blog posts (promoting the event more). Here are some of the stamps that i designed for the event:

 "Author's own, Stamp designs"

 "Author's own, Coin elongating designs"

At the event people will also be able to donate to Burberry's ongoing charity The Burberry Foundation, it was established in 2008, and is an organisation dedicated to helping young creatives with little financial stability follow their dreams and fulfil potential through the power of their creativity. The Foundation works to help young people gain confidence, build connections in their communities, and grasp opportunities to succeed. Donations will be taken through the process of an coin elongating machine, people will be asked to make a donation to the fund and in return they will get a unique engraved coin with a Burberry design imprinted into it, that will entitle people to receive a free drink at the fashion show. I have also designed some prints that can be embossed onto the coins [see above]

 "Author's own, Ticket/Wristband in action"

As a team we decided it was a good idea to involve fashion students and bloggers, so, at the event we chose to put a maximum of 70 tickets on sale for £30 for anyone to purchase. As well as this we decided to send VIP invitations to celebrities [see below] and to major press companies, this ensures full promotional benefits:

 "Author's own, VIP chatterbox invite in action"

Working with Sophie [a girl in my group] we came up with a list of people that we would like to have on our front row, we decided to identify people who had some connection with the brand and people who were hot in the news at this current time. To help us select people as possible front row candidates we researched people who had previously been on the front row of Burberry Fashion shows…

 "Author's own, images of front row guest taken from google images"

For women we have:

Kate Moss: The british featured model who modelled for Burberry's Spring/Summer 2007 Campaign. 

Rita Ora: Voted best dressed 2013 and is close friends with the current face of Burberry Cara Delevingne 

Victoria Beckham: Owns her own fashion label and the Burberry Spring/Summer 2013 Campaign features 10-year-old Romeo Beckham, who is Victoria’s son.

Sienna Miller: The new face for the 2013 Burberry campaign, is also one of the best dressed celebs of 2013.

Emma Watson: Featured in the Burberry Spring/Summer 2010 Campaign, and is also voted one of the best dressed celebs.

Alexa Chung: Editor of Vogue magazine, previously invited to Burberry shows as researched

For men we have: 

Justin Timberlake: Often seen wearing Burberry and voted one of the best dressed male celebs of 2013.

George Craig: Featured in the Burberry Spring/Summer 2010 Campaign was also involved in the Burberry eyewear campaign in 2012. 

Tinie Tempah: Voted one of the best dressed males of 2013, appears front row at a number of Burberry Shows, performed in a Burberry coat at the opening ceremony of the Olympic games.

Eddie Redmayne: Featuring british actor who models in the Burberry Spring/Summer 2012 Campaign

I have also recently started up a locations blog that i can refer back to whenever i have a project similar to this, you can click here to view some of the locations i thought would be useful for this editorial shoot. I was looking for fairly plain [white], yet run down, stripped back, abandoned and decayed backdrops to present a pristine looking model with swerve looking clothes against creating a strong contrast.  

 "Author's own, Stage design"

                                                                                                                      CatWalk Ideas: 

Catwalk View 1 -

Print made by design team is used 

as a projection on the 

backdrop of the catwalk

Catwalk View 2 -  

Catwalk is made from 

white floor boards.

Catwalk View 3 - 

We will have a rotating

 slide show on the 

neighbouring projection

 boards from our 

photoshoot

Catwalk View 4 - 

Petals designed by 

Sophie will fall at 

the finale of the show. 

 "Author's own, Promotional photo booth idea"

Another idea i came up with was to have a Photo Booth at the event where a white board will be held up in each photo with the tag #BurberryBooth on,
anyone can take a photo of them selves but they are required to @ their twitter names with a white board marker. The aim of this medium was to promote the brand and fashion show even further by encouraging as many people [celebrities] to link the photos to their world-wide-accessed twitter accounts. The photos can be reflective of the brand or simply just fun, energetic and reflective of personalities  anything that encourages an interest in the new collection...

I also designed a gift bag that every guest will receive at the end of the show. The range of items that are included in the gift bag are promotional Burberry sweets, perfume from the new travel collection - Voyage - Burberry hand cream, and a memory stick with the travel print on it, the picture below shows these items along with one of the stamps from the event and a swing tag that will be attached to all garments…  

 "Author's own, Promotional package"