Thursday 31 October 2013

Moodboard - The then and the now: REISS

This is my final mood board design:


For this project, I worked in a group of 6 and we were each assigned a brand to focus our individual mood boards on. My brand was REISS, and we had to create a digital print mood board using 10 images. I used Adobe Photoshop to create mine as I have been familiar with it for a long time! I created many different designs and layouts for my mood board until I was satisfied with my final design. I did primary and secondary research on REISS such as looking at their history ("The then") and how they have evolved as a brand, and also who/what they are inspired by which influences their designs. 

REISS are a very contemporary, design-led brand and I took this into consideration when designing my mood board. For example, in my final design everything is very vertical because I would say that their products are very "straight to the point" and they focus on simplicity. REISS have been inspired by architecture and historical buildings, such as forests and especially London as it was founded in London in 1971, which is why I have incorporated REISS' shop front within the text and also added a picture of the Big Ben and a forest. They are also specialise and focus on tailoring, which is inspired by old fashion British gentlemen and the tailored suits that they used to wear. However, REISS modernise this and make their garments look very contemporary; e.g. Using a tailored suit which a man typically wears on a woman (which is a modern look) but the location in an old London street.

REISS also focus on quality of their products, which explains the tan leather belt in my mood board. When I went into the store I saw quite a few tan leather tops and bags, so the belt connotes quality and strength. They do not have much celebrity endorsement or advertising as REISS are a very exclusive brand, however people such as Kate Middleton and Liz Hurley have been photographed wearing REISS clothing - which promotes itself and gives the brand a credible image.

Here are the various other designs I tried which I print screened from Photoshop:





Wednesday 23 October 2013

OUTFIT: TOP TO TOE TOPSHOP

We were asked to take a picture of ourselves in an everyday outfit which defines our style. I also used this photo in my style blog which I have just started (http://ania-style.blogspot.co.uk). I'd say my style is quite minimalistic and simple, I never wear anything too "extravagant" just because I don't think it suits me! I usually wear clothes that I feel comfortable in and shoes that I can actually walk in! However, I do usually love to wear clothes of different prints especially on the top and keep it quite simple on the bottom. I would also say I'm not much of a dress person, I hardly ever wear dresses for my casual style! Trousers, skirts and shorts suit me much better!



Tuesday 22 October 2013

Adobe Photoshop - Playing with effects

In our seminar today, we played around with effects on Photoshop so that we could use these skills for our mood board for our designated brand (mine is REISS, but I'll talk about that in another post!).

I chose an image, and altered the luminosity, hue and saturation, used the "half tone pattern" filter and replaced the colour of my image. Here is what I produced:

 
The bright, colourful image is the original and I chose the dusky blue colour from this which I wanted to use for all my duplicate images. 

Monday 21 October 2013

MY MANIFESTO

We were asked to produce a manifesto based on ourselves and our self-identity. Here is mine. (This took me about 2 hours to do on Photoshop haha, although I think it is really inspiring to look at!)


Tuesday 15 October 2013

The visual critic

So in our lecture today, I noted down quite a few quotes from designers which I thought were inspiring. 



"I think there is beauty in everything. What "normal" people would see as ugly, I can usually see something of beauty in it." - Alexander McQueen





"Fashions fade, but style is eternal" - YSL


"The only real elegance is in the mind - if you've got that, the rest really comes from it" 
- Diana Vreeland


To be a visual critic, people use their own voice and have their own opinion; such as being able to make a judgement of something. This can be based on ideas which are discussed and debated. A visual critic also records everything they see - in forms of a camera, sketchpads, notepads, etc. This shows that anybody can create style and has their own sense of style. It doesn't necessarily have to be "beautiful" to everyone's eye.


Thursday 10 October 2013

Diana Vreeland: The eye has to travel

In our lecture today, we watched a film about the legendary Harper's Bazaar and Vogue editor Diana Vreeland. I found this film extremely inspiring as it taught me that there are no limits in life, and I can be what ever I want to be if I work hard enough. 

Diana got offered a job with Harper's Bazaar because the editor admired what she was wearing at her dance show and noticed that she could do very well in the fashion world. She then started a column named "Why don't you?" and published unusual suggestions related to fashion and sometimes even not. An example of this is: "Why don't you...Turn your child into an Infanta for a fancy-dress party?" Diana made many things possible, such as making the bikini popular and writing about models having personality, such as photographing them with style and attitude which was not normal for magazines in the 40's/50's, when all they focused on was women making the best pie or how to look after your husband. 


Vreeland didn't only just put in fashion images, she also wrote about nature and music such as putting in an image and article of Mick Jagger merely because she liked the picture. Diana quotes "You can make personality into everything" - I definitely agree with this statement because for example she made anything bizarre look good. I quote: "it was hideous but marvelous". Diana also made simple women look so powerful and confident; She made it okay for women to be ambitious - something that not everyone was used to then. 


Diana looked into trends from the 20's, 30's and 40's when she became consultant of the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. She magnified these trends and exaggerated the fashion, which was what made her so different and great. I love the fact that she told stories with her costumes and manikins, I think it made her shows look ever more exciting and peculiar.






My favourite designer: Givenchy

For this task I constructed a mood board which represents Givenchy. I collected fabric swatches and other materials such as magazine cut outs, feathers, glitter etc (I got a bit too excited!) which I think connotes Givenchy. For example, I chose swatches such as rich red velvet and black mesh because these materials are essential for AW13 and I have noticed by watching their Fall '13 show that they have used a lot of velvet and mesh. The images which I have collected from magazines such as Vogue and Elle in my opinion "scream" Givenchy as the bold confident expressions of the models match that of their clothing and the mise-en-scéne of the brand's image.

The brand identity of Givenchy is certainly not boring, so I decided to use some irony in my mood board to give it personality, which again matches the brand. The magazine clipping I picked out says "boring, don't you get it?". I also used a picture of an old building on my mood board as a lot of Givenchy's designs are inspired by architecture; a lot of rich colours and unusual patterns are used. I found an image of Givenchy glasses in black and white and placed it over the model's glasses to show contrast and to also highlight the quirkiness of the brand. 

As the images I used are very detailed in colour and pattern, I didn't want to over crowd my mood board with images and materials, hence why I have left quite a lot of blank space. Less is more! I played around with the material until I was satisfied with the layout. These photos show some of the layouts I tried: 







Final layout

Tuesday 1 October 2013

First post / Pre-arrival

I have started this blog as a reflective journal for my Fashion Communication and Promotion course. I will be blogging about what I am learning in my lectures/seminars and also pictures/quotes and anything that inspires me along the way! 

For my Pre-Arrival task, I had to pick three digital, retail and printed examples of what inspires me or portrays/communicates fashion. I decided to bring in books, magazines and the Bill Cunningham DVD for the printed and digital, and I also took some pictures for the retail and digital. I brought in my "Style Diaries" book which is an inspiring book and promotes successful and new bloggers and their work. This helped me explore a range of different blogs and even more inspiration! The Bill Cunningham film especially inspired me as it gave me an insight on fashion outside of the catwalk and taught me that the streets are a more natural environment to capture fashion.