MUI MUI project brief.

we were given our project brief today that we have been working on over summer. i wish they had given it to us earlier, because i felt a little lost over summer, and confused on where i was headed as we hadn't even been given the full brief. we were put into groups to work in and to come up with a collection together as a team, this is to prepare us for if we wish to work for a design team in the future. to be honest im not best pleased with the group ive been put in, but im sure it will improve my ability to work with people i would not normally. we have to put all of our summer work together to come up with a theme and label name that is a diffusion line for Mui Mui.  i need to make sure i action plan the whole way through the project, as i think this is what they are looking for and my increase my marks. i am a little worried that there is so much work to do in so little time though! no sleep for me for a while!

enterprise and innovation

we had our first enterprise lecture today, its a bit of a dragons den situation, me had to chose our own group to work in, and come up with an innovative business idea to propose to a panel, along with written work of how it is actually plausible. i actually really excited about this one, i think after i finish uni i want to start up my own label, so i hope this will help alot with that, as i have very little business knowledge. we have come up with a few initial ideas today for a business, we want there to be some sustainable issues addressed and for it to be a little bit different. we think that the branding of the buissiness is the most importat, so will work hard on perfecting it. 

these photos are from my work experience with Lena Santana, one is of her studio that she shares with Goldie, and the other is the competition piece we made from a yamamoto pattern for LFW.

massive catch up!!

So, its the first day back at uni today after a looooong summer. I'm so excited and ready to get stuck back into working, it gets quite boring when you don't have a project to do!

So, this summer i spent five weeks in London doing work experience for an independent fashion designer called Lena Santana. i had a really good time, i learnt lots about myself, and about the world of fashion. Whilst i was there, my job roles included; pattern cutting and grading, flat drawings, styling fashion shoots, cutting fabrics, making toils, and sewing together final garments to be sold online, and at an exhibition for London Fashion Week.

Even though i had a really good time working for Lena, if i were to do a work experience again, i think i would try to find a place at a company, not just an independent designer. I found that she hadn't made enough work for both of us to do when i was there, because she was used to working at a pace that was made for one person to handle, and because she is still in the set up stage of her label, it felt more like i was working for a third year student doing a collection, than an actual designer. This said, i still learnt so much, she taught me little tricks on the sewing machine, helped me with things i didn't really understand, and she did make me work!

One of the weeks i was there, we entered a competition for London Fashion Week, we were sent a pattern made by various designers and we had to interpret it our own way, make a garment and send in photos from a photo shoot. the winning eighteen entries are shown during London Fashion Week in Somerset house. Unfortunately we didn't get picked, but i had lots of fun making the garment! We chose one by yamamoto, and used African fabrics to build up layers along the back and the sleeves, this brought in parts of Lenas own style of working and became very personal.

It was also the first time i had lived away from Leeds, so i gained lots of experience on that front living in the big city! I made sure i went to all the gallery's, museums, and places to see as i could!!