Persil Fashion Awards 2013

This competion which is for  design students  specifically is the Persil Fashion awards  supported by Dunnes stores. This year the brief for the competition was to embrace and celebrate their Irish heritage to tie in with “The Gathering “ 2013 and the only restriction is it must be machine washable and made for ladies to wear in the Irish summer 2013, the winner of the competition would have their design made up by Dunnes Stores and sold in various outlets through out the country. Launching any students career to great hights  and also there was a €10,000 prize fund

Large picture on the Left the retail version on
the right Sinead's entry with the  layers of cotton
organdie   

This years winner was Sinead Onora Kennedy, her design was called ' music in the Glen ' it was an elegant black cape style over lay, structured like the body of a violin made up of  layers of cotton organdie  reprsenting the musical part of her title and the dress underneath was a simple black and white stripe which mirrored the lines on a musical stave  with the eye catching feature at the back, a pleat style fan, the main dress body with the pleat is the part Dunnes will be selling, make sure to get your hands on this as it is limited edition


Quote from the Irish Independent Sinead wasn’t at all upset with their decision saying, ”I’m thrilled to have been chosen and I’m delighted with the final dress, I’m just over the moon. I thought that might happen, that they might just go for the striped dress because it was definitely more commercial.”

Here is some more of Sinead's amazing work http://cargocollective.com/sineadonorakennedy

Design competitions

Around Ireland there are many different competitions for young and aspiring designers, one of these is

 “Junk Kouture “ ( http://www.junkkouture.com/ ), the 

competition for is for 2nd level students to  create a  high end 

fashionable piece of clothing out of recycled materials, it must be 

wearable, different and and completely recycled. 

You then send in a picture of your 

outfit to Junk Korture. 80 students from each provence are 

choosen if picked, you perform for 90  seconds stage with your 

outfit. The musters regional final took place in limerick you must

 also get votes from people through the competiton website. Then 

on the night of the regional final 20 outfits receive a golden ticket 

to the final. The final took place in the Board Gas energy theatre.

 you can use anything you like be it wood, paper cardboard An

 entrant from Cork Amy Ryan created a piece called EXTINCT. 

Amy got through to the final in Dublin.

The Man bag or the satchel the great debate

man with a "man bag " 

For many years the satchel was a "man's accessory " for lack of a better word for the post boys in the 1900's on their bikes and the men out hunting but all of a sudden this age old tradition was uprooted and any man seen with a bag that wasn't on two straps on his back had a “man bag” a male version of a handbag, this is crazy, the man bag is a little bag that looks like a women's handbag but has been deemed to be OK for men to have. To be a satchel they should have a flap that comes over the top unlike man bag that closes normally like a handbag with a zip occasionally a man bag will have a flap but it is distinctly  different as it is usually a small box shape . People don't say Indiana Jones is going round with a man bag. I have a leather satchel which was a present from a friend, it is nothing like a hand bag.  I don't leave the house with out it but it has a few necessary items, these include

• 

  a leather style satchel 

  personal note book
• day planner
• E-reader
• painkillers
• pens
• chocolates or sweets
• wallet
• work ID tag
• chopsticks
  
  
  
  

For some reason I don't think you could fit all that into a handbag also for a year in TY I used it for my school books. The satchel is a practical and smart looking bag :D 

Salingers Cork

Salingers French Church street, Cork city

GIUDICE CONFEZIONI - Blue single
 breasted 2b peak lapel blazer.

 Salingers is a bespoke mens tailors and mens clothes shop. The old world feel to the shop with its little coffee table and arm chairs makes you feel as if you've been taken back in time. The various attributes of mens sports, fishing and hunting adorn the walls. this shop has a welcoming feeling not as sterile as the modern day, run of the mill shop

The shop was opened in 2011 by French/ Italian Christofer Kaprelian and Candian Mike Gibson, Both of whom have had years of experiences working in the fashion industry working in  Brown Thomas Cork. I talked to one of the Owners Christofer who said
 "the style of clothes we have is sharp and clean cut",
 This giving modern men well fitted, tailored suits, and smart casual wear. On the first floor of the shop they have their casual wear, from brands such as Wrangler, Farah Vintage and Paul Taylor

Upstairs they have their suit department, with various types of suit jackets, pants, ties and bow ties. from designers such as Giudice Confezioni and Xacus. In the shop they also offer a "made to measure service " creating bespoke suits for the discerning customer, they also carry out alterations.

SCOTCH & SODA rust velvet blazer, heavy cotton
 blue b.down shirt and knitted wool and silk bow tie

At the moment the shop is on a big move to their new premises 3 doors down, above Amity so to help clear the remaining stock they have an AMAZING 50% -70% off various brands, call in for more information, As I finished my chat with Christofer I asked him where the name for the shop had come from he told me " it came from J.D Salinger author of "catcher in the  Rye" " a book both he and Mike had always liked, Hopefully I'll check back with the guys after their big move, anyone looking for well made pieces for a special event go to Salingers

Corks Fashion Designer Scene

Cork is thriving with creative fashion designers, This is just a little expose into the piece I'll be looking at various designers, but just to name a few all whom I have or will be working with Alice Halliday, Charlotte and Jane, Angela Beaumont and Samantha Kennedy.

With each designer as well they are all so different none of them with the same designs, it creates such diversity, well I hope you all look forward to those posts heres a pic of some work from the very talented Alice Halliday part of her graduation collection, You really need to see this piece up close to appreciate the delicate jewel and embroidery work

A little bit on the side

Hi again, some of you who know me personally will know I was in hospital today for an extraction procedure i was getting 4 wisdom teeth out in the end they took out 5 different teeth but I know it sounds small but this is all prep work like tracing out your pattern for an operation I'll be having in two year, it is called a bimaxillary osteotomy, so they'll break and reset both of my jaws. 

Many of you who read various fashion blogs might know Leanne Woodfull who also had something similar done  so like her I'll have a few updates as we go along :D must sleep now, doctors said I need to rest 

Design intership

For my internship I spent 2 week working in the world of high fashion, which isn’t as fashionable as it may look. The world of fashion is not all Diors and Dolces for a new designer it can be very hard as I learnt from Angela, you can’t just turn out a run way collection every second week.

Angela recently set up her business and label and has a studio in the hear of cork city On the first day Angela and I discussed what we would cover over the two weeks. This included what type of clothes design I was looking to do men’s or women’s formal or casual, the kinds of things I wanted to learn and how best she could do that. We decided in the two weeks to carry out 2 projects a men’s wear and a womens wear. For the men’s wear we were making a denim waist coat and for the women’s we were making a skirt unfortunately we didn't get the women’s wear done as due to time restrictions.

Angela Beaumont graduated in June 2012 with a BA Honours Degree in Fashion Design for Industry from the renowned Heriot – Watt University in Galashiels, Scotland. Before this she completed a two year Fashion Design Course in the Cork College of Commerce. She has completed a variety of internships. The most notable was in 2010, working in Edinburgh for four months with the established menswear brand ‘WalkerSlater’. During this internship Angela collaborated with the co –owner on the design of the labels 1st womenswear collection. Angela also carried out multiple in store commissions for the brand. Angela also interned with Samantha Cole London in 2011, leading up to the presentation of her 2nd collection at Vaxhaull Fashion Scout at London Fashion Week

this is the process involved in bringing your garment form a 2D drawing to a a 3D piece 

firstly I started with the straight measurement, the book tells you the distance from one part to another but not the full lengths, you then had to make a master copy this would never be cut you trace the master copy and you have your pattern piece on paper.

Then you make a draft or toille as its called fit it to the model, me in this case and you resize it make sure to make the necessary adjustments to your master copy, you then make a new paper pattern and from this you cute your pieces so your lining and your outer fabric, the sew all the panels of each adding in darts etc, then sew the two sets wrong sides facing to each other leaving a gap to pull through the slip stitch that by hand

I had various tools a straight ruler, pencil, eraser and a curved ruler, the curved ruler is so important so you get a continuous curve 

 Front pattern piece                             master copy and curved ruler

 pattern pieces laid out on callico a cheap drafting fabric, back pattern piece  

 the back panels sew together with their darting, darting and pocket placement

               first draft calico                         lining fabric to fit inside the waist coat

self covered buttons I used Cadbury Rose's wrappers 

                  the denim for the out turned inside out cant remember why :P 

 the finished waistcoat not a great hopefully I'll have a better one soon 

Design

Cork ( where I live in Ireland ) is thriving with amazing designers. I have had the pleasure of working with some of them already, I have learnt so much and it has really spurred me on to pursuit my careers in design at the moment I am looking at various different colleges The NCAD, UCA rochester, St.Angelas sligo, but before all that I would really like to do some design work.

I will post some photos of things I've made and if you want explain them too. At the moment I'm working on a 1960s taffeta dress. I'mv going to lower the neck line to a V neck rather then round take up the bottom hem, take off the full length sleeves also I'm adding silver netting 

underneath and around the body and V neck ill have some cream embroidery

back of the dress 

front will be altered to V neck 

 

 silver pleated netting will go under the skirt which is being taken up to knee level  

Wearable Fashion

I am all for expression through what you wear or even what you design and make yourself if you are that crafty, but the crazy things you see on some catwalks most people wouldn't step out of the house in. I always say "fashion should be functional first and visual second " so if your going to paint a house you can put in a €100 t-shirt but the more functional thing is an old t-shirt you never wear. Don't get me wrong I love the creation that goes into a design like this the original inspiration, but you put so much time and effort into something that nobody can wear.

here's just a few examples 

A model displays a creation by a group of Kyrgyz designers 'NAH' during Fashion Week in 
Bishkek, on April 4 2012. 

A creation by Dutch designer Iris Van Herpen Spring/Summer 2012 Haute Couture (Paris)

Twenty-eight-year-old  started her own label in 2007, and her dresses have been seen on


Björk, Lady Gaga, and Daphne Guinness.

Here is very wearable fashions form the Valentino designers Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli who turned out a graceful collection of demure frocks that brought to mind the ladies of "Downton."

Something can be very easy to do for simple things is make your own, DIY Fashion, easy pattern print or copy it out pin or tack to fabric cut and sew up saving you a lot of money and also giving you the satisfaction of a task well done and no one else will have it :P


Here's a pattern i made grease proof paper, its for a bow tie you need so little fabric too so instead of paying €15/20/25 buy some remnant silk or fine cotton, interfacing and a 3 pce bow tie hook set and your done all for about €5 :D I've already made 3 just keep using the same pattern

Over the years I've been to many different catwalk shows, events, festival launches and more, recently I was at Xposé live it was a great show unfortunately all the photos I took were on film so I'll have to wait to get them developed but the main theme for the first part of the show was THE GREAT GATSBY. It's no secret, that The Great Gatsby movie made everyone crazy about 1920's American classic clothing style. Baz Luhrmann’s visuals made me feel the glam of those days. Audiences will love costumes of the movie that were styled and designed by Luhrmann’s wife, Catherine Martin. All costumes feature lots of details, luxe accessories, lavish jewels. Jazz Age might be gone, but the history and style remains in today's fashion world

The 1920s were some of the best years for mens tailoring all right it had  become more liberal the the late 1800's but men's clothes showed where they were going what class they were from if it was black tie or watching cricket. here are some looks from the Brooks Brothers collaboration.

walking and boating brown suit with a straw boater hat 

 The Famed J. Gatsby pink suit 

here the simple white suit brought together by the two tone brogues
which were so big in the 20's  

Gone are the days of the full suits and top hats, together all these make a very formal out fit but singly they can be very modern, firstly choose a shirt that has a white collar but is coloured the rest of the way this matches the original but brings it up to date.



Also gone are the days of the boring plain black,brown white bow ties of the 20's, Bow ties can add a pop of colour to a fully white dress shirt or tie with the colours on your shirt

 this simple bow tie ------> 

Is a plain colour with a small amount of pattern but it really brings it to life. also the ones below are an assortment of colours suitable for all colour schemes and designs 

So as you see from the previous post, I love design and fashion,but I feel clothes aren't just something you put on to cover up ( or show as much as possible ) but every time you open that drawer or wardrobe you choose something specific for that day for a specific occasion be it sitting at home in fat mans or your designer dress for a birthday lunch.

I know what I wear varies enormously depending on where I'm going, so school, work, to see friends, to a launch, all these dictate how I'll dress. As well though you mightn't notice if your friends have an influence not that you want to dress like them but you might be really out spoken in what you wear they might think it weird your not the same so you conform to make life easier.

Guys even more so then girls, girls can get away with what they want but guys if they don't have the tracksuit and the hoddie and the low pants, its noticed more, I usually try to dress midway between casual and dressy, so jeans and runners with a short sleeved shirt so if i bump into any designers I know or work colleagues I look professional.

what I saw from the Wayside

More photos from Chat Noir 2013 

Truly spectacular designs from various designers throughout the day, the next fair will be summer 2013, I cant wait