The Digital Age

I've been doing a lot of work in the past few weeks to develop my textile print that will be used in my collection. Ive decided to go with digital printing because of the almost endless possibilities with print and colours it allows. With my ideas of painting and brush stroke textures, its a great way to create an individual print which lifts your collection and make it something unique that can stand out from the rest. Not being a textile specialist I'm glad that UTS puts such a strong emphasis on creating prints and has the expertise and equipment to help us do this.

I found this article in the Courier Mail from Fashion Week which talks about the rise in digital printing seen at this years RAFW.

Unfortunately it comes at quite a cost here in Sydney, but we've been lucky enough to have found a supplier in India who does it at a fraction of the cost, which has made the price seem a little more bearable. Looking forward to posting my prints once I have them all finished so stay tuned!

Zimmerman

Lisa Ho

Dion Lee

Josh Goot

Images from Harper's Bazaar

Eye Spy

Last night I went to a great event put on by a friend of mine called Eye Spy. It was an event designed to showcase up and coming artists in the areas of music, film, design and art, where they could display their work without limitations and at the same time broaden their networks. All money raised was to go to Autism Awareness, which made it even better! There was a real mix of work displayed, from sculpture, to paintings and photography and even video art. I think its important to support these kinds of events to help up and comers as much as we can, after all I'll be wanting that same chance when I graduate.

Band - J.U.N.K

Photographer - Jessi White

Illustrator - Kirbee Lawler

Illustrator - Alana Elliot (this one was one of my favourites)

Fabric Shopping.

Just a little update: I just went fabric shopping for my collection... and it was soo much fun! Normally I find it all a bit to much, finding the right colours and the right weights and everything, but for the first time I went to wholesalers other than Greenfields and I came back with so many samples I just don't know what to do with myself.

Super fine jerseys and slinky modals, stiff matte linen and paper touch voiles, sheer cotton guaze and I could go on... The best part is because I'm getting my fabric dyed I didn't have to worry about finding all the right colours, which makes everything so much easier!

And with names like Turkish Delight and Elyeeses its hard not to get inspired to design!

Pretty as a Picture

I've started to develop my own textile prints for my collection and have been digging around to find as much inspiration as I can to inform the prints. I'm trying to create a textured paintely print that will be trasferred digitally. I have been experimenting with dry painting on fabric and layering up paint on fabric. In the latest Bloom Trend Magazine, there were different painted prints on fabric that looked amazing. I love the way you can see the brush strokes in the paint and the way its layered up to create a very textural look.

Images from Bloom Magazine

Backstage

Loved getting a look at the backstage area of a catwalk show, and seeing some of the amazing and crazy make-up that is used in the shows. Looking forward to being able to choose make up for the graduation parade!

Frock Stars - The Front Row

The second section of the Frock Stars gave you an idea of whats its like to sit front row at fashion week.

There were little cushions with names of the most influential people in Australian fashion who make up the front row at most shows!

They had a little glass case with a sketch book that belonged to an influential fashion writer, who said she tried to do quick sketches of everything she likes that comes down the runway so she can remember it all when its over!

Frock Stars - Part One

I finally found some time to go and check out the Frock Stars exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum and I have to say it was great! Lots of fun interactive elements and heaps to look at to give you a behind scenes look at Australian Fashion Week. The exhibition was broken up into 5 main sections, each showcasing a different element to the week. I will blog about each section in different posts because there was so much in each one!

The first section of the exhibition was a catwalk which showcased one outfit from each of the 15 years fashion week has been running. It was pretty crazy to see the kinds of things that were going the catwalk 10 years ago.

see below - this swimsuit was from Zimmerman's first show in 1996... cant believe this was ever in fashion but I guess it shows how quickly things come and go in trends. Hope this look NEVER comes back in..

The best look was from just last year - Romance Was Born Iced Vovo Dress. They are so unique and crazy and a good sign of the way Australian fashion has developed in the last 15 years.

There was a case full of invitations from different designers. They were so much fun, I would love to be able to design invites to my own show... even more so I'd love to get one of these invites myself!