Alexander McQueen

I love Alexander Mcqueen's work, but before I saw these designs I had never really seen any of his menswear designs and I really like them. I found these looks on Alexander McQueen's website and I think it's a great postcard and topic to be 20th post for my LOC as it has got me thinking about my next project...tailored menswear. 

AlexanderMcQueen

Maison Martin Margiela

The Maison Martin Margiela exhibition was held at Somerset House in London. I unfortunately only had about 10 minutes to walk around the exhibition...well it was more like a fast walk/slow jog! What I did see however really intrigued me, and has to be one of the best fashion exhibitions I have ever been to. The pieces that stick with me the most were the trench coats and the garments that were made from accessories. One of the trench coats was actually made using two trench coats, and although there were extra arms in places it seemed to work! The other garments I mentioned were made entirely from gloves, or there was another one made entire from leather straps. I think its a really innovative and creative idea...making a garment out of something that isn't fabric. 

It really made me think... what do I use everyday that I could collect and use for a future garment?

Crinoline

Thought my LOC needed a little bit of cool fashion history. 

I have made a made a crinoline before and enjoyed every minute of it. I think everybody needs to know about fashion history and I especially love learning about the corset...as well as the crinoline. 

Mini

Went it comes to cars I don't think there is any vehicle cooler than the classic british mini!!!

Jayne Pierson

Jayne Pierson is a welsh fashion designer. I got the pleasure of doing an internship with Jayne during the summer and loved every minute of it. Jayne was lovely to work with and there must have been an un-written rule about not being stressed as the work room was always so calm. 

Her collection was based on the idea of the twin parallel. 

I went along to the shoot to assist and although it was only a small taster of what goes on in the fashion industry it made me realised that this is the industry I have to work in!!

www.jaynepierson.co.uk

COUTURE KNITWEAR

I have only very recently discovered the work of Tahir Sultan, but I am so glad that a friend of mine recommended her to me. Sultan's couture knitwear collection is beautiful. The S/S 2010 collection is equally beautiful...although it is not all knitwear. I will definitely be researching into her work a bit more as just these two collections have caught my interest immensely. 

Check out her work at: www.tahirsultan.com

Jason Mraz

To keep true to what I think is cool, I had to include a postcard showing my favourite music artist and my favourite song. 

As you can see... it is "I'm yours" by Jason Mraz. 

It is the song that no matter what mood I am I will automatically smile when I hear it playing. And the better the mood I am in, then the easier it is for me to be creative. 

Tailoring

Ok, so I am a MASSIVE fan of tailoring!

I thrive on the idea of being able to use maths with fashion. I would be so happy if in the future that was what I became known for...beautifully calculated tailored masterpieces! I love solving problems, and using calculations and it is a perfect combination when it comes to both design, and making. The making side of fashion is definitely the area I prefer as I love the challenge of being able to make something out of almost nothing. With tailoring its more about precision, and detail and everything else comes second. I would say that my biggest strength is also my biggest weakness and thats my desire for perfection. I hate it when something isn't perfect, and until something stands in my way to prevent any further progression, I will keep trying to reach that impossible standard. I am my own worst critic. 

I am just about to start a menswear tailoring project at university and to say I am excited about it is a massive understatement. I do love designing and making womenswear but there has always been something about menswear that has always caught my attention that tiny bit extra. There is so much that I want to learn when it comes to menswear but I don't think there would be enough time within my degree to even touch on hardly any of it which I think is a bit of a shame. 

So heres to the next few weeks, and I just hope that my love for menswear tailoring keeps growing throughout the project. 

The images included within this postcard were found using Google Images. 

Katy McGee

Katy McGee and I used to work in the same hotel. When I learnt that she was modelling it did not surprise me one bit!! She is such a beautiful person, both inside and out. Trying to choose just photographs to put into a postcard format was so difficult as I Love so many of the images from her shoots, so I thought it was best to just choose one. I find her work so inspirational, but most of all i love how she has kept to being such a lovely person and hasn't let it all go to her head. 

I would recommend to anybody to check out her facebook page!!

www.facebook.com/katymcgee

My beautiful new satchel

The past couple of months I have been obsessed with satchels, but couldn't find one that I was completely happy with...until I came across this one! And I love it! And of course I think it is very cool!!

Thomas Knights

I really enjoy looking at Thomas Knights' work. I think he must have updated his website as I was unable to find some of the photographs that initially caught my attention. 

I am happy to say that I have not only has the pleasure of meeting Thomas, but amazingly he recently agreed to photograph a university project of mine. He came across as such a down-to-earth guy and both his work and my memory of that day will no doubt stick on my mind for a very long time!

www.thomasknights.co.uk

Steve Ray

I met Steve Ray at a recent photo shoot whilst I was an assistant for Jayne Pierson. 

He is a very nice, cool guy. At the end of the day I asked for a business card so I could check out his photography work and it definitely caught my eye and interest. I can confidently say that he is one contact I am interested in staying in touch with. 

Unfortunately I can not remember his URL address for his photography work, but if you are interested in his images and would like to find out more then please feel free to leave a comment and I will contact him and ask for it. 

David Downton

In my opinion David Downton is the master of fashion illustrations!!!

I also really like the work of Gilles Rosier. 

David Downton        Gilles Rosier image taken from the book: Fashion Illustration By Fashion Designers

Hermes A/W 2010- What a beaut!!

Bowler hats, umbrellas, leather catsuits, menswear tailoring reworked for the feminine form, beautiful bags and accessories..what else would you want?

Jean Paul Gaultier sent a truly amazing collection down the runway for autumn/winter 2010 fashion week! His inspiration deriving from the sixties British TV series, The Avengers along with classic british icons (both real and fantasy), including the famous british spy 'James Bond'. 

I've never really had an urge to use leather before but Gaultier's collection makes me want to grab the scissors and skins and start designing/creating!!

www.style.com

See-thru Accessories

I found the image of the Chanel briefcase and was so intrigued by it that I felt like I had to research for other see-thru accessories to make a LOC postcard about them. 

Cool = yes

Practical = ...the rings and glasses...yes  ...the bag and briefcase...maybe not  ...not a fan of the shoes!

I found the image of the Chanel briefcase at: The Purse Blog

The rest of the accessories were found using google images. 

Art of the trench

All I can say is hats off to Burberry for coming up with such an innovative and creative way to advertise their garments. 

I can not wait for the day that I join thousands of others and finally have my very own Burberry trench. 

Burberry has been making the iconic trench coat for almost 100years...WOW!

This is definitely one very cool way to advertise!

www.artofthetrench.com

BURBERRY PRORSUM A/W 2010

When I saw this collection I instantly fell in love. Burberry has yet again sent an astonishingly beautiful collection down the catwalk.

Their mix of shearling aviator jackets, use of pony-skin, suede and fur looked so stunning that I would happily welcome winter weather. Not forgetting their elegant military coats detailed with gold buttons and zips that allowed you to slice off the bottom of the coat leaving a fitted and cropped version is just visionary!!

www.style.com

Gary Harvey Eco-Couture

Gary Harvey's eco-coutre collection had to go into my LOC!!

His collection has proved that recycled clothing can not only be beautiful, innovative and enchanting, but also COOL. The couture inspired collection, which was shown at London Fashion Week 2007, features garments made entirely from recycled materials. The gowns shown above were made using: 42 pairs of Levi's 501s, 18 trench coats, 21 laundry bags, 28 camouflage army jackets and 30 copies of the Financial Times. 

Gary Harvey Creative

I heart Paul Kenton

As soon as I started thinking about what/who could go into my LOC, I knew straight off there was no way that I could not include Paul Kenton.

I came across Paul Kenton's work about 4 years ago and instantly fell in love with it. One reason why I adore it so much is because I love his subject... New York!!... my favourite place in the entire world! Although he also does paintings of London, Venice and Paris which are equally amazing. I have used his work as inspiration many times in the past and no doubt I will use it in the future. 

The energy and enthusiasm he uses within his artwork is what inspires me the most!

Another artist that portrays a similar level of energy within his artwork is Jackson Pollock. Although his art doesn't necessarily have a subject in it, I still find the texture and movement behind it very inspiring. 

Diane von Furstenberg's 2010 RESORT collection is great example how art and fashion can combine. 

www.paulkenton.co.uk        www.jacksonpollock.com        www.style.com

Library Of Cool

My Library Of Cool ''LOC" journey began with trying to find a 'cool' way to present my findings. 

I normally work within a sketchbook but tend to put them to the back of the wardrobe after the project is over and don't tend to ever really look back at them, as I'm sure a lot of other people do. 

After visiting Pure in London, I came home with lots of random postcards showing snippets from the companies collections and thought it was a really easy way to advertise.

I wanted to create a LOC that allowed me to easily access it time and time again, adding new findings, selecting certain pieces of information to use for a particular future projects.

and so my 'cool' idea began...

I decided to create a series of postcards, this means that I will be able to create maybe even hundreds of postcards that will contain just enough information to tell me what I need to know about that particular subject matter, designer or photographer etc. 

As a  business idea, I think this has the potential to be quite big. If hundreds or even thousands of postcards were created showing off art, design, architecture and so on... people could create their own LOC's.

To make them easily recognisable I have designed a logo, with the name of ''LOC''. I think simplicity was the best way to go with this design and think that people would be able to easily recognise it. Similarly to WGSN's logo, I would love it if this logo could soon be recognised globally. 

I had the idea of distributing the postcards within coffee shops, like Starbucks, so people could just pick them up and go. I think it would also be cool if companies could sign up to the idea, giving them a cool new way to advertise.

To keep the idea and the postcards contemporary, I imagined them being released in collections, and maybe even seasonally allowing fashion trends to be kept up to date. This also then in a way makes the postcards collectables. 

For this I played around on illustrator and came up with what I believe to be a cool quick and easy title ''CollectionE''... collection one.

time to start researching!! ...hope you enjoy