Wrapping it up...

So the parade went incredibly well, other than a few minor hiccups (including the fact that my name didn't come up when my dresses came out on the runway), but these things happen!

Also at 11.30am on parade day i received a phone call whilst I was halfway through getting my hair coloured at the hairdressers and I was told that the wedding dress bodice zip had broken during the dress rehearsal...

So I had to go and collect the bodice, put a whole new zip in it and have it back at PAC by 3pm before the matinee parade... to say I was stressed is an understatement!

Thanks to my mother who went and collected it, otherwise I wouldn't have had it back in time for the matinee parade! Talk about cutting it finely...!!!

Also thank you to our amazing lecturers who have helped us all through the last few months - especially Sophie, Sue, Scott and Helen - we would have been lost without you,

You have saved me from several breakdowns!!!

I'll leave you with the piccies from the parade... Enjoy xx

 

 

 

One day until the parade!!!

So with one day left until our Tafe SA Graduation Fashion parade I'm getting pretty nervous!!!

It will be interesting to say the least when I have to walk down the catwalk in front of 900 people who will be judging my designs... It's such a scary thought that all the work I've put in to my collection all comes down to 3 minutes of catwalk time... And of course I hope that I wont trip when I have to walk down with the last model!!!

Well wish me luck... It's all a bit surreal really....

I will leave you with a couple of images from my photoshoot - thanks to Luci Horsfall and model Maddie from Finesse for both of your amazingness (don't think this is actually a word but it sounded good) on the day and throughout the whole process!!!!

less than a week until kick off!!!!!!!!!!

I can't believe that it's less than a week until the parade!

We had the model fittings on Thursday, which set me back a little bit with my time and organising. Several of the dresses needed to be taken in a fair bit due to fairly tiny models... Well I guess atleast the dresses will fit them amazingly now and look incredible hopefully!!! I am finally getting excited because most of the work is done!

The wedding dress did provide problems during the week as the ruffles were taking a considerably longer amount of time to sew than I had thought they would... all of my garments have to be handed up to the teachers on tuesday for marking before the parade, so hopefully I will have it all done! Down to the wire now!

Everything is happening Sooooooooo quickly!!!

I have almost completely finished four out of six oufits... almost! Positive thinking all the way, hopefully that will get me through the next four weeks... well actually 3.5 weeks!!! Wowee! Yipee!!! The gloves and the veil haven't been given much thought yet but atleast I can focus on them once I've sewn the remainder of the garments!!! The end is finally in sight... I just can't get too ahead of myself, which is incredibly difficult because I'm so so so excited!!!

I'll leave you with a couple more sneek peeks..............

My style muse and who I'd love to see wearing my designs...

My style muses are old Hollywood stars including Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly, as well as the amazing starlets of today, Carey Mulligan and Mia Wasikowska.

I would love to see  Carey Mulligan, Zoey Deschanel, Mia Wasikowska, Scarlett Johannson or Rachel McAdams wearing my creations. It would just be incredible!!!


Here are two of my style muses - Mia Wasikowska and Carey Mulligan.....

My favourite piece of the collection and what inspires me....

My favourite piece would most definitely be the ankle skimming evening gown. With it’s gliding circle skirts and layers of tulle, the adorable capped sleeves and a flirty low back, it screams movie star elegance.



What Inspires me is....This collection is predominantly inspired by the feminine silhouettes and screen sirens of the 1950s.I am always inspired by the movie stars of days gone by. Their demeanours and the way they would appear so graceful and elegant has always motivated me.

I am also often inspired by beautiful fabrics that I find. I can then imagine a design that would look amazing in that particular fabric and the ideas develop from there.

 

So... my collection in a nutshell is...

Vivacious. Elegant. Spirited. Alexandra Grace.

My debut collection ~Wine and Roses~ consists of cocktail, evening and wedding dresses for women who want to stand out from the sea of black and be the envy of every other woman.

As my collection is gliding down the runway, you will...

 Float away to an idyllic world of romantic circle skirts, striking sweetheart necklines and long elegant gloves…

And remember...

“A girl should be two things; classy and fabulous”

Coco Chanel

So why did I really choose to study fashion design and put myself through the hardest year of my life??? All I can say is LOVE!!!

As a child I loved Barbies and used to spend hours upon hours in my bedroom changing their clothes and roleplaying with them. I had over 40 Barbies and so many more Barbie outfits. It’s safe to say that I’ve always been passionate about fashion and dressing women.

In 2007 I was hospitalised due to a particularly severe case of glandular fever and subsequently, I was required to have 6 months off work and study to recuperate. During this period I had time to think about what I really loved and wanted out of life and it became clear to me that fashion was the only way to go. So I completely dropped out of my Health Sciences degree and enrolled in Fashion design at Tafe SA and I haven’t looked back. :-)

Sneak Peek of what's to come...

Slowly but surely............... maybe

So.... it's only 7 weeks until the parade and I still have massive mega crazy amounts of sewing to do! I have finished my fishtail evening dress "Champagne and Chandeliers", but still have the other five outfits to go... I have sewn up bits and pieces of the other outfits though, so I guess it isn't all bad........


The strange thing is that I am not actually behind, I'm doing amazingly well for time, however this week has been incredibly stressful because certain things have taken me longer than I had planned.


I've started thinking about the parade and what music I want played when my collection is paraded down the runway and I just can't commit to one song. There is a Lisa Mitchell song called Red wine lips which would be suitable, fun and flirty. There is a song called Electric twist by A Fine Frenzy, but I'm not sure that it's right for my collection. There are also a few other songs in the running but I can't put my finger on the winner.


Well I suppose it is still seven weeks away so maybe I should just focus on the sewing and the business plan for the moment.


My photoshoot is this thursday and I cant wait to see my dresses photographed and modeled!!!!


So stay tuned for more pics in the near future of almost finished dresses and me working all hours of the night!!!!

The toile of the finale wedding dress with cascading waterfall ruffles......

*The final wedding dress will be MUCH fuller as it will have a hoop skirt underneath.

toile of the ankle skimming cocktail/evening dress.........

Toiles...................

In memory of Harry aka Kitten aka moodle bear aka rainbow princess RIP my beautiful baby boy

It's been a while, been very busy with Hong Kong and then straight back to Tafe at the new campus which is amazing! Even though there's not as much room and it takes me an hour on the bus to and from, i do love it. So Hong Kong was amazing - didn't find any fabric for my collection, but it was an amazing experience to see the garment factories and to see the streets lined with countless fabric shops.


I have been back at tafe for 2 and a half weeks now and have just hit a rather horrible bump in the road. I've been dealt the blow of losing my Beautiful boxer dog, who was also my best friend. He came home from the vet monday with a possible brain tumour and by tuesday he could barely stand. Wednesday afternoon - 04/08/2010, we decided to put him to sleep and send him to doggy heaven. It's the hardest thing I've ever had to deal with and I just can't seem to concentrate on my collection at the moment, as hard as I try. This blog is about the progress of my collection, so the loss of my darling Harry does provide relevance. He was the biggest and the most gorgeous personality I have ever known and my life without him is going to be so colourless. He would always sit behind me on my bed in my room whenever I was sewing, just watching me. He would also sit on the couch staring at me when I was doing patterns or cutting in the family room.


Back to my collection for a moment... Over the first two weeks back at tafe, I've managed to complete all of my patterns and they are ready to be toiled up. I'm going to try and do atleast one toile this afternoon, if I can stop myself from crying for long enough. I know he is watching over me and he'd want me to be happy, So I will do it for him.


I've decided to dedicate my graduation collection to my little boy, who passed on the 04/08/2010 - the biggest personality I have ever known. Such a beautiful heart and soul. You always knew when something was wrong. You lay with me for the many months that I was very ill. You always knew how to comfort us by climbing up on the couch and giving us a big wet, sloppy kiss. Your "talking" provided us with hours upon hours of joy and laughter. You have touched so many lives and you will be so very sadly missed by everyone who knew you my little kitten boy xxx


I will leave you with some pictures of my beautiful Harry Baby - my Inspiration in life.

getting organised........

So we've been on "holidays" for a couple of weeks already, due to the campus move... I've purchased most of my fabrics now, which is a massive relief to be honest. Certainly a challenge to pay for on a student budget though! I really wish I'd started saving a lot earlier now!


I still have to buy the organza and duchess satin for the wedding dress, as well as the black (possible knit fabric) for the gloves that play a huge part in my collection. I just can't find an exact match anywhere in the organza for the gorgeous duchess satin that completely ties in my entire collection. So I can't really buy the duchess satin yet until I know I have a match in the organza. Devastation. Hopefully something presents itself in the next couple of months. Or maybe the Hong Kong trip will prove fruitful...


I leave on Wednesday for 8 days in Hong Kong with a big group of other students. Although I'm incredibly excited to go, I know I have a lot of work to come home to. This trip will be the calm before the storm.... Hong Kong doesn't have a lot of eveningwear fabrics, but maybe I will get lucky with the organza and the gloves fabric... We'll see.


Bon Voyage, see u when I'm back in Oz - hopefully with good news.
I'll leave you with an image of my mood/storyboard...

Design Process = COMPLETE!!!!!!!!!

So I've now finished the design process and I'm in the midst of producing my rangeboard! Kind of scary to think that these six outfits will be the end of my time at tafe... I really want this time to end on a good note, so I'm going to do everything that I can to make this collection the best that it could possibly be. My blood, sweat and tears are certainly going to be put in to this collection... Kind of exciting when you think about it like that.


So my six outfits consist of six dresses... The first three are cocktail, the fourth is bordering on evening, the fifth (my fav) is an extravagant evening gown that has a fishtail sort of shape and the final piece..... drumroll... is a gorgeous wedding dress with a sweetheart neckline and a skirt with layers upon layers of ruffles in organza... hopefully i can find the right organza to match my incredibly softly coloured mauve duchess satin!!


My collection is POSSIBLY going to be called Wine and Roses... and I am naming each outfit exactly what it reminds me of... e.g. Cosmos and Canapes or Champagne and Chandeliers... The colour theme plays a big part in these names and... As the theme is COCKTAIL WEDDING, the names are also very fitting....


We now have approximately 5 weeks of holidays whilst our campus is being moved to the City... This worries me a bit because I don't exactly have the facilities to patternmake at home. It could be an interesting next few weeks! I don't think my Mum would be too happy if I ruin her fairly new kitchen bench... keep tuned, lots of drama ahead!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I'll leave you with a few inspirational piccies to give you some idea of what's to come...

researching and designing...where on earth do I start????

It's week one and we've started researching for our final year collection in our Fashion design and Technology course... I am completely overwhelmed and have no idea where to start... I know what I like though, so I guess that's a start... I love the 1950's Dior "new look" silhouette with the long elegant gloves... I also know that I definitely want to do a cocktail wedding theme, starting with cocktail dresses and then my finale piece will be an extravagant wedding dress... after all, who doesn't love a good wedding dress? :-) I do love the classic looks... but I DO NOT want this to be boring at all... So I have to discover what I want to do to make my collection different and interesting... I LOVE COLOUR... I'm considering a relationship with one or two vibrant colours paired with an ivory of sorts... Here are some images that have inspired me so far...