Underneath the Fabric

Woooooooooooooooooooooooahhhhhlot has happened recently. Well, Graduate Fashion Week (GFW) has come and gone - a total blurr of colour and silhouette and fiyah ! Arriving backstage, manic - but like, the good kind? Make up to the left, changing rooms to the right. Clothes were flying, cameras were flashing, models were posing and designers were flailing about. Chatter was constant. All students were each assigned a model to dress. The individuals with the lanyards on seemed to have the situation un-der con-trol (*snaps fingers* at every syllable) . The others (myself specifically), well, not so much. S weaty palms, ya know?, it happens to the best of us... The anticipation for the show grew exponentially. Third years eagerly awaited amongst the audience for their collections to strut their stuff. Ohh-ing and ahh-ing came largely from student dressers backstage, as the models made the garments come to life in wearing them. One by one, outfits filtered through checks and on t...

These last few weeks have been hectic - can't begin to explain how much. However main first year deadlines are now over . Meaning I can go back to having a life now, yipee! Currently, I'm writing an essay for uni involving the study of the REMADE line by Christopher Raeburn. He's clearly understood the target market he is catering to, by converting old parachutes, kites and silk scarves from WW2 into wearable, desirable street and outerwear. This is pretty smart from the company's part, as these key items were actually used to produce clothing during and after WW2 , when clothes rationing used to occur. Alongside the "make-do and mend" campaign set up by the government, people were low on resources - including fabric (as all hands and materials were dedicated to providing the troops). This led to the population still homebound to scout out fallen nylon parachutes, or lost silk maps, and re purpose them. I'm hoping this is something I can c...

On the 24th of April 2013, the Rana Plaza garment factory collapsed in Bangladesh, killing over 1,100 innocent people . This was the start of the Fashion Revolution . Today was the first day of the #FashRev week (23rd - 29th of April). Every year from then on, the movement has been gaining momentum, as more and more people become aware of the consequences behind purchasing 'fast fashion'. But what do I mean  by that term? Back in the day, designers used to produce collections for two seasons a year (Spring/Summer, Autumn/Winter -  makes sense, right? ). However, nowadays high street stores have new stock pilling onto their shelves and crowding their rails every week. That's  52 'seasons' -  a  hella laaat! How unnecessary.  Think about it for a second: do you really need that many clothes? The simple answer is no. Yet we see no reason to question whether or not to buy, or who to buy from. That is until you read this article ( I'd hope ). ...

None of this blog will be perfect. These are just my opinions . I'm not studying journalism and my English writing skills are questionable. Also I am a little scatter-brained . Pizza. However, I have a desire to make a change in the industry for which I have so much passion. One which, without the potential for change, I wouldn't want to be a part of. And it is specifically for this reason that I am striving to be a part of it. To do this, I realise that I need to document my thoughts , ideas and progress - share them with the world (to make it pink and fuzzy and friendly and nice). Fashion is an umbrella term. We usually only see the surface: the trends that come and go, the sales in the stores, the desire to buy more and more... Fashion has lost its meaning , becoming frivolous to most. What a poet. I don't know at what point in my life I decided that the garments I designed and wore would be 'sustainable', I just knew it felt right. The more I looked in...