Online Market Research Tools

Today in our workshop I have learned about some valuable resources for conducting our online market research in fashion retail.

The first website is poll everywhere which is a useful poll website where you can ask a fairly simple question and ask people to text in their answer. This would be great to receive fast responses.

The second website is padlet which is a website used to create walls about specific topics and different people can post links relevant to that topic. For example we create a wall for stylist websites and all of the students in the class can post their favourites so that we can share all of them. 

Click the image below to see our wall!

Laura Olivia xx

Monsoon Market Research - Survey

At the moment I am working on a collaboration for a new range at Monsoon and I'm at the stage of choosing who I'd like to make the collaboration with! This is a survey I have created to try and help me make some decisions on my project. I'd like ladies of all ages to fill in their answers to give me a good variety of results to work from! 

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Laura Olivia xx

Maggie's and Ladies In Pink Scarves

Our final ticket, invitation and poster for 'Ladie's In Pink Scarves Celebrate Maggie's First Birthday'!



Laura Olivia xx

Newcastle Galleries

My first task on my course was back in September 2013, when I was asked to look at three exhibitions in the city of Newcastle and write a report on each one. 

LAZARIDES

"The Lazarides gallery was re-launched as 'The Outsiders' in 2010. On speaking to staff I discovered that the gallery features one artist at a time for around a month. At the time of my visit an artist known as Saber was being featured. The Outsiders showcases work from new and emerging talents and provides exposure for there artists in their gallery on the Newcastle Quayside. The gallery itself consists of a small ground level space with white walls and a wooden floor, and stairs led down to a basement where the work is displayed around the walls and leads through a small passage to a third room. Saber is an experienced graffiti artist having 22 years of experience behind him. For this exhibition he flew in from LA two months before the show to create the entire body of work in the gallery. It was his debut European solo exhibition and he worked seven days a week on the paintings.

The paintings are created using ordinary household paints, as I could see from the empty pots which he incorporated into the display in the basement. Alongside those were paint-splattered clothes and shoes which he had worn when creating his work.

The pictures themselves were very textured with lots of layers of paint, paper and marks made through these layers. There were also a lot of stars and stripes and a lot of dark shades of paint used. Most of his work was black, grey, white, dark purples and reds. On looking at the paintings closely I could also see newspaper print. I really liked the textured effect and how each painting was created by the same medium but looked completely different to one another. The paintings themselves are very abstract, with a lot of layered, sweeping brush strokes.

Saber says that these works are a reference to excess and foul nature that some people believe Americans possess. He wanted to expose the cracks in the self-centered and self-preserved culture of modern America. Although there are no particular objects in the paintings I could appreciate the meaning of them and enjoyed viewing this artist's work."

THE BALTIC

The Baltic is a centre for contemporary art, housed in a large industrial building on the south bank of the river Tyne in Gateshead. There are no permanent collections at the Baltic, the exhibitions change across four gallery spaces. I find that the diversity makes each visit feel like the first time and I've discovered a lot of artists and work that I admire over the years that I've been visiting. 

THOMAS SCHEIBITZ

"Between the 26th July and 3rd November 2013 there are two floors displaying the work of Thomas Scheibitz. The gallery spaces are vast at the Baltic, perfect for Scheibitz' work as he produces large sculptures and installations as well as paintings. One of the first things I noticed about his art is the use of shapes. He uses regular objects and interprets the shapes found in them into his work. There is also a sense of movement in the way these shapes are arranged.

One painting in particular really caught my eye and this was the one entitled 'Portal' made in 2012. It took up one huge wall and when I looked at it it seemed to change. At first it would look as though there was depth in the image and you could walk right into it, and then it seemed as though the shapes were sticking out right in front of you. 

Thomas Scheibitz is one of the leading German artists of his generation and the presentation at the Baltic was bringing together over 200 works from the past 5 years. I very much enjoyed being able to see the finished pieces as well as his idea sketches, and the everyday objects which were his inspiration. Seeing how he developed his ideas made me understand and appreciate the work even more."

HEATHER PHILLIPSON

"Heather Phillipson is a London born artist and poet, and her exhibition at the Baltic ran from the 21st June until the 22nd September 2013. The exhibition was titled 'Yes, surprising is existence in the post-vegetal cosmorama' and consisted of three videos in custom made environments within the ground floor gallery. 

When I first enterred the exhibition I found it exciting because I was taken around a dimly lit tunnel with a glowing floor, into a snug type area, painted red with cushions on the floor. Playing on a large tv screen above was Heather's first video of the exhibition entitled 'Immediately and for a short time balloons weapons too - tight clothing worries of all kinds', and as you can imagine it was quite confusing and surreal. There were lots of clips quickly flashing up and changing, and lots of sounds over them. Part of the video made the viewer feel as though you were being pampered, having cucumber placed over your eyes while Heather's voice was a soothing commentary.

The next part of the exhibition was equally surreal as I found as I moved from the snug that I had walked through a curtain between a pair of giant women's legs taking over the whole room! Looking back I realised there were lots of brightly coloured flowers all around the door, and a windy red path on the floor led the way. In the same room there was a real speed boat painted yellow, positioned on many bottles of water. Inside the boat was another video, this time about teeth and dental hygiene. Again very surreal with flashing images and Heather's voice again narrating the scenes.

The 'Wizard of Oz' style path led to the last installation, a car with another tv inside on the windscreen, so that you had to sit inside the car to watch it.

All of the installations in Heather Phillipson's exhibiton relate to travel, hygiene and the mouth. There were also several chiquita bananas I noticed encorporated into the installations although I'm not sure why! All in all I found the whole thing quite psychedelic, intriguing, interactive and fun. It's an exhibition I won't soon forget and am glad to have experienced. "

THE LAING - DAISY DE VILLENEUVE

"The Laing art gallery is situated on New Bridge Street in the centre of Newcastle and has been open since 1904. It has a programme of regularly rotating exhibitions and a variety of artwork is on show, ranging from 18th and 19th century paintings to contemporary works by emerging UK artists.

The exhibition that caught my eye in particular was by an artist called Daisy de Villeneuve entitled 'Run Colour Run'. The title reflects the work perfectly as it is a collection of extremely colourful portraits, which Daisy created from photographs she took behind the scenes of the Great North Run 2012. The collection was put together for Great North Run Culture 2013.

Daisy looked behind the scenes of the run for a variety of people to draw. They not only included athletes and participants but also hospitality staff, security, the red arrows pilots, kids cheering on the sidelines and people in costumes.

The outcome of the finished images are simplistic, bright, quite naive in the drawing style and use of colour blocking with felt tip markers, but also very personal portraits of all of the people. I particularly liked one portrait of a young girl with a proud expression, wearing a t-shirt that said 'Run Dad!' on the front.

Daisy de Veilleneuve refers to artists like David Hockney, Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein as her inspiration and that is clear to see in her work. I enjoyed the simplistic nature of her images with the deeper personal meaning behind them and I think they are fun to look at. You can really imagine the individuals and get a feel of the atmosphere at the event."

Laura Olivia xx

Fabrics and Fibres

Recently we have been learning about different fabrics and fibres. In the buying industry it is important to know what goes into making different types of fabrics, what is good or bad quality and how much to pay. I didn't know a lot about fabrics before and I found trying to distinguish between each one quite difficult. 
Here I will include pictures of each particular piece of fabric we looked at and analyse them.

WOOL
This piece of wool has been woven. It is soft and not itchy as it is furry on one side and smooth on the other. It has a slight stretch to it which shows that the wool has a stretchy thread running through it. This particular sample would bobble easily as it is not tightly woven and would cost around £8-10 per metre.

COTTON

This fabric is 100% cotton and has been washed and then printed onto. This would be used for garments like tops and shirts and has been woven tightly to give it better movement. It would cost around £8-10 per metre also.

DENIM

I was surprised to learn that denim looks like this in its undyed form. It is made from 100% cotton with a twill which means it has lines running across it. The lines should always run from bottom left to top right on a garment. This particular sample is pre-washed and ready to dye. It would cost around £8 per metre.
To achieve a look of worn denim the fabric is dyed and then put through a stone wash, where stones actually wear the fabric to make it look distressed, ready to make into a pair of jeans.
Jeans always stay affordable because of the volume of them sold, even though there are a few processes that the material will go through to create the final product.

CALICO

Calico is 100% cotton usually used to make prototypes of garments and in pattern cutting. It is unwashed and unfinished and very cheap, around £1.50 per metre.

VELVET

Velvet is created by using two layers of backing with a layer of fabric between them which is weaved up then down through the layers, then cut through the middle to create the soft feel. This same method is used to make carpets. Velvet would be used to make garments such as jackets, skirts and trousers, but ones which wouldn't be worn very often. 
Velvet is a more expensive fabric because of the process used to create it, the pile of the fabric and the fact that it is not bought in bulk. It also has to be cut one way, with the smooth direction of the pile facing upwards and the rough direction facing downwards.
In order to make velvet cheaper it can be woven using synthetic fibres rather than cotton.

We looked at two samples of velvet. The one below is made from cotton and is polyester backed, so both synthetic and natural materials. It would be fairly cheap at around £18-20 per metre.

The sample of velvet below is of a much higher quality, made from cotton mixed with silk. It has a slightly crushed texture which is literally achieved by flattening some of the pile of the fabric. This would cost around £54 per metre.

POLYESTER LINING

Polyester lining is manmade and would be used for lining in cheaper skirts, jackets or handbags. It would only cost around £2.80 per metre.

VISCOSE LINING

Viscose lining is thicker than polyester and can be printed on to create nice designs such as on the lining of a suit jacket, therefore it is more expensive.

SILK LINING

Silk fabric is used for lining on expensive suits and would cost around £19.50 per metre

DUCHESS SATIN

Duchess satin is used on formal dresses and occasionwear such as wedding dresses, bridesmaid dresses, prom dresses etc. 

This first sample of duchess satin is made from polyester, a manmade fabric and costs around £16 per metre.

This second sample is 100% silk duchess satin. It is finely woven, smooth and would cost around £120 per metre.

The choice of duchess satin used would depend on the overall price of the gown and the style it would be cut into. A more detailled dress that had more work put into it would be made using 100% silk and a cheaper more plain dress would be made from the more affordable polyester version.

Laura Olivia xx

Hugo Boss Range Plan

The first module that I did on my first year of my degree involved researching upcoming trends, creating trend boards, then creating lookboards, and finally creating a spring/summer range for a brand. I was given Hugo Boss and I chose womenswear and this is what I came up with.

The six trends:
Irridescence, 3D florals, Aqua, Sheer, Pink and Cobwebs.

I then chose two trends to take forward and create look-boards then ranges from. The first one being iridescence and the second being pink tones.

Laura Olivia xx