Sketchbook

 

I love my camera and random drawings...

From old to new

little mini project from class the other day litrally took apart an old army style jupmsuit and pleated skirt (both very cheap from charity shops) And had a play about in class draping in the stand. Love doing this, working on the stand with old clothes to make newer exciting outfits! :) happy days

The original two garments (pics from phone so not high quality)

Work in progress

The finished garment

I almost forgot how fun it is to get clothes out of charity shops or your own wardrobe and re-work them into new idea. must do this more often!

My harem style trousers, made from the softest jersy and silk ever. Oh how I wish they fitted me and not the models! but I will make myself some too, They look a bit odd on the hanger but they fit my housemate so niccely an hang of the body great. If I made them again tho i think im going to make the pockets extra big.

One of the outfits from my last project, sorry for rubbish pics, there will be a photoshoot to follow soon.

Bits of my last project...

A few pages from my sketchbook

Fabric Research 

One of my design boards 

Technical Drawings 

Illustrations

my outcome for this project was very sports orientated. I feel this s a direction that I do not wish to continue at this point n my studies. Although I'm sure my designs will always have reference to this, it seems I am always influenced but what I have done in my last projects as I am by the world around me. 

Who am I?

When a tutorial goes really bad the first few days I am distraught. I finish with my boyfriend. I cry a lot. I question everything. And then slowly I think wait a minute my tutors are doing this to make me stronger, they are not just 'being mean'. I come round to the idea that perhaps I could actually learn from this. Perhaps I need to re-asses what I'm doing and focus. 

This year is already going so quickly, and I feel so lost and left behind after being out of it for some time. But I am not going to let it hold me back. It seems my 'not so good' tutorial is probably having the effect they wanted. I have decided not to hold back this year, to take a risk. My best work is always when I push myself to do creative new ideas. Fashion is defiantly what I want to do, I have no doubt in my mind. It effects my emotions on a day-to-day basis from those amazing moments where I am struck for words with excitement for the future, to those days where i question myself. But these times can only make me a stronger person. 

Prove them wrong, I am who I am.

For ali

I keep promising to make my sister something, so I am making her a mini collection. I love her a lot, she is pretty important in my life, in fact I couldn't really imagine life without her. The designs follow on from my last collection, some of the designs are similar of things that I decided against making but would still like to make now. The  fabrics are mainly stretch and I haven't completely decided on colour ways yet but I intend to use up some of the fabric that I seem to have collected under my bed. I am a Major hoarder of all things. I have started with the dress in the middle it is currently pinned to my mannequin looking a bi sorry for itself though as my over locker has broken and been taken to the lovely people that I STILL haven't heard back form to get fixed. 

I will keep you updated on my progress and uploads some piccys as i make them. I am quite excited.

Gareth Pugh: Spring/Summer Ready-to-wear

Crazy fridge

WoW! AMAZING such a cool fridge, eating all the rubbish that it was sat next to! just had to take a photo. Inspiration sometimes comes from odd place doesn't it? I think I spend a lot of my time looking around me, maybe us arty folk are more observant of such things. I found this particular fridge just around the corner from my new hose in bournemouth It reminds me almost of something that Banksy would do. Take something pretty ordinary (in this case a thrown out fridge) and make it into something more.  

note to self: take notice of everything, you can find exciting things in the most unexpected of places.

Doodely doooo

I scribble doodle, draw anywhere, everywhere and on anything I love it! i cant help it, its like some kind of disease. not that I'm complaining as some of my best ideas designs and thoughts come out of me this way. I think its because I'm a complete day dreamer! anyway so here are a few from m most recent to ones I have done a while back now...

Reflection

The start of a new accademic year and i'm increadibily excited about the year ahead. The last year has been a bot of a struggle but i think i am back on track and ready to take on anything! positive thinking for me! After missing out on a lot of lessons last year i was happy to still get a 2.1 average for my projects. i think i can improve on this though, but i must concentrate on my portfolio. my last project i enjoyed so much but i think i need to re-define my direction i think that i have concentrated too much into sportswear and have been more interested in ladieswear straight fashion recently, although i am always going to have that  edge to my work. I must remember not to get stressed this year, and have fun, if im happy it will show through my creativity i always seem to work better when i am a happy person. 

i think im going to concentrate on my pattern cutting and design. i am still motivated by the process form design to finished product, Love seeing my designs realised

Insperational Michael Van Der Ham

a/w 09 collection.

I know this was shown a while ago but i keep being drawn back to it as inspiration. It seems to stand out to me and inspires me to get my creative mind working on my final collection. a little early perhaps but it would do no harm just to think about it. I am inspired by the way he has patch worked the fabrics from the different decades together. Love love love 

his pattern cutting, its so intricate and it just amazes me, I thin

k he will be one to watch for the future. 

MMM Warm Jumper time...

OK, so having lots of time do myself at the moment, no TV, no Internet means that I'm using up all the leftover bits of fabric I seem to have collected in my room! yesterdays fabric, and the fact that I was feeling a little chilly and needed something to warm me up led me to making myself a jumper!

Not the best of photographs I must admit but I will take some less rushed ones in time. Its so so warm and cosy tho and its extra big so I can slouch around the house in it. I also broke my over locker! not so good! going to take it in to get fixed later today hopefully!

"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we have been waiting for. We are the change that we seek" Barack Obama.

Thought I should put up some very (very very) quick pics of my last project. Inspired by the quote above and the politics of the time. Loved this project, cant wait to get my dear housemate Katy (lilly Cole look alike) to do a photoshoot with me. 

Cape with very oversized hood and lovely warm cosy lining inside.

My Jumpsuit. A little crazy but very me. Looks sooooo much better on but im sure you can get the idea from this. 

My confessions of a shopahollic!

"it's uncontrollable!"

"oh no I just spent $900"

A night eating Chinese with my boyfriend and watching a film i brought recently, Confessions of a Shopaholic.

I swear i must be a shopaholic i actually cant help it! the other day i was very restrained as i am so so skint at the moment but there were these beautiful shoes that were in the sale so it was OK, from Topshop extra high heels metallic with straps up over the ankles. I am always browsing the shops an i have decided to make a list of the top 5 things i would like to buy right now but really cant afford.

Office Suited and booted black suade/gold studded ankle boots. £95

Asos zip front asymetric top. £28

Jaeger Jaket £350.

Black squin leggings £40 Miss Selfridges.

While we were in London the other day we also visited the Rankin Live exhibition at the

Old Trueman Brewery on Brick Lane. Oh he is a genius! he really is! the exhibition itself was much bigger than i expected although to be honest I'm not really to sure what i did expect. The work started with self portraits and some of his earl yer documentary photography and then spanned out to cover fashion, beauty and portraits of which many i recognised. his work is inspiring, shocking and just truly awesome. there were a few photographs that were clever if not a little odd but then that's how the creative mind seems to work (speaking for myself anyway) the one of him kissing himself and where he depicts the child version of himself hugging an older version of himself.

Oh god they also had one of those amazing photo booth machines the black and white ones.

and the result would be....



Such beautiful ladies indeed!

When i look at the photographs of myself and then of the glamorous an oh so so stylish people on the walls of Rankin's exhibition i cant help but feel a little jealous of their stunning photographs! there are some absolutely stunning people. as expected there were a few sections dedicated to certain people. I wonder if some of them always look like this?
Do they just wake up in the morning and already look flawless?
gosh i know i have to spend about an hour getting my face and hair right. but oh well i love who i am really any my lovely boyfriend does too. aww and our photo both pictures make me smile every time i look at them.

Thinking that i also need to get my camera out a bit more!
Really Katie what is the point in owning such a beautiful camera if I'm not going to make the most of it and capture all those moments of my life i wish i had.

Note to self: Photograph everything..

My Hair!

Oh god i am so totaly bored with my hair, i have dyed it v dark brown/black pretty recently but I'm just so bored of it, thinking i need to visit a hairdressers and get them to do something exciting to it...

Vogue's Fashion Night out...

Oh such a fun night out it was indeed! Me, Peg and Sarah had a mini adventure around the streets of LoLondon. Starting of with a early dinner on oxford street and heading along the shops towards Bond Street... I brought my charity t-shirt from urban outfitters while looking at the preview collections, I was intrigued by Simon Preens leggings he had on show with lace panels cut into the bottom, and a dress that he had hanging, the shoulders detailed cap sleeves that were made from PVC and looked awesome! I love how he mixes the two fabrics together. I love Topshop I have a small obsession so visiting the oxford street Topshop is always exciting! full of sparkles as well! I swear i am a bit like a magpie, attracted to all things that shine and glitter.

Ahh chance meeting with Noel Fielding! craziness my friend Sarah loves him and got a photo taken with him, he was a bit busy tho but insisted that we check out Archie Eyebrows his favourite shoe designer... It always excites me seeing people that are famous and realising that they are just real people like me and you that love to shop and do normal things.

Chanel were holding a photo shoot with Erin O'Connor and Daisy Lowe upstairs in their Bond street store. They are such beautiful ladies and seem so confident to be able to stand not only in front of a photographer but in front of a crowd of people and still look so glamorous and at ease. We also bumped onto Pixie Geldof in one of the many shoe shops browsing with her friends. She was wearing some amazingly high black heels! Browns had a collection of designers posing in the window, there was such a buzz in the air.

We ended up at Burberry sipping on drinks and chatting amongst ourselves and to others around us. in all the evening was so fun, and i hope for many more of these evenings with my girlie's. the whole journey home i was day dreaming about when i will be able to live in London and have all that excitement just on my doorstep! oh how i wish for that little apartment along Brick Lane, wish wish wish...

Hi my name is Katherine McNeil but most of my friends know me as Katie. Im studying fashion and am just about to go into my third year!! ahh so exciting! have been a bit ill recently so very very excited about getting back to uni now! cant actually wait to get stuck into my project. I love living in my little bubble world of fashion and friends.

Imaging and communication - Styling project

Boogie Millitary 

These photographs are from a while back now but i still like them, our project was to create a magazine spread for a chosen magazine, style and photograph it. My finished spread had illustrations on top of these photographs but looking back i think i prefer the plain photographs without all the illustrations over them.

I also made some of the jewllary for the shoot, all the slightly crazy areoplane necklaces.