Sordid Scenes : A Video

Almost a year ago now, when I shot my Final Major Project for college (or high school to the Americans), I took a few short film clips as I was photographing. Now one blog, countless lingerie, and many a moon later, I have revisited the clips to make my first video! (The backing track is 'The Treehouse Song' by the ever-magnificent Ane Brun.)

((Go on. Succumb to your desires and watch her on full-screen..))

I really admire videos that lingerie brands release to promote collections, or for collaborations with directors.  You can truly get a feel for a brand through the videos, which reflect the fantasy and the sensuality I so adore about lingerie. Coco De Mer have recently released a video for their 'Bedtime Stories' edit which is divine. I also love Justin Anderson's video for Damaris called Chore (and although the idea of women in lingerie cleaning would normally have me sitting somewhat uneasy, it's done in a way that I like.  I find its really striking aesthetic, sense of humour, and the woman really owning the shots to be unexpectedly empowering although I'd be curious to hear other people's thoughts on that). I think its important to be aware of and to subvert these connotations when making a video, as film is so much more clearly representative of a brand or an idea and much less ambiguous than a photoshoot can be.

Would love to hear people's two cents on this one!

Till next time..

Lesson 10 : The Industry Project

The aforementioned commercial brief was a project for H&M.. rather exciting indeed considering how fashion forward and accessible H&M is!  We were to design one nightwear set and two lingerie sets, one of which we were to make.  For my sketchbook and initial inspiration I looked at 'Creed' and drew Judaica, objects and symbols of religion like Menorahs, Mantilla Veils and Havdallah candles (a braided candle lit to see the sabbath out) which inspired the braided straps on the garments.  I was lucky to source some cheap yet lovely lace from Fabric Fair in Brighton's North Laine and a wonderful, dynamic, youthful floral print from the wonderful Ditto Fabrics, also in the North Laine.  Finding nice yet affordable lace is usually so difficult, I find myself salivating over the utterly exquisite Guipure lace, French corded laces, and eyelash Chantilly lace whenever I visit Berwick Street in Soho, but at about £150 a metre they remain somewhat out of my price range.. I shall have to bide my time..

getting my illustration ready to scan in

I have been having CAD (computer aided design) lessons every week this term, which has given my illustrations for this project a rather different feel. I fear didn't take to CAD like a duck to water at all, so I drew this illustration by hand before scanning it in and collaging the fabrics on in photoshop.  I also coloured the faces and created the hair on photoshop, which was a wholly new illustrative experience. I much prefer illustrating on paper with a fine-liner and inks though, I feel like my computer illustration lacks the charm of a hand drawn one. 

My CAD illustration of the capsule collection

For the lingerie set, I chose to make a longline bra with half-padded cups, lace top cups, a ballet back and braided roleaux straps.  The matching knickers are a lacy brief with printed panels at the centre front and back. 

Front view of my longline bra and knickers.

A side view with little flashes of print!

and a little back view. 

braided strap detail, and a good view of the really sweet picot edge on the elastic!

a close-up of the cup.

I am desperate to shoot this set, I'll hopefully get some really beautiful photos of it over my Easter break.. I have a few ideas ticking away for the shoot, and I can't wait to post them when they're done!

Lesson 9 : Pattern Creation From a Garment (and a Darted-Cup Bra)

After a bit of a pattern-cutting and lingerie-making hiatus (boo) the ball is back a-rollin! I've been whipping up a few sets in the past couple weeks which will feature ever so shortly, and all of which are for a much more commercial brief. It's surprisingly difficult to design commercially, you really have to rein yourself in to appeal to a wide customer base as well as be aware of a much lowered price point.. I now have a newfound respect for all those commercial lingerie retailers who really get it right!

more on the completion of this beastie coming soon.. 

 To really understand the construction of lingerie, we were given the task of taking a pattern from a pair of existing knickers and recreating them.  The process of re-creating a knicker is rather painstaking indeed, but surprisingly simple and straightforward; one basically has to take excessive measurements of every possible measurable part of a knicker (there are a helluva lot, I'm tellin ya) and then create a rectangle the length/width of the longest/widest part of the knicker and then plug all the measurements in.

We were also given a darted cup pattern for a bra and told to check all the measurements of the cup, and draft a pattern for a gore (translation: that middle bit holding everything together) and a wing. The bra was to be cradle-less which means it's held together by a gore as opposed to the cups sitting within a cradle.

the finished set!

I used a polka dot sheer black mesh and finished the set off with boxy grey-blue bows. Normally I have major polka-dot prejudices, but I lay them aside for the sake of open-mindedness and I'm glad I did.

Naturally, I am rather aware that all of these technicalities make dubious reading entertainment (as fun as they are to carry out) so here are some photographs, for visuals never did hurt a soul.

Keep your eyes peeled for something even more delightful just around the corner.. I'm hoping for it to be completed by early next week!

Bye for now..

Lesson 8 : Good Composition/Bad Composition

A rather thought provoking task on good and bad illustration composition: we were required to identify the characteristics of both good and bad illustration compositions and create two illustrations: one which followed the rules of good composition (unusual pose, movement, asymmetrical, good use of white space, draws the eye, etc) and one which followed the traits of a bad composition (centred image, symmetrical, etc).

((please excuse the black marks on these scans, it seems the scanner was gunked up by a previous user. I blame the architecture students, for alas, everyone needs a scapegoat.))

Bad Composition

After doing my 'bad composition' I realised it worryingly resembled pretty much all of my previous illustrations. Definitely something to think about when drawing in the future, which proved this exercise rather worthwhile indeed!

Good Composition

Which leads me to my 'good composition.' I would generally never think to use white space in this way, but I think I'll be doing it more in the future. I loved drawing the crow too, more flora/fauna from now on methinks! I'm not sure about the hair- I was going to fill it in entirely but after doing the first stroke decided to leave it; my eye was taking the visual hint without it being explicitly there. But I can't decide whether it was a good decision to leave or not.. What do you think? Does it look unfinished?

Urban Landscape

Urban Landscape. An illustration and design project where we were to take inspiration from the Urban Landscape (interpreted as we wished) and design a capsule collection for a high street retailer of our choosing.

Leicester is still new ground for me, and aesthetically is so different to seaside Brighton.  So I looked at all the ugly yet oddly beautiful gritty bits; shattered windows, glinting green bottle fragments scattered on sidewalks, old rotting brickwork, and metal rusting and discolouring- exposed to the elements. The overriding theme was 'Grace within Grit.'

Mood Board

I chose Ell & Cee as my retailer, their loungewear is killer beautiful- sheer floaty silks and whimsical embellishment. Designing quite commercial loungewear was a new but surprisingly exciting venture. Not to mention the fact that no garments were to be made for this project gave a lot a freedom with the design. 

Final Illustration

Range Plan- my silk half-sheer capsule collection!
(I need to work on my 'making thinks look sheer' skills on photoshop..)

Illustration-every-so-often..

As the attempted illustration-a-day project crashed and burned before a mere week was complete, I thought a more realistic aim was an illustration every so often: whenever an idea comes to me and I have the time to execute it.

This one came to me when I was posing for a portrait drawing class. Sitting still for two and a half hours does funny things to my eyes, everything blurs and warps. Previously solid forms buckle and bend, and a haze descends over everything. People become strange creatures with flashing eyes. (This may be to do with the fact that my vision is rather shamefully poor at the best of times. Or it may be standard portrait-sitting symptoms.)

Here's a peek at what I use for my illustrations.. Winsor & Newton Ink, 10 & 2 Graduate Brushes, a 0.5 mm mechanical pencil, and a 0.5mm fineliner. Not to mention plenty of water!

Winsor & Newton ink is kinda where its at.

At the moment I have two rather dashing (if I do say so myself) further illustration works in progress, so keep your peepers peeled..

The Inevitable : A Feminist Exhibition

I am a bit of an exhibitionist.

I am most certainly a feminist.

So what's not to like about a feminist exhibition in my temporary red brick town? (Leicester, to the curious and / or unknowing) 

Delightfully professional!

The Art of Feminism (an exhibition arranged by the DMU Feminist Society) is being held upstairs in the Crumblin' Cookie in Leicester from the 4th-17 of February, where I am displaying lingerie/loungerie and photographs from my Final Major Project in college- my first blog post in fact!

photographs of my designs

The exhibition features 11 makers and artists, and exhibits work in which they responded to modern feminine ideals, explored the effects advertising and the media on both men and women, and expressed oppression alongside freedom, past defeat alongside future strength.  The works are vastly diverse, from performance art to sculpture to painting to photography to stitch.  It was so much fun to be a part of this, and there was a really wonderful response to the exhibition at the private view on Monday evening (maybe it was the free-flowing wine talking, but as they say, 'In Vino Veritas'). It's also great to get to know other Leicester creatives (always sniffing out a future collaboration..), particularly artists who are equally fascinated by and immersed in creatively expressing sexual/gender politics through their work.

Clockwise from top left:
the works of Sam Sharman-Dunn, Robert Barry, Anna Ridley, and Indie Prasad

If you're Leicester based do swing by and have a nosey, if not, you are condemned to enjoying from afar I fear. Hopefully more opportunities like this will come up again very soon.. 

Not to mention an opportunity to use my business cards again! 

Lastly!
Some adorable merchandise for sale:
 from brooches to (very lingerie relevant) ovary Fem Pants.
Shake your ovaries ladies!
(and for a mere £3.. I do believe they're the very cheapest neon ovary knickers in town!)