Graduate Fashion Week

I asked Kingston Fashion whether I could illustrate at their shows and so I went along to both the internal show and Graduate Fashion Week too. Some of the collections were phenomenal, and there were plenty that didn't make the GFW cut that I would have loved to see again on the bigger catwalk. However, it was all fun, and it was great to see such variety of work. As much as I love fashion illustration, it's still incredibly difficult to get a good drawing! So I only came out with nine drawings that are finished and I like. And here they are! I know there's a lot of fashion illustration as of late, but I guess its actually the only drawings I've done in a while. I promise, it's not the only thing I do! I'm working on some more of my personal surface pattern work and we're also to draw every day this summer so... looks like I'll be doing a LOT of drawing.

Nolwenn Faligot

Elena Gatsenko

Apologies!

I'm sorry for the fairly sizeable hiatus, somehow blogging just got lost in an abyss of work and it's been difficult to keep up. I will most definitely continue over the summer, I feel like it's a huge part of keeping me sane.

The academic year has now finished, and so I think it would be a pretty good way to come back by reflecting on these past months in a new city and a new environment. It's certainly had it's ups and downs, but overall it has been a pretty life-changing experience, and I have met so many talented and enthusiastic people. I think that although the second term has been much, much more stressful, I think that what has come out of it has been incredibly important.

I haven't shown much of my work from term two, but I do really want to talk about my Final Major Project, which was done together with Hannah and Ani. We decided for our project to start a collective and organise a drawing event called The Magic Pencil. Watch our film on Youtube here. We started a collective called Radish, which we hope to continue doing events and exhibitions to help us move forward. We met a lot of practitioners and spoke to a lot of people in our research, which I think helped to settle what we were feeling about ourselves.

I think many people will find that going to University has been tough to get into the swing of. It is finally feeling like a teeny tiny fish in a sea, which has it's pros and cons. I will happily admit that this year hasn't been the best for me work-wise, but I feel like I have learnt a lot about myself and what I could do. But it does have it's knock on confidence, and I will say that I've never felt more lost in terms of who I want to be, what I want to do, compared to what I could/should do. A lot of people above me in age have said 'just enjoy yourself' which is all very true, and I should, but also I think it's important to feel like you're challenging yourself, setting yourself goals, and doing all the hard stuff now before we leave. I think for me, what is very evident right now is that I love what I'm doing for myself, but it's sometimes hard to apply to the work that you don't feel inspired by, or to ideas and suggestions that tutors are giving you. The most important thing I have learnt is that I have to trust myself and my instinct, but it's extremely important to say you have to listen. You cannot justify your actions if you haven't thought things through. Living like this is all these contradictions, but if you're reading this and going to University next year here's my advice: Enjoy yourself. Work hard, play hard. Choose good friends who are driven and lively. Do everything you love, because you can, and because you'll care about it. Listen, but also to yourself. Damn it, CARE about things, I am so sick and tired of meeting students that don't give a shit, and just want to laze about and do nothing. If you don't care, then you're not fighting for it. It definitely ain't an easy ride.

I didn't have the best end of year tutorial this year, and right now all I'm focusing on is making myself happy and content for myself. But this year, my achievements have come through the things that I care about, and they might not have been specific pieces of work, but that's not to say I haven't given 500% on everything. I am disappointed in myself in that I haven't shown my tutors what I can do, but I'm working on it... I guess I'm disappointed that I haven't shown myself I can do it too.

BUT I'm making up for it over the summer. I have a lot of things to show you.

We'll talk soon.

Fashion Scout: Day 5

The final day of Fashion Scout, was a pretty relaxed one, and in the morning I decided to change tact a little and sit somewhere different so that I was both backstage and watching the show. Seeing the activity literally around the corner of the catwalk is so interesting, and you'd never believe a model would be running full pelt, with one seven inch high heel half on, seconds before she nonchalantly strides down the catwalk. My favourite show of the week was Ekaterina Kukhareva, the clothes were beautiful, and I wanted to be this glamourous woman that she put on the runway. Unfortunately, I don't feel like I've done them justice, so in this next week I'll do some more drawings from some photos.

And thus, is the end of my Fashion Scout experience this season. I hope to do future seasons though so I'll be back before you know it! Thankyou so much to all the Fashion Scout team for helping me survive! 

Lulu Liu

Ekaterina Kukhareva

Ming Pin Tien

Fashion Scout: Day 4

After the weekend, I felt well prepared for Monday and Tuesday, which I could argue were my favourite days for drawing. I also wanted to do a lot of backstage focus, just because I find those moments so interesting to draw, aside from the shows and the clothes. Backstage, it's all about the faces and the hair and make-up, a whole side of the show that people don't get to see the process of. And of course it's then that you get to capture the beauty and interesting faces of the models, where a catwalk it's just too fast to get an accurate life drawing.

Monday was so full of shapes and beautiful silhouettes that I just loved. I would DIE for a Heohwan Simulation coat.

Natasha Zinko: Kiev Fashion Days

Eugene Lin

Heohwan Simulation

Fam Irvoll

Ji Cheng

Fashion Scout: Day 3

Sorry it's been a while since I last posted about Fashion Scout! More than likely you've got bored of hearing about it, so I will try my best to post all of these in quick succession so that it'll have been worth the wait.

Day 3 was a short day, thankfully, because everybody was knackered from the previous day. The day consisted only of two shows, and I only went to see the Phoebe English show. It was set out a little differently, using one section of the room upstairs. The beautiful thing about the space upstairs is the room itself; the stunning floors and ceiling just add that sense of grandeur to all the shows upstairs. It makes a change from the blank space of downstairs, although it's understandable if it doesn't fit the concepts the designers have created.

What I loved most about this show was more the combination of the set up, the room, and the movement that the models were set to do. It was very mechanical, and so gave an eerie, futuristic feel. Oh, and the shoes, I love the shoes.

Fashion Scout: Day 2

On day 2 I arrived with more confidence than the previous day, having felt I'd made some successful images. I only missed one show on Saturday, and it was the biggest day of the week, with Merit Award, Ones to Watch AND Pam Hogg, all in one day. It was a long, exhausting, yet fulfilling one, and the favourite day by far. Unfortunately, I didn't get much backstage drawing done, which in hindsight is my favourite part! But the shows were incredible, and thankfully I only missed one.

Ones To Watch: YEASHIN

Dans La Vie

Zeynep Tosun

Merit Award: Yifang Wan

Pam Hogg

Favourite for me was YEASHIN, and I will most definitely be watching her for the next few seasons. The whole of Freemason's Hall was roaring, especially for the Pam Hogg show. As anticipated, it shocked everybody, as she sent completely naked models down the catwalk. I'm not sure how much I enjoyed it, but it was, nevertheless, a performance. It certainly left me in shock for the next 12 hours.

Fashion Scout: Day 1

Yesterday marked the end of Fashion Scout, and for the whole of London Fashion Week. I have to say, I have never worked so hard, drawing pretty much 10-8pm every day for five days, and it has been so much fun. I really really loved every second of it, drawing beautiful clothes on beautiful models, and really just trying my best to put across as much of my week as possible. Hopefully I will have the opportunity to do it again in future seasons to come. 

Over the next few days, I'll do an overview of each day at Fashion Scout, my favourites, how I drew them, and just generally what I thought about them. I will try and put on as many drawings from the day as possible, but I have selected the best ones of the day. Note that on each day I averaged about 15 to 20 drawings (!!!), and given the circumstances, some were pretty shit. On the other hand, some were pretty good and towards the end of the week, there's a definite improvement in my life drawings. The majority of my drawings were drawn at the scene and not from photos, so you can imagine that my days were pretty intensive. Back-to-back shows, and also drawing backstage too!

Okay so.... Day 1:

You can imagine that I was nervous as hell, the first time I'd ever done anything so big before. The first time anything of mine would be published! It was sort of a miracle that I'd even got the job in the first place. I arrived with the jitters, easily THE worst example of blagging and confidence every witnessed. Thankfully, the team were so welcoming to me, particularly Max, one of the photographers, and the two Josh's, one a blogger, and the other also an illustrator, made me feel more relaxed by the end of the day. I drew at the shows for Apu Jan, Timur Kim, Liz Black, Krystof Strozyna and Nova Chiu. Belle Sauvage was there too, and I was so gutted that I missed it! Favourite show of the day was Nova Chiu by far, the colours and textures... I just loved them. The shoes in particular was my fave, and I love the black and striped velvet dress (drawn below). However, my favourite drawing of the day was from Timur Kim backstage, who we shared a room with. Our HQ is based at the back of one of the upstairs dressing rooms, so at times it got pretty cramped! The girls for Timur Kim had really sweet hair backstage, and I'm glad I captured it pre-show before the clips got taken out into rolling waves of hair.

Nova Chiu, Backstage

Nova Chiu, show

Liz Black, preview

Yulia Kondranina, Exhibition

Timur Kim, Backstage