A wolf in sheep's clothing

Photography by Eleanor Hardwick.
i own nothing.

Meadham Kirchoff  are my ultimate favourite design duo, purely because of their fearlessness. For their SS'12 collection they drew inspiration from the idea of what little girls are expected to be in contrast with who they are. Sugar spice and all thinks nice - earmarking the collection in the form of feathers, glitter, crochet lace, pretty pastels and quirky motifs. A figure of inspiration for their collection was Marie Antoinette; a woman who lived a life of beauty, drama and excess, and who knew what it was like to live under mass expectations of her nation. There's so much pressure within society to act and be a certain way, wherever you go there is always an underlying expectation to look 'pretty'. And I feel that whilst we may embrace this, we should also find a way to make it our own.

 

This collection embodies a more eccentric perception of their theme, which although quite different from my personal design style, I find highly captivating. The pair continue to succeed at creating feminine, yet edgy and outlandish pieces, complete with a wild sense of colour and humour. Looking through their previous collections they display a great sense of design devlopment as they continue to embark along the fashion frontline. 

Letting everyone down, would be my greatest unhappiness

[All images via weheartit.com]

Another Sophia Coppola film, j'adore.

It's like staring through the looking glass to this beautiful world lost in time. Set in a time and place I'll never truly experience, but losing myself in film is the closest I'll come to it. From the glorious Parisian architecture, spring time tapestries, six-tiered cakes, masquerade balls, horse drawn carriages, ornate candelabras laden with melted wax, brocade bustles and overflowing ruffles, it's hard not to feel enchanted by Marie Antoinette and her life of excess.

Lenticular horse card

Soo I decided to step things up, and make a youtube channel!

*que tumbleweed*
Um okay, I was expecting applause, but whatever. 

One of the tasks on my design list is to post about two pieces of great design that I've found (could be anything from a photograph, to a piece of quirky ephemera, to any sort of three dimensional art thingymabob).

Anywhoo, I came across this lovely little card shop in South Kensington when I went to London last week and I purchased this thing called a lenticular postcard. It was made using a specialised lenticular lens to create the illusion of depth within an image which appears to move when viewed at different angles. It's still a developing technology but it's come a long way since the 1940s when it was first created. It's absolutely amaze-balls - if it's possible I'd love to have some lenticular fabric made up for one of my future fashion projects ^.^

I looked for idea-a-day.com (one of the other tasks on the list) but the site's currently down. From what I can tell it's about little ideas that could improve everyday life, so killing two birds with one stone here I'd love it if it were possible to develop a fabric holding a moving image - without the use of video projectors or smoke & mirrors - an actual fabric hybrid. Or in the least, maybe a fabric that changes colour depending on your mood. I know heat sensitive fabrics were a trend in the nineties and that didn't really catch on but I know of a dress designed by Lucy McRae (whose like my idol, no, seriously) called the Bubelle dress which uses biometric sensors that pick up on a persons emotions and projects them as colours along the outer-layer of the dress. Here's a link to a (super cheesy but nonetheless informative) video about her newest creations. I don't know if ideas like these would improve any body's quality of life per say, which I guess is idea-a-day.com underlying ethos, but I think it would open a gateway to greater developments in the future which is something I find really exciting.


(p.s. I apologise if the amount of times I say the word "like" in this video bothers anybody, I'm just like really like excited and stuff :P like.)

Photobooth fail

This is my self portrait, although I'm not entirely happy with it. I wanted to show various different sides of my personality and I don't feel this has captured 'me' fully. I was inspired by a photo shoot of Elle Fanning for LOVE magazine spring '11, which I believe was originally inspired by this photobooth series of Edie Sedgwick, taken by Gerard Malanga, 1966.

I guess part of the reason I was drawn to the photobooth idea is because I'm pretty indecisive as a person and taking just one shot, expressing one mood, wouldn't be enough for me. I decided to edit my selection down and just picked four images to display as a strip in the style of another traditional photobooth print, which I think works better than before, especially with the black border, but I'm still not entirely content. I really love photography, it's one of my strongest skills and I don't quite feel this showcases my talent fully so I think I'll shoot another self-portrait later on.

 

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{Elle Fanning for LOVE magazine source one and two.}

Sometimes I think we don't exist

-  b y  C h r i s   L i t t l e  -

{via weheartit}

One of the tasks on the design list was to pick a practitioner I admire and a picture of theirs I most relate to and explain why.

Chris Little is an established US-based freelance photographer. I was drawn to this particular image of his for several reasons... To begin with it's beautifully captured, even with all colourful confetti (which may just be splattered paint, but I like to think it's confetti) raining down, your eyes are immediately drawn to the subject in the centre. Despite all the beautiful colours, which one would usually relate to a feeling of joy or elation (perhaps as if a celebration were in progress) the subject appears unmoved by it all, potentially in awe, or perhaps simply lost in the haze. The stillness of her character is surprisingly evocative, enough so to challenge the mood of the entire image. She almost appears detached from reality, which is something I guess I can relate to.