CS - Grey Gardens Photoshoot

All photos taken by Charlotte Doherty check out her lookbook.nu profile!

So here's some of the photos from todays result. Charlotte, Zoe and I went out in Aylesbury and did a mini photo shoot in 2 hours, which was a bit pressured, but Charlotte managed to get the photos she needed - it was mainly for her and Zoe's purpose than anything, as they are doing a retail project based on Grey Gardens, but they could choose to promote on of the design students collections and they chose mine! So far Charlotte has posted 10 photos on Facebook and these are just my favourites...

What do you think - dress and photos?

You wouldn't have thought that I spend bloody ages pressing that dress, it looks so creased! But in general that linen isn't very cooperative as you would have hoped for!

Got some other good news today from my tutors; my form tutor reckons that if I do everything to the standard that I have done so far and keep working hard and pushing my boundaries my predict grade for the my final diploma would be D*D*D* - so the highest you could possibly get, translated to UCAS points thats 460! Wow, above an beyond, lets hope it all works out for me! No pressure as my form tutor Ali said!

Penny from Printed Accessories said if I hand in a beautiful sketchbook which contains all the work it should have tomorrow and I do some hemming and I can bring the scarf home! Hurray - watch out Mum that's your present! (Don't worry she already knows...) So NO preview pictures before Christmas Eve unfortunately for you guys!

I'm also currently working on filling out my UCAS application, only a few bits missing, which I need help with from college. There's different types on National Diplomas so have to sort that one out, which one?! Then there's the personal statement which Ali, is brutally sorting out (5th draft will there ever be an ending?) and of course the famous five choices... Won't be revealing those anytime soon, way to scary! And hopefully all this will be done by Friday, all paid for and accepted by Ali, with the reference too, send of! Hopefully with no regrets afterwards, fingers crossed!

Hope you have a lovely week!

xoxo

Hannah

CS - Grey Gardens Final Garment Illustration

So here's the illustration that I promised to post, I don't really like doing fashion illustrations as its not really my strong point, although I do enjoy drawing... Any thoughts, to my otherwise simple illustration? The actual outline has been done by my dear hands, the backdrop and the image has all been done on Photoshop.

The madness is over... I handed in my Grey Gardens project today and the past week has been pretty rough with trying to get everything finished for today, even ended up doing my Power Point Presentation on the bus on my way into college this morning!

Living the wild life of a teenager, naah not really...

I am beyond relived that I have finally finished this project, the projects always tends to drain me when I'm nearing the end, because I'm desperate to finish, as my patience is starting to ware of.

The next thing that's on the to-do-list is write that review of University of Westminster, perhaps updating a review on AUCB as I revisited that yesterday with Daisy. We had such a nice day together, her Dad took us there, really nice guy he's in the creative industry himself so there was loads to talk about, even though we attend the morning sessions I didn't get home till 7 pm as we ended up at TGI Friday for a late lunch, they were desperate for food!

I will also be starting to brainstorm ideas for my Final Major Project tomorrow as I will be starting to write the brief on Friday! Scary and exciting at the same time!

Hope you have a great week!

xoxo

Hannah

CS - Grey Gardens Final 18 Collection

Wuhu! I have finally finished my collection that consists of 18 designs, which was the requirement in the brief. The thing is that I tend to work a bit backwards, even though I finished this collection line-up the other day - I finished my final garment yesterday, which probably not how the tutors want me to work, but it works for me!

Am I pleased with the outcome? Well lets just say that I'm never satisfied and I'm a great believer in that you could always do better. The problem is that I constantly change my mind about what should and shouldn't be in the collection, think I have done over 60 designs for this project and still not pleased with the designs that I have done... and yes quality is better than quantity.

Anyway its done now and thank God for that, but I won't show you the final garment, before the illustration (which I haven't done yet) and you will have to settle with the camera from my phone, because there just isn't enough time in a day to get the photo studio booked on a Friday to get the pictures taken...

Oh and btw I still need to post one last university open day review and that is from University of Westminster, but that will probably not be up until a few days.

Hope you have a great weekend!

xoxo

Hannah

Central Saint Martins

My impression of CSM

First impression was fantastic building from the inside, looks like an old building from the outside. They are high on punctuality but don’t follow through themselves. It was a shame that I was to slow on booking on to the Womenswear Open Day, because then it would have been a bit more focused on what it is I want to do. On the other hand it was also great to hear about the other courses, especially because there was a least one student from each course, that you could ask questions to, which was really helpful.

I did find it rather strange that there were no tours of the building or the studios, no accommodation talk or similar things that other universities offered. I do accept that they did it on a weekday, but that should bring an even better opportunity to show what’s going on right now.

However I did leave the place feeling inspired and in some ways that I hadn’t missed out on much, although I had only been there for an hour and three quarters, but perhaps that’s the point they’re making.

I did have a little nose around on the ground floor before I left the building. It looked like they had great installation/exhibition place to showcase their students work, the overall feel was very industrial, but cool.

What really caught me though, was that the students that they had brought in for the course talk came from all over the place, at least fifty percent came from abroad. I know it might sound a bit silly, but it made me feel at ease and that I might just belong there, considering how they want fifty present of their students be international and then there’s the EU students too.

xoxo

Hannah

Middlesex University

My impression of MDX

I was so impressed by Middlesex, even though a few things didn’t go according to their plan, but the Jillian was exuding enthusiasm and passion for the course. I truly felt inspired after the Open Day. This is probably the first place that has made me really excited.

As it is a completely new build, the facilities are absolutely amazing, endless opportunities for getting creative and playing with new materials and techniques, yes, on that respect it reminded me a lot of University of West England, but Middlesex had a better university feel, where University of West England reminded me of a school or a college.

The location probably wasn’t the most exciting place, but its not too far away from central London and perhaps that is beneficial, that it’s not bang in city centre – less distractions and more focus on studies!

They also offer other great opportunity such as studying abroad, one downside they don’t attend Graduate Fashion Week.

This will definitely be on the top five-list.

xoxo

Hannah

Nottingham Trent University

My impression of NTU

I was really looking forward to NTU and I was overall really impressed, until the course talk. The tutors didn’t seem very enthusiastic about the subject, and they read up from pieces of paper. I expected that they would know what they are talking about and didn’t have the need to support themselves with pieces of paper.

So I was really disappointed, everything else seemed good, the atmosphere was great and people around there were really helpful.

I also went on a tour around the Bonington building where most of my time would be spent and it was students that were showing us around. In the studios they had laid loads of sketchbooks and portfolios out on the tables, so you could get an impression of the kind of level and projects they would be doing. I was really impressed about how diverse the students were and I could imagine myself studying in such a place.

I also got the opportunity to talk to one of the Fashion students. Basically she said that they were made loads of promises that their tutors didn’t keep, such as going abroad and the exchange was probably not going to happen, because of the cost. I also asked about what sort of CAD programmes they used, she said Photoshop and Illustrator, then asked if they used some of the CAD software that is specifically designed for the fashion industry and she just looked at me blank. You got the impression that she suddenly felt like she had been missing out, and said that after this conversation she would go and find her tutor and ask why the hasn’t been using any of that kind of software.

It makes you wonder when Sean said they were always looking out for the newest software to get the students the best opportunities…

xoxo

Hannah

Arts University College Bournemouth

My impression of AUCB

The university was really welcoming, and helpful with guiding you to the right places! The course talk covered both Fashion Design Technology and Fashion Studies, which I thought would be great as I could get a clear idea of which one that I was the most interested in, as I was in doubt when I arrived.

The question was raised several times; what is the difference between the two courses? It seemed like a hard question to answer, as the tutors weren’t exactly sure what to answer and looked searching at their students (there were two students there to talk about their experience with AUCB). As usual it is the students that are more helpful, and seem to be able to provide more information than the tutors. One student did mention the why and the how, which made sense in a way.

My understanding is that the FDT is more focused on the practical and technical side, such as pattern cutting, especially since they use 30% of their time using a CAD programme that is called Lectra. Whereas the FS course focuses more on the exploration of designing and how you can push the limits through that. Listening to the students it sounds like the actual pattern cutting and sewing skills are better achieved if you do the FDT course and you can tell the difference between the two courses by quality of making skills.

At the tour around the studios I went with the FDT tutor Sarah. I do want to become a fashion designer, but is it best to achieve that through a technical and practical background, because then you have a better understanding of what the limits are, or should you go the more creative way, because you might end up with really impressive ideas and designs that can take you far?

The atmosphere was great and you could sense a tight community-feel within the university.

xoxo

Hannah