Saturday 29 December 2012

AW13-14 Trend Moscow Nomad

Moscow Nomad

Over the next few weeks I will be posting capsule trends for Autumn winter 13-14. One of the new emergening trends for this season has an eastern european feel it is very much a folkloric inspired look. Floral Embroidery is plays a key role in this trend with lots of bright colours especially gold and rich turquoise hues.
moscow nomad aw13-14 trend

Wednesday 12 December 2012

Emerald Green the colour of 2013



Emerald Green 17-5641 has been announced by Pantone to be the colour of 2013. Often associated with precious gemstones , the perception of Emerald is sophisticated and luxurious it is the colour of beauty and new life in many cultures. Emerald brings a sense of renewal and rejuvenation which is much needed in today's world. The colour has been seen on the spring summer catwalks and works fantastically in sequin and embroidery embellishment as seen below , it is my personal favourite of all the shades of green.

emerald green fashion

Tuesday 4 December 2012

Christmas Jumpers a bit of festive fun

It's getting close to Christmas jumper time again and this year its bigger than ever, the high street is flooded with them and there is even some appearing on net-a-porter. They make a great gift even though they have the shortest shelf life. Here are some of the best of this kitsch christmas craze, my favourite is the stag jumper top left , would you dare to wear one?

christmas festive jumpers

above images from
http://www.asos.com
http://www.net-a-porter.com/
http://www.boohoo.com/
http://www.urbanoutfitters.co.uk/

Saturday 1 December 2012

Prints seen in Zara this week

Spotted some fabulous prints in Zara today ,lots of tiger prints, paisley and jewel prints see below.


faded aztec print


geometric skull print


zara tiger print


jewel print


zara tiger print trouser


tiger print shirt


ethnic border print


aztec skirt


paisley print jacket

Wednesday 28 November 2012

Check this out Tartan is back

Its Winter and checks are here again, dogtooth checks are very popular on the high street at the moment but my prediction is we will see more classic traditional tartan back on the autumn winter 13 catwalks in authentic colours. This makes me wonder if the kilt will be back in fashion next Winter , I suppose we will just have to wait and see. 
Tartan fashion
Tartan Fashion

Street shots taken from 

blue top, topshop
shoes christian louboutin

Sunday 25 November 2012

Prints Instore this week

High Street Prints

I attempted to do some Christmas shopping yesterday and took a quick look in  Primark , I spotted some really fun prints and some great animal conversational all over prints see below.
duck print

rabbit fashion print

panda print

swan bird print


fashion penguin print pattern

bird print pattern

floral lace print

pow pop art print

multi colour heart print

dog tooth hound tooth print knit

animal print skull

retro 1960 print

Love this cushion I spotted seen in Debenhams.
french bull dog print cushion


Friday 23 November 2012

Animal Print Tutorial

Following the animal prints in the last post I thought I would show you a quick tutorial as to how I go about producing such a design. 

step 1

Take a picture of your animal or find a good copyright free high quality image and open this in adobe photoshop CS5. 
vector fashion tutorial

step 2

select the filter gallery from the top menu bar and select the cutout filter, I then adjusted the settings number of levels 8 ,edge simplicity 0, edge fidelity 3, this then changed the picture from a photo print to more of a simple print with fewer colours and detail.




illustrator cut out filter

step 3

I then selected some photo's of a hat and a bow tie that I liked and and placed each one on a separate layer and added the same filter as in step 2.

step 4 

I then deleted any background they had by selecting the magic wand on the area I wanted to delete and then pressed the delete button.


step 5

I then adjusted the size of the hat and bow tie by using the scale tool which is under the edit tab -transform-scale, I then used the rotate tool  to get the right angle of each one,this is found in the  free transform- rotate, under the edit tab at the top menu bar.
photoshop tutorial

step 6

Then to change the colour of the hat and bowtie I selected a pink colour I liked from the swatches palette and then selected  image tab from the top menu bar, adjust-hue and saturation , in this box I selected colourise and then moved each bar to get the desired colour.

photoshop cs5 tutorialstep 7 

Then before I placed my final print into illustrator I checked there was no white background in the layers palette highlighted, the background should look transparent. That part is now finished and 
I then placed my image onto my vector design I had created in illustrator.
see below one finished Pyjama style.


fashion design pyjama cad




Monday 19 November 2012

Quirky Animal Realism Prints

Animal Character prints are soon to be appearing on ladies tops,knitwear and nightwear. The trend is to make the prints look more life like as oppose to cute cartoons  as seen in previous seasons. The animals themselves look more life like but then have a quirky edge by adding bow-tie's ,Hats ,glasses etc. Although there is already a few of these prints around at the moment the trend is defiantly going to be much bigger next year. I am currently working on a few Animal placement prints for the UK highstreet which will be in store next Autumn winter 13. Below are some pictures I used for inspiration when working on my designs.



fashion fox prints
Add caption
tiger dog and pug prints


Saturday 17 November 2012

Free skull vector clipart

To get you started on those skull designs here are some free downloadable vector clipart patterns and skull graphics enjoy x
download vector skulls here

free fashion skull vector clipart


Friday 16 November 2012

Skull Feature

The High street has been saturated with Skull Imagery over the last few seasons and it seems to be a trend that maybe around to stay a little longer as still some designers were still draw to skull prints for the spring summer 13 collections, Bright Mexican influenced skulls were seen at  Mayan Hanson spring summer 13 catwalk shows. The newer take on this trend see's skulls  bold and bright in geometric or tribal themes or the reverse and very feminine and subtle as seen in lace prints at Emilio Pucci. Personally am not sure if the skull thing has had its day what do you think?  see below some more inspiring  skulls Pictures.

skull fashion prints

Wednesday 14 November 2012

Gypsy Nomad

This Bohemian Spring Summer 13 look has very much a folk gypsy influence.  It is more Luxurious  than seen in previous seasons with Intricate Embroidery and cutwork being  key. Paisley and foulard patterns are seen in bold colours and are mixed with geometrics to give them a up to date feel . See below some inspiring picture's along with some free ethnic floral and paisley vector clipart to download.
Boho fashion trend

download free vector clip art here
free paisley vector clipart





Sunday 11 November 2012

My Top 5 Fashion Apps

If your a smart phone lover or I Pad crazy then I am sure you will have a few fashion apps on your devices. Personally I would find it difficult now to do without my I-phone I just cant resist to check out my  favorite sites and keep up-to date with all the latest fashion news.There is so many fashion apps available its can be hard deciding  which ones to install  So I have compiled a list of my personal favorites  I would also love to know what  your favorite apps are.

Pinterest

I Am a massive lover of Pinterest, If you haven't heard of it, its basically somewhere you can pin all your favorite pictures into categorized boards you create, you can search and follow other people and find some really inspiring pictures if you click on a picture it then gives you an option of repining it and if you then click it again it takes you to the original source where it came from, which is a great way of finding interesting blogs and sites. The only downside to pinning on your I- phone is you can't pin from websites like you can on your PC, well at least if you can I haven't worked out how to do it yet, but the app is still great for searching the site itself. You can follow me on Pinterest  here and we can then begin sharing our inspiring images.
pinterest mobile image

































Shopstyle
I love this app, In my opinion its the best shopping app it has various categories women ,men, kids and home and you can search and look at thumbnail pictures of hundreds of items from over 300 outlets it allows you to customize the search so you can find the right colour, size and price range, its great for finding bargains.
shopstyle online fashion app

Lookbook

This is an app where people upload there look its great for inspiring street wear pics each picture has a number rating depending on how many views it has had, so you can do a search for what's hot being the most popular.
lookbook

Trendstop

This is a great site for keeping up-to date  with up and coming trends fashion news and catwalks.
The only downside to this app is there is only so much that is free and some of the content can only be read if you subscribe, one month subscription is £1.99 , 12 months £8.99

trendstop

Style.com

The best app for viewing the latest catwalk shows, it has full coverage of all the shows plus a great archive, it also has videos and photos from all the latest parties and a fantastic style blog
style.com style fashion trend


Wednesday 7 November 2012

Free People Launches on-line in the UK


1970's U.S fashion label Free People  launches on-line in the UK, sister brand of Urban Outfitters and Anthroplogie. It has a boho, hippy, feminine feel many pieces are embellished and use a mix of fabrics.The collection not only covers ladies-wear but also overs footwear, a pet range and in the home section there is some beautiful printed skateboards , never thought I would want to own a skateboard again but would love one of those to hang on my wall.
The price range differs from the affordable dresses starting at £28 to the more pricey going up to £800.
See below some of my personal favourites that I would like on my Christmas wish list.

Golden Enchantment Dress
Visit Free people website
Beaded Wavelengths Tunic
Eagle Graphic Sweatshirt
Barton Springs Top
We The Free Patched Long Sleeve Tee