Rachel Chilton

26th May - 3rd June

Newcastle Fashion Weesk 2012 brought many events to the city including catwalk shows, shopping events, and so much more. There were many free events and most were held in the very heart of Newcastle city centre; making the fashion showcase accessible to everyone.

All of the events were listed and described in the official Newcastle Fashion Week programme; this made it easy to see what events were on where and at what time. The short descirptions were good for people to decide what event would best suit them and ultimately helped with deciding what events to attend.

Newcastle College Showcase

Newcastle Fashion week opened on Saturday 26th May with a catwalk show featuring some of the best work from Newcastle College fashion students. The showcase was held at 12:00 at Grey's Monument. One of the collections seen was the Little Black Dress which I found particularly interesting as like many others 'The Little Black Dress' is a reliable favourite in my wardrobe. I also found the showcase exciting as hopefully, being a 1st year Fashion student at Newcastle College; my work could be showcased here sometime in the years to come.

Work It

The fashion catwalks continued at Grey's Monument with a showcase of workwear availbale from some of Newcastle's top retailers. The show began at 1pm and showed the public 'How to Dress for Success' with clothing from John Lewis, Marks & Spencer, Primark and Warehouse. Shoes were also on display from Moda in Pelle.

John Lewis

Marks & Spencer

Primark

Warehouse

Warehouse also celebrated Newcastle Fashion Week with an exclusive in-store shopping event hosted right after the Work It catwalk showcase; 20% discount was on offer as well as a complimentary drink whilst you shopped.

Moda in Pelle shoes also hosted a shopping even offering 20% off full price products to privilege card holders (also available to those who signed fo privilege cards on the day). There was also a prize draw to win a pair of shoes and matching bag each season for a year.

Barbour Spring/Summer 2012

Sunday 27th May saw TV fashion star Brix Smith-Start present a catwalk showing highlights from the Barbour Spring/Summer 2012 collection. The South Shields based international fashion brand also designed the official Newcastle Fashion Week T-shirt this year which were sold exclusively in Fenwicks with all profits donated to the Cash for Kids charity.

All of the the Summer/Spring 2012 collection shown is available to purchase in Fenwick.

Fashion Front Row

As You Like It played host to Newcastle Fashion Week's Fashion Front Row event on Tuesday 29th May. Presented by Jayne Middlemiss the catwalk show featured some of the best emerging and established fashion talent in the North East. Some well known brands were on show including; luxury lingerie brand Tallulah Love, vintage inspired accessories brand Rock n Rose, and bespoke milliner The Libertarian.

Funnella

Al's Musique Boutique

Rock n Rose

Christopher Niari

Jennifer Lilly

Boulevard Rouge

Suzanne Porter Boutique

Shonagh Marie

Emma Bell

Bad Kitty Corsets

The Libertarian

Tallulah Love

Barbour Official Newcastle Fashion Week 2012 T-Shirt

Hair by Toni & Guy
Make-Up by ND Make Up Artists

Supported by Metro Radio; once again money was raised for Cash fo Kids by selling raffle tickets and with donations on the door.

Fashion's Day Out

Thursday 31st May saw Eldon Square put together a combination of catwalk shows, fashion displays and demonstrations. Showcasing this seasons key trends in both in-store and mall events; all of the items were available to purchase right there and then from the participating stores. Fashion shows took place within Marks & Spencer, Dorothy Perkins and Bonmarche, with the main fashion displays taking place between Boots and John Lewis alongside product demonstrations.

Fenwick's Champagne & Afternoon Tea

Fenwick also hosted a catwalk show featuring the latest trends available in-store. Showcased within Cafe 21; while people enjoyed champagne and afternoon tea.

Frock & Roll

Held at Event Northumbria on Friday 1st June; the fashion and music event showcased catwalks from French Connection, Reiss, Warehouse and Urban Outfitters, all combined with live music from Frankie and the Heartstrings, Lulu James, Polarsets and Karima Francis. Presented by MTV presenter Adam Childs.

French Connection with Frankie and the Heartstrings DJ Set

Warehouse wiith Lulu James

Urban Outfitters with Polarsets

Reiss with Karima Francis

Newcastle Fashion Week Official Closing Party

Sunday 3rd June was the final day of Newcastle Fashion Week 2012 and to finish what better way to end with an Offical closing party at Tup Tup palace. Fashion TV were there on the night filming at Tup Tup Palace, with their own exclusive catwalk show. There was also an appearance from Dizzee Rascal after his performance at the local Evolution Festival that night.

Dizzee Rascal

So overall Newcastle Fashion Week 2012 has been an absolute success and hopefully the event will continue to grow over the years to come. Its a great way to showcase and acknowledge the design talent from the North East of England and to confirm that Newcastle is the Fashion capital of the North.

NE1 Newcastle: Get into Newcastle (in partnership with MetroRadio) delivered a great schedule of events for Newcastle Fashion Week 2012 and lets not forget the sponsors Mercedes-Benz of Newcastle and Chamilia; for helping this all to happen. Many others made it possible for the events to run; including Eldon Square, Fenwick, Barbour, John Lewis, Northumbria University, and Newwcastle College.

Hopefully you all enjoyed this years Newcastle Fashion Week and continue to support it next year.

What will Newcastle Fashion Week 2013 bring?

You'll have to wait & see!

Last Friday saw the hand in of my last projects of 1st year Foundation Degree Fashion.
I know I haven't blogged much about the course throughout the year but I'll try to keep you all up to date with the work I do & hopefully I'll blog more from now on.

But just to get you all up to date; here is how my first year has turned out...

Drawing & Communication:

So my first year has saw me complete a range of different projects; starting with a Drawing & Communication module way back in September. The module invovled researching my chosen theme of Ancient Eygptians. For inspiration and as a great source of research I visited the Great North Muesum in Newcastle; at the time they were exhibiting a specially collection of Ancient Eygptian artifacts. Seeing all of the displays myself was much better than any information that I found online. Anyway; using a combination of information and images found online alongside photographs taken at the exhibition; I produced a sketchbook higlighting different aspects of the Ancent Eygptians that I found interesting and inspiring. From this sketchbook I then created moodboards, customer profile boards, etc. which I then used to produce and develop my own designs.

Sketchbook

Moodboards: Theme

Design Development

Illusttration

Technical Flats

Although I completed all that was required for the module and I gained quite a high grade; I wasn't particularly happy with the work I produced. I think the may reason for this is my lack of confidence with my drawing skills. Throughout the year I have tried to develop and overcome this problem. I still don't feel confident with this aspect.

Skills for Making:

The next module was a 'Skills for Making' module. This involved me learning and developing sewing skills. I learnt how to create different types of seams and when and where they would be appropriate to use. I also developed my drawing skills in the form of flats, it was at this stage when I began to see an improvement within my drawing of flats. After learning basic pattern cutting skills; I created a pattern for a standard size 12 ladies shirt with a curved hem. From this pattern I then manufactured a toile of my shirt design using calico fabric. I enjoyed this project as it was the first time I had undertaken the process of pattern cutting and manufacturing a toile. For my first making project I was quite happy with the results and was looking forward to making my next garment.

Shirt Toile

The next moudle was the digital skills project which I have already blogged about. This again was interesting as it was a new experience to me working digitally.

Denim:

The denim project involved me researching into the history of denim and learning about the creation of the Denim jeans. I learnt about properties and characterics of many other fabrics but the main focus of the project was Denim. I created a moodboard showing the key developments within the history of Denim. I also created moodboads showing current silhouettes and key trends.

Moodboards: History of Denim & Current Trends

I then produced a range of design development sheets; drawn in the form of flats, which I then chose a design to manufacture in denim. After a discussion with tutors and staff it was decided that I would manufacture the tie front cape and the high waisted shorts with button detailed front to go with it. (Although I did want to manufacture the jeans.)

Design Development: Technical Flats

Unfortunately I don't have any photographs of my final garments to post (well not yet!) but the manufacturing stage went well and I was happy with the results as the process involved quite complex pattern cutting and sewing skills. However; I wasn't very happy with the grade I was given. I personally think I derserved higher than I got and if not a higher grade than at least better feedback from which I can learn and develop. But still my garments looked good and it wwas a great learning experience throughout the entire project. Completing such complex pattern cutting, mostly on my own, I feel this has boosted my confidence with making and I would like to further develop this and hopefully continue to produce successful patterns. The sewing stage was also interesting as when working in denim there wasn't much room allowed for mistake therefore great care and precision was needed, this was something I'm used to doing with all my work.

Branding:

From working through the denim project we took this through into a branding project which involved us working in groups. We were put into groups of 5 and as a group we had to createand develop a denim brand; this included the brand name, logos, market level, price points, etc. Once the brand was fully established we then worked individually on our own diffusion lines. As we were working in groups the task wasn't exactly easy; and the team work stages saw misunderstandings, miscommunications, and confrontations. This was because some member of the group were being overlooked when they were making suggestions or stating their opinions. Once the group overcome this obsticle we were able to agree on a brand name -House of Denim- and then created a logo. The brand holds 3 ranges; Duchess of Denim (Womenswear), Dukes of Denim (Menswear) and Mini Monarchs (Childrenswear). These sub-brands were developed individually. I personally feel that as a group we didn't work to the best standard we could of; I feel we should have developed brandings such as buttons, rivets, zip pulls, etc as a group. I also feel we should have developed branded packaging as a group; we could have designed our own branded bags, boxes, tissue paper, stickers, seals, etc. This was actually discussed but again it was something that was overlooked by other members. I feel that the weakness of the group work transferred through to my individual work as everything was decided by myslef including all of the branding aspects. Personally I thought that to get the best from this project all of our individual work should have worked together within the 'brand' if it was all placed together; to be honest I think some of the work produced shows little connection to the foundations of the brand created by the group.

Logo Design

Unfortunately I have no other imagery to show for this project and it is currently being marked so it might be a while before I can upload anything. Sorry!

Anyway...
This year has saw me complete a range of projects and learn and develop a range of skills needed within the industry. I feel my strengths lie within design and pattern cutting and my main weakness are drawing skills and colour application. I will continue to develop all of these skills and hopefully with time I will gain more and more confidence with the work I produce. Next year I will try to push myself more to try to get the very best out of everything I do.