Tuesday 26 October 2010

The Flapping Depression take one...

At university at this moment in time.. yes that's right now I'm involved in a creative styling product based on a Spring/Summer 2011 trend... this means I had to look at many many catwalks until I went cross eyed over eccentric fabrics and went mad over Japanese kimonos. I looked at men's wear and women's wear a few favourites were Marc Jacobs take on 70s chic and Alexander Wang's slicked futuristic look. But I somehow got drawn to menswear.. I wonder why you may be asking.

My partner in crime Rosie showed me
John Galliano's menswear collection and suddenly there was a light at the end of the tunnel. It was like a homage to the funny men of the twenties and thirties, yes that's right Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. It worked so well, the references were so strong and it just stood out from other collections. Soon as I'd seen that collection others such as N.Hoolywood all started to make sense, there were links where there were no links before.. The trend we came up with was the Flapping Depression, a cross over between the 1920s and 1930s.
We organised a photo shoot at the Ace Cafe as a test shoot with two models Rosie had previously worked with and our lovely friend Eddy as our photographer. We were looking to create quite a grimey & grungy feel to our images as well as using strong Chaplin references. Here are some of the edited images (all edited by myself of course . Some work really well with the editing some not so well, I'll let you all decide that. This was only our test shoot we have our final shoot of the project on Monday 1st November so I will be reporting with image on that also.
Until next time
Toodle Pip
xxx
                                  This is very in the style of our Chosen Publication; TANK

This is my favourite image from selection, it is very natural and wasn't posed, I think we captured Chaplin very well
This image was meant to look quiet prison like with the denim of the thirties

Sunday 17 October 2010

What has happened to the designer??!

As London fashion week has just gone, I thought I'd talk about my main love, that is of course; Fashion. Now I am a great lover of the designer and all things designer, especially Louis Vuitton (god bless you Marc Jacobs for your divine tribute to the fab fifties!) and I would love nothing more than to carry a Vivienne Westwood bag on my shoulder or wear a Chanel Dress down to the shops but due to lack of funding of being a student... this isn't happening anytime soon.
   Which leads me onto the subject of my latest entry, in today's world of labels and brands, is Designer losing its individuality and its edge? I currently live in Chatham, most of you know this and as I was walking through the town centre recently, I noticed several ladies sporting Louis Vuitton handbags, we all know the famous design and yes we would all love one, but I was surprised of all places to see them in Chatham, because its not one of the most "up and coming"  towns and definitely isn't known for its designer stores. But it made me think, designer labels such as this, were once for the well off or a special treat for ones self on pay day at the end of the month. Now it seems everyone is wearing designer, be it make up, jewellery, sunglasses or an actual garment.
    I'm not sure if I like this, if its like this it seems to lose its authenticity because it is so accessible, people can now feel part of a certain crowd which they never did before and without having to go out and get a second mortgage! Which of course to these people is a brilliant thing, but to me, I see it as something to strive and work for, when I've bought something from Vivienne Westwood or YSL, I know I've hit the big time, its an achievement. People don't see buying a £20 Dior Lipstick as an achievement, they see it as an essential, why? Because it is simply now affordable.

Is this the next step for designers?

    

This is probably what designers are aiming for, of course the more people that buy their brand, the more known they become, and the more money they earn. Surely though, they would still want to keep their morals and values for clothing, otherwise they would simply become high street. With everyone wearing the latest Prada shoes and carrying this seasons Stella McCartney purse, is this a sign of things to come? They still keep the prices on their garments because of course they use the finest fabrics, so what is it? Do people now have bigger bank balances? Or are designers making themselves more accessible for lower earners by designing for high street stores such as H&M, this of course is another way people can grab themselves a bit of designer for more than half the price and quality.
    I don't know, I'm just as confused as the next girl, has the fashion world gone mad? Only time will tell.

Until next time
Toodle Pip

xxx

Tuesday 12 October 2010

A stroll along Dover beach

Yes people, I've done another blog! I'm keeping up to date at long last, it only took me a few weeks, just a quick hello to all my lovely new followers, I hope you enjoy my blog!
So here are a few photos from a photoshoot I did in Dover at the end of September, with a local photographer, Ian Farrent, he emailed me many moons ago asking if I'd be interested in doing a photoshoot which seemed quite gothic/ 1930s inspired, we got influence from a video blog of the amazing photographer Melissa Rodwell .
Here is the video blog if any of you are interested in seeing our influences

 
I was very interested in doing this shoot because Ian's work is very individual and it stood out to me a lot so I jumped at the chance to work with him, he'd paired me up with another model, Charlie for the day and we got on tremendous! I didn't have exactly the same clothes as the ones in the blog but I think we improvised quite well, so here are the final results, I hope you enjoy!!


Wearing a 70s style leopard print maxi dress borrowed from my dear friend and stylist Rosie

Wearing a vintage 50s black chiffon dress, it was impossible to stand on sand in heels!

Wearing a make do and mend swimsuit borrowed from Rosie! I had great difficulty climbing onto those rocks!!

So there they were, hope you like them! These are definately some of my best shots to date and hopefully I can keep up the good work!
Until next time
Toodle Pip
xxx

Wednesday 6 October 2010

Bettina Scarlett styling Miss Dollface Darling

So here I am again, making yet another apology because I've fell behind on my blog! How terrible! I really cant be doing this can I, but as I've just started this one, I have just had a few more light bulbs light up in that little brain of mine so hopefully I'll keep going for a bit! Being back at university really is taking its toll. On my course we've been thrown in the deep end with a creative styling project which is great as over the summer I had a bit more experience in styling a photoshoot for my beautiful friend Dollface Darling.
   If you remember from past posts me and Dollface got on like a house on fire at a photoshoot we did at the East Anglian transport museum so as I was looking for some styling experience I tagged along to a photoshoot her and the delightful Dominic Fenn had at the beginning of September, here are a few of my fave shots! All of which are unedited.
I loved this idea of Dominic taking the photo over Dollface when she is surrounded by sweets
Originally Dollface's idea was a cupcake shoot with her baking cakes etc so when she told me I started researching a few kitsch ideas and as I still worked in my delightful seaside cafe I managed to pick up lots of goodies! including rainbow sticks of rock, windmills, a hulahoop and lollies! So we were going off the subject a bit but I think the images were really successful, Dollface brought a selection of outfits so I picked what went with what including accessories I'd brought along and gave her my thoughts on how she should do her eye make up and hair .
How much can you do with a hula hoop? Well we were limited but Dollface managed to work with it very well and this is one of my favourite shots

I got inspiration for this image from a vintage photograph of the fifties of a lady with a hulahoop, I can't find the image now which has annoyed me because I would of liked to show my references
Final two images with the windmills, the colours worked really well with what Dollface was wearing, I chose well even if I do say so myself!