Melting Pot presentation day

Deadline!!

I really need to improve my presenting skills. I felt "Empty head" when I was presenting and I even couldn't find the words to say. But anyway, overall I think it was alright. It was hard work to be honest. I did a lot of drawings, a lot of developing in order to come up with the final design. However, I think there's a problem with my research. I just have kind of a few pictures for references and inspiration next to my designing pages - while other people have done A LOT of researching. Man! They really did a lot of researching. The tutors said my work is a little random as well as my research is not even close to enough. Ahh.....I don't know how to tell them that my ideas are random themselves, I got them just like BAM! in my head...

Bella in New Moon

So it seems like everyone is crazy about the movie. I haven't seen the new one yet, but I've watched Twilight. It was good. And there's one thing to be noticed, many many girls are starting to dress like Bella. I have noticed this for a long time, that when a movie become really popular, people start to dress like one or a few characters in the movie!

(Gosh, look at her legs! How skinny a model can be??)

Bella's clothes are sort of sporty and simple, though, her long wavy hair still makes she looks feminine. Besides, skinny jeans look girly as well. It's a cool look I think. Me personally don't often dress up that way. Sometimes I feel that I need something quick and convenient, especially on those days when I don't think wearing a skirt in this windy England is a good idea, then I put on my jeans and a few layers of simple shirts. Then just a pair of Converse, maybe a warm hat or a scarf, and I'm good to go.

I remember the time when I was 14 15 something, Mean Girls was out to the cinemas. It was a bomb. Everybody talked about it. Girls started to dress like Katy (or Lindsay Lohan), I was one of them as well. It was huge. At that point I was thinking to myself: If you want to promote a style, make a movie that is going to be #1 on charts, dress up the main character the style you want, and BAM, it's everywhere.

Korean Vogue - November issue

If I had money to order 1 I would. I love these pictures. They are a little freaky, but that's why they are so impressive. I often look at fashion photos in order to inspire myself and also to learn from talented stylists. I think styling is an amazing job. They create the soul of photos and clothes. They are style - makers. I think this job is very interesting and challenging. I have read a little bit about styling. There are many kinds of stylists as well, as nowadays everything needs style, from a person to a magazine, a music video, a movie, a photo, everything.

I like the idea of a personal stylist. They are sort of a style coach. They consult people how to dress up, how to look and how to build up a particular image in public in terms of their lifestyle, personality, interests and career goals. They do clothes shopping for their clients as well, as many people really cannot go shopping at all (!). There is a funny quote saying that stylists get paid for spending clients' money. Sounds good to me! Well just kidding. It is hard work. I like the job but I am still not sure I am going on that path in fashion industry, though, it is an option.

Melting Pot's deadline is coming! Better finish the work quickly.

Japanese collection in Asian Fashion Council's ceremony!

Last night in my hometown which is Hanoi, Vietnam, there was a ceremony of Asian Fashion Council celebrating Vietnam becoming the sixth team member. The other 5 are Japan, Korea, Thailand, China and Singapore. At the ceremony, each member presented a collection, not necessarily traditional clothes, but should present something about their culture. And here is Japanese's:

This is so creative I have to say!! Japanese people are very well - known for being creative, obviously. They really DO invent stuff! But sometimes their inventions are just funny! Like this collection. Is it unique? Definitely Yes! Am I going to wear it? Not really, thanks!

Vietnam Collection Grand Prix 2009 Final

Last night, The Vietnam Collection Grand Prix 2009 took place. It is a big competition for young designers and students in Vietnam. There were not only fashion students but also students from different fields such as Fine Arts, Architecture and even Drama! ( I didn't know they could sew that well!)

I like this collection. It looks elegant and unique. However, the men's outfit and the blue just spoiled the whole thing. The men's outfit looks odd in a boring way, and that guy has odd legs as well, makes the trouser looks even worse! About the blue dress, I wish it was gold like the 2 others, or the grey that is on top of the other one. I know they are the same fabric, but the difference between the colours just make it looks separate and not like a collection.

This one is impressive. Me personally don't use a lot of details on my designs, but this collection is very nice. The point is that the designer know how to put details together, and they have a good eye for colours as well. This collection is very different, in a great way. If I was the judge, I would give this one the highest score.

I like this outfit. The designer has a really creative way of playing with different materials. I think it brings out clearly the theme of the collection and the message of it.

Seems like collection of a Harajuku lover here. This is more like my style. Looks cute.

This is the winer. I like the patterns and the way he puts colours together. The shape is very sculpture as well. Personally I wouldn't mark this first place though. The shape is just not my type.

Late November

It is late November now. It's freezing in England and it's cold as well in Vietnam. 1 thing I like about winter, I can dress as many layers I like, and I can try all the freaky combinations I can. I heard many people saying during the winter, we should wear something colourful in order to make winter less cold and grey and boring. It's not quite true really. I think there's no such thing as "season colours". We can wear whatever colour we like anytime. Me personally prefer an outfit that is mostly dark with 1 or 2 really bright, bold colour depends on what do I want to emphasise. When I want to bring out my legs, I wear colourful leggings, or if I want to bring out my face, a bright coloured scarf will be perfect for it. In my opinion, that is the way of creating contrasts on an outfit in order to make it much more effective, as an outfit should bring a message from the owner.

People are wearing grey jackets and coats a lot. Doesn't matter what materials, this season grey is huge. I like grey. It's suitable for everyone, it makes it easy to putting things together, and it's sexy. I have never seen a year without grey in fashion. People wear grey. I personally like grey. I also think a grey shirt would emphasise red hair and blonde hair perfectly.

Lace is everywhere as well, especially on tights and leggings. I am obsessed with lace. In every design I have lace on. It just looks so nice and sexy. I think lace is not only huge this season. It's going to be a big trend that takes quite a while. However, it's not that easy putting lace on. With no taste, lace is going to look cheap. We actually need a sense of style to make lace look elegant and sexy on us. In my opinion, the key is not to go over the top on anything.

Animal print is still on. However, it is not as huge as before. I think this season, people are not going to wear like the whole thing of animal prints, but just on 1 bit of their outfit.

Powerpoint practicing- Favorite designer

I used to do lots of presentations when I was in Vietnam, so I am kind of used to PowerPoint (PP). It is actually not difficult to use, and I think it is a perfect tool for doing presentations. With PP, we can play around with texts, pictures, and different presenting styles. By putting main points into different PP slices, it helps a lot while we are presenting. However, no tools can replace skills, of course.

Fashion

To be honest, Vietnam isn't the best place to study Fashion in the world. I've lived there all my life, therefore when I came to Paris and London I were really really impressed. Everything is so so new to me. I haven't done any courses before, haven't touched the sewing machine before, haven't ever been to Top Shop, or Dorothy Perkins, or River Island. In my country, people are getting more and more used to Fashion, but it's still like another world compared to London or Paris. Though, I love Vietnamese traditional cloth, I love Japanese fashion and I love Western fashion as well. I haven't really lived in a Fashion capital of the world, but now I will just do what is me, hopefully it's fine.

In Vietnam, there are 2 biggest city, the capital - Hanoi, where I am from, and Ho Chi Minh city, or Sai Gon. Hanoi is in the North and Ho Chi Minh city is in the South. In Ho Chi Minh city, people are more outgoing and open minded. They party more and travel more. I think that's a reason why they often wear colourful cloth; they look more relaxing and friendly. Where I lived is a little bit different. You can party there but not as much as HCM city. Though, because Hanoi is the capital, it's more cultural. Fashion in Hanoi has less colour, look more elegant and classy. People in Hanoi don't look as friendly as in HCM as well. Personally I like Fashion in Hanoi more than HCM city. Probably because I have lived there all the time, probably just because it's more my type.

I think our cloth actually say something about us. In my country, most of the people still don't really care about it, so obviously it's not really exact telling something about people based on their cloth in a place where people just don't care about what they wear. But generally, I think people choose their cloth in terms of their personality, lifestyle and sometimes career goals as well. In my country, there are many quotations about outer beauty and inner beauty, basically they all sound like "Don't judge a book based on it's cover". But in my opinion, Fashion does say something about us. We basically need food and water more than Fashion, but it sounds like monkeys. Fashion is an aspect of life. Every year, billions of dollars are earned and spent among Fashion industry, and there must be a reason for that.

Flat drawing

We were doing flat drawing in class today. I had a good time doing it. We had a chance to develop our drawing skills and also find the inspiration for the Melting Pot project. I think it is really interesting to break the rules a little, draw the body with unreal proportions and create some nice, unique fashion images. Personally I like the idea of dramatic, extremely long legs. I think the legs are really attractive and graceful.

As usual, at the end of the class, we were gathering around to take a look at the work of everyone. I were really impressed, again, as usual. Their work was really really nice. Claire has done an extremely beautiful dress with her brilliant colour using techniques. Kitty had some absolutely cute images with massive hair and colourful garments. It was really nice learning from other people and get the inspiration for myself as well.

For the Melting Pot project, I have decided to focus on the combination of Western culture and Japanese culture, under the name "Asian Rebel". I can't say as much about it yet, because honestly I haven't got all the ideas yet, ideas will come during working actually. It is just my working style. Anyway hopefully it will turn out good.

Illustration

I think I am actually getting used to illustrator. Like people said. the more you doing something, the better you are with it. I always say to myself. right, I need more practicing, but I'm so so lazy, which is not really good. I think I have done some nice work though and it would be my motivation to practice harder.

In my opinion, once I got used to illustrator, it would help me to do some nice work. It is really amazing what we can do with it, like playing with shapes, patterns, creating some nice effect. We can also bring our own hand drawing patterns to use on Illustrator, which is very cool. I have had a look at some Fashion Illustration books and they were absolutely brilliant. Again it's really amazing what you can so with all the tools and colours and everything.

Hopefully I will get better with this after a while.

London trip

It was a little embarassing that I woke up at 8.05 am while I had to be at the bus stop at 8. But i gave it a try anyway by getting dressed really fast and running to the bus stop. The coach was still there. Yay!

After arriving to London, we went to a road that there were many fabric shops next to each other. The fabric was quite cheap actually. It was really inspiring going around the shops. I got lots of ideas by seeing all sorts of fabric. I were thinking about people who are doing textile as well. What a great job they are doing! Then we went to some more shops. Those were really expensive, but it was worth the money I think. The fabric they had was absolutely brilliant. I were speechless. And actually, seeing the nice fabric has made me wanted to make clothes so badly!

I were talking to a fashion student from second year when I were in my hometown. She said that there were not that many fabric shops in Bournemouth, so they were going to London to buy fabric most of the time. In my opinion, going around some fabric shops is a really good way to get the inspiration to work. By actually seeing and touching the fabric, you know what you can do with it, how you can put different fabric layers together, etc.

I were exausted after coming home but it was a really good trip. It was very helpful as well. I feel inspired and I think I'm ready for the next project.

Communication vision in Black and White

I love black and white, so I had fun doing it actually. The idea was to create a skirt that reflect a combination between soft and hard materials. I got my inspiration from a chocolate muffin, as usual, to be honest. However, before working on my sketchbook, I did some research in the library. I were looking at some Moschino designs, also at some magazines. Their work was absolutely amazing. The way they created different shapes on the body was really inspiring.

After finishing my work, we were going around the studio looking at all the work people have done. The work of everyone else was really really good. Someone has made some beautiful roses by paper. And it was pretty amazing that we have had some ideas and inspiration for our collection in the future. I also think this project is really helpful in terms of working on the next project.