"YOU ARE AN ANTHROPOID"

MY BROCHURE PIC. MY FINAL COLLECTION. Spring Summer 2011
hmmm..
I was kind of happy with this pic. Think it needs to be styled up with more white though. I know that this isn'y my strongest outfit. guess it can only get better??
courtesy of India Hobson Photography.

VOGUE STREET SNAP

PEOPLE | SHOWS & EXHIBITIONS | PLACES

Jan 09 Vogue.com
I was snapped by a street chic photographer just off Carnaby St when I was fabric sourcing and it was for vogue. Unfortunately he hasn't put on the website that my granny trolley was from Oldham Market. I would've enjoyed that quirk.
http://www.vogue.co.uk/news/fashion/street-trends/100129-becci-neary--great-marlborough-str.aspx

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Nov 09 Eddie Izzard at the M.E.N. Arena.

This show was amazing. I love Eddie Izzards motives and methods when addressing issues in his comedy. He talks of religion and history and other serious subjects but makes people laugh AND think at the same time. I think I would have preferred to see him in a smaller venue but this didn't take away from his performance one bit.

My favourite sketch was the giraffe's doing charades as communication as they can only cough and have no territorial sound. I like this method of posing questions through humour; it is clever and concise even though his comedy is so far removed from reality and is rooted in sillyness.

I would like to achieve think kind of thoughtful challenge for the viewee's of my final collection. It might make them question their approach to environmental issues or maybe a little more aware of what is available; how and where they can make a 'green' decision. I think using clothes as a communicative media in this way is good as we have a relationship with our clothes in our daily lives.

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FABRIC SOURCING

Oct 09 Reid and Taylor, Langholm, Dumfriesshire, Scotland.

After getting in touch with the supplier direct they invited me up to see their fabrics and see whether I was interested in any of their cloth. They were really friendly in their email correspondence and said they could show me round their production rooms. They show at Premiere Vision so
The visit was really successful; it was really interesting to see how the fibre and yarn was transformed and woven slowly into cloth. Their fibre house was full which was nice to see. They actually said that they source most of their fibre from Italy though which was slightly disappointing because of it being a Scottish company but Italy also stands for the highest quality so very good in a way.
The girl showing us around was really helpful, she told us that they have a been commissioned by Chanel for some of their fabrics. this amazed me; she said theat they pushed and pushed the price down and couldn't understand why the mark up was so high on their skirts that they produced from the fabric. Their standard price ranged between 10 and 80 per mtre for their fabric although it wasn't often that theywent over £60 per metre.
Unfortunately they didn't have the double cloth that I had purchased at Cloth House. They said that it was so old it might not be in th records. At this point I phoned Cloth House and ordered the rest of the Reid and Taylor Cloth before it sold out. They had 6 metres left which came to about £150 delivered. Although this was a disapointment I was still shown their surplus stock room. I was told I could have most of it . I started to select some of the fabrics whih sat best with my colour palette and season. The fabric quality was consistently great and it all felt luxurious.
I picked out 3 rolls and they said I could have them for free and no-one would even notice that they were missing. I picked a fine grey mohair wool suiting, linen cotton mix cloth and a cashmere wool, navy blue. It wasn't a wasted journey; rather an insight into the part of the process that as a designer you don't necessarily see.

FABRIC SOURCING

Sept 09 London
This was the first time I had visited Goldhawk Rd. I wasn't overly sure what I was looking for but I wanted to idea of what to get from where for my final collection. I noticed that Goldhawk Road would be especially good for jersey and denim. I found it really useful as they were quite keen to give you a lot of samples. I foud this beneficial as I didn't have to spend as much and by the time I had got to Cloth House I was a lot more confident about asking for more than I usually do.
The shops on Goldhawk Road that I would go back to are UK Textiles, AtoZ Fabrics (which is right next to the station) and Classic Textiles. Some of the other shop assistants were a bit unhelpful with fibre composition especially. But Goldhawk Road is definitely the cheaper end of the fabric sourcing in London.

I went to Cloth House on Berwick Street and found a great fabric; double faced cotton silk, beige, creme reverse. I bought a 25cm cutting so I can try sampling in this fabric as I would love to use it as the basis for my final collection.It is £22 per metre and has the name Reid and Taylor Made in Scotland on the selvedge. I might get in touch with the supplier direct to see if they have any similar cloths and whether their price is a little cheaper.
Overall I think this was a successful days sourcing and I feel I have a good range of fabrics for menswear.

Whilst in London I visited a Fashion Exhibition of the Royal College Graduates of 2008. It was a really interesting show. The patterncutting and garment construction techniques were really interesting and innovative. One project I particularly liked was the paper toile project. I thought this was a really interesting way to go about developing designs and seeing how they would work. It looked like sculpture; I liked it. I would like to use innovative techniques such as this in my research and development. I also bought the RCA lookbook from 2009 so that I could remember what I had helped with.

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7th - 11th September 09 fforest seacamp Penbyrn, Ceredigion
This was a holiday bought as a present for my 21st. An eco-camping holiday on the Welsh coast. Penbyrn in Ceredigion. We had our own cooking area complete with coolbox, hob, kettle, utensils. The geodesic domes have a double bed and woodburner in aswell as chairs and a beanbag for 2; more upmarket you might say. It had wooden flooring, blinds, solar powered lights and torchs that you had to wind up to work. When we arrived we had planned to get bikes so we wouldn't have to use the car; this didn't work out as planned but we walked everywhere instead. We were a 10 minute stroll from Penbyrn beach, a National Trust beach where you can sight dolphins and other orca's, butterfly havens and other wildlife conservation programmes. We has a mandatory dip in the Irish Sea, with a wetsuit on; half cheating maybe but it was still pretty cold, the waves were pretty big and good for body and skim boarding which we had a go at. Breakfast was provided in the old stables and we noticed the honey provided was from a farm 10 minutes down the road. There was an award winning farm shop on the main road near the campsite which sold purely local produce, the food was really good from there. We went to Aberaeron, the next town up, a quaint town full off seaside georgian style houses all of different colours sitting facing the harbour. We went to an award-winning restaurant called "The Harbourmaster" which had an architecture feafture, a glass front. All of these places are on the visit wales advert which is currently on channel4. I enjoyed this camping experience; I think it would appeal to the customer that I would have in mind when designing. For example, we got talking to another couple who found out about fforest through "Howies", which is based in Cardigan.