SLIME GREEN HALLOWEEN

When Halloween comes around, it's normally pumpkin orange I'm drawn to, but this season I'm right the way across the colour wheel.. with slimey snotty green!

It all started when I saw a customer at work wearing lime green-to-black ombréd Nike Air Max. Like, I'd barely even looked at a pair of Air Max, let alone liked them. But that's where my obsessions come from: absolutely nowhere, just a glimpse of inspiration. Most of these obsessions don't even make it as far as my wardrobe!

So.. since I completed a first draft of a uni assignment today I treated myself to some procrastination this evening in the form of a vibes collage. A very slime green collage, with my current fashspiration, Slimer the ectoplasm dude. Unsurprisingly snot is not the most popular colour for most retailer and I've not managed to find the ombré Nikes but I did find a few bits, though I'd really love a slime-coloured fluffy jumper. I trawled eBay last night thinking it'd be something I'd have to get vintage but nothing, but good old Topshop has come up trumps with pretty much the perfect one. Score.

Above:
Topshop fluffy knit
Bad Vibes Olive Juice leggings
Below:
Casio watch
Nike Air Max
UNIF tank




ALSO who remembers when people got gunged on TV??? Why was that even bad? I wanna be gunged!!

THAKOON ADDITION AT AVENUE32

I hate to break it to you, but the weather: I feel it a-changing. That three weeks of summer we had sure was spectacular but there is now something in the air that makes me look forward to autumn.. and at least you can always depend on autumn to be totally, well, autumnal.

As I've been browsing new season collections I've been drawn to the idea of capsule wardrobes; instead of having a wardrobe full of all sorts of patterns and colours, it's about fewer pieces that all work hard together to make lots of different looks. Yeah, yeah, it's not a new concept, though it is to me, the perennial maximalist! Thakoon Addition embodies this capsule ethos, with luxe grey marl jersey working with tile prints and chunky knits. I'm particularly fond of the Foulard print - a Moroccan-style pattern that would have a place in my wardrobe for many seasons to come - and not just because it's identical to the print on my rug in my living room (below!). I can't believe Thakoon came into my house and nicked the idea.

You may not have needed those sundresses that much this year, but something you will always need in autumn is the perfect coat - and you don't get much more perfect than Thakoon's leather trim piece. Clean and minimal shape with grey leopard adding a 90s twist. Ideal with stompy boots and multiple hair buns, this reminds me of classic Gwen Stefani, and that is only ever a great thing!

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THE FASHION FORECAST

One of my big degree projects this year was to design a stand to promote The Manchester College at Birmingham's Clothes Show Live. The project actually began before summer, when I composed a presentation forecasting trends for next year. After looking at next year's film releases - namely Star Trek, with Benedict Cumberbatch as the baddie (hello!) - and also events - after years of little space exploration there are a handful of space missions in 2013 - I went with the theme of sci-fi. My trend was chosen and I was pretty overjoyed to see sci-fi references trickling through in the spring/summer 2013 shows. Score!

It seemed like we were working on the live project forever but on Tuesday I went to the show to check out our finished stand. The entire class contributed elements of the stand, whether it was the initial trend research and moodboards, or 1/5 scale 3D development, and it was interesting to see how the college technicians and my tutor Valerie (she painted all of the galaxies, bless her) interpreted the final ideas. We also ran an activity to increase the length of time Clothes Show visitors spent on the stand; at one point we had about ten people around our activity table wanting to make mini dresses out of recycled material - sadly the activity had to be cancelled by about 2pm as we ran out of scraps!

The best bit of the entire Clothes Show was the Diet Coke Image catwalk, which was for graduates, university and college students. I might be biased but I thought the college segment was by far the most interesting and creative: another good reason to check out colleges for degrees (as well as the low course fees, small class sizes, yada yada.. I said those things way too many times that day). The Manchester College's garments were created by the Fashion Design degree students from polyester made of recycled bottles, sticking with the sci-fi theme, using colours lifted from Pantone's predicted 2013 scheme.

Of course, as well as manning the stand and being totes profesh, there was a bit of silliness with Harry Styles, studiousness with Caryn Franklin, and quite a lot of shopping. I was so proud to see my pals Paris In Cuffs and Bottle Green Vintage at the show, and it was great to chat to some of my favourite indie brands, including The Bohemian Collective. The last time I went to the Clothes Show was about five years ago, and admittedly it was underwhelming.. apart from seeing The Saturdays in the fashion theatre. Ha. This year I was totally overwhelmed by the crowds and the amount of stuff to see.. maybe I am just getting old but there was too much to see in one day!

Did you go to the Clothes Show? I'd love to know what you thought of The Manchester College's stand if you saw it.

(def chose the wrong t-shirt to photograph.. but this is a super cute baby pink & pale yellow ombré Paris In Cuffs tee)

B-RAINBOW

If you could take a screen shot of your brain I'm pretty sure mine would look a lot like this right now.

I'm not on acid, I promise.. I'm just trying to distract myself from the two essays and large amount of Clothes Show prep work I have to do before December. Eeek.

Friday Moodboards

Woohoo, it's Friday! How has everyone's week been? I've been busy busy, and as mentioned in my previous post, we've finally started doing some proper work at uni. We did Photoshop moodboards today, so rather than writing a proper post (it's far too hot to think properly, and besides.. it's Friday, gotta get down) I thought I'd share my two with you. I realise they're very rookie Photoshop user but.. well, that's what I am.

I'm really sorry but I don't have image credits for the first board, as my tutor sourced them all. All the images from the second board are from praytoprada.tumblr.com and style.com.

I hope you all have a great weekend in the sunshine!