Damien Hirst:

Looking for inspiration pretty late into the start of our new project 'PLOT' i haven't got off to a very good start, i haven't managed to come across anything that inspires me! Very frustrating, i was however very interested in Damien Hirst's Butteflies.


'The pressure group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) called him a "sadist". Dawn Carr, Peta's European director, said: "One has to wonder if Hirst was the sort of demented child who would pull the wings off flies for fun. He certainly has become that sort of an adult. Butterfly wings are beautiful on a butterfly but tearing small creatures to bits is not art, it's sadism."

Hirst has long been obsessed with butterflies as a metaphor for mortality. Twelve years ago, when he was barely known outside the confines of an impoverished circle of artists in the East End of London, he filled a gallery with hundreds of live tropical butterflies, some of them spawned from chrysalises on monochrome canvasses hung from the wall. In And Out of Love is now seen as one of his seminal early works.'

Getting closer to the final Fashion Show..

With a week to go until we need to have a final product almost made the pressure is really on, Monday i had a tutorial with Kathy, she looks through my research and we talked about ideas, my personal photography was based on The beach huts in Norfolk, concentrating on the woodwork, colouring in the beach huts i had chosen to take pictures of i managed to establish a colour palette and a new process through design!
The week before when speaking to Claire my ideas seemed to be leaning more forwards bark, and other forest like things as i had done some personal photography on that too. She suggested maybe looking into skeleton leaves which i had previously done some research on, i went home and ordered some, played about with them and drew up sketches along the way however found i wasn't really coming out with anything exciting, nothing i could really work with. So by the time i came about to speak to Kathy i had established it wasn't working and had already started looking more into knit.
I love Sandra Backlund's work, her chunky knits were something i admired and thought they could really inspire me to create something like this for the Fashion Show in a few weeks time. I went to John Lewis and bought a number of yarns and threads all different colours and thickness's, i also got some raffia. Knitting all day i made some block samples, i printed onto the Raffia's and Dyed one of the knitted pieces, great outcome - i felt like i was really getting somewhere i now know where my garment is taking me so im motivated to move on with it!

Sandra Backlund - Knitwear designer

My final inspiration who was there all along through out my work is Sandra Backlund -

Karl Lagerfeld, Chanel's Autumn/Winter 2011

'Chanel - Paris FW 2011 fall 2011 Chanel ready-to-wear collection down the Paris Fashion Week runway was a combination of menswear, black/white, work shoes and an overall dark inspiration. The collection combined luxury details with tired pants and "worn" shoes. The handbags on the runway were small, as if they did not have much to carry. There was a small shoulder bag with a long strap and a tiny clutch with a handbag strap. Whether the Chanel collection was inspired by the rocky economic times or the murmurs about the Mayan calendar predicting the apocalypse in 2012, or the military aftermath's around the world; the overall vibe of Chanel's fall collection was dark. Karl Lagerfeld paired luxurious tweed Chanel blazers with ill-fitting pants and shoes that appeared to have worked in a coal mine. The collection was a stark move away from last spring which featured light-hearted colors and styles. Chanel's handbag collection on the runway was slim. Unlike last spring when Chanel featured a variety of handbag styles with the collection, the fall 2011 runway showed two distinct handbag styles; the shoulder bag and a tiny clutch. The shoulder bag featured a chain and leather strap which dropped the handbag to the model's hip bone. Chanel's fall shoulder bag featured a flap closure and squared off silhouette. The hardware was gold and Karl Lagerfeld showed the shoulder bag in black leather as well as white. The mini-clutch on Chanel's fall runway was about the size of the model's hand and featured a slip strap which allowed the clutch to secure to the hand. Chanel's mini-clutch was made from quilted lambskin and shown in winter white. The mini-bags on Chanel's runway reflected the current trend towards a smaller handbag as well as the move towards more streamlined and classic designs.'

Today's Research - 23.02.12

The plan up until i see Claire and Karen next week is to push forward the idea of natural forms, which with intense research have linked into lace, i have ordered some skeleton leaves, i want to interpret knit techniques into my designs and see from that point forward how well my work is going.

I've done the amount needed on research now, i need to focus on drawings and sampling, my drawing im not so confident on but I'm going to try to do a little of it.

Here's some images of things that i've come across that i like, i have to start thinking of ways to present them in garment form, clocks ticking!

Hussein Chalayan: Buried Dress

Tord Boontje: Sculpture

New York, cable create created through plastic bags.

Norfolk- wells-next-the-sea

I spent the day in Norfolk today, partly (mainly) to get some research photos for my work, look into colours and to focus on the natural textiles, be it wood, or more natural living forms i.e. the Pinewoods. My family spend a lot of time down here, given we didn't choose the best day however my images were decent enough for me to be happy to put them in my research, I've tried not to edit them when it comes to contrast and exposure, I wanted to keep them as a raw image (natural form)

Tim Walker - The Origin of monsters