Final/First Collection

Hi guys! Sorry I've not posted in some time now - I've been extremely busy with my college work as this is my last semester and everything has to be perfect!
On that note I wanted to update you guys on my progress from my project that I last posted about. My collection is finished and because it is my first ever collection I wanted to do a proper, professional photo shoot!

 My dresses were modeled by the fabulous Hannah Brown who totally worked it! Hair and make-up was done by my good friend Jillian Elizabeth and the photographs were taken by the totally talented Kirsty Brown!
At this point I just want to say a huge thank you to them all because without them I would never of been able  to have my work showcased in such a professional and down right amazing manner!
Lastly, I would like to let everyone know about the Dundee College end of year Fashion Show which will take place on the 31st of May at the SPACE, Dundee College, Kingsway Campus in Dundee. Tickets are not on sale yet but will be within the next few weeks if anyone is interested in coming along.
Thanks!
xxxx

REcycle, REuse, REpurpose..

This semester one of my college projects is all about reusing/recycling ect. For this project we weren't given a theme but we were told to make it something that was important to us and my tutor made a point about sustainability.
So I thought - WHAT IS SUSTAINABLE?
That made me think of nature, the ecosystem, the circle of life. But that wasn't enough for me. "It should have an underlying meaning" kept running through my mind. Therefore, I then thought that the ecosystem was sustainable, until Humans became part of it. We are the ones cutting down the trees in the rain forest, we are the ones killing all the beautiful creatures in this world for old, unsupported Chinese medicine or for fur rugs. As this is such a vast subject I decided to just pick one area. POACHING.

I started to gather some imagery to try to show what was inside my head and found that Instagram was a great source of research..

 From Instagram I found a mixture of poaching images and protest art. From there I looked at news articles and PETA for more research..

From there I then did some mark making to show what was in my head..

By this point I wanted to introduce my recycling/reusing element. As I work in a bar I was able to collect bottle tops, so I used these to try to make a snake skin kind of look..

Although I liked how this looked I quickly realized that it wasn't what I was wanting. So instead I have now decided to recycle old curtains and these are a selection of the samples I have created..

 After these top 4 I realized that some of them might have looked good but they weren't "horrible" enough  as I wanted them to look gory, bloody, like they had been slashed and hurt.

To achieve these samples I used a mixture of lino-printing, stitching, dye, wax, distressing and slashing.
From these samples I used a basic shift dress template to try out some design ideas...

So that's where I'm at with this project. The next step is to make my 3 chosen dresses from my designs and I also have to design and make an accessory to go with my outfits.
I hope you liked looking through what I've done with this project so far and once my chosen items are made I promise to update you all!