likelikelike

 

This is a photo from Fashion156's higlights of LFW. I really like the undone hair and amazing brows. Although just a small element, I think that this is an image that I want to include in our final styling for the film. Im just trying to collect a few snippets of inspiration for the film at the moment. We have a dancer in mind for the film who attends a London dance accademy, so her talent would be perfect for our work. Plus she has brown curly hair which is also ideal. 

This is also an image from Fashion156's LFW highlights. The dress is by Gemma Slack but it is the expression in the model's face and the way in which her body is positioned that interests me. I think that the way in which she is posing is quite angry, demented even. Also, the way in which she is grabbing her hair and pulling a fustrated face is fierce and a little twisted. These are both things that would be valuable to take on and consider for our own project.

Under The Abaya...

So this was the brilliant turn out for Tempest's A/W 2010 collection that was inspired by both Queen Sheeba's journey to Israel and Islamic architecture. This season saw a more grown up Tempest executing sophisticated, powerful pieces that screamed attitude. The colours were a palette of satin blacks, midnight blues, hints of moonlight metallic and punches of emerald and peppermint green. The quality that cleverly strung all of these beautiful pieces together was the fine details and superb structuring that featured origami folds, horizontal panelling and perfect draping. Clear referencing to architects Rafael Vinoly and Tom Wright, were visible in the smooth, clean lines and geometric patterns that protruded a majority of the dresses. 

 

Islamic Architecture

The referencing of the blue and green hues are visible in Tempest's colour palette, as well as the folded origami and geometric shapes seen in the photos above.

 
 

A portrait of Queen Sheeba's journey to Israel

 
 

Famous Architecture by Tom Wright (top) and Rafael Vinoly (bottom) 

The obvious qualities of these buildings are highly visible in Tempest's construction and geometrics.

There is something bold, strong and powerful about this collection that really caught my attention. It seems to mould really well into our ideas for our final cut and it again references the dress of a 2nd year design student that we want to use, extremely well. The running colour of the collection was black, but not just any black. The colour seemed to have a personality, a dark characteristic, highlighted through its execution and presentation. Sweeping streams of black metallic poured out of dresses and gave an unnatural, raw feel to the outfit. The way in which the light caught the fabric too, was seducing and had a dark underlie. Furthermore the exaggerated, protruding origami folds gave the dresses a heartbeat, a life. The dress seemed to be wearing the model rather than vice-versa, and it was slightly overpowering in the sense that the dress looked like it was growing, metamorphing.

This is perfect for the unnatural, raw, slightly disturbing and ugly feel that we wanted to bring to our work. We want the costume to dominate and overtake the model wearing it. This gave me the idea of an evolution; our film through dance and movement, will visualise the painful and disturbing metamorphism from the model to the dress. The dress will overpower and have an evil inclination.
This collection is truly beautiful and fundamentally sharp and intelligent. It has provided a new wave of inspiration for me and has reassured confidence in our final ideas. Tempest said backstage, “I’m really happy. I think it’s my best collection to date”. He couldn’t be more right.
 

Tempest makes Leona Lewis "happppy"

Leona Lewis is a pop star best known for her amazing vocals rather than her fashion sense. So it’s been quite a cheeky indulgence to see the normally demure, timid pop star stepping out in our man Mr Tempest’s best frocks!! First it was a beautiful sculptured silver number (teamed horrifyingly with bubblegum-pink heels) at the Brits. Now Leona has done a Tempest once again in this futuristic, copper gown that drops a few jaws and helps her stand out from the other guests at the Love Ball. Many people are criticizing the star saying that the dress does nothing for her figure, but I think she looks fierce and wears it well. It’s also great to see stars supporting new fashion talent and giving them a helping hand in the industry through great PR.

Nice one Leona, dull no more.

Fresh Inspiration

Last week both Emma and myself had a bit of a rubbish time, both at home and at uni. I think it all got a bit much and as things came to a head it was apparent that events had clouded our ideas and development of this project. We had a (I don’t particularly want to use the word negative) lets say... unconstructive tutorial last week that dampened our spirits and it was a bit disheartening. We were brimming with our new ideas and eager to show the material that had been inspriring us, but (after waiting 3hours for our one-on-one tutorial) our mentor wasn’t as eager as us and we didn’t really receive much encouragement or even appraisal. No one wanted to see the videos that perfectly exhibited our ideas for the film and we weren’t given any feedback. I thought that maybe we would be given some directors, films or genres to go back and research but we weren’t given anything except an awkward 5minute collaboration of small talk and vibes of boredom (not from us may I add). Maybe I had the wrong idea about what would result from our tutorial but inevitably it made both Emma and myself feel that our ideas were shabby and, quite simply, crap.

I was at London fashion week this weekend but when I had the time I found myself brainstorming for new directions and ideas. I reflected on William Tempest's last collection and found that he essentially looked at three major references for his line. These were 1940's underwear advertising, the Crazy Horse Burlesque show and the girls in the James Bond films.

< Shirley Eaton as Jill Masterson in
James Bond, 'Goldfinger'    

   < Tempest's choice of colour throughout his S/S 2010 
  collection is strongly influenced  and derived from 
  Halle Berry's infamous orange bikini in James Bond 
  'Die Another Day'

<  Both the horizontal and vertical
    lines used in the S/S 2010 dress are 
    almost copied from the pictures of
    the dancers at the Crazy Horse 
    Burlesque show who used light 
    effects to transform their costumes

< The prints seen at Tempest's 
S/S 2010 were strikingly similar
to the wild outfits worn at  the 
Crazy Horse Burlesque show. 
Tempest went for a more 
monochrome finish but the result
is still as striking
















These are all brilliant starting points for any film; and combined with our mood, RAW, and effect, FLASHING LIGHTS, they provoked ideas of a dancing girl, flashbacks, a terrible event- a narrative. It was a direction I was coming round to visualising but after seeing Tempest's A/W 2010 collection, I think its safe to say were sticking to our guns, our initial idea and taking it the whole way. It has given me a new confidence in our film and has reassured us in the sense that our ideas fit in with our designer’s work beautifully. The mood of the collection was sophisticated, tough, sleek and bursting with attitude; I can’t wait to start filming!!
I will post a new entry on Tempest’s new collection ASAP and analyse it in all its amazingness.

The Princess and the Frog

 

For the premiere of Disney's new film, The Princess and the Frog, Willism Tempest was asked to design Anika Noni Rose's dress (the Princess). The result was this beautiful jade-green lilypad inspired silk dress that was true to Tempest's sculptural style.

P.S....

Dressed for Todd Lynn today at Somerset House. Collection was absolutely beautiful and everything went pretty smoothly!!Had a gorgeous model, lots of free food and a decent glimpse of Janet Jackson, the Sugarbabes and Jasper Conran. Brilllllllllll.
(I also now LOVE red fox fur..)

Hauntingly Beautiful

In September I visited the SHOWstudio exhibition in Somerset House that exhibited various collaborations in fashion and media. One of the installations that truly grabbed my attention was Gareth Pugh's 'FASH-OFF' which showed a series of films that documented the designer's perspectives on sensationalism, glamour and spectacle. The films were shown on screens that were set around a black cage with black balloons trapped inside. The music that played was haunting and creeped me out. Paired with the strange, alluring, yet dark and troublesome videos, an uncomfortable and sinister atmosphere was created. It really stuck out in both my partners and my own minds. Using this as a lead, my partner found a further video by Gareth Pugh and Ruth Hogben for SHOWstudio, showcasing his A/W 09 collection.  

This film is a perfect example of the direction that we intend to take with our project. The soundtrack is from Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film 'The Shining' and this particular reference is indicated in the haunting style and editing. I plan to research similar films and their soundtracks as I think this is a great place to start looking towards for music in our film. The concept is similar to our own; there is no particular narrative, just a clever and simple build up and accumulation of tension. Simple techniques such as mirrored images, slow motion, and the use of water and wind make this video fierce and very effective.
I have analyzed this video in depth in my sketchbook. Here are the scans of them: