I love my job !

The weekend of the 11th and 12th June I worked with my university, The University of Central Lancashire (UCLan). On this weekend we created a fashion styling event called the 'Stylists Closet' which in a previously published post I explained was an opportunity for the general public to receive style consultations and fashion advice. The two day event was a huge success with a chance for us to give out free advice and tips to the general public and to bring awareness to the university and the wide range of fashion courses they offer.

During the two days I was able to gain hands on experience in Personal Styling, with the help of the fabulous Emma Jade Parker and Steven Spencer who have worked professionally in Personal Styling for many years.

I carried out 15 minute consultations to a few women which included a face shape, body shape and colour analysis. As I completed each consultation I gained more confidence whilst carrying them out !

I think the whole event was made all the more better by the fabulous job that the Interior Design team did in creating a vintage travellers theme to the whole event. I especially adored the various coloured and shaped lampshades hanging from the ceiling. Here are some photographs of the interior decor which was sourced and designed by Interior Design students from UCLan !

my evergrowing closet !

For the second year running, UCLan's International Fashion Institute brings you the Stylists Closet.

In the Summer of 2010 UCLan hosted the Stylists Closet, a one day event wear the general public could come and recieve professionally advice on trend and style tips. Working the event was Personal Stylists Emma Jade Parker and UCLan's very own Fashion Promotion/Fashion Styling students, plus professional make up artist Natasha Litwinenko. Due to popular demand and the high rate of success it achieved the event, it is being held once more, however the closet has gotten a lot bigger !

This Summer the Stylists Closet is being held at Manchester's The Trafford Centre on 11th & 12th June, where Emma Jade Parker is being joined by Stylist Steven Spencer, and of course Fashion Promotion/Fashion Styling students (including myself). Confirmed shops participating in the event include Next, Mango and Marks & Spencers. So if you have any queries or feel confused by this years Summer/Spring trends and knowing what will suit you and your bodyshape. Click Here to book an appointment. A visit to the Stylists Closet consist of a private and tailored consultation with a professional stylist, a hair and make up make over and a look through the rails of this season's must have trends.

To keep up to date with news of this event be sure to follow the event on Twitter by following @STYLISTSCLOSET.

More posts about this event will follow !

the end is nigh !

At our first meeting I assumed I would feel intimidated by the fact that there were two photography students and I was the only Fashion Promotion with Styling student. However, I did not feel this way and felt relaxed at the first meeting. Once we had decided on concepts and a story for this Education based photo shoot I began researching and sourcing for the styling. Due to the fact we had decided to have a large production photo shoot which included numerous extras and a large number of models, I felt like the task of styling all the models was daunting and a large task to successfully achieve on my own. So the group decided it would be in our best interest to get another Styling student involved. Luckily we were able to invite another Styling student into our group and I felt less pressure on my shoulders to complete the styling on my own. The second styling student and I split the models and the styling in half. It was agreed that the two Photography students would organise the Location and Models for the shoot.

The group regularly met up however it felt that for the number of times we met up, not a lot was planned and the project didn’t seem like it was moving at the rate it should be. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend several lectures, seminars and group meetings for this project as I sustained a foot injury. During this time that I was absent I felt that the group thought I was using this as an excuse to not carry out my duties for this project and that I had a negative attitude towards them and the project. This became evident when I received a message off them expressing how they felt. This was shocking to me as I have never come across this sort of behaviour whilst working with other groups. Instead of aggravating the situation I decided to speak to the other members of the group in attempt to change their opinions of me and my attitude towards this project and to prove that their opinions and behaviour was wrong. After this harmony in the group was restored as we had learnt how each other works and dealt with certain situations.

We encountered another crisis when we discovered that another group had used the same concept as us. So quite late into the project we had to change our concept which caused disarray when it came to certain aspects of the photo shoot including styling and models. On the day of our fashion shoot a number of models didn’t turn up, and we had technical difficulties with the lighting kit which added to the pressure and stress of the day, which we thought would result in rescheduling the whole photo shoot.

In my opinion a lack of communication and understanding contributed towards negativity in the group which was unnecessary. Overall there was immaturity within the group and I believe people acted unprofessionally at times. I didn't appreciat at times that I was left in the lurch about different aspects of the project. In my opinion it felt like members of the group wanted to be in control of all aspects of the project so the final photographs became their concept and their photographs and therefore take all the credit, but when things didn't go to plan members of the group were quick to blame and pass judgement. 

However, this didn’t affect the quality of the photographs and our final images are highly successful. On the other hand I believe the photographs would of been stronger if they were black and white as I think the colour of the chair and the array of books is distracting. I didn't have a part to play in the post editing as i was agreed that the photographs would be more successful if one person carried out the post editing. On the other hand it would of been nice to have a say in the post editing which I didn't get a chance to do.

a black and white affair !

Although I wasn't involved in the post editing of our final photographs I decided to edit some myself to see how I would personally think the photographs would look the most successful. In my opinion the photographs look better in black and white because the different coloured and sized books are distracting and drawing focus away from the models. By editing the photographs into black and white I believe the photographs become stronger images and a lot more strkiing.

best dressed !

These are my two favourite photogfraphs from our final selection and in myopinion they are the strongest photographs to.

Fashion 101 !

With our new, more high end concept in place. We had to consider how this related to education. The fact that we were carrying out our photo shoot in a Library linked our project to our inspiration. Also, whilst in the Library Amy Newton (Photographer) discovered a copy of a book called The Fashion Book. Our concept then developed into people being in the Library educating themselves about fashion and styling.



Here are a few photographs from our photoshoot !

let's play dress up in the library ?

With the new concept in place, the styling for the photo shoot had to be completed. I was personally more excited about this concept as it was more fashion based rather then costume. 

For the different looks for each model I drew inspiration from this seasons collections and from garments I owned myself.

This is dress is from my own wardrobe !

I took references from the Spring 2011 R-T-W Balmain collection !

The busy print of the dress reminded me of Jean Paul Gaultier's Spring 2011 R-T-W collection !

This sheer fabric shirt is from my own wardrobe !

I was inspired by Hannah Marshall's Spring 2011 R-T-W collection and her use of sheer fabrics for her garments.

We sourced this blazer jacket from the high street !

The jacket we sourced in reminiscent of 3.1 Phillip Lim's Spring 2011 R-T-W collection !

These wet look leggings are from my wardrobe ! 

For the male models look we took inspiration from the Spring 2011 R-T-W collection of Burberry Prorsum !

high school to high end !

During our seminar we were given the opportunity to look at other Fashion Photography groups work and my group and I were horrified to discover that another group had completed their photo shoot and had used the same concept of ours. 

This was a major crisis point as we had already selected models and completed the styling. Although at this point  we were over half way through this project we decided to change our concept entirely as we didn't want our work being compared with another groups.

After much brainstorming and researching we decided to keep the location of the Library for our photo shoot the same. Our new concept is about people being educated about style and fashion. We have decided to keep the models the same and style them in on trend, editorial outfits that wold look out of place in a University Library, the models would then be surrounded by books on fashion related subjects such as style, fashion houses and designers We collectively agreed that the poses of the model should be more editorial and less movement sequence which was the sort of poses we wanted for our initial concept.

Through different resources I have collected images portraying examples of editorial poses we can consider and use as inspiration.