Lyme Regis, Dorset Wedding Fair

Conscious that in the future I would very much like to be based locally, or at least within South West England, I felt Lyme Regis Wedding Fair would be an invaluable experience in helping me to understand the local bridal fashion industry and local competition.

The fair was set up like most other fairs with a variety of exhibitors displaying examples of their work on stands placed around the room. I was interested to see how many photographers, cake makers and venues were exhibiting compared to bridal shops - I counted only three out of approximately 25 exhibitors. 

I was lucky enough to arrive in time to watch a catwalk during the afternoon. Bearing in mind, as a result of my work placement at Jenny Packham I have been used to viewing dresses worth £3000, I could see the dresses on show were worth much less and were no where near the quality of the Jenny Packham dresses. This is by no means a bad thing, it may simply infer that these are the quality and price of dresses in demand in the area.  Personally, perhaps naïvely, I had my sights set on selling the likes of Jenny Packham etc in my boutique however if there isn’t the local demand then it is unlikely my boutique would be successful. This is an issue I need to research in more detail and an aspect I will need to seriously consider when deciding where to base my boutique and what bridal dresses to sell. 

Dissertation Complete!

Today I handed in my essay so I now have two of my final year units behind me which is kind of scary. I feel relieved my final essay is complete....now it's full steam ahead with my major project! I will consider my initial ideas in more detail and hear feedback from my tutors within forthcoming tutorials.

Think Tank Project

For the last few weeks (our first few weeks back at uni) we have taken part in a 'Think Tank' with Anna Pegg who used to work for WGSN. We set about predicting a spring/summer trend for 2013. As advised by Anna, we thought about the colour, materials, silhouettes, styling and key details of our new trend.

We took inspiration from a variety of sources including:

• Blogs
• Art and Culture
• Catwalks
• Celebrity
• Vintage
• Magazines/Newspapers
• Trade Shows

After a great deal of mind mapping and research, we came up with a number of trends and themes. These included tie dye, Gaucho, Halston, Sports shapes and denim with an over-riding theme of patchwork, whether it be a patchwork of colour, texture, material or theme. We considered how these themes worked together and choose the best images to represent the themes. We gathered together a number of colours we felt tied into the themes. Within the third session we considered the materials, silhouettes, style and key details. 

Below I have included two images that I plan to include within my portfolio to illustrate my team work and forward thinking skills. 

Back at Uni for the Spring Term...

I thought it might be quite strange being back at uni considering I haven't really been there properly since May, it's gone so quickly. I've been in a couple of times this week and am loving the feeling of knowing this is really the last leg! I have enjoyed the sessions I have had and seeing everyone again, it's nice to hear how every has been and what they've been doing and be around like minded people again.

I am majorly working on my essay at the moment, not my favourite task for sure! I am seriously looking forward to my major project and putting my all into that, I can't believe it's probably going to be my last big project! My idea's are really developing now and I feel very positive about my initial ideas and thoughts.......first things first, getting the essay behind me.......