Create your own Converse

I had the idea to have converse all stars as my models shows. I thought it would be a great shoe as the website lets you customise and individualise your own shoe. Below are some of the ones that I designed to match my fabric prints. However, when I went to order them I found that they only deliver to America at this stage. 

So back to searching for my models shoes.

Interactive Clothing

I found this T-shirt online. I could not find who it was by but I did find a website where they give you step by step instructions on how to make one. It is a T-shirt with a car track on it designed so that an adult can lie down and the children can play cars on the back. 

This is designed to be fun for the kids and give a massage for the adult. This is a simple yet great example of clothing designed for children to interact with.

Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs - Potential Consumer

Orlando Higginbottom, known professionally as Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs (TEED), is an English electronic dance music record producerand DJ.

I think that Orlando could be one of my consumers. His clothing is out there. It is fun yet sophisticated.

Walter Van Beirendonck

Walter Van Beirendonck (Brecht, 4 February 1957) is a Belgian fashion designer. He graduated in 1980 from the Royal Arts Academy in Antwerp. Together withDirk Van Saene, Dries van Noten, Ann Demeulemeester, Marina Yee (graduated in 1981) and Dirk Bikkembergs (graduated in 1982) they became known as theAntwerp Six.

Since 1983, he issues his own collections. They are inspired by the visual arts, literature, nature and ethnic influences. His unusual color combinations and a strong graphic influence are characteristic for his collections.

Walter also designs for a children's collection called ZULUPAPUWA for JBC. His range of creative and artistic talents shines when it comes to children, as he constructed a reclining teddy bear chair that was close to thirty feet long incorporating a change room, so that he could display and sell his childrenswear. 

His work speaks of his passion for life. Often, his exhibits offer a message about his views on social issues. What is great, though, is that the displays are fun in nature. The message is important, but you can get someones attention without being too deep and morbid.

Sophisticated Prints

My graphic designer also produced some prints with a more sophisticated colour-way.

These colours were based on the current trends that she found through designers such as Marc Jacobs and Paul Smith

Mambo Graphics

Mambo. It's fresh, colourful, ever changing and sometimes rude. 

The founder of the label, Dare Jennings, commissions artists to do work to be reproduced on Mambo fabrics. The artists include a famous maker of ceramics and jewellery (Gerry Wedd), a pop star from the band Mental as Anything (Reg Mombassa) and a cartoonist (Matthew Martin). Their art features surreal suburban landscapes populated by vomiting dogs, horned bulls, boxy fibro houses and Australian insects such as Bogong moth

Their prints are iconic and very successful. Below are some examples of prints which I think are highly inspirational. They work very well as they represent the Mambo brand and can stand out in the crowd.

Sophisticated Colour Combinations

Looking at some more sophisticated colour combinations that are currently on trend in menswear.

London Men's Fahion Week

London Men's Fashion Week has produced exciting menswear pieces in 2012. Below are a selection which I have found inspiring and whom are doing great things for menswear. Digitally printed fabrics are a trend as well as contrasting colours and materials.

Digital Fabric Printing

I am looking at digital fabric printing for my collection in stage 6. I have searched around online and sourced feedback from people whom have sourced digitally printed fabrics and the two companies below are what seem to be the most affordable and viable for my collection. I found also that ANU school of arts also print digitally on fabrics which could be an option I explore further as it could be useful being located in Canberra.

DFP were my first initial source as they do student prices and I already have access to their fabric samples here at school. However, they only print onto synthetic fabrics. There is one option the canvas, which could work well for my collection.

I then came across Spoonflower after speaking with Cohen from Zoo Advertising. They are located in America but they are at least half the price of anyone I found here in Australia. Cohen has informed me that they are very professional and their turnaround is very fast. The great thing about Spoonflower is that they print onto a wide variety of natural fabrics. Also if you design your own print you automatically get a 10% discount. I think this option will work well for me this semester. Although it is a risk ordering fabrics from overseas I believe that if I get my designs to them in the next few weeks they will be here in time for me when I start on my final garments. 

I also think it would be a good idea to also work with both companies to compare them both and work with both natural and synthetic fabrics.

Inspiration Stage 6

I will be continuing on from stage 5 using the same inspiration from the children's drawings. However, I will be taking a different approach taking on the feedback that I received at panel. I searched WGSN and gathered a bunch of pictures that I thought were interesting and which could be of inspiration to me. As you can see there is a lot of colour blocking and random mismatched shapes and objects.

LONDON COLLECTIONS: Mens Fashion

Menswear in London has been going from strength to strength over the past few years and it is long overdue for the city to get a dedicated menswear weekend. Previously tacked on almost as an after thought to the Women's schedule and crammed into one single day, this season saw the three day-long London Collections eEn Lmake its debut. London has been long seen as a hot bed of talent, consistently producing forward-thinking pioneers. In the past these talents have had to eventually leave the city in order to further their career trajectory. The launch of LCM now allows them both the freedom and the profile to build their brand from the city they are based in, hopefully keeping them here and in turn placing London menswear on the same platform as Paris or Milan...

Minti

Minti is a childrenswear label that stocks in children’s boutiques all around Australia. Perpetually Five believes that this is the main competitor. Their clothes are fun, childlike and offer something different in the childrenswear market.

Surface Magazine

Surface Magazine featured this men's jacket that has a similar silhouette to the Tent Jacket.

50 pictures of children who are cooler than you!

Kids fashion has come a long way since purple swear suits. These stylish children represent the best and brightest of the growing 'kids fashion blog' scene


Source: http://www.buzzfeed.com/summeranne/50-pictures-of-children-who-are-cooler-than-you


Below are some of the results which I thought were exciting!

WGSN trend watch

Some exciting menswear pieces posted on WGSN.

Simple things can look so good!

Colour

I looked at WGSN for some colourful inspiration and came across all these wonderful images!

Car Atlas by David T. Waller

Colourful mutant pop sculptures by New York artist, Joe Grillo.

Yayoi Kusama’s Look now, see forever exhibition at Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art

Adult Competitors

Below are some brands that would be my direct competitor for my more expensive items. The designs maintain a normal silhouette yet have a twist to make it more fun and visually appealing to the consumer.

Children dressing like adults & adults dressing like children

In fashion, youth is the ultimate idea, which may explain the lingering trend of adults wearing clothing with animal shaped hats or T-shirts with childlike prints. They are all adding to an ever-increasing trend of childlike clothing for grownups, including brightly pattern rain boots and overalls.

It is curious reversals of the oft-maligned trend in which manufactures and celebrity mums dress children in overly mature clothing such as G-String underwear (Abercrombie & Fitch) and high heels. These two trends may seem opposite bit in fact are much the same, meeting in an ageless middle ground of fashion. It adds up to a blurring of the line between clothing for children and adults.

As adults aging themselves down and children are being aged up gives a great design challenge for Perpetually Five. Keeping adults sophisticated and fun is a great way to keep adults young at heart This can be done in different ways with colour and cuts of a garment. Children have the majority of their life being an adult why take the youth away from a child. Fun quirky designs with colour will keep kids being kids.

Abercrombie & Fitch childrens G-String

Children are wearing more sophisticated styles forcing the children to grow up faster. These styles are taken from the adult trends with minimal colour and styles. In many cases the designs have graphics which are to differentiate them from the adults clothing. Perpetually Five aim is to use minimal graphics but a lot of colour which will be a niche in the childrens market.

Adults are adopting childrens fashion as their own. But in many cases the styles are not right with over the top graphics and pockets. Perpetually Fives aim is to create sophisticated yet fun designs which are young and fashionable.