Outside Costume

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My own photography

During this photography lesson I wanted to experiment with more compositional rules such as frame within a frame seen by the close up image of the camera lense which create a tunnel like effect.

My personal favourite photograph of this collection was the photograph I took in the college hallways which repress the rule of leading lines.I am a big fan of this image as the subject matter isn’t very clear as I had made the image horizontal which changes the persepectuve of the hallway. I took my third image at an angle looking up at the image which also created a rather interesting effect .

[outsidecostume]

Compositional rules

Leading lines - This rules focuses on drawing the viewer to a certain focus using lines within the images such as train tracks or a  pavement. This technique doesn't always lead to the subject of the image and may just causer the view to look deeper in the image such as along a train track.

Rule of thirds - The rule of thirds is more of the more cliché compositional rules within photography however can make an image more visually appealing .Often cameras have a built in 3x3 grid and its recommended to place your subject on one of the intersecting lines to make the image more appealing to the human eye.

Frame within a frame - This technique creates a new frame for your image by taking the picture through something creating a new border for your image.

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Photography

IOS - The IOS ( International Standards Organization) is a camera setting that will adjust how sensitive the camera is to light. This setting will either lighten or darken a photograph and is a good tool for taking photographs in a dark setting. Using a high IOS however does have some consequences as if a photo is taken with an IOS number that is too high the image will appear graining also known as “noise “ in the photography industry and can make the image more low quality.

Aperture - Aperture is the hole within a lens that allows light in to the camera which can be shrunk or enlarged which will let in more/less light depending on the effect you want the achieve on you’re photographs. The aperture alters photographs in a few different ways and one of which is the brightness of the photographs as the larger the hole the more light can be let in making the images brighter. Another thing affected by aperture is the depth of field if you use a large aperture this will  cause the background of your pictures to blue which is good to help focus you’re eye to the subject.

Shutter Speed - The shutter speed affects how long the shutter remains open whilst taking an image which can create a few different effects. The shutter speed will affect the brightness of an image as well as capture or blue motion. When you use a long shutter speed the shutter will stay open for longer causing any motion to be captured in the image and blur it . The long shutter speed can also be used for a light painting effect where you can create images and words by using a torch or flash in motion.It can also be used to freeze motion as by having a short shutter speed the image will be taking fast capturing a moment during any motion.

Rui Caria

The first photographer I had decided to look into is Rui Caria and I have chosen 2 of her images that showcase the use of shutter speed. The photographer has clearly used a long shutter speed to capture the motion of the moving people in each image however for the second image the woman in the striped skirt remain still making her stand out amongst the blurred motion.

Stefano Unterthiner

Stefano Unthiner is an animal photographer meaning that he will use a short shutter speed to capture a moment in time as animals move about a lot and are unpredictable.

In the images below he has also used a large aperture to blur out the background so that the viewer focuses on the foxes rather than the landscape behind which would be very distracting.

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Evaluation

I think the overall look of my brand was very successful and I especially love the posters I created for my brand with the digital illustration as I enjoyed using this new form of media in my work which I had recently been using and it allowed me to be creative in more and experience a pixilated style of drawing as well. I think another successful part of this project was the ideas for my marketing and advertising and the adverts I had created for my brand as I feel they are very bright and reflect my brand well.

My original intentions with this assignment was to create a very different style brand so that I could be much more creative in making my brand and so that I could make my brand stand out in comparison to others that target a more casual clothing style. I believed that by making this brand one that sells rave clothing I could have a more unique style to all my advertising and target a different group of people. I believe that I was able to achieve my goal as I think my brand matches my target market well and I was able to use some more creative aspects in the design of my brand such as having posters and flashy advertising for my brand . By having a mid price brand I was also able to use many marketing strategies such as having offers and making this a major feature for my brand. The only part of the creation of my brand that I'm disappointed in is my website as I feel that it looks in professional and is a bit too striking and could have looked much better using different shades and less contrasting colours in such large chucks. I would definitely include an image as a background as I had mentioned previously.

I found that my investigation and experimentation was very useful when I was creating my brand and my advertising as it helped to broaden my vision when it came to different marketing strategies and the different ways in which I could present my brand to my customers, by looking at a few brands that all do a simple genre of clothing I could still see major differences between them such as the higher end brand " Zolnar " and lower end ones such as "Cyberdog" by looking into how they're logos and colours schemes differentiated I was able to decide what I was going to use for my brand based off of my target market. By researching into similar brand I was able to discover common themes between the brand which I was then able to associate with my own brand. Common themes such as space, the future and technology.

My practical work related a lot to my research as the research was able to inspire me to create a variety of logos and experiment more with the look of my brand , I was confident in the name of my brad from the start " strobe " as it reflected the bright and energetic company I wanted to create however I still was unsure of how I wanted my brand to be presented to my potential customers even though I was already sure of my target market and what kind of brand would be best suited to them. Looking at my mood boards I can really tell how much it relates to my now completed brand and these pages really gave me a guideline to the over all feel of " Strobe ". The research influenced my brand my helping me determine my strong colour scheme of green and pink as I often found that these where very popular colours in magazines and outfits that had that futuristic rave look I was going for. I was also able to notice the style of the logos used in these futuristic brand and how that often used simple block coloured shapes that often had sharper edges and where easily recognisable and simple.

I think I could have improved my project more in my website and the design of my logo which ended up not really suiting my website design so I left it out. My website had a few problems with its presentation and looking back at my work I noticed how my ideas changed for the over all look of my brand and how eventually the look of my logo wasn't suited to the rest of my ideas and design choices for my advertising and website which changed after I did a few drafts of my posters and my website page. My posters where primarily that colour of blue yet my website was green and pink and I felt the blue would clash with the web page. I feel like my poster designs are very separate from my website and if I where to do this again I would make sure they correlate more and complement each other better.

I learnt through designing and creating my adverts how to use three brand new programmes to me  including , Adobe illustrator , Adobe In Design and Photoshop which could be useful to me in the future for other projects such as using it more in illustration for clothing and for use in future projects. I was also able to learn more about advertising , marketing and how brands work in general by looking closer and different adverts such as billboards and television adverts and how the customer can judge a brand from a simple logo or website design. I was also able to improve on more of my previous skills such as my mood boards which I feel have become more interesting and more diverse since I completes this project.

I feel like my main area of strength is to do with anything creative such as drawing and creating mood boards as I'm driven by my passion to create visually interesting and stunning things as I have many artistic hobby's and interest. I also feel that my writing is very detailed and to a high standard and I try to get my work to the highest standard I can. I feel like I could improve more by getting critique from others and open my mind more to new ideas and opinions. I feel like I could use these new ideas to explore more looks and try something even more out of my comfort zone which can lead to more uniqueness in my future projects.

[outsidecostume]

My website for my brand

For my brands website i defiantly wanted it to reflect the personality of my super futuristic and vibrant brand. Overtime my colour scheme has changed to neon green , pink and black and and occasionally vibrant blue colour too.For my homepage i really wanted to showcase the community thats associated with my company and i definitely wanted it too be very bright and to have many images. I wanted to include a box where there are images of fans of the company that can be featured while wearing our clothing or if their at an event my brand is at and i would like it to get updated every week or so. As my brand isn't super high end i decided to include a  marketing  strategy on my home page that showcases a 50% off offer which will draw in more customers to the store.I also wanted to advertise some looks on my homepage and included an image of a woman is a futuristic chrome outfit and i really wanted this to be a key feature on my website , i got the idea from Dolls Kill that also allows people to shop by looking at a specific style of items and i felt this would be appropriate for my brand as once i looked more into rave style clothing i discovered that there are many different types of rave clothing as it can been really dramatic or even quite casual. I also wanted to show the people that visit the website that the brand is very active on social media as we target a fairly young and definitely modern audience so i listed a bunch of different accounts for strobe. On the homepage a wanted to create a menu so that customers can go to different areas of my website easily however i wanted it to be a little bit different and have it vertically on the left  , if this was a real functioning website i would make it so that it would transition into the placement its in when the mouse hovers over a tab. This would allow me to include more images and information about what the company is up to and any additional offers . In the top right of the page i included my brand name as well as a smaller version of one of my illustrations to make the site more aesthetically appealing and interesting and i would have a different image in the corner of each page on my site. Looking back on my design i feel like i could still add a few more elements especially an interesting background behind all the boxes of information perhaps of an event or images from a photoshoot of the companies clothes on models. Also i might have decided to add a gradient to the colours just to soften them a little bit as it is quite bright and a little painful to the eyes.

For my other page i decided i would make a page displaying a bunch of shoes for sale on my website at different price ranges and in a variety of styles within a very futuristic and unique look. The design of this page will be identical to the other pages that display products that the company sells and the “Shop this look page would be the drastically different page. I wanted this pages layout to be simple and have the vital information about a specific product which would be the price and the new of the product by clicking on the image you would be linked to a page that will allow you to buy the product as well as get more detailed information about the pair of shoes such as who made them, fabrics and sizes. If i where to change this page i would also want to add some gradients and perhaps a more interesting background instead of just having a solid colour as it would make the website look more professional.

Looking at my pages i think i could adjust a few things and perhaps include my logo on my page as well but perhaps change its colour to suit my new colour scheme as well and definitely include more interesting background and perhaps some gradients or a pattern on the block neon colours to ease the stress on your eyes.If i was going to make this into an actual website i would like to include a funny easter egg such as on the vogue website where typing in the konami code generates a surprise not many know about, i think adding in this feature would help to send the message about how fun our company is and it adds entertainment to our site.

[outsidecostume]

My adverts

I created 2 versions of a poster and an Instagram advert for my advertising. I made 2 posters that both have a person as a focal point , I really like the pixelated look of the poster with the woman on it , I created this using a pixel brush in a programme I use at home called Krita . I photoshopped out the background and pasted my image into in designs after creating my background on illustrator as I had issues with getting rid of the background on illustrator.For my second poster I wanted to use a man as my focal point and have him in a cleaner looking style however it slightly pixelated, yet its not too bad and fits in with my technology and futuristic style.

I wanted to keep my two Instagram adverts rather simple and striking so I wanted to use bright text and a darker background. I believe that simple statements would be more effective and bold and I really like the gradient effect used for my backgrounds. The neon green and bright blue it very contrasting to the black background and I find the opposite also effective for my posters.

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Websites and social media research.

Olivia Emily

Olivia Emily is a fashion blogger with a very alternative style and is very popular on the internet as she has a successful website and blog on a website called Blog Lovin'  as well as having many fan on Facebook and Instagram.

How she makes money

Olivia makes money in a few different ways one of them being paid promotion of clothing where she gets money for showing off some products onto her page. On her page she has a "store" section which shows off some of her favourite items in her wardrobe as well as some items she herself would like to buy as people that view her page aspire to have a similar style to her. Putting your curser over the image of the item will show you the price of the product and its price and clocking on the image will link you to where you can buy the item.

She will also do collaborations and have some sponsored content, on her website she mentions how any items she gets are her style and that she is true to her style and would never promote something that she doesn't like.

What she does

On her website she posts images of herself in a variety of different outfits for many occasions that all fit in with this dark grudge look she loves so much and does a very similar thing on her blog. Looking on her Instagram I can see how she also posts things about her more personal life such as pictures of her cat as well as some aesthetic picture , she also reply's to comments lefts by her followers on Instagram and keeps in contact with her fans.

How she started

Her original plan was to create a place where she could keep track of all her outfits and used her blog as a personal look book before it slowly expanded into a very popular blog and she eventually become more well known and gained some sponsorship from clothing companies. As her blog grew she started posting content regularly and manages to make money out of her passion.

Helen Anderson

 Helen Anderson is a very popular youtuber / fashion vlogger and fashion vlogger who discusses a variety of things and a main centre of her channel is based around clothing. She has a variety of social medias and websites such as YouTube , Snapchat , Instagram ,Twitter , Facebook and her own blog.

How she makes money

Helen also makes money through a variety of different ways such as working with a variety of brands , presenting and sponsored content similar to Olivia however Helen also gains money through YouTube adverts due to her having such a successful channel with many subscribers and fans.

What she does

She makes many haul videos showing items that she brought from a specific store or brand and has loads of videos and articles about style, beauty and travel as well as general discussions about life. On her blog she posts many images of herself in different outfits and has very professional photos as photography is another one of her passions.

How she started

She made a video and posted it onto YouTube explaining how she dyed her hair as many of her close friends wanted to know how and due to the videos popularity Helen started to post more up onto her YouTube channel as her popularity expanded into a large collection of videos about lifestyle , beauty and fashion as well as starting up many social medias , website and a blog.

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Press Release

( contact person )

Strobe

_______@_____-.co.uk

(Website )

_________

London,26th January

A new and exciting brand that will satisfy your style needs providing unique clothing items you cant get anywhere else for an affordable price. Our brand believes majority of clothing is plain and needs to be more exciting and more creative .

When i was deciding on what my brand should be focused on I definitely wanted to do something more interesting than street - wear or casual clothing and instantly thought of alternate clothing which lead to stores like cyberdog that focus on rave and party style clothing that's very futuristic yet is done in many different styles. I knew that i wanted my brand to be very affordable as often different clothing is very expensive and this is very unattractive to many potential customers.

Rave style clothing is often very community driven however i want my company to also introduce this style of dress and this fashion movement to more people around 16-25 .The company’s products will definitely make you stand out and give you an original look.

For my information contact _____@___.co.uk or visit our website

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Poster and Instagram advert concepts

For my poster i definitely want it to be digitally illustrated using a programme i use at home for drawing called Krita but also use adobe illustrator. For my first design i draw a woman with bright coloured hair and some futuristic accessories focuses on the aesthetic of my brand more than the clothing. I thought about having an interesting background and included my brand name. I decided to leave gaps for important information where the woman's strange clothing is and ill include things like barcodes allowing potential customers to scan it making the poster more intractable. 

For my second poster idea i wanted to do something similar yet different almost like a line of posters. In this poster i drew a man with teal hair and a different style of futuristic glasses and changed the layout of my poster .I prefer this poster more as the layout is much cleaner and i prefer the look of the illustration of the futuristic man.

I wanted my Instagram adverts to be bold and simple such as the one above, looking at the colours i don't feel they suit my theme as they aren't vibrant enough and when i do this advert on the computer ill make sure to pick an appropriate colour scheme .I like the simplicity of the advert and how it clearly states what its about. I decided to add a triangle in the corner which will include the brand logo just to make it extra clear that our company is having a sale.

I decided that i should post many different things on my Instagram such as images from pop-up shops as illustrated about and a banner saying that there new stock available making it clear to the customer what is happening as well as giving them a sneak peak into whats available.

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Marketing and advertising ideas for my brand ( Strobe )

Marketing

 Offers and Sales - By having offers and sales on old stock that may no longer sell for their full price new customers will be drawn into the store and recurring customers will know about these offers through a social media account run by the company . These offers and sales would be both online and in store meaning that a large variety of people can be drawn to the sales even if the store is too far to travel.

Reward card - As these types of stores are driven by their recurring customers I believe that a good way to keep people coming back is by offering a rewards card similar to the system used at GAME. The more money you spend the more points you get which is equal to money that can be spent in the store or online.

Free delivery over £50 -   By offering free delivery over  certain amount customers who are near the price will often buy some more in order to get to the £50 as they may feel like they aren't wasting money on shipping.

Advertising

Social media pages - Many stores associated with my target market often have multiple platforms on social media allowing people to follow updates from the brand on their preferred site where they socialise and spend time on while on the internet. Social media such as Instagram and Facebook are the most successful and allow to company to keep in touch with their customers as well as posting images and updates about stock and sales.

Adverts on social media - Social media is definitely my main form of advertising including having adverts show on pages such as Instagram,facebook,tumblr and many others linking to my brands website . As the style of clothing is very creative I believe tumblr is a great place to have a page due to the originality of the designs and looks.

Pop-up shop - Shops at events will catch the eyes of people in my target market that go to events such as concerts and conventions. The store would draw in people that weren't necessarily aware of my business and they may want to visit stores in the future.

Posters - Posters shown in events could be very effective and would draw to attention of people.

What I've chosen

For marketing I will create a rewards card and offer free delivery oven £50

For advertising ill have adverts on Instagram and also a poster to be shown at different events relating to my target market.

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Definition of Advertising and marketing

Marketing - A way companies get custmers to buy their products by making them fit the customers wants including advertising , shipping , storing and selling.This is a way for customers to say "yes".

Advertising - A way to call attention to a product often seen on radio,television, newspapers, magazienes, radio , billboards etc...Advertising is basically a by product of marketing however they are not the same thing.

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Competitors Marketing

Cyberdog

Cyberdog has their own Instagram page where they post new stock , offers and about topics that matter to them and their fans. They also will post images and videos of Cyberdog fans wearing their clothing as well as videos of what's happening in their stores which would draw people into the shop.This works very well for their target market which is young adults and people into a futuristic style and partying. Many young people use social media and are exposed to adverts on such pages whether it comes up on their feed or whether the brand itself has a page. At the moment Instagram is one of the top social media platforms to advertise on ( being in the top 3 at the moment. ) Cyberdog doesn't do a lot of advertising however upon further research I discovered that some of their merchandise appeared in an advert for the "Dave" channel where a man worse some of their clothing to fit in with his futuristic look.Cyberdog also appeared in a fashion magaziene from Japan called "Kera ! " which talks about alternative fashion in Japan.Cyberdog is a brand that is also  a topic in many articles centered around alternate fashion as the craetor of the brand felt that a lot of clothing was too boring and that it shoud be more loud and interesting.The brand also has stalls in conventions such as Hyper Japan where large amounts of people with similar intrests gather as Cyberdog is a very fan based company and has their own community od similar people with common intrests from the employees to customers.Their stores are always filled with dancers and people all intrested in the same thing as well as this the store always had loud music playing which will interest people around the store as they would wonder where all the noise is coming from. Cyberdog always has open doors and some stores include statues outside bringing in tourists. The shop is very popular amongst tourists and appears on many websites for tourists about what to do when your in London and tourists will be more likely to make purchases as the style is very unique.The Cyberdog website offers free delivery to orders over £50 in the UK and over £75 worldwide as Cyberdog is a UK brand , this offer often makes customers spend enough money to get free shipping if they are close to the minimum spending amount.

Dolls Kill

Dolls Kill also has their own instgram page but also an active facebook page meaning that their brand is accesable to many people from around the world. Looking through their facebook I can see that they have many videos that have and advert type style even though i dont believe they advertise on television, many fans of the brand comment and share the images and videos posted by the brand to their friends spreading the name of the brand by the word of mouth .Their Facebook has many different pages such as and events area where fans can see where pop up shops may be appearing and even a community page and links to their instagram, snapchat and twitter where people can look at the brand through a variety of sites. Their pop up shoes are very rare which would bring in people that what to view their products in person and the company only has one store.Even though Dolls Kill hasn't sponsored any youtubers in my knowledge the brand is very popular amongst alternative people and reviews and halls of their products exposes their brand to fans of the youtubers and good reviews will help convince potential customers to buy items from their store. Their website also offers free delivery over $75 and they offer shipping worldwide for different prices depending on the country.

Couch Uk

Couch Uk is a brand that has an online store and has items in the Cyberdog store as I remember seeing these garments in a designated section in the shop. The brand has a very consistant style including a splattered paint effect on all of their products as well as the "paint" being able to glow in the dark which is rather unique in clothing.All the clothing is a one-off and is hand painted appealing to people that like higher-end clothing. The clothing is also customisable allowing you to create your own designs by getting into contact with a worker via email and choosing how much "splatter " you want on your product .This feature at a affordable price will appeal to a lot of people as many like to have different things that no one else has. This brand offers free shipping over £35 which is rather cheap in comparison to the two previous brands.

Alternative mainstream

Alternative mainstream is other primarily online brand, they have pop-up stalls for festivals and events and even sell hand-made tutus on amazon and also have an etsy store selling headdresses, tutus , bows etc. The brand sells a mix of their own designs and others brands as they started off selling different brands of alternative clothing.The brand has many onine pages such as facebook, twitter , youtube , instagram , pintrest and tumblr allowing people into alternative fashion to find them through tags and looking at similar posts.

Overview

These brands all dont have a large amount of advertising as their presence is minly online do to the style not being very popular or mainstream. Many of the brands have pop-up shops however they dont do tv adverts or have billboards and dont apper very often in magazienes. The larger brands such as Cyberdog have appeared in magazienes however the biggest advertisment for them is their fans and the store itself as it is seen as a tourist attraction. The reason these brands dont advertise other than online is becuase the brands are very community driven as often fans of one shop will discover other brands selling similar thing or tey might find out about brands from seeing their pop-up shops at festivals or hearing abpout certain btrands from their friends. The brands dont need to advertise too much as they already have a loyal community and a lot of the general public wouldnt be interested, the fans of the brand is what keeps them alive and offering unique designs and option such as smart fabrics can intrest the avarage person to buy from the store even if they arent very keen on the louder garments available.

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My brand logo and name

For my brand name I really wanted something bold and futuristic to fit in with the style of my business. I thought about including colour into the text however I ended up think that a black text would stand out more and contrast the bright colours tat will be all over the store and the shop front allowing the brand name to stand out more against the bright backgrounds. In Illustrator there aren't many options for text such as changing the colours and spacing however I did experiment with the resources I had. I wasn't really a fan of the fonts available in the programme as most of them give me a futuristic vibe. I used a spray took behind the text on one of my ideas and I think this looked really cool and fits in with a logo I had made after. To create the logo I held onto the spray tool and made the shapes smaller forming a circular shape made up of many rectangles, I feel like these two designs looks really good together ad the blue colour could be changed to something more fitting. Using In Design I had many more options to alter the text and I had more unique fonts to work with, I chose a few I liked and experimented with a few different colours however the black was the boldest in my opinion. I really liked it when the text was slightly slanted however I felt that the text looked much better when it was slanted towards the right rather than towards the left. I think the slight slant adds an illusion of movement and energy to the text fitting in with an energetic company.

For my logo designs a tried a variety of effects and shapes. My top right design was based off of one in my mood board that I created using Microsoft word, I struggled with adding in a custom gradient however I did include one, I changed the outlie to make the logo appear as if it was glowing and I could include this in further logo designs. Another logo that I found effective was the blue arrow shaped logo with the thin outline as I like how bold and sticking the shape is and how it contrasts to the delicate gradient filing the shape.

Near the bottom left I tried putting many ovals within each other in black and white however I don't think the colours fit and I don't like the soft shape, I don't think it suits a clothing business an could fit in with an entertainment business.

I feel like the blue shape in the top right corner could work as my brand logo however i personally feel that its not as effective as my other ideas.

For my brand name and logo I will most likely use the logo and brand name with the rectangles in the background as I feel they are very effective and match my futuristic theme however I may want to develop the brand name and change the text to th bottom right text on the second image as i believe it looks more sleek and looks more interesting in comparrison to the first font used in illustrator.

[outsidecostume]

Shift / Slip dresses

Shift dress

The shift style dress was made very popular during the 1920s as it greatly contrasted the previous styles that sucked in women waists and included large goofy skirts. This dress has a short hem line and a dropped down waist and was far more comfortable and easy to move around in.The simpler style became more fashionable and was a statement for women showing how they are more independent and fit into a party lifestyle. The flapper style dress was a big part of the 20s as women showed more skin and socialised more and started to drink in pubic.

The shift dress lost its popularity in the 1940s and 1950s as figure hugging dresses became more stylish and these flapper style dresses became less popular.

In the 1960s the shift dress came back into fashion however they where much more inspired by the sack dress that appeared in the late 1950s . The sack dress was rather unpopular as it was unflattering and shapeless. The shift dress of the 1960s was darted at the bust and didn't shape the waist.

The shift dress is seen as being very modern and chic. Designers such as Christobel Balenciaga and Hubert de Givenchy are both large influences when it comes to the shift dress.The shift dress today is still very popular and comes in a variety of styles and designs and thats probably why its still a very popular garment amongst women today as its constantly being adapted to fit new trends and stay relevant to modern women.

Givenchy was the designer behind the famous dress worn by Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's which I discussed previously about the LBD.

Slip dress

The slip dress was a very popular garment in the 1990s and was based off of women undergarments from the 1700s and women would sometimes wear them casually to small gathering with close female family or friends.

Linking back to the shift dress the flapper style dress was seen as an easy version of the newer slip dress and in the 1990s the slip dress was completely re-imagined nd altered to fit the trending styles. The seductive look of the garment always appealed to women and made an impact on society as women clothing had much more sex appeal from the slips in the 1940s and 1950s and more designers created clothing based off of more alluring clothing such s underwear and lingerie. In the early 19990s the slip dress was short but later on the slip dress became longer and became more appropriate for evening wear.

(A fashion show in the 1920s ^^)

Slip dresses where easy adaptable and very different from each other Courtney Love wore very grudge themed styles whereas Posh spice would have much more polished looks for the stage.Hedi Simane had also rocked a slip dress for Saint Laurent taking on a new grudge slip dress look and designers such as Prada and Marc Jacobs have also used slip dresses in their collections which are still relevant to today as most stores will have some slip dresses available.

Spring / Summer 2018 Shift and Slip dresses ( add notes )

Shift

Andrew Gn - The shift dress has a very nice bright red colour and has floral patterns along the front. I really like black and white stripes at the bottom of the dress and how simplistic the design too.

Versace - This simplistic dress is very eye-catching in my eyes and I like the designs and addition around the shoulders the the shiny and slightly reflective fabric.

Slip 

Alexander Wang - I really like the silky fabric and how the knotting is used in this design and how it contrasts with the dark fabric.

Preen - I really like the sheer fabric used in this design and the rouge used in the design however I'm not a fan of the cream fabrics used in the dress.

Christopher Kane - This design really reminds me of lingerie and I really like the lace incorporated into this design and the way the fabric flows.

Alexander Wang - This silky black dress is very simplistic but the silky fabric and I like the way the fabric was folded around and twisted and placed around the dress.

Ralph Loren - This dress is one that I've seen before and it really appeals to me , I like the strong bold colours of red and black as well as the super silky and shiny fabric.I feel like this design will really inspire me as its sleek and very bold.

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Products I would sell and price

I think this dress would really suit my store , on the dolls kill website this dress sells for £43.33. In my shop I would sell this dress for £25 as its a rather simple product made from a holographic material that looks very futuristic and is definitely eye catching.

This pair of shoes also from the dolls kill website are also very flashy and sell for a large price of £112.05. I do want my store to have some more expensive items however I feel I should cut the price off of these slightly to £99.99 to make them seem a lot cheaper and affordable.

This pair of glasses from Cyberdog is priced at £20 which I think is a little to expensive for what they are as they are only made from a plastic and therefore I would sell these glasses for £10 and in a variety of colours.

Above is a plastic skirt from Dolls Kill that's originally priced for £160.61 which is way too expensive for my store but I think would be an interesting product to sell. I would price this skirt for around £45.

This glow in the dark hoodie costs £59.00 in Cyberdog yet I would make this a little bit cheaper and price is at £50.

This men's t shirt from couchuk.com costs £30.00 which I think is a decent price and would fit well into my store and match the theme and style my company is going for.

Bliss Bus clothing sells this mens long sleeve holographic t- shirt for £51.61 but in my opinion this is too expensive and I would price this for £25.00 in my store.

[outsidecostume]

My branding vs Cyberdogs

Cyberdog

Cyberdogs bags are very bright and eye-catching and clearly showcase their logo and name as well as including a QR code that people can scar and interact with. I would also like my bags to be very vibrant and draw a lot of attention, I think that my brand and company name should be clearly displayed. I think that my bags should be made from both paper and plastic as paper bags are cheap and will work well for small and light products where as plastic bags should be used for heavier items and the customer should pay 5p for a plastic bag. I also think my store should offer fashionable bags to carry shopping in for a reasonable price point.

Cyberdogs shops are very bright and colourful and sometimes they make the store look like its inside a neon spaceship with loads of props and bright colours. The store often features robotic and cyber mannequins displayed like art. And all the shelves and bright and stand out in the lighting inside the store. I would love my store to be bright and interesting however I feel like the image above is a little too hectic and my store would definitely be much neater. I really like the idea of the shop having different areas and I would like to make parts of the shop look like the inside of a rocket or perhaps have fake windows showing space. The front of the Cyberdog shops is often bright too and their Camden store includes two huge cyborgs by the door. I think my store should also have something eye catching at the front perhaps a UFO sticking out the front of the store front.

The Cyberdog website is bold, bright and their offers and easy to find. I would want my website to be very similar to my store interior. I want my website to also provide entertainment for my customers and perhaps include an easter egg similar to the Vogue website where entering the konami code shows a surprising addition to their website. I also want offers to be very obvious to my customers as well as offer a large list of products that are easy to find and easy to filter through.

Cyberdog also has their own Instagram account where they post images, announce events and showcase their offers. I would also like to have an Instagram account for my brand as social media will help to attract customers especially my target market that is very in touch with social media. By having an Instagram account the company can inform their customers about offers and events which will attract more people to visit the shop or the online website.

[outsidecostume]

The Little Black Dress and the Mondrian Dress

The little black dress

The little black dress of course was not originally designed by coco channel and they never came up with the concept however they certainly started to make it into an important fashion item that is seen as being an essential garment in every woman's wardrobe.The dress from Coco Channel was released in the great depression which was a perfect time as simplicity and affordability was very popular and during the war fabrics where rationed making the little black dress one of the most stylish outfits of the time.The actress Audrey Hepburn greatly increased the popularity of the dress and wore a black dress created for her by Hubert de Givenchy. As the film Breakfast at Tiffany's was so popular the actresses attire solidified the style further however the little black dress evolved and changed with the years from styles to lengths depending on what was in fashion.

After the war Christian Dior truly altered woman fashion and gave the little black dress a more sexy look to it and soon after Hollywood stars wore this updated version both on and off screen.His version included full skirts and cinched waists which was very popular among woman at the time and even still to this day.

The little black dress is still around and still very popular yet its been adapted to fit in with our currant fashion trends.I decided to have a look at littleblackdress.co.uk where you can find some of the most trendy black dresses in a variety of styles. A few of these dresses have incorporated lace , featers and netting which are all trends for spring/summer 2018  and some include some very interesting patterns and shapes.

This dress above costs £70 and is very basic with a feathery bottom to add some interest and make the dress more trendy as well as this the website donates £1 from every sale is donated to the women's charity Refuge which i think is a very god cause and shows the people over at littleblackdress.co.uk want to support women.

Above are a few more images of dresses from their website.

Mondrian dress

The artwork by Piet Mondrian has become very famous within the fashion industry and is still well known by people nowadays even if they aren’t into high fashion.Mondrian first allowed one of his abstract work to be used in the backdrops of fashion shoots allowing his work to become recognizable within the fashion industry.

Yves Saint Laurent collaborated with Mondrian to create the Mondrian dress in the 1960s and the first Mondrian dress was released during the autumn of 1965. The dress was either made from wool  or jersey and made its way to the cover of french vogue in September of 1965 and since then the dress has been reproduced and obtained multiple copies.

Yves Saint Laurant was one of the first fashion designers to collaborate with artists of the time including Andy Warhol , Van Gogh and Georges Braque.Designers today still take inspiration from this collection and his style of work whether they use similar bold designs , colours or also take inspiration from contemporary artists or more classic artist.