Student take over || Rianna Phillips X Becky Mars

 Firstly . . . Becky Mars is her real name. 

An amazing name for a fab career ahead!

I've been collaborating with the vibrant students at Manchester School of Art and THIS epic edit is one of the fantastic outcomes. Created by 'Textiles in Practice' student Becky Mars, who specialises in art direction, prop making and styling. I gave her a handful of my top sellers to style as she wishes and this was the fabulous outcome. 

Check out her online portfolio here:

www.beckymars.myportfolio.com

Follow her journey in the design world here:

instagram || @beckymars_

pinterest || becmars

Linkedin

Speckle print & mint green alphabet case 

Speckle print padded laptop case 

Upper East Eyelash phone case

Upper East eyelash monogram phone case

Marble and dusty pink alphabet phone case

Dusty pink alphabet phone case

Speckle and pink monogram phone case

Pastel purple portfolio clutch bag

The story of an intern || Annah Hughes

The second in our 'tale of an intern' style feature focuses on one of our current interns Annah Hughes who is about to enter her 3rd year of 'Textiles in Practice' at Manchester School of Art. We snapped this little cheeky monkey behind the scenes whilst she helped to art direct the new 'Say What' lookook photoshoot.

A N N A H ' S    S T O R Y

'Collaborating with Rianna and her fashion label on the AW2015-16 collection lookbook photoshoot has been an exciting experience and when Rianna gave us the brief, my group and myself were extremely excited at the prospect of working closely with an established designer. During a project titled 'unit X', the university invite existing design companies to come into the Art School and set up collaborative projects, enabling students to gain experience within the industry whilst also studying at uni. We were really excited to hear one of these opportunities was to help create & art direct Rianna's lookbook! Around 8 groups in total created concepts for Rianna's campaign but only 1 groups concept could be chosen for the final photoshoot.

 

We started by brain storming lookbook ideas and many Starbucks mochas later we decided upon creating an innovative virtual platform; a short film for her site, directed by fellow intern Amber Phillips and a digital friendly lookbook which could easily be viewed on her website but also print out beautifully as a hard copy.

By using social media platforms such as Pinterest, Tumblr and Instagram we researched the current market whilst working closely with Rianna and regularly had meetings to discuss our mood board concepts. This lead us to the first test shoot which was an extremely exciting yet challenging prospect, we all knew what we wanted to achieve but it was quite an experimental process. We presented our final test shoot ideas in front of Rianna & all the other contending groups from Manchester School of Art. Winning the pitch was amazing and we were so excited to put our test shoot ideas into a live commercial brand. Working with Rianna on the day of the shoot was really fun and exciting. We were able to have free reign on art direction and the styling of the shoot. I really enjoyed the preparation that went into styling the models look. We opted for a minimalistic look that let the prints do all the talking. Silky soft culottes were pieced with layered mesh tops and the jewellery was inspired by the looks our favourite fashion bloggers wear.

It's been a really fun and eye opening experience working and connecting with everyone on set. Although the photo-shoot only took a few hours there was a big team to coordinate. We had to be sure everyone understood the vision we wanted to portray, therefore inspiration boards were created and shared with the make-up artist, photographer, model and lighting crew. Studying 'Textiles in Practice' at Manchester School Of Art has completely changed my outlook on art, fashion and design industry. It has taught me that there are numerous directions and opportunities within fashion to pursue. I specialise in print for fashion however working on an art directed lookbook enabled me to experience different aspects of the fashion industry and how I could potentially develop my own practice within art direction & styling. For my final year at the Art School I want to produce a unique collection of contemporary prints. Focusing on creating an abstract and playful concept within fashion and editing these ideas within a styling context.'

View the full lookbook created by the students here:
www.riannaphillips.com/page/lookbook-saywhat

 Take a look at Annah's work:

Carbon Made 

Instagram
Blog

Final Collections || Manchester School of Art

Last week I went along to view Manchester School of Art's prestigious fashion course showcase their final collections. Well it's safe to say their offerings were inspirational, vibrant, contemporary and ermm absolutely mind blowing! I sat alongside the runway gawping as each collection sashayed down the runway.   

I've been watching the collections from a distance as I walk around the art school studios (during my fabulous parallel life - associate lecturer - Textiles in Practice) and have witnessed beautiful fabrics and processes be applied to a mix of unconventional and original garments.

Good luck to you all at Graduate Fashion Week!

Rimsha Shahid

Camilla Batchelor

Robynne Hardie

James Gullick

Sarah Bimpson

Hannah Sykes

Gabriella Sardena

Inspiration || Teo & Steven

For those who didn't know, I also lecture at Manchester School of Art on the Textiles in Practice course. Fortunately for me, I'm constantly surrounded by inspirational art & design. A few weeks ago I strolled into the lobby only to find this huge two story high vibrant wall installation. There was no other option, the brains behind the master piece had to be picked!

After much research (mostly on instagram - #manchesterschoolofart) I tracked down Teo Klein-Velderman & Steven Yates, the final year Fine Art students working as a partnership in order to create these striking pieces.

So off I went to the fine art studios to meet these two cheeky chappy's, so relaxed in their work space as if they were sat in their own living rooms. Even their approach to designing an art piece is extremely casual, Teo takes a photo of the canvas on his iPhone then applies where the colour could possibly go using an app.

Laid back they may be (although I've not seen them in action during the lead up to an assessment?!) it's evident that these two students currently living in Fallowfield are passionate about what they do. Each canvas has sentimental value, paints are mixed in order to achieve the optimum palette and careful consideration is taken whilst constructing the composition. It's safe to say this design duo is going somewhere. Their 'for sale' page has been permanently placed on my desktop and if your bare walls are in need of a colour injection I suggest you take a look too.

 

Website

www.teoklein.blogspot.co.uk

Instagram

@steyates111

@tezkidd