Carlo Manzi

I went to London this weekend to visit Carlo Manzi in his studio.

He has been collecting clothes for 30 years from thrift stores to high end designer shops.

With the suits he started collecting, he opened up a stall in Kings Road selling suits. At the time there were no other stalls like it as the main thing being sold at the time was denim so he did really well with it and pursued his collecting hobby.

Now he supplies for such things as costume for commercials and films. His studio is huuuge and was completely jam-packed, so much so that he needs to move to a bigger place, which I will hopefully be helping him out with.

It was amazing, filled with inspiration and I can't wait to go back when i have more of a focussed idea of what i'm looking for.Here are some pictures from the day.

From hats...

To shirts...

And belts..

To jumpers...

And gilets...

And jackets...

And shoes..

I was particularly interested to find some capes to see the traditional workmanship that went into them and what sort of details are worked in to them. There wasn't a huge range of capes as they are not very popular but the ones Carlo found for me were beautiful.

The arm pokes out this vent in the elbow in this cape leaving a long trail of fabirc falling down below the arm.

I love the chain fastening detail on this long smart cape.

The jackets below are all made out of lovely thick heavy weight fabric and the colours and use of constrasting fabric is very eye catching and something I am thinking of bringing forward into my initial design ideas.
This one has exceptionally nice elbow patches!

Rib-cord is one of the fabrics I am thinking of working with as I think it suits my style and theme very nicely. I like the wide rib.

Detail of a tweed jacket lapel with button hole.

My favourite garment of the day! This fabulous cape.
The picture doesn't quite capture the texture of the material and the richness of the colour. It felt almost spongey and really light to touch. The details in this cape are amazing. The difference of the proportions of the pockets, to the lining and the smart button across detail that goes under the chin when the collar is facing upwards. I loved it!

word vomit

Just a bit of a word brainstorm from the words that popped up the most when researching A/W11 and S/S11 in Peclers, WGSN and Trend Union..


This should help get the inspiration juices flowing! After researching more into these words i will find images and other related things to get some idea of colour and shape.

Extended Major Project

So the extedned major project has started and it is research time!
I know that my final outcome will consist of 6 menswear outfits for a capsule collection, and that i would like to keep my Major Project Preparation in mind when researching in regards to my style of design and colour ways.
What i have to consider next is whether i will be designing for A/W11 or S/S11, when this is decided the next step is to decide colour ways and think of fabric choice.
I love A/W and would like to design in accordance to this season, however, being a colder season means heavier fabrics and more layers, equalling more garments to make! So i must seriously consider first of all my time management and whether i think this would be too much to take on board.

To start my inspiration ideas flowing i thought it would be a good idea to get pen to paper and get drawing.
I took a few books out from the library but I especially enjoyed the story and costumes in The Wind in The Willows.

John Lewis

I am doing some work experience at the John Lewis head offices.

I work with the buyers most of the time which is a lot of sorting out samples and initial production, from pre-production, and production clothes, peeling off old stickers off folders so they can be re-used, filing, putting clothes away in the stockroom, clearing out drawers, making sure the John Lewis clothes are on John Lewis hangers and Collection clothes are on collection hangers etc....The things we do for experience!
At least everyone is lovely and the offices are extremely festive at the moment with decorations and chocolates everywhere!
On my way in to the offices aswell there have been samples of buckfizz, champagne, mulled wine, mince pies and I got a handful of perfume samples too! A good start to the day.

Highlight so far: Doing research for the designers on WGSN... since third year my uni hasnt renewed their subscription so I have had no access to it....this way I have the industry access and I spent hours looking at the menswear trends and stories for AW11..

Some photos of the showroom





I have just finished my second weeks work where I was busy researching moods and trends for SS11. I also was able to do a lot of printing out for my own research which was very helpful for my next project. Really lovely people in the design studio, so I had a nice time up there researching.
I also had a little meeting with Peter Ruis, the buying director of John Lewis who is also one of the 10 mentors for GFW.
Unfortunately I have no photos from the studio.

All packed up and ready to go!

I have just finished my evaluation for my Major Project Preparation and now I am all packed up and ready for hand in at 10am tomorrow!

Final Designs

I chose 6 final outfits out of my designs that I would further into the realisation of the outfits, by making them.
I used swatches of fabric, pen and collage to create them, then I manipulated them on photoshop.

Final Front Cover

Here are a few of the front cover designs I experimented with. I adapted the lightness/darkness of the picture, and the lightness/darkness of the background, different fonts and borders.

I decided to use this one as my final front cover.