Traces; Customer Profile and Trends.

Grunge

There were certain designers whose trademark style is quite quirky these designers include Rodarte, Alexander Mqueen and Gareth Pugh.

Rodartes theme was really cool as it stated that it was to show that someone could be scared but still look beautiful and the way they conveyed that was by working into lots of fabrics this relates to our theme as the Romance side of the theme is going to be really beautiful with the colors and fabrics and the grunge side is going to be the opposite and we need to show that by manipulating all the fabrics.

For the grungier side of romance we were trying to find images to reflect ‘lost darkness’ the feeling of falling out of love when you feel alone and your not quite thinking straight. I looked for longer silhouettes and bigger shapes to give the feeling of carrying all those memories with you that you just cant seem to let go and rebellious sort of fashion through color and fabric.

The best colors to convey this sort of theme were the deep reds and purples to add some sharpness and color and the obvious black and grays to give that sense of darkness.

With our Romance theme we had the idea of trying to find images to convey the idea of falling and being in love so I started looking out for very feminine fashion, soft sheer fabrics and soft pastel colors to reflect that naïve innocence.

Valentino’s collection was very in sync with all the fabrics, colors and detail and reflected the romance theme really well using lots of soft tones such as nude, gold, rose, lavender and gray.

Victor & Rolf’s collection is a very exaggerated romance style fashion and some of the colors are quite strong but still the details they’ve used such as big ruffles and huge pleats to create amazing shapes that are really inspiring.

The fabrics that would best reflect the theme would be lots of soft fabrics that could create lots of amazing ruffles such as organza, silk, satin and tulles.

Also the main colors that will work best were colors like nude, lilacs, gray’s and peachy pinks.

Customer Profile

Female

Aged 24-30

Size 6-12

Freelance Photographer/ Journalist

Browns Focus

What She Likes:

‘Chloe’ is a Parisian female, born in France but lives in London, she is a commuter, and she spends her working weeks as a freelance photographer in the heart of London but on the weekends, slips away to her family home in the cozy villages of France. Her job takes her all around the world but she regards London as her 2^nd home, she’s quirky, cool, and fun. Her love for beautiful clothes began when she picked up her first camera- through photography she was able to appreciate fashion, understand how it makes the world go round and from this developed her own personal style for unique things.

She regards shopping as a very enjoyable pastime, she scours through the rails of thrift stores and boutiques like ‘Beyond retro’ to find vintage pieces and forgotten garments, when having to buy her essentials she flocks to high street stores like H&M, Gap and Zara. Her approach to the fashion industry is similar to that of art-, she constantly visits museums in and around London and those in the places to which she travels.

Her job causes her to be always up to speed with all the creative industries so she does this buy reading journals and magazines like ‘British and French Vogue’, ‘Grazia’, ‘Vanity Fair’, ‘Sunday Times Style’ and ‘The photographer’. She loves going out with her friends, going to the classic cinemas like the ‘Odeon’ and occasionally watching a play at any London theatre.

Her style is borderline Parisian Marie Antoinette boudoir but with a dark angel warriors twist to it, she relishes in buying designer and her favorites’ are ‘Chloe, Stella McCartney, Proenza Schouler and Vivienne Westwood’ but she favors thrift and vintage and likes to pick her jewelry from flea markets.

What She Dislikes:

She is not a fan of mass-market high street chains like New Look and Primark; she dislikes the current trend of ‘fast fashion’. She is the type of person who invests in her wardrobe and expects her money and the garment to work for her (so she’ll buy a £500 winter coat and expect it to last for at least 5 years). She doesn’t like junk food, camping or music festivals.

Grunge and Romance Mood-board's courtsey of Sophie Hope @ http://sophie-hope.blogspot.com/