A/W2010/11 Inspirations...

New Year is well and truly underway, and life has returned to some kind of normality for most of us. Work is manically busy at the moment, and I'm currently designing our Autumn/Winter 2010/11 collection ready to present to the buyers come February/March. The only problem being Chinese New Year - starting on the 14th February and lasting a whole month where the factories are closed - I need all my samples back before they start their celebrations otherwise we will have nothing to sell until the end of March! Basically I'm working on flat out between sketching up new ideas, speccing my designs (giving them measurements for the factories), choosing and sourcing new fabrics, deciding which factory would make the best job of each particular design (there are about 30 pieces per story x 4) and finally giving the sample to the relevant factory and doing the necessary paper work....praying that in two or three weeks TNT will deliver a truck load of perfect salesman samples!

I wanted to share with you a few of my inspirations for the work I'm doing at the moment...

Extreme fringing, furs and feathers

Hoods, snoods and deep cowls - Future Classics SS10

Fabric mixing and distorted silhouettes - Undercover

Tribal jersey - Anthony Vaccarello SS10

Embossed leather and brocades, as seen at McQueen AW08

Extreme shoulders and fringing - Todd Lynn SS10

Leather applique - Louise Goldin AW09

Futuristic shapes and armour inspired trousers - Balenciaga SS07

Clean lines and exaggerated shapes - Balenciaga aw08

Cross-over trousers (inspired by Thai fisherman trousers) - Nicole Miller and Yigal Azrouel SS10