NOVVO 1 / Novvo magazine
Contents Specials Knitting 8 _ The Dust Bowl Beth robison 10 _ Collection name olivia richards
whites 12 _ Collection name Rebeckah ong 15 _0,1,2,3,4 shaun harris 18 _ Tracing a Memory sophie halliwell 22 _ Collection name caroline sheraton
print 28 _ A Head Full of Flowers Lauren anderson
The creation 28 _ Closed Independent Flora murunga Novvo Magazine / 2
Identity
features 4 _ Bricolage Amy sala 31 _ Graduate Collection Helena Colvin 32 _ Collection name Heather hall 34 36
_ Collection name siri Mattsson _ Collection name Aimme green
37 38
_ Rebel Revolution jess long _ The Walk of Wonder fern goodship
43 _ Mechanical Primordial Elisabeth kamaris 44 _ Collection name hannah ford
Q and A 6 _ The flood Alice timmins 26 _ Collection name Grace Crich
3 / Novvo magazine
Al ice timm ins Alice Timmons is a womenswear designer who loves to design both conceptual and ready to wear designs. She likes her designs to have a meaning behind them. Here Timmons tells us all about why she loves designing and her latest collection ‘The Flood’. Tell us a bit about yourself and why you love designing? My name is Alice Timmins. I graduated from Birmingham City University last July with a BA (hons) in Fashion Design. I have always loved designing; I like to create something beautiful from an inspiration or a story that has a darker concept behind it, which is relevant today. Would you say there is a particular brand or designer who inspires you? I am inspired by lots of different designers but my main inspirations tend to come from Mary Katrantzou, Hussein chalayan and Issey Miyake. Tell us about your collection? My collection is called ‘The Flood’. The concept of it is about seeing contamination, being able to see the invisible form of protection that creates its own disease. The inspiration came from a book I read called ‘The year of the flood’ by Margaret Atwood, in this book it imagines a future version
Novvo Magazine / 4
Q and A of the story of Noah’s Ark except there is no flood of water it’s a flood of disease. This disease is created through trying to protect people by giving vaccinations for everything. This is where my idea comes from. I decided to look at what if you could see this contamination, wrapping around the body being both delicate and harsh. So whilst the protection protects, it also creates leaving the body vulnerable. I wanted to be able to show a progression like the story where there is the initial wave, the chaos, then when everything is over the beginning of new life. I have tried to show this through the colour getting dark to light and the body being covered almost completely to begin with to becoming slightly more free. Who is your collection aimed at? My collection does not have a specific audience it is more of a showpiece or experimental collection looking at the idea of being delicate and beautiful whilst being harsh, with the body being cocooned in a tangled web. How long did the collection take to complete? It was spread out over the course of 5 months.
Were there any problems that arose? How did you over come these? From the outset I had an issue with finding fabrics that did what I wanted them to do. I created lots of designs and samples to find ways around the structural aspect of my design. As I wanted there to be a lot of volume and shape, but in different parts of the outfits, finding the correct material was essential. Are you working on a collection right now? At this moment in time I’m not working on any current projects but I have been thinking about ideas for my next one, which I think, will be based around beautiful rare, lost or extinct things.
Q and A alice Timmons
Contact: alicekate.timmins@gmail.com Website: www.alicetimmins.wix.com/alicetimmins
5 / Novvo magazine
Knitting Fashion B et h Ro bi so n In a special interview with third year Fashion and Textile Design student, Beth Robinson, Novvo found out a great deal of what it’s like to both study and work within this busy industry. The images displayed are taken from Robinson’s collection named ‘The Dust Bowl’, this project is original and striking. As a Fashion for Knitwear specialist, this quirky designer tells us of her “perfectionist” ways and explores deeper into her fashion projects.
Novvo Magazine / 6
When asked which designers and/or brands particularly inspire her the most, Robinson responded with Rachel James, a Westminster graduate – who’s bold colours and print patterns were so fresh that she instantly fell in love with her work. The originality and boldness of her work is “exactly what she loves to see when she looks at other menswear collections!” But sticking to the well-known designers, apparently Alexander Wang and Christopher Raeburn have always been huge inspirations for both the budding designer and her wacky work.
“I love designing because there are no limits to what you can draw.” The Dust Bowl, which built up as a 7-week project, originally gained its inspiration from 1930’s America, juxtaposing the different worlds from mid land America at the time of The Great Depression, to New York and the Art Deco movement. The designer’s inspiration began on a typical commute into London during her summer, whilst reading To Kill a Mockingbird. From then, the era she based her project on, was widely revolved around that novel. Before beginning work on her collection, Robinson expresses the concerns she first had, “When I did The Dust Bowl project, I had only done one menswear project prior to that so I was still learning a lot about menswear shapes and garments.” Although having fears about delving deeper into menswear within this project, she also states that the project was “very helpful” and gave her a lot to learn within the industry to keep in mind within her following project, the Pre Collection. The fabrics she talks of using within her projects are varieties of yarn – different weights, colours and properties. Within the Dust Bowl project, Robinson also experimented with a denim element, inspired by the men who worked in the cotton fields – linking it back to the theme of 1930’s America and the Great Depression that was taking over. She used techniques, such as smocking, quilting and embroidery when experimenting with the denim fabrics. Her time working within the industry has also been a huge success for Robinson. Summer
2015, she undertook a 4-week internship with London knitwear based label – Lowie. Helping organising the social media and writing scheduled posts within their Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages, she learnt a lot about the design industry and the marketing side of bigger fashion companies, benefiting her in the long run and working well alongside her current studies. If you’d like to find out more about this new and upcoming knitwear designer, feel free to contact her on beth.robinson@hotmail.co.uk or visit her website and online portfolio by simply visiting www.bethrobinsonknitwear.co.uk. By Molly Barham 7 / Novvo magazine
fern goodship Fernanda Goodship has Spanish Heritage that she has never explored. She often wonders how different her life could have been if she had met her Spanish father, and been surrounded by family who occupy a different culture and lifestyle. This hidden aspect of her life has inspired her Autumn/Winter collection ‘The Walk of Wonder’, which was showcased last month at Edinburgh Fashion Week. After leaving her native Blackpool, Goodship decided to Magazine study Fashion/ Design at Edinburgh Novvo 8
Designer: Fern Goodship Photographer: Edyta Stala
University. She discloses, “Designing makes her feel free”. Goodship currently works in retail for Whistles. She also works as a stylist for photographers and assists on photo shoots for graduate collections. Goodship believes that women are no longer daring enough to wear unique clothes. She wants them to have courage and feel good in her collections. The clothes she designs are, “classic, elegant and sophisticated”, and are created to empower strong women. The
Designer: Fern Goodship Photographer: Scott Wilson
extravagant Lady Gaga may possibly influence her love of unique designs. Goodship is a big fan of Gaga, and strongly believes that Gaga helped her designing talents develop at University and throughout her career. ‘The Walk of Wonder’ is a tailored collection and the colour palette is unusually all royal blue with hints of red popping out. The collection is versatile: it is able to be dressed up or down, but sophistication is constant. Goodship decided upon the strong colour of blue and the tailored designs to emphasise the strength and glamour
of the women she is targeting. The occasional colour of red, and the recurrent use of ruffles in her designs, links the collection back to its Spanish heritage of matadors and flamenco dancers. The seven month process of creating the collection was not rid of challenges. Goodship sought out help from a textiles tutor in order to learn how to dye tulle. After experimenting and trying different formulas, she created different shades of blue that successfully took to the material. Goodship also suffered technical difficulties with her embroidery machine breaking a couple of times. After battling these problems, Goodship came through on the other side with an empowering Mediterranean inspired collection. After experiencing this hidden side of her life, it is an exciting prospect to wonder what else Goodship will reveal in forthcoming collections. By Pela Millard Contact: ferngoodship@gmail.com Website: http://fernandagoodship. wix.com/fernandagoodship
Designer: Fern Goodship Photographer: Sarah Elms
9 / Novvo magazine