Fashion is not just all about clothing... It also shows our feelings.

The first and most important step I have done before looking for an internship, was making a CV as professional, as creative and interesting I could do. I included my address, phone number, my previous experiences, my skills,my goals and why I wanted to work here. I also included one of my fashion illustrations, to show my work and to decorate the CV itself, making it not only easier but also interesting to the eye of the reader.

Here is the E-mail I sent to each one of the brands :

'Dear Madam, Sir

My name is Alexia Canale, a second year Fashion and Design student at Middlesex University in Hendon Central, London.

I am actively searching for a 6 weeks placement, early January 2013, in order to perfect my skills in my field.

I will be privileged, honoured, and very lucky if you accept my candidature in your studio.

I am really looking forward to your reply, and of course, I am at your full disposal to attend a prior interview before you take a decision.

Yours Sincerely,

Alexia Canale.'

My CV

Workplacement research, and Interview

During december 2012, I was into my deep research of looking for an internship so I could gain work experiences. What I was mainly looking for, was a colourful, unique and appealing brand, that has similarities to the style of Fashion I am interested about. A fashion label that has original and creative ideas, that could be into recycling and that has interesting inspirations . I first thought about Meadham Kirchhoff, but then I so happened to come across a Middlesex Fashion Blog post about Louise Gray who was looking for interns. Given the opportunity, I checked out their website (www.louisegraylondon.com) which I liked so much, because the style of the brand was matching all my likes and what I was mainly looking for. I then sent them an email attached with my CV.

I was very lucky to have got a reply very fast, and to be able to get an interview on the day after. For the interview, I had to bring garments I have previously made, sketchbooks research and my portfolio showing all my body of work. The assistant of the studio, Emma, fixed me a date for a trial day for the week after. On that day, I've been sent to pick up a delivery of fabrics in Hackney and made sure that the process which was entirely my responsibility went smoothly and the fabrics themselves were in perfect condition all throughout. At the end of the day, I was then lucky to be part of the Louise Gray's team.

Louise Gray

Company History

The company itself is based from the eccentric Scottish Fashion Designer Louise Gray, who was born in Fraserburgh, Scotland. Independent from a young age, Louise left the family home at 17 years old to study textiles at Glasgow, before moving onto the prestigious Glasgow School of Art in Textile Design to complete her BA . She was also a student at Central Saint Martins, where she graduated her Masters in Textiles. Her main specialization is hand Embroidery, and as you can notice, there is a lot of embroidery and textures going on throughout her collections. Before her graduation, she had the opportunity to do work experience with Peter Jensen, by doing her hand embroidery on his Autumn/Winter 2005 Ready-to-Wear Collection intitled as 'Fanny' . Louise also worked as a freelancer for the French company 'Lanvin'. I am not certain if this information is 100% right but I think her first ever collection was Fall 2007 Ready-to-Wear at the London Week. After her graduating in April 2007, Louise Gray almost immediately became involved with Fashion East, Lulu Kennedy's 10-year-old initiative, which provides financial and business support for emerging designers. Louise Gray always knew about the plan, but never saw herself becoming involved in it. "I always thought I'd work for other people. I never did work experience with fashion people – it was with print companies or embroidery things. Lulu is amazing. Even from day one I was asking her lots of questions. I think she does it from her heart, genuinely. She chooses people she sees something in and wants to support. I said to her: 'I can't believe you've been doing it 10 years. I hope you know how much you help people.'', she said. The picture below is one of her garments of the collection which I find particularily interesting, because of the simplicity, the bright cheerful colour yellow, and the blue textured diamond shapes. The transparent key object on the middle is very reflective , and it does give a significant message behind that item, which for me means something like 'Open my soul'.

The signature description of her clothing label... I would say it's an 'explosion of bright colours', the geometrical printing or textured shapes, are unique and reminds me a lot of the 80's.

Her collections are a lot textures, with hand silk-screened, embroidery, fabrics developed in woven and printed techniques too.

Louise Gray Spring/Summer RTW 2013 Backstage

Spring/Summer 2013 RTW

Spring/Summer RTW 2013

Louise Gray has collaborated with the famous brand TopShop. Her range of clothing and makeup are very glittery, cheerful, and glamourous. It is constituted of sequin-embellished tops, colourful party dresses, smiley faced trousers,etc. A fashion range for the people who love sparkles!

Her other collaborations are including; Cotton USA, Crown Paint,Nicholas Kirkwood, Judy Blame, the Smiley Company,Schwarzkopf, Asos, Victoria and Albert Museum, Nasir Mazhar and Pollini.

She has been supported by Fashion East, in which she has participated in 3 sponsored catwalks,NEWGEN, and Fashion forward.

Louise Gray Collection at TopShop

Louise Gray explained also how much her homeland has influenced her aesthetic view:

"They do say Scottish people are obsessed with colour. I'm from a small village beside the sea. I was forever outside. The Scottish landscape is really nice, but then in the winter it can be really depressing. It's a mixture of seeing all the nice colours and imagining what could be there too. When you're boxed up in your house and it's snowing – it's as much dreaming as what you are surrounded by. I know that I'm obsessed with colour. When I close my eyes I see everything in colour. My aesthetic has changed as I've grown up, I think my label will change with me. I think I'm more of a tomboy – I do really love shoes and make-up and hair. But then I do think I come from a male way of dressing. I like lots of trousers and coats more than I like dresses. When I was at art school I dressed insane. Like I learned how to get dressed in the dark, but that was the funniest thing. Now loads of the kids, to me, don't look so good. All my interns had their hair pink by the end of last season, picking it up by osmosis. You can see them start to think: 'Ooh, what's it all about?' which is nice."

Here's amazing looks from her collection spring/summer 2013 Ready-to-Wear. Metallic contrasts with happy colours, and cute shoes. Sew pictures below.

Spring/Summer RTW 2013

Spring/Summer RTW 2013 Shoes

Eye-catching, the looks from this Spring/Summer Ready-to-Wear 2013 collection,demonstrates qualities of optical art going on optical illusions, decorated with the appliqué of crystals, oversized paillettes, and bright colours. The makeup artists had clearly been infected with the same doodlebug, models emerged with comically large beauty marks, blue eyeliner, and eyebrows drawn on in the shape of crowns. Those exciting accessories married perfectly to the happy colourful looks, hats, exclamatory jewellery, nonsense sentences print on the clothing,etc.

The creative and stylish jewellery is from the brand Tatty Devine, that was in collaboration with Louise Gray's collection, the six-piece collection features oversized mirrored rings with hand-written slogans, and shoulder-sweeping earrings crafted from bold and brilliant primary shapes.

Louise said: "The jewellery that I designed with Tatty Devine for spring/summer 2013 are about having fun and adding to the clothes to create a full look," said Gray of the inspiration behind the collection. "I wanted to write slogans onto the rings to make it really punch and, because they are mirrored, you can also use them as a compact to check your make-up too''.

Somehow the style reminds me pretty much of the 80's, the famous Cyndi Lauper and comic books due to the style of the jewellery from Tatty Devine. What I like so much about Louise's Gray collections is that they are not only original and creative, but also wearable and practical compared to some other designers.

6 weeks workplacement and backstage at London Fashion Week

My workplacement at Louise Gray started on the 7^th of January 2013, in a studio somewhere at Aldgate East in London, and it lasted about 6 weeks long.

The 6 weeks I have worked at the Louise Gray's studio, were very beneficial and fantastic. Unfortunately I was not allowed to take photographs inside the studio during the internship,so I instead did a very quick sketch of the studio on photoshop with some collage, just to give you a visual idea what it looked like (See below).

I have accomplished a lot of tasks during those 6 weeks, which made me learn many new things,I also improved my skills such as pattern cutting after the internship, and it made me learn to be more attentive and organised. I also had to trace old patterns into new ones, which most of the time I had to make changes on the measurements, trace out, then cut the pieces out very neatly, and put them on the rail in a plastic bag to avoid any loss. I also have been sent a lot of times, for deliveries, to pick up, or deliver garments or fabrics, either to a company, or to customers. I was given money too to buy expensive materials or fabrics from shops for the collection, so from now on I know more interesting fashion shops I could go back in future to buy materials when I will be making my own garments! I did other tasks such as cleaning the studio, tidying up the patterns or fabrics, making patterns or toiles,and production. Production was pretty easy and exciting to do. I just had to iron and sew very neatly Louise Gray labels before they were sewn by hand inside the garments. Another exciting thing I enjoyed to do was for example to be sent, to choose many fabric samples of one particular colour, take the prices per meter of each sample and bring them back for Louise to select the fabric she prefers the most. There was so much work, and stress going on around before the showtime, but it was nice to see throughout the progression and then see the final results on the catwalk show. After I did my internship there, I was disappointed that it was already finished because, that's how much I enjoyed working in the studio, and working backstage as a dresser in the London Fashion Week.

Louise Gray

The other interns and I were working on Louise's Gray latest collection, which is the Autumn/Winter Ready-to-Wear 2013/2014. The showtime was during the London Fashion Week on the 18^th of February, and it took place at The Tanks in the Tate Modern. On that day, I had the big opportunity to work backstage as a professional dresser.I and everyone else from the team,arrived at 10 in the morning, and we had to be strictly on time. Unfortunately we had to wait a little while because the van that was transporting the garments was one hour late. When the garments arrived, each one of us, had to carry everything out very fast and put them on a rail. Then the next part was to wait to be called and be given the name of the model I was going to dress, that was very exciting! Bracelet I was wearing working in backstage and model I was dressing.(see below)

AW RTW 2013/2014, the model I dressed.

I do think this collection was based a lot around the concept of recycling because mostly of the jewellery that was worn on this collection. Louise Gray after the show even said it herself with a smile to Vogue Magazine : “I’m into recycling – it’s a nice concept”. The models were wearing accessories such as custard tart tins earrings shaped like egg whisks (foil material), brooches and rings adapted from white toilet paper roll, hair pieces made from colourful plastic shopping bags, heavily patterned bags and shoes, necklaces ,bracelets or earrings made from oversized pearls, which were just some interesting details of the collection. Recycling it's an amazing idea, and it encourages people to go Eco, instead of throwing things away, which is something very important to go green in Fashion. Also it was not only just about practicality and versality but, about finding an awesome way to stand out from the crowd, and you could see from a long distance the original and creative accessories behind the new Louise Gray fall 2013 collection. The makeup applied on the models, was dramatic and I believe because of the big eyelashes, it gave a nice 60's look. The clothing were bright of course, with also the love for fun interesting patterns, and a lot of texture that was present in this collection, and its manifestation was unrestrained.One of the items I really liked on this collection was the big bag with 'Hey Crazy' written on it, and....all the looks!

AW RTW 2013/2014

If you click on here, it will open a new link that plays a quick video I recorded with my phone in backstage, when the models were preparing themselves before hitting on the catwalk.

I was dressing with excitement a model with another dresser, it was challenging, exciting and stressful too. The girl and I, had to make sure that the clothing worn by the model, were with no creasing, clean and perfectly neat. It wasn't only about dressing a model, but also dressing the way we have been required to do, there was a paper on the rail with instructions of what the model had to wear and a photograph of the outfit so we knew how to dress her and which accessories to put on, etc. The picture below, is the model I was dressing during the backstage. Above the catwalk , there was a motto written in black on a title card ''Hey Crazy'' , which I found very amusing.

AW RTW 2013/2014 Backstage

The video of Louise's Gray Fashion collection RTW AW 2013/2014

Conclusion

I have learned a lot during those 6 weeks at Louise Gray, as I said at the beginning, those experiences improved my skills in pattern cutting. I discovered new shops where I could see many sort of fabrics, and different places while delivering. It also made me learn to be better organised and more neat when I do things such as tracing for example. It was very exciting to see how things works out in the Fashion industry, the progression and then the final results. Seing the makeup artists in backstage doing the models, also the hair stylists, the photographers, and the tension of doing the tasks perfectly with not a single mistake opened my view on the fashion industry. I know in future when I will be looking for employment in the fashion industry, the knowledge of what it is like already. In the backstage, it was so busy and crowded. Everyone was running to do something! Louise Gray and the assistant Emma were very lovely and friendly towards me, working for them , improved my skills so much better! Again this was a great experience, and it made me sad that this went very fast as I really enjoyed myself.