Lust List: Decorative Denim

Denim can be decorated with gems, ruffles and raw edges to produce amazing effects.



This stylish example from Spring 2015, Dolce and Gabbana proves embellished denim can appear effortless. The combination with a laced item is always a good idea too and gives a true 'Renaissance' feel.



Or how about something a bit more rough and ready? This gorgeous DIY from Balmain is more than enough inspiration to try out a Punk look, which would probably go great with all those tartan pieces you've purchased for A/W right?



This cheeky number was spotted at Milan Fashion Week '14 which uses culture clash as a design basis - who doesn't love Minnie Mouse.

You can get more inspiration from this week's Sunday Times 'Style' magazine using page 7 'I Want to be Adorned' and I found this cute DIY so none of us have any excuses to not try out decorative denim - bang trendy.

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Jane Bowler Workshop @ V&A

On Saturday I went to a V&A 'Create!' workshop for Fashion Design with designer Jane Bowler, based on the Glamour of Italian Fashion Exhibition which just opened on April 5th.

At the start of the workshop Jane inspired us by showing us her recent work including designs for London Fashion Week, magazines e.g. GQ and performers such as Rita Ora and Lianne la Havas. After we had seen her designs we had a look around the exhibition to choose ideas which we could base collections on. I was really inspired by the use of layers of material and also by Emilio Pucci's beachwear.

Using this inspiration, I completed a mood board and then fashion sketches as shown below:

I decided to use pastel colours with embellishments, similar to Dolce and Gabbana but I also liked the idea of dramatic accessories - I was inspired by designs from Vivienne Westwood and headwear I had seen at the Isabella Blow exhibition during LFWend.

I had a fantastic time and I plan to attend more workshops like this as the experience I gained was invaluable. To find out more on Jane Bowler please visit: http://janebowler.co.uk/

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Italian Sunset

My trip to Italy was as fantastic as ever. The art over there is really like no other and I feel fortunate to have visited as many exhibitions and seen as much as I did in the space of two weeks. Whilst in Italy I saw a mixture of both classical and modern art -seeing 'The Kiss' and Andy Warhol's collection were just two of the many highlights. However I clearly didn't go for the art alone. The first part of my visit was spent in Milan. I loved this part because it was an excuse to go round all the shops! It was nice to be able to see a lot of clothes I had seen from various fashion shows on the internet 'in the flesh'. I spent a lot of time in Dolce and Gabbana -their store has such a nice layout and nearly every street I went down had an entrance into another part of the store which I thought was really useful (and a good marketing technique) as you were able to see different collections at each entrance. Other stores I enjoyed visiting included Louis Vuitton, Armani, Prada, Roberto Cavalli and Versace. I also discovered a less well-known store called 'Twin-Set' (Simona Barbieri) where several of the designs caught my attention. This is the second time I've visited Italy although I have a sneaky feeling it won't be the last.

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