Exciting Times at South Coast Fashion Week

This year is proving to be one of the busiest and most exciting ones in my working life as we are having a stand at so many shows this year. The first big show is South Coast Fashion Week which is being held at the BIC, Bournemouth, just down the road from me.  This is just next week 9th, 10th and 11th May and we are busy getting lots of stock ready.  The new collection will be on display, the samples can be bought but also we will be taking made to measure orders on all of the dresses. We are also showcasing our hats and the new hair accessories that have been made such as the ram horns and leather crowns.  Here are a couple of the small boaters, there are another two in production, a black one and a mauve one which hopefully will be finished in time.

I will also take this small sailor hat.

I have been making leather necklaces as well which will be on sale.

We will also be taking our JSKs, OP dresses and sallopettes, there should be something to suit everyones taste.

We would love to see you next weekend, pop by and say hello.   It should be a great show, lots of different stands, music, entertainment and much more, here is a link to the South Coast Fashion Week web site so you can see what is planned http://www.southcoastfashionweek.co.uk/.

I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside

Having already looked behind the scenes of my latest photoshoot I would like to showcase the official photos by Guy Wood of Sirius Art (https://www.facebook.com/PhotoArt.By.Sirius?fref=ts).   Guy is backed by the Princes Trust like me and it was a pleasure to work with him.  He understood my thinking and worked along with my storyline adding his own twists as we went along.

Story so far –

Once upon a holiday time ………….

Arriving at your destination is always magical, the anticipation of a holiday, and the much needed rest and recupuration from the daily stress of life is looked forward to.

                             

Sitting in reception waiting for a room.

Exploring the hotel is always fun and revolving doors especially so.

Quick peep in the mirror

Wistfully looking through the window, hopeful that the weather will cheer up.

All dressed up and nowhere to go

Finally outside enjoying the beautiful view despite the rain.

Spa treatments are always good on holiday.

And what about a paddle in the inside pool.

A break in the clouds and the outside beckons, Sandbanks is so beautiful.

The sea looks inviting.

 

Typical English weather but still having fun, an evening walking on the promenade despite the rain.

Finally the rain proves too much and it is back into the hotel.

Princes Trust Collaberation

I have been on the Princes Trust programme for eighteen months and lauched in October 2013 since then I have met a lot of lovely Princes Trust mentees and this week thoroughly enjoyed working with three of them on my latest photoshoot.

The Princes Trust give help to young people both practical and financial to help develop key skills, confidence and motivation to either move into work, education or training. In my case the help is make a success of my business so I have a mentor who I meet regularly and back up help from The Princess Trust who arange different events.  At one event I met Andreia Sousa a make up artist, (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Andreia-Sousa-Makeup-Design/664652373582973?ref=profile), at another Rose Courage, florist and stylist of Rosie Bespoke Styling (https://www.facebook.com/ROSIEBESPOKE?fref=ts) and I was introduced to Guy Wood our photographer (https://www.facebook.com/PhotoArt.By.Sirius?fref=ts) by Ginette Boyd  the wonderful Programme Executive.

Any photoshoot takes organisation and this one a little more as the first hurdle to overcome is to find a time and date that everyone can make, with this decided the next decision is the location.  I always like to tell a story on my photoshoots and the idea for this one is that of a girl arriving at a seaside resort on her holidays and how her week progressed.  The weather report was bad for Sunday which was the only day our model, Anna was available and this worried me until I talked with Guy who said he was up for taking photos in the rain as I particularly wanted beach shots.  My husband works in The Haven a beautiful hotel by the beach(http://www.fjbhotels.co.uk/hotels/poole/haven-hotel/) and we were kindly allowed a room in the Spa to change our model and also to take photos both inside and out. I am very grateful to the management and all of the staff, everyone was so lovely and helpful and the hotel was the perfect setting especially as it has access to the beach.

Talking over it with my business partner (my mum) I decided on a progression from a prim and proper look on arrival working through to a more carefree look at the end of the holiday.  We always visit the location before any shoot and work out a schedule as a guideline which we find helps us all work efficiently and be able to concentrate on the more important things during the shoot.

This was our suggested schedule which we also sent to Guy our wonderful photographer : –

Arrive at the location at 8.30 am earlier if the hair and makeup is done

Set up a wardrobe space in the spa changing rooms

Start with the first garment for the story board at 8.35 the pink dotted tulle- this could be photographed in the foyer by the revolving doors and in the bar overlooking the sea 20 mins

The second outfit is the high waisted dress with a wild flower crown, this can be photographed on the terrace over looking the sea because she wants to get closer to it.

The third outfit is the most prim and is really the start of the story and could be at the entrance there is a lovely fountain just outside, this one could also be taken by the revolving doors too.

The fourth outfit is the short set and there are some lovely big rocks on the beach i thought this could look pretty cool if she was sat on them, it’s got a Peter Pan feel to it.

The fifth outfit is the blue strapless and is paired with a hair accessory which is based on ram horns I would like this with the sea as the back drop or the beach.

The final outfit is my statement piece and I would love it to be photographed on the promenade overlooking the sea.

All of this is fluid, don’t feel like we have to stick to this, it’s just a good idea to have a sort of idea so we are not running all over the place.

Our day started at 7 am with make up and hair (again Jessica my sister and hairdresser did the hair and I am going to set up a business facebook for her in the next week or two).  These are our snapshots below:-

At the location we set up the room, clothes on the rack, hairpieces set out and shoes all by Irregular Choice for this shoot lined up by the wall.

The props from Rosie :-

 

Here is Guy getting himself ready for the shoot:-

The first photo, this is actually the ‘second day’ of the holiday but we had to work in this room before all the guests came down for morning coffee, here Anna is wishing the weather was nice enough to go out :-

This dress was accessories with my little boater and a pair of my Irregular Choice shoes, Fantasy Flower.

Arrival at the hotel:

Another pair of my Irregular Choice shoes Abigail Ankle, I have worn these a lot and the hair accessory is a pretty bow.

Onto the terrace regardless of the weather: –

Anna shoes were Mal E Bow by Irregular Choice and I had made a large flower crown for her hair.

I was busy directing and carrying props:-

And Andrea was on hand to touch up the make up

Abandoning all hope of the weather improving:-

 

Anna carried her Spot the Dot shoes and wore my flower decorated horns in her hair.  I love these and plan to make more in different colours.

Andrea adjusted  the lipstick to suit each outfit and freshened the makeup: –

The Beach Outfit, here the shots were just taken inside again:-

I love these shoes, I bought them from Irregular Choice in Brighton, one of my favourite pairs and they are called Cherry Shaker.  Her hat is based on a small sailor hat.

Last but not least my statement piece on the promenade:-

Shoes again by Irregular Choice, one of mine and a twin flower fascinator in her hair joined by beads across her forehead.

We had a great morning and it was lovely to work on the day with Guy and Andrea, I cant wait to see Guy’s photos.

South Coast Fashion Week

We are very excited at Mimibespoke as this year we will have stands at some very good shows, the first of which is South Coast Fashion Week being held at the BIC, Bournemouth on May 9th, 10th and 11th.  South Coast Fashion Week will be the ultimate fashion and shopping experience with many, many exhibitors ranging from designer labels, the best in the High Street, Scissors the hairdressers and many, many more including ourselves.  There are also fashion shows and live music, new bands and dance shows, it is going to be an amazing weekend.

We are going to showcase a variety of styles from our occasion wear:-

 

our millinery:-

 

but also our alternative street fashion which we market under ShinkuRose for Mimibespoke:-

 

 We have a new collection in the making and here are the illustrations :-

 

 These are nearly all completed now and we are extremely pleased that Irregular Choice are going to lend us two pairs of shoes to go with this collection which is going to be photographed at The Haven Hotel in the next week or so.

These are the shoes we are borrowing:-

SPOT THE DOT

MAL E BOW

We have an exciting few weeks ahead and at the South Coast Fashion week we hope to see all our old friends and make a lot of new ones.

Birds of Paradise

South Coast Fashion Week is coming up fast, it is on 9th, 10th and 11th May and as well as showcasing our garments we want to promote our accessories therefore a photo shoot was needed.  This time I wanted to direct a little more so I contacted the AUCB and found Tara a photographer who wanted to expand her portfolio. To show the kind of look  I wanted for this photo shoot, I prepared a photo mood board using Pinterest (search for Emily Braz or miimiikins and you will find all of my pin boards) and here are a few photos I pinned.

         

The next step was to find models and I was really lucky to have Chloe and Stefani who were both perfect for this shoot.  They looked amazing and were game to having big hair adorned with sticks.

All photo shoots are a team effort, my sister Jessica is our hairdresser and is always willing to try anything, I could not imagine a photo shoot without her help and my mother, Debbie, is chauffeur, collector of sticks in this instance and can always be relied on to notice when something is out of place during a shoot.  My mother is also my business partner, does a lot of the basic sewing and is always researching new and better techniques to improve our garments and accessories.

You can see we work as a team, I am putting on Chloe’s makeup as my sister completes her hair (Jessica was really good to come this time as she had a very busy day herself and you can see had to come in her rollers), my husband is in the back ground as he acted as a chauffeur as well, picking up Stefani early in the morning and my mum is taking the photos.  These are not the official photos, my mum usually takes the photos for this blog so as to tell the story of the day.

The location was Bournemouth gardens, halfway between Coy Pond and the Square, a beautiful place both to take photos and just generally walk.

          

Originally I thought that bare shoulders would be a good look but you can see from these photos which we took whilst waiting for the photographer, that the girls just look too naked.

 

Fortunately this had crossed my mind the night before and I had packed some tulle which really softened the look and either made the girls look like the Birds of Paradise or as my husband said ‘angry woodland nymphs’, either works for me.

We moved along the gardens following the sun.

Adjustments to the tulle and hat changes were needed, although I did layer up the various crowns and fascinators to get the look I wanted.

I also added a few fresh flowers and leaves at times.

Photographic direction:-

  

Reflectors were needed now and again:-

We finished with two very different small hats :-

I love this last photo, I think it reflects the great time we had and I can’t wait for the official photos to arrive.

Heirloom Sewing

We were commissioned to make a dress for a returning customer, it was to be in black and feature pin tucks and lace which reminded us of old fashioned heirloom sewing.

Heirloom sewing nowadays is mostly worked by machine but it used to be fine hand sewing usually on white cotton which was trimmed with lace, insertion, pin tucks, narrow ribbon and smocking.  The dress we designed would just feature tiny pin tucks, wider pin tucks and lace trim.

This is a quick sketch and you can see that it is really a basic JSK in a plain colour with the interest coming from the texture of the trimming.

Practise the pin tucks before adding to a garment.  They need to be as straight as you can  make them, evenly spaced and the same size.

When you are confident try them out on a piece of the scrap fabric you are using for your garment and below you can see the tiny pin tucks we used on the bodice.

We tried first of all to sew the small pintucks with a twin needle but found that it just looked like two rows of stitching next to each other and not like a tiny tuck.  Therefore it was easiest to mark the actual fold on  bodice  with a tiny cut in the seamline and then press this and then carefully sew.

On large pin tucks you can mark the first one and then use the width of the presser foot to space the pin tucks which is what was done on the skirt.

It is often suggested that you make your pintucks on the fabric and then cut out for example your bodice.  We chose though to pattern draft my pin tucks on the bodice, cut out the shape and then sew the pin tucks.

To make this more like heirloom sewing after sewing the pintucks some lace was added to frame the tucks.

Here you can see that the pintucks are bigger, approx 1 cm wide, on the skirt.

The finished garment looked like this: –

These are  only snapshots, taken during construction as we always like to keep clients up to date with how their garments are progressing, but  you can see that the finished look is a good one.

I am going to make myself one in burgundy and we are offering one of these in colour and size of choice as a raffle price in an upcoming international Lolita meet.

  

‘Victorian’ Weekend House Party

My recent photoshoot at The Cottonwood Boutique Hotel (http://www.thecottonwoodboutique.co.uk/) in Bournemouth (photos by Andy Smith of Poole Portraits, http://www.pooleportraits.co.uk/) told a story of a weekend house party which were popular among the upper classes in Victorian times and here is the story told in photos.

ARRIVAL

WAITING TO BE SHOWN TO ROOM

AFTERNOON WALK IN THE GARDEN

AFTERNOON TEA

SUNDAY BEST

ENTERTAINMENT

COCKTAILS

TIME TO GO HOME

Thank you again to The Cottonwood Boutique Hotel, Poole Portraits and the lovely Anna.

All garments and fascinators are from  ShinkuRose’s winter collection available from Etsy, https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ShinkuRose or direct from https://www.facebook.com/pages/Shinkurose/593986427294641.

Behind the Scenes – Photoshoot at The Cottonwood Boutique Hotel

I had been planning a new collection for the winter but although the designs were on paper I hadn’t got together with my partner to start making either the patterns or the outfits.

I needed a bit of a push to get started and this came from a meeting with Suzy Wheeler, a lovely lady and senior publicist of Strawberry Fields,  http://www.strawberryfieldsrepresents.com/.  Strawberry Fields RePresents supports creative talent in business and provides services in PR, marketing, event management and business guidance.  It was founded in 2005 and began as a music festival for 200 people and now is a thriving business working with individuals and organisations in music, fashion, film, art, dance, design and media. We met Suzy first when my partner represented us at a vintage market at the Russell Cotes Museum in Bournemouth where she sold a hat to Suzy to wear to a wedding.

Suzy invited us to meet her at the lovely Cottonwood Boutique Hotel in Bournemouth, http://www.thecottonwoodboutique.co.uk/, and we were amazed it was so lovely and the rooms were just perfect for a photoshoot. It was also great sitting in the bar area, drinking a cup of tea looking out onto the gardens with the sea just a stone’s throw away.

Suzy helped us think about where we were going, who our market is etc and this gave us the kick start we needed,  the outfits were made and the photographer booked.  Our photographer was Andy Smith of Poole Portraits, http://www.pooleportraits.co.uk/ . Andy has done amazing photos for us in the past and we knew he could deliver exactly what we wanted.

We knew we had to be incredibly organised for the photoshoot and the weekend before we visited the hotel, had a delicious bar lunch and worked out which rooms would be best for each outfit.

 

We had six outfits to take in two hours which included the time needed to change each outfit so we needed to be organised.  We wrote a schedule which looked like this:-

Itinerary

Coat at 3.00 pm outside the main building on the steps

Blue and pink dress at 3.15 in the main foyer

Black skirt and capelet at 3.35 in the garden

Purple skirt 3.55 by window in pink room and or bar area

Lilac dress at 4.15 in the library/staircase

Statement piece at 4.35 by the fireplace

With the help of everyone including Andy’s lovely wife Karole we kept to this time schedule using not only the above areas to photograph but also some that Andy and Karole knew would work well.

I spent time in the days before researching hairstyles and make up and on the day my sister, Jessica, did the hair and I did the make up.  We are very fortunate to have Jessica who always rises to the challenge and always does a beautiful job.    A friend Anna was our beautiful and very good model for the day.

.

The photoshoot told a story, a weekend away in Bournemouth, I had in mind the house parties that the Victorian aristocrats always seemed to have and I think you can see this unfold by the snapshots below:- (Poole Portraits photos to follow in the next blog).

 

These snapshots are a bit fuzzy but I think they give the overall impression of a fun but yet well organised photoshoot. We finished the photos at 5pm exactly and ended the day with a cocktail each in the bar which was just great.

These I have to emphasise are  just snapshots and the next blog will showcase Andy’s photos.

We would like to thank everyone involved starting with Suzy, the staff in the Cottonwood Boutique Hotel who were extremely helpful, Andy and Karole of Poole Portraits, Jessica for giving up her afternoon, never complaining about what I ask her to do and always executing the hairstyles brilliantly and not forgetting Anna for acting the part so well.

Embellishing with Appliqué

I have been designing a new collection for ShinkuRose https://www.facebook.com/pages/Shinkurose/593986427294641) comprising of an OP, a JSK, blouse, cutsew, coat and two skirts.  I have found it very difficult to get border prints in England which are suitable so I decided to decorate the bottom of the JSK with applique. 

The applique needed to be large so I drew it on a large piece of paper and made a pattern.  I cut this pattern out and then copied it on to Bondaweb. Bondaweb is a strong, heat reactive, sheet of glue which permanently bonds one fabric to another when ironed, it is paper backed and is ironed to the applique, the paper removed and then the applique is ironed onto the garment. 

 

 

 

Before attaching I made sure that the applique was in exactly the right place on the JSK. 

 

 

Because of the glue I used my silk organza to cover the applique whilst pressing it on.  I used a pressing movement, up and down with the iron, rather than an ironing movement so as to completely stick and not move the applique whilst attaching.

I had one or two problems with adding the bondaweb to the bow as I had cut both pieces out separately so when I repeated the process for one of my skirts I found an easier solution. I cut the applique out in bondaweb and pressed these onto one piece of fabric and then cut out the appliques out, this proved to be much easier and quicker.

Once cut out place them on the garment in the correct positions.

Press the appiques on and before sewing them to the garment practice stitching.  You will use a small close together zig zag and I did a few different combinations on a scrap of fabric bondaweb to the main to see which I preferred.

I like to loosen my top tension a bit to give a lovely rounded stitch on the right side therefore the wrong side will look like the sample below.

And here is the finished skirt.

Designing my Sallopettes

I wanted something casual and yet pretty to wear this summer and this old pattern gave me the starting point for a new design.

During my research I also came across this old photo which I love.

To speed things up and get the shape of the bib correct I purchased a pattern and traced off the relevant pattern pieces.

 

 

Then as I usually do, I made a toile so we could see where alterations needed to be made.

You can see from the photos below that the bib needed to be narrower and by making this alteration the garment becomes much more flattering.

  

We also streamlined the back and took some fullness out to make it fit better.

 

My first pair of sallopettes in the making, you can see here I have added a skirt to the bib : –

 

Made in cotton and lined in cotton the sallopettes are both comfortable and yet pretty.

 

After making mine, I made a blue set which are for sale in this colour on my Etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/ShinkuRose, or can be made to order in a colour of choice.