Trend Analysis Project

Hi guys! So for todays post I'm again going to giving you another little insight into the my life as an FCP student and hopefully give you the low down some of the upcoming trends.

So, a few weeks or so ago, me and my fellow course mates were all split into small groups of 3-4 and were each given a category in which to research. For example, women's activewear, menswear etc., and if you haven't guessed by the image above already, my groups category was beauty - which we soon after broadened down to make-up, because obviously thats everybody's favourite subject!

After we all discussed as a group what we wanted to do and achieve, we then headed off and started to do our own primary research, which you may have remembered me doing in my previous task if you read my post from last week! We all went on to WGSN and good old Pinterest and started analysing the different trends that came up for make-up.

Pinterest - "Strobing"

We then came back as a collective group with our research, laid it all out on the table infant of us and started to analyse deeper into the images and started to make connections throughout them all. My favourite part of this was getting to name the trends...

          "Cat got the Cream"

                    "Neverland"

                            "Coral Reef"

Our own research

After a lot of analysing we all decided that contouring and highlighting/strobing were the key trends for make-up in Autumn/Winter 2015. This was something we predicted from the start so we were very pleased that we knew our make-up trends well haha!

We've now done a 'visual pleasing' (as my lecturer would say) presentation to go with this trend analysis which I will be sharing with you guys over the next couple of days, so stay tuned!

Much love,

Becky xo

High End VS. High Street - Visual Merchandising

In my opinion, visually, High Street merchandising is superior to the high end form of marketing.

Hey guys! Another blog post coming your way...  Visual merchandising is something I am extremely passionate about in the fashion industry and I aspire to go into that sector of fashion in the future. I love it because VM varies so widely in the industry, that in reality so many people can be in so many different jobs and still be able to create displays that are still aiming for the same outcome – to attract attention, to sell merchandise and to build the brand. Not only does the output vary, but VM varies by country and brand too. In this blog post I will be comparing the High End VM to the High Streets.

Today, whilst shopping in Notts, I was blown away by the quality of the visual merchandising in River Island and TopShop. Their displays were so bright and visually pleasing on the eye; through their use of store layout the popular high street brands are easily able to weave their customers through their store and point them subtly towards their best sellers and towards products that their customers will need to buy. 

This got me thinking about other brand's visual merchandising, specifically in the High End market. I questioned when the last time was that I walked past a High End store like Chanel and was 'wowed' and drawn in by their visual display. I thought a lot about why this was happening and came up with several arguments... Firstly, I looked at the consumer demographic of both River Island and Chanel and each were obviously completely different. For example, the people who are going into Chanel to buy things, are usually of a higher class and age, and aren't interested in being 'pulled' into the store by their visual display, they are more interested in the products and services Chanel have to offer. Whereas, River Island's consumers are typically of a lower class and much younger, with less money to spend and so they need to be drawn into the store by thorough thought out VM.

Secondly, I thought about the location of each store. For example, River Island is typically placed in shopping centres around all of its competitors, such as TopShop and H&M; and so because of this their visual merchandising is competing to get their demographic into their stores instead of their competitors store. River Island therefore have to make sure their VM is visually appealing to their target demographic and stands out amongst its competitors. 

Chanel on the other hand, would never be placed in a shopping centre and will more likely be seen in a 'higher end of town', amongst its own competitors. However, Chanel do not have to worry about their competitors because of how well known their brand is, due to their successful 'celeb status' and high quality products. In addition to this, most high end brands tailor their products to a particular consumer (unlike most high street stores, who copy the catwalk) so they don't need to worry about whether a customer is going to be drawn into their store, because they have an established name.

Lastly, I started looking at the more 'communicative' side of VM and why Chanel don't have to dress up their window with flashing neon lights to get peoples attention. I looked further into the stores details and their advertising and started to compare to the popular high street stores offering. I noticed the atmosphere in both stores are completely different and the gestures and details are less prominent in the River Island. For example, when walking into Chanel you are...

Greeted warmly into their store...

      Asked if you needed any help...

            Sometimes given complimentary gifts...

                  Gift wrapped when purchased with brand logo...

                        Given the famous 'Chanel shopping bag' 

                                       as a gesture to show off!

Whereas with River Island you get none of this and just a usual branded plastic bag at the end of a busy and crowded experience shopping in their store. Therefore, to conclude, although Chanel may not have the best visually pleasing display in their stores in my opinion, they focus on the gestures and the details to make their customers happy, but, River Island my have to stick with their flashing lights to drag their customers into their stores!

Hope you enjoyed reading and found this interesting.

Feel free to comment your opinion down below!

Much love, 

Becky xo

FCP - Colour Story Project

"Sharp Industies"

So this post is rather late, opps - sorry guys!! I've been so busy with uni work and other bazaar things, but I promise I'll make more of an appearance leading up to these busy Christmas weeks. So over the past few weeks on my FCP course, we have been discussing colour palettes/stories and the level of importance they have to individual companies. For example, a basic colour theory knowledge is vital to any company involved in the 'design industry' as it is a key element of many vital tasks; such as buying, merchandising, selling, presenting and styling etc.;so obviously because I am aspiring to be in the 'design industry' I needed to research further into what exactly colour theory is because I had noooo clue!

TASK.
So the plan was that we would get split into groups of 3-4 and decide what colour palette we were going to analyse further (if you haven't guessed, we chose Grey Neutrals!) and then we went off and did our initial primary research to inspire us - I did most of mine on Pinterest <3

 Primary research - Pinterest

Primary research - Pinterest 

Primary research - Pinterest 

After doing are own individual primary research, we all then came together as a team and shared our findings to pin point what narrative we wanted to capture in our 'colour story'. We came up with these words that we wanted to convey in our story...

GRAPHIC TEXTURED LAYERED CONTRATING MONOCROMATIC INDUSTRIAL SHATTERED SCALED 

  

PROCESS.

Experimenting was by far the toughest part of the whole project in my opinion. We all gathered lots of materials and just made a load of mess for hours at a time; it all reminded me of being in Nursery if I'm honest, until it just got super frustrating when we couldn't think of anything to do!! 

 Developments

 Developments

Developments

Developments

After this never-ending experimenting, we came to the conclusion that we needed to stop looking for an end result before we even had one and focus on just capturing our chosen narrative for our colour story. In the end, our end image came to us and the finishing touches was all it needed! *See first image on this post for the final outcome*

Colour Palette - Photoshop

"OUR IMAGE CONNOTES THE CONTRASTING MONOCHROMATIC TEXTURES FOUND IN AN INDUSTRIAL SETTING. THE IRIDESCENT AND LAYERED ELEMENTS OF OUR IMAGE REFLECTS THE SHATTERED AND SCALED IMAGES THAT WE WERE INITIALLY INSPIRED BY"

Hope this interests some of you guys aha, well done if you read all of this!!

Much love,

Becky xo

What is Fashion Communication & Promotion?

Hey Guys!! So over the past month since moving to Nottingham to start my degree, I have been asked so many times what Fashion Communication & Promotion (FCP) actually is and what relevance it has to the fashion industry. Initially, most people presume that it's exactly the same as any fashion design course and that I just make pretty dresses whilst sipping on my soya frappé from Starbucks, when that's really not the case.

In a nut shell, FCP is a very creative course that mixes both the business and practical side of fashion marketing into one. As a student on the course, I will be taught how to effectively communicate a brands identity/message and its products/services on a visual level by using techniques such as photoshop and indesign. Don't get me wrong, the course also has lots of fashion elements to it also; we discuss topics such as visual merchandising (VM), trend predicting/forecasting and fashion media, whilst doing lots of live projects with exciting fashion brands.

The skills I gain from this course can lead me into many different sectors of the fashion industry, including PR and eventing, visual merchandising, advertising and fashion buyer or stylist to name just a few. I'm super excited to get stuck into this course and start working on some amazing projects and broaden my knowledge on the amazing world of fashion marketing; and hopefully, get to bring you guys along with me! 

Much love, 

Becky xo