Enhancing your studies.

WGSN and weconnectfashion.com work in exactly the same way, they can be used to enhance my studies as it is a trend forecasting website, this would help my modules of designing work as I can see forward to upcoming trends and design to that criteria, you are fitting a brief rather than making up your own trend for the purpose of that work. You can look into the fabrics and colours and all the themes, therefore your whole project can fit perfectly in with that trend.The product categories is also really helpful for this style of work as if you want to design something particular such as knitwear or lingerie you can research the trends for just that style of garment.
The Marketing intelligence would really support any project of fashion promotion and marketing because it shows what works to promote and brand a company. This would also be really helpful as a fashion professional if you are looking to try and promote your company.

Inspiring blog development

To inspire blog development we can use trends, using colour schemes and styles to change our blogs with the times/seasons. This could not just be in the appearance of the blog but also in the content. For another module I am looking into Autumn/Winter 2016, so if I was to change and develop my blog to fit with this trend I would change the appearance to fit with this colour scheme:

And include pattern. But as for content the trend I am looking at here is Offbeat, I think therefore the content of my blog I would research and talk about the features of the trend such as: Psychedelic patterns, optical illusion, creating textures, and the history fashions that would fit into this trend such as previous trends and collections, my own ideas that I have from this trend, and various other key features and techniques that could be used.

So that's just one example of how a blog can develop with trends. This way it would make your blog a lot more focused. But I also think that if you focus in on a particular subject to write about on your blog then that can be just as focused, but your readership may remain the same and it wouldn't develop in a way that you build your readership through a development of your blog, your blog would remain virtually at the same level, therefore constantly changing your blog with the trends would be a lot of work but would develop a lot better.

Fashion Marketing and Promotion

Fashion marketing and promotion is all about the techniques designers down to hight street shops use techniques to promote their brand to push sales to achieve greater market levels, this was a group task and we each took a different market level within hight street stores, Lisa looked at monsoon, Tash looked into Primark, whilst I focused on Warehouse due to having experience working within the company I felt this gave me a better understanding of how the company works.

Warehouse
Similar market levels, Topshop and River Island.
Styling competition and other competitions
Instore events. e.g make-over, illustrators coming in and producing work,
#Warestyle - Instagram
Online Presence - Website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Blog, Pinterest, Google+, Youtube
Warehouse account card - comes with special offers and events, free delivery etc.
Student discount - special 20% off promotions but standard 10%
Collaborations with Elle and Grazia Magazine often holding extra promotions.
Lots of promotional events, 30% off Dress 25% off coats and 20% off Denim are often seen.

Presentation in research file.

Introduction to the fashion industry.

In the most simple of terms there are 3 market levels which each brand can be put into, dividing up the world fashion. Haute couture, Premium high street/designer wear, and mass market.

Haute couture is a very exclusive market level everyone wants it but only a select few can really afford it. It has a very secret customer base and can be described as 'club members' celebrities tend to not fall under this membership as they are only lent the garments for promotions and promotional events, the real club members purchase the garments. If they aren't handmade in Paris then they can not be classed as Haute Couture. It requires and admiration for how the clothes are made and for the designer. There are no price tags and it's not about the volume of sales here but the drive to sell more accessories such as bags and perfumes due to the desire of just having something from that designer.

Alexander Mcqueen worked at Givenchy then founded his own label, Alexander Mcqueen.With stores in all the fashion capitals, London, Los Angeles, Milan, New York and Las Vegas and dressing celebrities like Sarah Jessica Parker, Rihanna and Nicole Kidman.

Karl Lagerfeld is a German fashion designer based in Paris. Head designer and creative director of Chanel, as well as the Italian house of Fendi, all the while running his own fashion house 'Once one show is over the other must begin.'


The market begins to trickle down, we hit the premium hight street, the Gucci, the Dolce and Gabbana, the Prada, these will be cheaper than the Haute couture, there will be a higher volume, but to the most of us, it still feels overpriced. These items will be sold in independent premium hight street stores in larger cities such as London, and in more exclusive department stores such as Selfridges.

Gucci.

                                   

Prada

We trickle down to the bottom, the faster moving market, where most of us shop, the high street, the most affordable of the fashion market levels. The most inclusive level, a concentration on being stylish and keeping up with the big trends whilst being affordable and available to everyone.

H&M 

Warehouse 

There is a complete difference in each market level, that will be in how the garment is produced, the end price of the garment, the quality and how expensive the fabric is, the customer will even be completely different. And the sheer volume of product in high street compared to the exclusivity of the Haute Couture, as a Haute Couture or premium high street designer a lot of sales would actually be in the accessories and add ons to the brand such as the bags the perfumes, the jewellery, where as the high street stores don't need that, the customers don''t want to buy in and be a part of the high street company's as they do with the big name designers. 

What is reflective practice?

Reflective practice is a process which you think about what you have already done and come to a conclusion of how well that piece of work has gone by analysing each sub-section of that section of work, this is helpful to do after every exercise in order to record your development through critical analysis, it will help you refocus on the task at hand and therefore you are more likely to develop in the right direction rather than spending a long time going off track to later evaluate your work finding it isn't relevant.

Donald Schon was a trained philosopher who was interested in the idea of reflective practice.

The practitioner allows himself to experience surprise, puzzlement, or confusion in a situation which he finds uncertain or unique. He reflects on the phenomenon before him, and on the prior understandings which have been implicit in his behaviour. He carries out an experiment which serves to generate both a new understanding of the phenomenon and a change in the situation. (Schön 1983: 68)

Schon explains that by carrying out reflective practice it is possible to clarify the possible confusion or misunderstanding in the work you have just completed and therefore will be able to develop and decide on the next experimental work and by repeating this process you will get a greater understanding of your work and therefore eventually will have a greater outcome.