Tinker-Taylor

I am settling back in at The RCA quite well, so I thought i'd share with you some sketchbook pages from my tailoring project which was set last week. My concept is still in the early development stages, including choosing my colour palette, yarns and designing silhouettes. I'm making it a challenge which is quite exciting, as I want to have a bit of fun pushing mens tailoring in the realm of knitwear - a bit of a leap from oversized cardigans and sweaters. Let the knitting commence!




--Pssst - click me!

I will be on duty at the exhibition this Saturday!

Just to let you know, it is my turn to be on duty at The RCA's "Work
in Progress" exhibition this Saturday, and here is a sneaky peek at my
display. I will be there from 12-1pm so come down and say hello as
there's lots of exciting work happening, and I will be more than happy
to show you around!

RCA Work In Progress Exhibition!

Rushing around doing finishing touches as it is the Private View for
the RCA "Work in Progress" exhibition later tonight. All of us level 1
and level 2 students are displaying a little taster of our work for
your viewing pleasure, as it is, in progress! The exhibition will be
on daily until the 22nd of January so put on your woolies and do come
down and have a look around!

A..

..very grumpy bear.

Drawing Away Cobwebs..

Snow keeping me indoors has made me feel like getting lost in a sketchbook and do a fair few illustrations over the past couple of days. Slowly but surely I am trying to get back into the swing of things after a sad, wobbly end to 2009.

S'no(w) Joke!

Talk about Chilly! Up North it's DEFINITELY balaclava season at the moment, we have had inches and inches of snow and nearing -22 temperatures which mean the snow doesn't seem to want to melt away! Unpredictable weather has meant undrivable roads and unpredictable trains, and delaying my return to London.



All of this snow hasn't gone to waste however, as Victor, my brother Tom and I set about making ourselves a rather fine Igloo one night last week, which I am proud to say is still outside and 'functioning'!

Hannah Taylor for River Island - in stores now!

Back in October was the press launch for the collection I designed for River Island. It was really exciting to see the garments at last in the flesh, which are currently on sale in all River Island top-stores in the UK, and it can also be found in their online store.

Initially it was going to be just a menswear collection, however its appeal to the tastes of both River Island's male and female customers means the range can be found on both the Menswear and Womenswear floors in the store.

Within the range is the 'Tommy the Turkey' sweater:



The colourful intarisa 'Victor' Cardigan:



The flying duck scarves, 'George' and 'Mildred' (named after my pet ones of course!)





and hats and balaclava's - 'modelled' below by Danny & Donny







I'd appreciate any feedback on the range, and feel free to send any pictures of you wearing it if you've managed to hunt it down! It was fantastic working with the design team and I'm already really looking forward to working on a small collection of ideas for spring-summer within the new year.

Fashion156.com

Fashion156.com featured the Nigel Jumper in one of their shoots for the 'Maximalism' Issue not too long ago, you can go and have a peek at this amazing issue here !

Fair Miss You, Us

In Memory of James Lawler, my little rock and the good egg.
17th March 1981 - 3rd October 2009.

Guineapigs in tabbards

Day two of the RCA, lots more tours and being shown around all the
lovely knitting machines! It feels strange being somewhere new,
there's SO much to take in, but very exciting! Tomorrow we get our
first project brief, but tonight i need to keep working on my summer
project for Thursday..

Back to School..

Today I enrolled for my MA at The RCA, and so it begins.. Not too much
to report as of yet though other than nerves I have about what is to
come, a summer project crit on Thursday and judging by the two
timetables I've got (one for menswear, another for knitwear) I'm going
to be a very busy egg indeed!

The Results are in!

This is a very short update just to let you know that this week I found out I achieved a 1st in my degree! Yay! I am now officially Hanzipan BA Hons!

Cuddlyness for all!

At the moment I'm really busy working on.. a mini collection for River Island! It's based around my collection from Graduate Fashion Week, 'You'll Grow Into It', but with a few nice seasonal surprises and should be due in their stores around christmas. How Exciting! I'll update more later on this week, I won't be revealing all just yet but heres a sneaky peek at what's been going on so far..

Goin Up North!

With my portfolio coming together (the above is a new illustration, hot off the press!) I am getting rather excited about being able to return up North as often as I like over the next few months! Bring on the Black Pudding, flat caps, pigeon sheds and Yorkshire puddings. I cannot wait to see my pet ducks, my brother and of course, Victor!



I've even bought another knitting machine & ribber to keep up there so when I return I can still knit, as the past few weeks since the show - although have been exciting - have made me itching to get knitting once again! But what will I be knitting you ask? You'll have to wait and see..!

Dogs with Blogs!

In a distracted hour away from my scissors and paper portfolio concocting, I came across a new fact - some Guineapigs have blogs! Ponderings of Two Guineapigs is updated regularly by Ginger (seen below) and Wiggly, and in recent news not only did their Mum get them some yummy Kale to munch on, but she also bumped her head in search for one of the family pet kittens.



Dogs have blogs too, Sassy Sasha, the Loveable Shih Tzu is a rescued dog who keeps us updated with her daily happenings online. At the moment she is getting ready for the official 'take your dog to work day' in America on the 26th of June, how exciting! And here in this picture, it would appear she has found herself a new bed.

Here she is hiding from thunderstorms:

And here she is again, but this time looking very pretty with clips in her hair!



Are there any more animals with blogs I wonder?

Replacing Knitting Needles for Pritt Stick and Crayons!

At the moment I'm currently spending my days with colouring pencils, paper and scissors, cutting out and putting together things for my portfolio. Its quite nice as I haven't had chance to sit down and do this for a while and I forgot how much I enjoy it!



Although it does feel a bit odd NOT to be knitting.. and as I miss it, i've been thinking of getting some more guineapigs on the go in the next few weeks, in addition to launching my shiny new website so keep your eyes peeled for that. By the way, feel free to get in touch and say hello and let me know who you are out there - it would be nice to hear from you!

Mary Portas - Queen of Charity Shops!

A little while ago the good old Mary Portas came to Ravensbourne to speak to some of us fashion students to see if we could help her assisting with a re-vamp of a charity shop in Orpington.

I found this delightful screenshot of Mary stood next to a Hannah Taylor and a Hannah Buswell 'pre-collection original' in the studio..!



The idea was to get local people involved in not only donating goods but to offer services to widen the shops appeal. I offered to hold knitting groups and my friend Calum Harvey volunteered to sell his 'Long Life' clothing range, where goods are made from recycled materials.

I'm not too sure what footage they've chosen to use, but you can catch it tonight on BBC 2 at 9pm!

Slow Knitting

The lovely Jojo caught Slow Loris in the act, enjoying the Nigel guineapig jumper a little bit too much! I think it suits him.

If you haven't seen Slow Loris before then you should have a look at him below!

Guineapigs in Windows!

After being part of the Gala show at Graduate Fashion Week, I was contacted by River Island to say they would like to put my collection on display in one of their shop windows for a week after recieveing a special mention in the awards ceremony. And here it is!











So if you fancy going to have a look at some knitted guineapigs, pigeons, foxes and ducks then you should head over to Westfield shopping centre in Shepherds Bush where they are all currently enjoying themselves in the River Island store until the 19th of June!

*PENTAKAIDECAGON

Come down to the Ada Street Gallery in Hackney, E8 4QU this weekend to
see a showcase of work from 15 fashion designer graduates at
Ravensboune. It would be nice to see you!

Hannah Taylor - Graduate Fashion Week 2009!

The past 9 months reached their pinnacle on Tuesday when us Ravensbourners held our show at Graduate Fashion Week. 19 of us were fortunate enough to let loose down the catwalk our collections that we've been working so hard on since our final year began in September. Exciting!

For the first time you get to see what's been keeping me so busy knitting for months on end! Here's a few pictures (courtesy of catwalking.com) of how the collection looked on the big day, my little army of balaclava'd boys in lots and lots of knitting went down the catwalk to a bit of the notorious Northerner George Formby, followed by the William Tell Overture performed on synthisiser by Walter Carlos!



Outfit 1: Fair-isle cardigan with hood, Pigeon jumper.


Outfit 2: Smaller, hand-knit balaclava jumper


Outfit 3: Oversized cardigan with flying ducks, shrunken fair-isle jumper


Outfit 4: Vincent the 'shirley-bassey' Fox jumper!


Outfit 5: Larger Hand knitted balaclava jumper


Outfit 6: (and also my favourite) Nigel the Guineapig jumper

Now for some close-ups:









The final line-up:



I was in tears backstage when I saw my little 'babies' on the monitors going down the catwalk for their very first time! It had been such a tough slog and in particular the past few weeks were very intense but everyone got there in the end, even me - although I did still have a spot of linking to do an hour before the show was due to start!