Sushi Anyone?

So the other day my mum brought me a sushi workshop class of groupon and I had so much fun! 

The workshop was in Sherwood Cookery Workshop on Sherwood road. The food was all supplied by them and it catered for both fish and non fish eaters. 

Below is an image of my final sushi roll all chopped up and presentable. I was also lucky enough to be visiting some friends and Japanese friends who told me that it was actually really good. Proud moment! 

White and Pure and Beautiful.

I felt looking at animals this morning and I saw this beautiful white bengal tiger. I just love the pureness of the coat, the uniqueness of the markings and just the beauty of these animals.

Real Bows and Waterfalls ....

Bows and Waterfalls, felt like actually showing some real Bows and Waterfalls due to my last post. I was really only referencing the fabric so I guess I shall leave you with the Bows and Waterfalls...

Bow and Waterfalls...

I can't quite remember how I came across this image or who this bridal gown is by as I found it whilst I was researching on my phone however, I love love love the bow and waterfall detailing at the back! Its subtly puffy due to the full skirt it has and also due to the waterfall at the back. 

I just thought that I would share this image as I really like the back!

MelanieKatelin

Jason Walker - Kiss Me

Being the telly addict that I am, I am obsessed with the CW's Reign series. I was trying to find promo's for the episodes and I found a video which goes with this song that shows all the cute times between Mary and Francis. I just love love love this song and thought that I would share it with you!

I think that the lyrics really go with Mary and Francis' love story and the lyrics themselves are beautiful!

So for anyone who's as obsessed with Reign as I am, watch this video, it is so so so sweet! And Francis looks seriously hot!

And here is the original song to listen too, it is so so so lovely!

Pink and Coats and Winter..

How cute is this?! Love love love it!

Alexis Mabille SS13

This year I have really been into pink, nevermind the fact that its my favourite colour, I just feel like fresh hues are needed in winter. Why do we feel compelled to wear dark dull colours in winter? Is it because thats what our mood feels like? Is it because the weather makes us feel this way? I'm not sure but this winter I want to be a little more colourful! 

I was in town shopping for christmas presents when I came across some beautiful pink coats and I thought why not do a blog on the coats that are out on the high street right now. So here are some of my favourite pink coats and jackets.

River Island £45.

Oasis £98.

Warehouse £95

Hugo Boss £270

Urban Outfitters £165

A Little Bit Of Masculinity

Lately I have really into the masculine look as I've been doing a shirt project and the way tailoring is making the female body both either more feminine or slightly masculine looking. Fashion is whatever you want it to be. What look do you want? Who do you want to be today? Do you want to be a girlie girl? Do you want to be strong and empowering? Sharp angles or curves? Wearing the right clothes makes all the difference to your look.

The masculine look can still be feminine, all you need is a nice pair of heels, added with a sharp blazer and some black trousers and that's the look sorted. 

One of my favourite looks is from Dior AW12/13. This is a perfect example of making the masculine look work for you. 

What I love about this look and style is the clean cut and empowering look it has. I think a look like this for work will really make you stand out and make you feel like more confident. If its one thing that I believe in its that if you dress the why you want to feel or you will behave that way. 

Whenever I have had any exams I have gone into my exam with a blazer, heels and just looked really pretty and smart and something about that feeling mentally helped me. I would come out feeling like I had done my best and I didn't come out thinking that I could have done better during that exam.

Ruffian AW11/12

This look is a casual masculine style; slightly buttoned down silk blouse, slouchy trousers yet elegant looking with heels. It has that strong masculine feel but it looks classy, edgy and modern.

I think if you have the confidence to wear this style then you should wear it with pride. 

CQ pop-up shop

So I've been back home in Nottingham for about 3 weeks now and yesterday I went to the CQ pop up shop in the lace market to go and see my old boss' with there sneinton collectives spot and its brilliant!

The pop up shop has a bit of everything in there, it is really a great place to go to find some quirky items for yourself or as Christmas presents! 

This is the layout of the sneinton collective pop-up space. As you can see its not just clothing, there is iron work, wood work, jewellery designing and concrete work if i remember correctly. I was lucky to do work experience with One BC last year and now I'm home I will be going in to help with the pop up shop hopefully.

As you can see the space is quite large and there are a lot of other areas like this all around the shop with fun and exciting pieces. 

Below is one of my Instagram picture, (I'm instamad!) of my lovely day looking around the CQ and having a huge catch up with Reeta (OneBC owner).

As you can see there are ties, card wallets, purses, fur scarves, jackets, dresses, shirts, suits, everything. All of the stock is high quality material and it is all hand made one-off garments.

My favourite was the sheepskin scarf! It was so so fluffy and it was so snug, perfect for a winters night. But in saying that I also love love love all the different jackets and dresses that One BC make. Below you can see the back of a jacket which is made out of sari's. It is a really modern take on wearing a sari and I think that its stylish and anyone can wear it. Plus pink is my favourite colour so that me sold sold sold!

So this is the front and back of the sari jacket which is stylishly being worn over a metallic dress which I think really brings out the gold of the sari jacket. What I like about this is that it has so much colour and style to it. It feels lovely and on the inside the lining is beautiful and soft and I just wanted to take it off the mannequin, actually i wanted to take everything new that I hadn't seen and tried on before of the mannequin's!! I actually did take the scarf of the mannequin, I'm terrible I know!

To carry on with the Sari garments I thought that i would show you the males sari shirt. Yes that shirt is made out of a sari. Crazy I know, doesn't look like one at all! 

In the cabinet you can see there are more styles of men's shirts and zip/lace trousers... They are TOTES AWESOME!

OK OK OK while I'm talking about AMAZ things, can you see that red jacket? Yeah... well this isn't a plain and boring jacket nope not at all, this jacket is mad out of red pony hair an leather. It looks and feels AMAZING! I tend to just stand and stroke it. I try and get customers over just so I can stroke it and have an excuse. Seriously it is amazing!

Oh and have you seen that dress? lace, hood, black, little, dress.... what more do you want?
Oh yeah, there is also one that has a cow neck. Oh and if that's not good enough or not quite how you like it, you can place an order to be fitted for a dress in any colour and style you want.

Don't let me forget about the men though because there is plenty for them! Loads of different styles of shirts. - Zip collar? Lace? or just plain there will be a style for you. Plus there are seriously cool pin-up ties as you can glimpse in the far left shirt. Or there is the lace and silk tie on the far right with the tailored suit jacket which has metallic petrol blue leather on the pockets.  

There really is something for everyone here no matter your style.

So if your around in Nottingham this December and fancy popping in and looking around get to Fletcher Gate and visit the CQ pop up shop.

Melanie Katelin 

xo

1st day!

Ok so last night was AMAZING! I went to digital with my flatmate, had such a fun night! This club is crazy, so much going off there all the time, different music, it was just great!

Plus it was the fist time I went out in FLATS!!!! arrrrrr CRAZY, the things uni does to you!! but to be far it was the best night out, my feet did not hurt AT ALL!!!

I went to Primark earlier and the one in Newcastle is almost as big as the one in London!

Im going out again tonight, doing a bar crawl i think which should be fun!

xo

University!

Hey Guys,

I moved into Uni today which is CRAZY! Took 4 hours to get up to newcastle but hey its worth it!
My room is so nice, really big and spacious, so i am not complaining not one bit! Im a lucky girl and my mum and very close friend helped me unpack the whole of my stuff into my room, I think I brought WAY too much! oh well!

I will admit, it was really hard saying goodbye to my mum and brother but I managed to hold the tears back for a little while! I guess its only human to cry right?!

And I am currently getting ready for my first night out on the toon!! EXCITING!!

xo

Zuhair Murad

This is just a real quick post before I head to college! I found these pictures yesterday which I had saved on my phone as I think that Zuhair Murad is an INCREDIBLE designer and I love his creations and how beautifully embellished they always are!!

INSPIRATION BABY!!

xo

19-06-2013

Wednesday 19th June 2013

Today has been BRILLIANT!!!!!

We had a One-BC field trip out to fabric houses so that all the swatch books could be updated and we also had the chance to look around at all of the fabric.... BAD IDEA!!!! I fell in love with EVERYTHING!!!!!!

We first went to Bateman Ogden and all that I have to say is WOW.. You know the rush of when you are about to get something new and exciting, or as the saying goes....:

I felt like a kid in a candy shop!

It was literally as through Christmas AND my Birthday had both come round at the exact same time. The amount of wool blends that there were was crazy!! 

This wool blend and colour was MY FAVOURITE!! I think it was a 160 Wool Mohair blend but I'm not 100% sure :/ I sooooo should have taken note right?! 

But either way, this wool blend was soft and I have not seen any suiting fabric this colour!! BEAUTIFUL!

I LOVE LOVE LOVED IT! can you tell? hehe

This is also a quick shot that I took of the linings that were there upstairs and under the table were loads of remnants and Bateman let me take two remnants for a fraction of the price which was just wonderful. The items that I took were from rolls that were now discontinued and I think that its brilliant that I can create my first item out of suiting fabric. I think that I am going to make a bralette as there is not really enough fabric to make anything else. 

So I now have a fun and exciting project ahead!! woooooooo hoooooo.

We also brought some beautiful fabric which is 80% wool and 20% silk, you would not believe how soft it is. You have so got to feel it! I am hoping to create some high waisted smart sorts out of the meter that I brought. I will add LOADS of pictures of my projects on here and on my Instagram ---> @melaniekatelin.

But before you think that I have finished, we also went to Huddersfield Cloth where we didn't really look at much fabric, but we did have a lot at a lot of swatches and we did see the lining room which was lovely!!! 

I also was given some remnants from here at discounted prices which I will be making hopefully a small shirt which will be GREAT fun!!

Today was lovely!!!! 

Had a great time with Reeta and Stephanie and I cannot wait until tomorrow for a day at college and for a day at work.

Also Follow -----> @One_BC on instagram!!!

I Love this stripy shirt fabric from the fabric book. It was amazing, so colourful and different. 

Three of the fabric pattens from the fabric book.

And another!!!

Reeta looking at the fabric swatches.

This is a photo from my instagram @melaniekatelin I just felt like doing a collage hehehe.

Instagram

heyy, im on instagram - Follow ---> @melaniekatelin for loads of photos!!

18-06-2013

Tuesday 18th June 2013

So I have had an AMAZING day at work today! We are currently working on a Shirt project and One BC has made some AWESOME shirts. We made a pyramid a few weeks ago which I posted on either here or instagram and it worked out really really well.

I meet Stephanie last week and shes just graduated from Northumbria University and she is coming in to do some work experience so I was with her most of the day and it has been fun having people around! Firstly we took the measurements of the pyramid as we needed to fill two of the spaces so that it was all pure white as we needed to block out the background. We managed to cut it out quite easily, the had part was sticking it onto the lights in which we had to try so many different ways but in the end the trusty old double sided sticky tape did the job. (Oh and some bulldog clips!) 

Then Reeta, Stephanie, Yoshi and I had the fun task of blanking out the rest of the background which involved A LOT of white fabric!!! Hehehe and then the fun part of taking photos happened.

I also set up a One BC instagram so go check it out!! @One_BC on INSTAGRAM! hehehe

Hope you have had as good a day as I 

xoxo

Just a Catch Up!

So I thought that seeming as I haven't been on here in a while, I would update on everything that i have been up to.

My photo shoot for my FMP went really well and I was really happy with the way that it showcased my clothing.

These are just three of the pictures from my photo shoot. I think that they have really shown the skills and hard work that I have put into it. I also have some rather lovely close up shots but I didn't want to bombard with loads of pictures!!!

It also helped having an amazing photographer to do my photo shoot and it looks AMAZING! I personally think, and  love it!! So look her up >> SianHDPhotography

I have also finished the main part of my course!! Yayyy, all that we have to do now is the exhibition and fashion show which is all very very exciting for me. It took me three days to set up my exhibition space and make sure that everything is level.

I will be posting pictures of my exhibition space, however i need to do that off my phone!!!

Sooooo that's whats happened to me and I will be having A LOT of pictures to put up!!!

Melanie Katelin

xo

Throne of Glass - Review

On Friday, I decided that I was in need of a new fun and exciting book to read. I think I was in Waterstones for about an hour before I decided to buy Throne of Glass.

The book cover to me looked really fun and exciting and it sort of reminded me of the Black Magician Trilogy which I loved and read all three books in about 2 months!!

What I love so much about this book is the female character. Sarah Maas has created a strong confident heroine. And I must say I do love a strong female lead.

Soooooo..... About the book hey?!

What I noticed when I was deciding on which book to buy was that Throne of Glass has a really strong opening that is intriguing and makes you want to know more!

"After a year of slavery in the Salt Mines of Endovier, Celaena Sardothien was accustomed to being escorted everywhere in shackles and at sword-point."

I don't know about you, but I know that when I read this sentence along with about another 5 books, this is the one that had the most dramatic impact with questions about who is this character? why is she a slave? how dangerous is she?

All of this is answered within the next 2 chapters and it keeps developing throughout the book.

Calaena Sardothien is portrayed to be a beautiful but deadly girl and only 18 years old. All she wants is freedom and the only way she can get that is if she agrees to the deal the Crown Prince of Ardarlan has stuck with her, to become his champion and serve as the King's Champion and do everything he wants done for four years. 

Freedom or Slavery.

Win or Lose.

Kill or be Killed.

Seems simple right?

Well no not really as she also starts developing feelings for both the Crown Prince of Ardarlan and the Captain of the Guard, which is very much a dangerous game for everyone involved. She befriends the Princess of Eyllwe who is not all she seems and is also hiding some truths from Celaena. Then theres Elena, who comes as guidance and help for Celeana but also with missions... oh and theres a catch. Elena died over a thousand years ago.

Waittttt..... I almost forgot... 

There is also an evil lurking around and someone is attacking ONLY the other contenders. Will Celaena be next?

This book is thrilling, gripping and enticing.

If you want to read something interesting with a bit of adventure and danger behind it then I advise that you go and buy this book like NOW!!!

And like it says in the book..

"Nothing is a coincidence. Everything has a purpose."

So if you have just read this, then it means that you have read it for a reason.

That reason is so that you can read this thrilling adventure too.

Enjoy!

xo

While or What?!

OMG I am so so rubbish! Its almost been a month since my last blog post which is terrible! I've just been so busy with my final major and sewing and quite a few crisis'. So as off this week/next week I will be on here ALL the time! Your are more than likely going to become sick of me! hehe.

Today, I am going to go to Hayman's so that they can print my look book which I have been working on and yes there will be a WHOLE blog post on that! I am also getting my final images for my show printed and mounted by them which is brilliant!! Yayyyyy. 

So soon you will be updated on EVERYTHING!!

And here is a really cute picture of a baby sloth! 

Have a good day 

Melanie Katelin
xo

48 Hours of Fashion Show!

Wow Wow Wow!! I have had the most AMAZING day today!! It has been planned for about a month now that my course would be taking part in the 48 hours of fashion.

Me being me had decided to create my white out project to only fit me so I had to model for myself (not that I mind! I LOVE that sort of thing!) and I loved it so much!!

We had everything white. White Eyes, White Nails, White Trainers, White Bottoms and of course out White Re-vamped Shirt. I will have to admit that when I first saw myself with out the rest of my outfit on I wanted to laugh my head off, I looked so so so funny but then so did everyone else, but when we were all in out outfits and all standing together, all that I can say is WOW!!

So here are some pictures of me and I'm hoping I will get the video for it very very soon!!!

so this is what my make up looked like, slightly scary right?! But it did look really good!

And this is me walking in the show!

I had so much fun and it was such a great experience! I loved every minuet and I can not believe that was my first catwalk where 1. I walked and 2. My own garment was shown on it!! Ekkkkk!.

Look Book: How to

Right t this moment in time I am waiting to find out how to create a look book to go with my designs for my FMP.

I want to create a look book as I want it to show my favourite pages in my sketchbook, my CAD work and my photoshoots.

I have been told by my tutor that we are to be using InDesign and Photoshop so I will be giving loads of updates as and when I start my look book. I will give loads of How To Tips, so watch out!!

I am intending to have it all done by my appointment with hayman graphics by 15th May so fingers crossed!!

I'm quite excited by all the things that are going together to make my Final Major!!

xoxo

Melanie Katelin

Shoesies!

My mum is totally obsessed with quotes! I mean we have a quote wall in your house (which she keeps adding too) on a really big wall! And the other day when we were looking at quotes I came by this totally gorgeous quote about shoes! And I think I have expressed my love for shoes!! Haha

So I thought I'd start the morning with one :)

Photoshoot Inspiration

I was on my facebook account earlier when I came across a few images for a Sherri Hill shoot and I found the minimalistic backgrounds really set the mood of the dress and it did not draw away any attention from the beauty and detail of the garment.

I find this really inspiring and I would like to try and consider doing something like this for my own photoshoot as well as going to places on location. Ideally I would like to take some photos outside of Somerset House. I will be going down to London to visit my friend for the bank holiday and this gives me the perfect opportunity as I think that this will incorporate my inital research for this project.

WOW! How stunning is this shot? I mean you can clearly see all the 3D detail in the dress which is a very important feature! And the minimalistic background just really makes the colour of the dress pop all that much more! I LOVE this and it is my MAIN photography inspiration at this moment in time.

 This picture is clearly taken in the photography studio with the white props place in to add that emphasis! Again I find this really effective and brightens the colour of the dress!

I love this image mainly due to the chair! This is because you have to take a second look as it is just so so simple but effective.

And this final image is just stunning! Not only due to the dress but also due to the background. Nature really is the best prop for this image as it draws such light and beautiful colours. Also LOOK at that dress!! I want one PLEASEEE!!!