Yves Saint Laurent (60s collection)

I really like the way Yves Saint Laurent used block colours on a simple shift dress, which make it more interesting and different to other shift dresses. I believe his work is still as powerful and desirable now as it was when it began. I have found the colours used in the dresses very inspiring and could see myself possibly using techniques such as felting in the colours YSL has used. Although the colours are bright colours like Andy Warhol’s work, these dresses only uses primary colours, which make them even more amazing as they have used such simple colours.

Matthew Williamson

The brand first debuted with the collection ‘Electric Angels’ at London fashion week in 1997 and has gone from success to success ever since.

The brand has collaborated with a diverse range of companies from Swarovski in 2012 to coca cola in 2003. Its most famous collaboration is probably that with H&M where a holiday wardrobe featuring kaftans and bikinis in his signature style were created. This was one of H&M’s most successful collaborations with a high end designer.

Four women’s ready to wear collections are released annually into three flagship stores in Dubai, Qatar and the award-winning store in Mayfair. MatthewWilliamson is also sold across 170 prestigious wholesale accounts.

MatthewWilliamson trademark pieces are evening dresses in his signature style – combining colour, print and embellishment.  

 “I’m continually inspired by nature and the rainbow is one of nature’s greatest optical phenomenons. The sighting of a rainbow never fails to bring a smile to people’s faces. They signify optimism and positivity: with them comes the sunshine after the rain.”

Matthew Williamson has been quoted saying that ‘The Matthew Williamson woman is feminine and sexy, fun and free-spirited with a laid-back approach to glamour’. This sums up his consumer as there is not one specific type of woman as his different labels appeal to different audiences. Under the Matthew Williamson brand there are labels including ‘Butterfly by Matthew Williamson’, ‘Muse by Matthew Williamson’ and ‘Matthew Williamson’.

Matthew Williamson is a very unique brand who I would most closely compare with Monsoon due to its embellished and heavily patterned designs. However there is a significant difference in the price range of them both. Therefore its competitors would be brands such as Lanvin, Stella McCartney and Missoni. Missoni uses bright colours and pattern similarly to Matthew Williamson however this is a chevron print as opposed to the florals of Matthew Williamson.

Tom Ford

Tom Ford was born in Austin, Texas and then spent most of his childhood in Santa FE, New Mexico.

He then moved to New York and studied art history at New York university and then onto Parsons school of design to study architecture. 

Brief timeline of Tom Ford's career:

1990 - Became Gucci's womanswear designer in Milan

1992 - Promoted to Gucci's design director

1994 - Appointed as their creative director - responsible for the design of all product lines. This includes perfume, clothing, ad campaigns, store designs and the group's corporate image

2000 - Became the creative director of YSL - defined overall image & positioning of the YSL brand (product categories & communication activities)

April 2004 - Resigned from the Gucci group following a buyout

April 2005 - Creation of the Tom Ford brand. Partnership with Marcolin group to produce and distribute optical frames & sunglasses. Also alliance with Estée Lauder to create Tom Ford beauty brand. Both brands now rank in the top 3 at speciality stores worldwide. 

April 2007 - First flagship store opened: 845 Madison Avenue, New York; Tom Ford menswear and accessory collections also launched

September 2010 - Presented womanswear collection on some of his style icons including Beyoncé

There are currently 98 freestanding Tom Ford stores.

He has one many many awards including:
4 Vogue fashion awards (1195, 1996, 1999, 2002)
Style Icon award at ELLE style awards (1999)
4 awards from the CFDA - Council of fashion designers of America (1995, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005)
GQ designer of the year (2001)

He currently lives and works in Los Angeles.

Karen Gilbert

On the 16th April we had a guest lecturer called Karen Gilbert. She gave an informative lecture on creating and marketing a fragrance brand. Through this she explained and outlined what a fragrance is, where fragrance has come from and ideal customers. 

Karen originally trained as a make-up artist but then went on to the London college of fashion to study cosmetic science. She then did a placement at one of the major fragrance manufacturers - IFF for two weeks which is where she the training of her nose began and she truly discovered her career path. 

She then worked with M&S, Boots and super drug working on own label toiletries ranges. She then ran sessions which taught how to categorise fragrances and the raw materials used.

Her path then changed slightly, moving towards the natural skincare and essential oils side working in product development for Neal's Yard which provided an excellent learning opportunity. Karen then became the companies company trainer running workshops for both staff and members of the public.

Her teaching career progressed running natural beauty workshops for Neal's Yard remedies, trill farm and the make lounge. In August 2011 her first book, 'A green guide to natural beauty' was published after being approached by Cico books to write it. She has now written another book 'Perfume - The art & craft of fragrance', launched an online perfumery course and teaches many classes about practical perfumery. 

Karen Gilbert on twitter

Her website

Natalie Massenet

Natalie Massenet transformed and changed the world of luxury shopping by bringing it to the world. This was truly recognised when she was made an MBE in 2009. 

In June 2010 Net-A-Porter celebrated its 10th anniversary and soon after sold for £350 million to Richemont.

Natalie Massenet, born in 1966 was destinied to be a big name in the world of fashion with her parents a Californian journalist and a British Chanel model. She spent her childhood in LA with her father where he scraped and saved to send her to a private school. She described being surrounded by very wealthy people as giving her the drive and determination to work hard and therefore be successful. 

She is perhaps not the conventional woman, describing herself as 'lazy' saying she cuts her own fringe as she doesn't have time to go to a hairdresser.

Women's wear daily in LA was wear her career began.She then progressed to working as Isabella Blow's assistant at Tatler when she was 33. It was here that she came up with the whole idea of Net-A-Porter. 

I would describe Massenet as a risk taker having raised £1.2 million with her husband in start up investments for a company that advisers were all forecasting would fail. 

The site started in a Chelsea flat filled with stock and iconic black boxes with a team of 15. In 2001 Roland Mouret was convinced to sell his first collection on the site. In 2004 the site first became profitable and Net-A-Porter won an award for best shop at the British fashion awards.

2,000,000 people log onto the site every week with an average spend of £500. Purchases are shown in the West london offices on giant screens which flash up the latest purchases (how much was spent and what was bought) from around the world. 

In June 2010 when the company celebrated its tenth anniversary Natalie Massenet revealed her idea to begin working with menswear with the launch of 'Mr Porter'. The British fashion council named her the chairman in September 2012.