London Life: Week 11 & 12 - The Climax

So this is the final instalment of London Life, Week 11 and 12, easily the most memorable of them all! It was for sure the most hectic my life had been in a long time, working sixteen days straight, with the working day getting longer and longer as the days passed. Working into the night and on the last fews day into the early hours of the morning, but I wouldn't change any of it for the world. 

I genuinely can't believe my three months in London are over already. My time in the Giles Studio was the most amazing experience of my life, working along side such an incredible team and meeting so many incredible new people! I can't believe the amount of responsibilities I was given, from hand sewing on a custom wedding gown to dyeing fabric and zips for the latest collection as well as embroidering and finishing quite a few of the final looks for the amazing new Spring Summer collection! Check it out here Giles Spring Summer 2016 RTW

I'm very proud of Look 1, 11, 27, 36 and 37 in particular! To top the whole experience off, I got to work backstage at London Fashion Week, doing final alterations and dressing models for Look 35, 36 & 37. It feels so surreal and I can't believe how much I've learned in the last three months. I'm really going to miss the studio and the team so much but fingers crossed I'll be back! 

Look 1, Look 11 & Look 27

Look 36 & 37

All photos from the collection above are sourced from: http://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/spring-2016-ready-to-wear/giles

Week 11

Monday:  Sewed 3D foxglove flowers and dyed gros grain for corsets.

Tuesday: Sewed pleated printed fabric, dyed more gros grain, which took much longer than expected and we cut out the embroideries and began fraying.

The Invitations

Wednesday: Dyed gros grain and zips, sewed flowers and replicated a bow from the last collection to be attached to trousers for a private order.

Thursday: Went to London Trimmings on the way to work, sewed flowers, dyed two zips, fixed the bow and made another one, packed goodie bags, rearranged studio, unpacked all the Jimmy Choos for the new collection and set up new rails.

Backstage Passes

Friday: Went to London Trimmings, continued fraying, went searching for light bulbs for photoshoot lights, went to London Trimmings again, more fraying and we marked the smocking points on the fabric for Look 1, which we finished at 1.20am.

Saturday: We brought up the new garments for the collection that arrived from Italy, the models began to arrive for fittings, we began smocking Look 1 and embroidering it, sewed more foxgloves, dyed zips and did more smocking until 2.20am.

The Empty Venue After The Show

Sunday:  We did the final bit of smocking on the cuffs on Look 1 and finished the look with adding fastening poppers. They loved the look so much, they decided to add our toile to the collection as Look 11, so I had to add buttons and poppers to it. After that I attached the pleated skirt to lining for Look 37, trimmed the frayed edges and added poppers, hook and bar and the Giles Couture label to complete that look at 3am.

Week 12

Monday: I sewed the pleated fabric to the corset for Look 36, added the poppers and the hook and bar. After that we sewed the 3D flowers to gown for Look 27, packed up van to transport everything to the venue, unpacked the van at the venue, packed the edible produce into the goodie bags, prepared dressing room, I then dressed the models for Look 35, 36 and 37. We watched show from backstage, changed the models when the show was over, packed up van, celebrated with a few glasses of wine and prosecco and finally said my goodbyes!

Me and the Collection

Tuesday: Tuesday morning I packed up all my belongings, got a taxi to Stanstead, flew back to Dublin and went straight to our apartment in Dublin.

Wednesday: Wednesday morning, I was straight back into college to start my final year. No rest for the wicked!

Airport Arrival

That's all for this post and for this series of posts 'London Life'. I hope for those of you who followed my whole adventure, that you enjoyed it and maybe took something from it. Thanks for following the series and I'd love to hear from you guys! As usual feel free to comment below and follow me on my other social media sights and give my Facebook Page a like: Barry Taylor Design.

Thanks,

Barry T.

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