Building My Website

Exciting news this week I plan on starting my website to show my work as both a fashion photographer, stylist and a visual merchandiser. By having a website it will make my work more professional and more accessible to people in the industry to see my work and what I can do.

I want my site to contain a portfolio and a CV as well as standard contact details and a wide catalogue of my work.

I'm not to sure yet on what web page builder to use so the next few days my time will be spent researching into what each site has to offer. If any of you have an advice regarding which web builder you like or use it would be great to hear from you.

Installing My Window Display

Finally after all my preparation it was time to instal my window display. We decided that Monday would be the perfect day to install the window as Hepwrights is closed on Mondays so I had the whole day to install my window without having to worry about being in any customers way.

  

I arrived at Hepwright's at ten am and began to empty the window of the display and then the task of masking up the window began. Masking up the was a lot more time consuming than I first thought as  the window had to be measured and then have border put around it  then measured a four  inch border more to the center on the window and then divided with three inch diagonal sections so that it looked like this.

As you can see I began to paint in the sections of the window so that i could check that the sections looked the right size once they were filled in  once the whole table was masked up I continued to fill in the sections until they were all painted. in the top right hand corner I masked up my template of the queens head and painted in white to look like a stamp.

 

The next step while waiting for the paint to dry  was to put together the outfits for the mannequins.

I decided to go for a block colour pillar box red dress with three quarter length sleeves and a built in belt with a gold clasp. The male mannequin would need to compliment this so i picked out a navy coloured suit I teamed this up with a patterned shirt in browns oranges and yellows The bold shirt  under a plain suit really stands out and shows that Hepwrights have some interesting  menswear garments.

Pulling the tape off the window was one of the most satisfying  moments of creating the window seeing the evelope take shape. I did plan on going around the queens head with a red square however I am glad I decided against it as I feel that this gives the impression of an airmail envelope enough and if it had a background to the stamp it would also need an airmail stamp and an address across the window and that would make it difficult to see the rest of the window.

The next step was to install the tree and position the mannequins. The tree was places to the left hand side as the twigs bent to the right across the window. I secured the twigs in place with fishing wire that was tied to the ceiling.  This meant i could place both the mannequins to the right hand side I wanted them positioned them facing slightly to the tree so they appeared to be almost walking.

Airmail envelopes were the first things i attached to the tree. There were two different colours of envelopes this worked better than just bright white  airmail envelopes as they stood out a bit to much.

As for the fabric hearts being hung on the tree as well  it made the tree look overloaded and  they didn't fit with the theme of the window  as i had planed them to. They made the window look very arts and crafty and that was a look that both me and Catherine wanted to stay well away from.

By the time all of this was done and I had tidied up it was beginning to get dark  this meant I could see how the window looked with the lights on in it.

 

So that's my first every window display installed. I had  great fun creating it and I defiantly learnt a lot such as it takes longer than expected and you have to be prepared for your original plan to change on the day if it doesn't look right.

 

As well as installing the display this became the cover photograph on Hepwright's Facebook page to help tie in with the window. 

 With the spare airmail envelopes We made gift voucher tags to place around the shop to help promote the fact that they where available in store and could be personalised for whoever you wanted.

Let me know what you think it would be great to hear what you like about the window and what you would change.

Fabric hearts

The next step in preparing  my window display was creating the fabric hearts that will be hung from the tree along with the airmail envelopes.

 The fabric that is used as part of this window is vital  as it needs to stand out and be eye catching but it also needs to compliment whatever garments will be on the mannequins in the window. The main problem with working with a one off vintage shop is that you can't plan what garments to put in the window until the day because they might get snatched up  by a customer before they make it to the window. Once the garments are in the window of course there is even more of a chance that they will be brought because they are on display they can catch peoples eyes as they walk past. I decided to stuff to blue and red fabric for the hearts for this reason because  they will match the colours of the paint on the window.

After much thought while in the fabric shop I decided on these four fabrics to use for my hearts. I picked theses four because I felt that there was a good mix of textures from light cotton to corduroy to a thicker more denim style cotton. I decided on the different style check pattern so there would be detail to the hearts without being  to fussy or having a pattern such as hearts or flowers on them.

  Next I cut out  heart shapes so I could sew them together and stuff them so they could hang off the tree and be visible from any angle. To decorate the hearts I found a selection of buttons to glue to the front and back of the hearts.

 Now time to get making...

 Here is the finished result of a selection of the fabric hearts I made the buttons on the front  of the hearts add a nice detail to the heart. The only preparation left to do is to spray the sticks and twigs and securing them into the plant pot.

Preparing my window display

This week has been spent gathering materials for my very first window display.

After deciding that the window its self was going to have an airmail frame around it I researched into how would be best to do this. My first idea was to use chalk pens to draw the pattern on to the window, however once I began looking into how it looks and what other people have used I found out that chalk pens can look patchy in larger block areas and that the best thing to use to paint blocks of colour on windows emulsion paint from your local hardware shop  is the best to use because it doesn't look patchy and its easy to scrap off when you are done.

 So off to the hardware shop I went to pick out paints for the window.  After what seems like hours staring at paint charts I finally decided on my colours,

The red that I decided to go for in the end was Dulux Fire Cracker 2. This red is rich and bright and close to the vibrant red of that on the airmail envelopes yet has a warmer feel to it .

The next step was to find a blue that would  compliment this red, another quarter of an hour staring at paint charts and I finally decided on a blue. Royal Regatta 3 seemed like the perfect match it is a rich blue that is just as bright as the Fire Cracker  red.

As you can see the colours are both bright and bold and stand out on there own  however they both compliment each other well and will work perfectly to frame my window.

While at the hardware store i also decided to pick up my giant plant pot that would hold my tree.

 

I decided on this as my plant pot the colour was irrelevant as it was going to be sprayed white anyway, I picked this shape over the others because thee square one had to much detail to it and the other circular one was to plain and looked like a tube. This pot had a small amount of detail to make it interesting but not enough to draw to much attention to it.  

Once I had my paint and my pot the next step would be to find airmail envelopes and fabrics to make hearts to hang off the tree. 

Final Idea for valentines window.

This week I  took my ideas to show Catherine and explained what my vision was for the shop window.

After a long discussion we finally refined both of our ideas and came to idea that we both agreed on.

The final idea is to use the idea of airmail envelopes with the red and blue border as a frame to be painted around the window front. The display will still contain a tree as part of it, the tree will be made  from dried twigs and branches that will be painted white with spray paint. The tree will be placed in  a large plastic plant pot that will also be sprayed white. The tree will be decorated with  airmail envelopes hand made fabric hearts and jewellery and gifts that are sold in Hepwrights. The idea of hanging gifts and jewellery in the tree is so that it can catch the eye of passers by showing that the shop  does not just sell vintage clothes but also things that are perfect to give as Valentines day gifts.

As well as the tree the display will also contain two mannequins one male and one female. We decided that two mannequins would not only fill the window up and help show more of what the shop has to offer but also to help translate a story of what the window was all about.

The story behind the window is meant to  show a couple reunited after a time apart the tree with airmail envelopes showing there way of keeping in contact.

The next step of my FMP is to gather materials to make the props for my window and get making all for the installation of my window next week.

Sketch of window design

Here is a quick sketch of what I think my window will look like to show Hepwrights.

Ideas For First Window Display

Here are some images that I collected to show Catherine as first ideas for my window display at Hepwrights.

This is a final mood board that I created to take in to show Catherine in our next meeting the following day. I Also planned to draw a sketch of a rough idea of what  the window might start to look like.

 You can see from this mood board that the main colour is still red because it is still the colour that is associated with Valentines day, however I plan on mixing the colour red and contrasting it with another colour maybe blue.

The idea of using a tree is something that I really liked from the displays I found and that I liked whether it be a tree made from twigs or something that was made to look like a tree. For the colour of the tree I feel that white would work the best because it is bold enough to stand out but still neutral enough that it will go with whatever else is going on around it on being hung on the tree.

First meeting with Hepwrights.

Today I went in to Hepwrights to talk to Catherine about  ideas for the first window display that I wanted to create for the shop.

The first window was set to be installed in late January or early February so the natural theme for the window was Valentines day.  Talking to Catherine it was clear that if we were to create a Valentines window display it could not be a stereotypical Valentines day window with red roses.

With this is mind I began looking at different ideas to bring back to show Catherine so we could try and agree on a more specific story for the window display.

By using my tumblr website My tumblr  I began looking at different inspiration.

Tumblr

Although I plan on my blog being my main source of promoting my ideas about my Visual Merchandising I have also decided to create a Tumblr account.

There were a few reasons for creating this account  the main one being it is another platform I can use to show what I am doing with my work this way more people will see it.

Also Tumblr is great for showing  quick ideas and inspiration for window displays and styling ideas.

By  using my Tumblr alongside my blog I think that the two will work together well. My initial  ideas that come to me and things I have found that inspire me will be on my Tumblr account and then my blog will go into more detail about why I like these things I have found and how I believe they will translate into a window display or photo shoot.

So here it is my Tumblr account  feel free to take a look and let me know what you think.

Through The Shop Window

Any people that have a Tumblr Follow me to see what I'm up to and what window is coming next =] x

How to find Hepwrights

For anybody out there that loves vintage here are some links to the Hepwrights Website, Ebay store, Facebook and Twitter.

Hepwrights Facebook

Hepwrights Twitter

Hepwrights Website

I'm sure Catherine would love to hear from any of you that are interested in vintage or want any advice about how to wear vintage.

Hepwright's

Hepwrights is a independent vintage shop located in Bedford Place Southampton.
Hepwrights is owned by Catherine Wright who is also the buyer of all their vintage clothes. Catherine works alongside Sophie Penn who works as the shop manager.

Hepwright’s both buy and sell vintage clothes as well as having the option to hire garments for a fraction of the price.
For my final major project I decided to contact Hepwright’s to see if they would be interested in letting me create a series of window displays for them so that I could start to build up a portfolio. As well as creating window displays for them I would help create some promotional images for them to use as either posters and flyers or for their website and Facebook. Catherine agreed to let me create several displays for the window and shop over the next few months working along with some ideas that she had to try and to get a larger customer base from  passing trade as well as word of mouth along with social websites such as Facebook and Twitter.
After talking to Catherine we agreed that the first window display we should create should be a Valentines day style window.

What Is Through The Shop Window

Through The Shop Window is a Blog started by myself Georgia-May I am currently a third year student studying Fashion and Photography at Southampton Solent University.

My final major project  is a DIY Project where I could build a brief to fit around what I wanted to do once I graduated. Ever since I started University styling has always been one of my favourite areas of the fashion industry. Over the past three years Visual Merchandising has become the main area of my focus. Coming up with ideas and concepts to catch peoples eye and draw them into the shop and then keep them interested while they are in the shop. Visual merchandising is not just about the styling of the clothes but also how  to fill a shop window with an interesting display that incorporates garments from the shop and tells a story at first glance. Apart from the front window display for the shop there is also the styling throughout the shop that needs to be considered the styling needs to help the customer find an outfit instead of just odd garments.

This blog will document any visual merchandising work that I do  as well as  ideas and concepts I have. Also along with visual merchandising it will include any promotional work I have done and photo shoots I have been a part of.

Happy reading.
Georgia-May
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