Congratulations!

Well done to everyone who took part in the S2 - 4 Fashion Showcase at the 10th Anniversary night on Monday 22nd June - thanks to both designers and models! It was a very well received event and lots of people commented on the high standard of work - someone even offered to buy Jessica's Swan Lake dress! 

Well done also to this years Anne Thomas prize winners. In the lower secondary the winner was Nico Medinelli for his Water Lillies painting in the style of Monet

(His was nearly as good as this!)

In the senior secondary the winner was Megan Nixon for some of her expressive art work.

Rebecca Collins also won the Malcolm Bryce Creativity Prize for all the different creative activities she has been involved in this year. In particular her design work was a key factor in winning this award.

An artistic outing...

Whilst on our trip to Paris, I decided to take the opportunity to do a little design research with the S2 art students. On the Wednesday afternoon Ailie, Rebecca, Lara, Beth, Jonathan and I (and Dr Rankin as our much needed translator!) set off on a hunt for "Les Grands Magasins" otherwise known as the designer shops. 

Two of the fashion designers we study during the art course are John Galliano and Issey Miyake both of whom have shops in Paris. Not only did we manage to successfully negotiate the metro (thanks to Dr R!) but we also found their shops and saw some examples of their work. It was interesting to see how Galliano used text in his designs as well as creatively displaying his work on a cycling theme!  In particular the staff at the Issey Miyake shop were very helpful and informative - they spent a lot of time explaining and illustrating the A-POC technology they use to create their clothes. We also saw examples of their successful "Pleats Please" technique.

Beth and Jonathan are 'reading' this Galliano dress which has been created from fabric printed with newspaper style letters that customers have written to the designer and his subsequent replies...



Galliano used bicycle wheels as display shelves for his accessories and a bike saddle and handlebars as the rails on which to hang his work!

The Issey Miyake staff were very friendly and helpful - in particular I found the visit here very interesting.



Finally, an added bonus to the trip was discovering a giant, pink Dior bunny at the side of the road on the way to the Galliano shop in the 'Galeries Lafayette'.... bizarre!

Elsa Schiaparelli

S2 art students have been undertaking some independent research on the lives and work of some interesting fashion designers. This forms part of their NAB for the Art and Design Studies unit of the art course as well as gives them ideas for their own work.

Today we began looking at the eccentric, avant garde, and very innovative designer from the 30's and 40's - Elsa Schiaparelli. She took a great deal of influence from Surrealist artists such as Dali and was a pioneer of new techniques and materials in her day. 

S2 enjoyed their introduction to her work even if they thought it was a bit bizarre! Here are some of the examples we looked at:

Performance!

S2 Dramatists gave a performance of the Narnia extract they have been working on to the rest of their class as well as pupils in S3/4 and S1. Despite the heavens opening and the rain trying to distract them in the middle of the performance (it can be very loud in the GP room where we were working), they managed to carry on regardless and all did very well. Here are some photos where you can see them setting up the stage, getting the sound effects ready and applying the make up as well as each of them in costume. 

The bin bags you can see the pupils sticking down in the first photo go underneath white sheets to create a snow-like look and crunching sound when you walk over them. The gruesome special effects are all down to Lara's excellent make up skills!