Wednesday, November 24, 2010

PC Merchandising Assignment #2: Fashion Show Event



 Had to create a fashion show event promotion package including our own brand logo and theme. I decided to create a theme around music and fashion, and my brand is called Style Eyes. 

Monday, November 15, 2010

Visual Merchandising: Mannequin Set up

Here's our stylish little mannequin! Each group had a theme to work with when developing their own styling technique. Our theme: Class Act. The inspiration boards included a lot of camel and neutral tones, since we were dealing with classic pieces. The outfit had to consist of three layers: dress, sweater and trench in our case. It was also important to incorporate a full outfit including shoes and other accessoires such as the necklace and purse shown above!


So once we steamed all the clothing and styled the mannequin, we had to choose an appropriate location for the Class Act theme. We chose the library, scanning some pictures from a Valentino book (fashion had to be included, somehow). This project was relatively easy. 

Visual Merchandising: Build-Up Display





 Above is my build-up visual merch project as part of my Store Planning and Merchandising course taken at Humber. It was fun developing this idea. I looked in my closet for possibilities and noticed that I had a this sorta candy theme going on. So I decided to incorporate red, yellow and blue gumballs and huge suspended lollipops to coincide with the overall colour story. Other than giving into inflation, (seriously, $7 for a lollipop? C'mon now) I loved working on this project. However, I do not plan my career around visual merchandising, unlike a few of the students in my program. 

Things I learned from doing this project:
1. When you display shoes, make sure the the heel is visible
2. It is important to develop a strong colour story and theme
3. Try and keep the background nutural so it does not take away from the merchandise
4. When developing a build-up display, make sure the merch is displayed in a "mountain" ( /\ ) formation
5. Carrying 8 lollipops around Toronto without cracking them is no easy task

My teacher really enjoyed my signage. It's a model in the middle of a gumball storm, so it suited the idea pretty well.

So my instructor also said she loved the display but she just wishes that I could have done a couple of things differently. The background and foreground colour creates contrast, taking away from the merchandise. Oops. I was actually trying to create contrast...I thought the overwhelming primary colours were strong enough to handle such a contrast. Apparently not! :) Hindsight is 20-20..

Monday, November 1, 2010

Trend Du Jour: The Scarf!


Yes it's that time again, bundle up for those cold winter months ahead. Nowadays though, the scarf is used as an opulent accessory rather than the obvious reason. There are numerous scarf trends this season! We got the loop scarf (shown above), the blanket scarf, the lengthy scarf in silk, wool and cotton. Solid colours as well as unique geometric and clean lined prints can be seen as well. Overall, the whole cowboy-esque way of wearing scarves is so five minutes ago you guys, like, really.
                                                            
                  
               

                                                           

Lady Gaga's Heartbeats



Isn't it great to be a famous...anything these days? The freedom of product development by celebrities is sweet. A lot of the stars choose the clothing line option, fragrance line, home decor, the list goes on. But Lady Gaga has come out with her own Heartbeats ear bud. The unique triangular shape represents three things that she cannot live without: love, fashion and writing. The ear buds retails for about $80 a pop, so needless to say, they best not disappoint eager users. I think Lady Gaga could come out with her own line of infamous meat dresses, slap her name on there and still succeed in multiple sale turnovers due to her millions of fans.

Let's just talk about sound quality for a minute. The biggest pet-peeve of musicians these days? Not that users can download their music for free, but the fact that their music is being listened to in such bad quality. Many of the .mp3 files that are downloaded are not top quality and the producer's hard work is not transpired to the file. SO sound quality is important to the musician's image and overall satisfaction of the user.

Reviews state that Lady Gaga's Heartbeats are not comparable to Dr.Dre's Beats earphones, but they do surpass the Apple iPod earphones (which happen to be my favourite as of now).

The design is ultra sleek and come in three different colours: white, black, and red, again tied in with the theme of her "must-haves."

If you have a bit of extra money lying around, I'd say go for it!