My Forray into Fashion!

Original images

April 2020

It was a desire to create a scarf for myself that lead me to try different colour combinations and mirroring to create a pattern that might work for scarves, and so began the journey.

Trinny Woodall

I have been following Trinny Woodall on Instagram for a while now, I find her wonderfully uplifting, inspirational to watch and she just knows her stuff when it comes to fashion, colour and style.  She’s opened my eyes to wearing more colour, and she wears really big scarves all the time and to great effect.  I looked in vain for some scarves that would suite my colouring and not break the bank, but I couldn’t find any… most scarves I could find were such a mixture of colours that it completely threw out the colour wheel and I wanted to embrace it!

Colour Theory

The theory for the scarf colour schemes was that I wanted them to be the perfect colour to compliment skin, eye and hair tones, so being either the opposite end of the colour wheel or complimentary to them.  So the Blue Forget-me-not one, is the opposite colour to orange on the colour wheel and so suites my ginger hair for example, but also matches my eye colour.  The Bellflower pink, complements pink and brown skin tones and green eyes perfectly.  The Brown Wisteria looks amazing with pink or brown skin and brown hair and eyes.  Etc Etc.

I tried and tested a few silk printing companies, The Silk Bureau seemed the best to me, and were brilliant at guiding me through the details of creating designs and test prints, through shrinkage adjustments and colour adjustments.  I tested 2 types of silk, Twill and Crepe De Chine, and definitely preferred the more matte look of the Crepe De Chine.  It also printed really well on the reverse of the material which is perfect for scarves. I did have to adjust the colouring for the printers, as the sample prints came out a little dark and greener than I was expecting, so I boosted the light and pushed them a little pinker to compensate and they’ve come out perfectly.

May 2020

Being a rather impatient sort I was itching to get hold of them and so over excited when they finally arrived in a great big roll of silk.  I created a new instagram account and started sharing the scarves on there.  You can see the arrival of the silk roll and me cutting the first ones off the roll too.  I also created the gorgeous cards and vouchers using the wonderful Moo.com so I can give out business cards and pop a matching care card in with the scarves so I don’t need to put a label on them.

Thankfully I have a stash of lovely boxes that I use for supplying my photography clients with prints so I didn’t need any boxes or tissue paper.

June 2020

I then wanted to find a local seamstress/tailor who could hem the scarves to the highest standards, who could put together facemasks in the matching cotton I had made up and who would be flexible in working together on this.  I was very lucky to find Larysa who lives a couple of miles away and is so brilliant at the work.  I couldn’t have found someone better.

Then of course, I needed photographs of the scarves.  So I put a call out for some willing ladies to model them for me from the Trinny Tribe on Facebook and took millions of images both on their own, on the models, being thrown around, videos and how to wear vids with my sometimes assistant Amber…and even stop animation of the packaging..  yes I’ve had a lot of time on my hands!!!  And in between doing all this I had to create a presentable and functional online shop to allow people to buy easily.

July 2020

So I now am selling these gorgeous pieces of silk, images I’ve taken, coloured and manipulated to work as a design.  And every scarf I sell I will be donating to tree planting charities.

As studio life is starting to return to normal, I can sell the scarves as an add on or just online in my new shop.

For anyone who reaches the end of this article, you can use the coupon code BFF2020 to get 20% off the scarf collection…go on..you deserve it~!