Material Girl

Karen Smith is a Fashion Designer and Manchester Metropolitan University graduate. We were first approached by Karen to photograph her final year collection. A styled fashion shoot for her professional Lookbook portfolio. As Karen described her work we were very intrigued. So once she heard our ideas for the shoot, involving an open seascape with geometric shaping, we were all looking forward to being a part of this exciting project.

CONTEMPORARY STYLE BY KAREN SMITH DESIGN

Karen’s designs are inspired by contemporary artist Jim Lambie. Following Karen’s time living in Amsterdam, her love of Dutch architecture also provided further inspiration.

Karen has created some seriously unique pieces. Using bright colours and geometric shapes, in addition to specialist materials decorated with ribbon. These are ultra-modern garments. Also bold patterns, plastics and velcro feature throughout. The collection is aimed at the luxury consumer market.

Karen’s ethos is, “Life is about using the whole box of crayons.”

CREATIVE FASHION PHOTOGRAPHY

The fashion shoot took place on the Fylde coast. A sweeping coastline and award-winning seafront gave us an awesome backdrop for our brave model to rock the frock!

It was amazing to see Karen’s collection hit the catwalk. Because the Manchester School of Art Fashion Show is a fantastic opportunity for the next generation of designers. A chance to showcase work before a leap in to the professional world:

You can also follow Karen Smith Design on Instagram.

Finally, good luck for the future Karen! So here’s our favourite photographs from the shoot: