I’m giving it my best go in a tough industry. Been supporting other Scottish brands for the past year as part of our relocation to the Barrowlands for the regeneration of the area.

Getting ready to launch my new label at the end of this year, most of my inspiration comes from Glasgow, taking hard lines of the tower blocks currently being brought down all over the city and turning them into something soft and feminine.

1. Event: Shoot Your Shot – HI-NRG/Italo-Disco/TAKING YOU HIGHER!
One of my favourite club nights, the promoter Bonner is insane in all the good ways. Next party is 27th of May at The Art School.

2. Music: Sofar sounds: While they haven’t happened too often in Glasgow, these secret intimate gigs are pretty relaxed, the extensive acoustic playlists on youtube lets you really explore and discover new artists.

3. Music: Bigg Taj – Superstar Sardar – Spoken word artist, singer and beat boxer extraordinaire kills it again with his latest EP. Genuinely one of the coolest guys around.

Bigg Taj, Superstar Sarwar

4. Music: Etta Bond – I’ll try not to gush, but I am in love with her sound and attitude. Soulful spoken word and sing speak with a feminist edge, she is out of this world and HAS to be checked out.

5. Website: Braw Wee Emporium – Our neighbour in Barras Art and Design in the Barrowlands, packed full of excellent music and gifts from exciting artists and designers. Definitely worth a visit, especially during the Braw Wee Fair, on the 1st Saturday of the month.

More: Website | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook

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For more recommendations on what to read, watch or listen to, go here.

Hello, My Name is Paul Smith is an in depth exploration of his world, allowing visitors to discover his process, his inspirations, and his genius. The exhibition follows the designer’s progress from the early 1970’s to the present day with many insights and highlights demonstrating what makes him such a prominent character in the fashion world and beyond.

Among the many examples of his iconic garment designs are his designs for shops and the original Paul Smith multi stripe Mini car. Walk into a replica of Smith’s office and recreation of his design studio to discover where the magic happens including his own collection of books and materials he draws inspiration from daily.

The exhibition is supported by Sony and The Herald, Creative Scotland and Glasgow City Council.

More: Website

Experimental Project / Stone is a fashion project by Swiss designer Charlotte Bauman.

More: Behance

Betty Spoke is a Glasgow based luxury brand that began life creating custom suiting and occasion wear for bespoke clients. They have since expanded into manufacturing high end tweed accessories with a strong focus on adaptable style and quality materials for a durable yet stylish garment. Betty herself tells us about where she makes…

Renting my first creative space was an amazing feeling. I was progressing. It was terrifying of course, but adding a major outgoing onto your life and your income is going to be daunting for anybody. I’d been working from home for over a year with clients visiting for consultations. My equipment was far from minimal. I was slowly going insane.

As a compromise, I rented the biggest unit I could afford. It’s split into two rooms, the first of which has three massive windows along the south wall. These allow in endless light during the summer months. When Scotland decides to do summer. 2014 was a comparative heat wave & these long days somehow charged my limbs into working more effectively.

The first half of this area is where I do fittings and talk to clients. Here I store all my fabric samples and inspiration books, next to comfy chesterfields and a large looking glass. I talk about design ideas, perfect toiles and have one last gaze at the final garment.

The second section of the room is a little more chaotic. A large whiteboard reminding me what tasks need to be accomplished. A continuous roll of paper and card for pattern drafting. A large bag of fabric ends that I slowly fill then donate to my local community centre (for stuffing up-cycled draught excluders). Mannequins stand dressed in various examples of my work; currently a bias cut pinstripe dress with a tailcoat feature. A green ribbed jersey dress matched with a navy crop lambs wool jacket. A pair of strobe effect dropped crotch trousers and a pink check Harris Tweed Poplet scarf with magnetic fastenings (the accessory I am focusing on for the Christmas period).

They all crowd around my worktable, admiring the colourful array of fabrics stored on its built in shelves yet embarrassed by the clutter associated with my latest project strewn across the surface. I tend to sprawl myself over the whole space pretty effectively. And enjoy discarding pieces of paper and thread on the floor while focusing on the task in hand – only to grumble when the time comes to clear up after myself.

A second door directly opposite the first leads off into a smaller back room. This area oversees the construction side of things and is occasionally used as a large dressing room for my more modest clients. Here hides two mammoth industrial machines and a steam iron as well as a plethora of thread, shoulder pads, sewing needles and garment fastenings.

The building was created to barrel whisky originally. And the room I reside in was a recording studio before I set up shop. Every wall had been painted black. It was both dramatic and depressing simultaneously. Now it is white. With patterns, pictures and materials pinned on every surface.

You can find Betty at her studio 674 Pollokshaws Road, Glasgow (contact her first on tailored@bettyspoke.com).

Images and video kindly provided by Make Works. For more about Make Works on Central Station, go here.

More: Website | Facebook | Twitter

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‘Where I Make’ invites readers behind the scenes of artists from many disciplines to share photographs and a little insight about where they create their masterpieces. See more from the series here.

Design and Architecture Degree Shows will be held in the newly opened Reid Building where the public will be allowed access for the first time since its opening. These shows will feature work from jewellery & silversmithing, textiles and fashion, communication design, product design, product design engineering and interior design. The MFA Degree Show will run at the Glue Factory from 12 – 22 June.

Due to recent tragic events at the Mackintosh building, Fine Art students will postpone their degree show. They will be represented in a specially-curated group exhibition at the McLellan Galleries featuring digital prints. A book will be available for purchase, featuring the prints and other works by GSA graduates.

The GSA Degree Show will run 14 – 21 June.

More: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Flickr

This year British street wear brand, Boxfresh celebrate their 25th anniversary. To mark this, they are supporting and hosting a series of events and are looking for a talented event photographer to capture the action and receive a full year’s paid work placement.

The brief is simple; submit an image that communicates Boxfresh’s passion for youth culture, fashion, art and music. Take inspiration from the brand itself – Boxfresh aims to seek out trends and movements before they reach the surface, tapping into local and global scenes to connect with what’s current, credible and exciting for young people, in fashion, style, art and music.

Boxfresh have asked a number of well-known and up-and-coming photographers for an image that they feel fits with the competition brief. Here’s what they came up with:

RAVE, OLD KENT ROAD, LONDON. 1998 by Ewen Spencer

Untitled by Luke Norman & Nik Adam (co-founders of Wandering Bears)

MICRORAVE by Doom Moore

For more information and to apply, visit here.

Deadline: 17 February

More: Website | Facebook | Twitter

Innovative textile artist, Nina Falk is from Stockholm but is now based in Edinburgh. Here, she guides us through her work process:

My work often breaks the boundaries between fashion, textiles and art – moving away from the labels that we are often given. This is something that I find really interesting – the labels within art are something that I often come across when I exhibit my work.

Even though I have shown my work at places such at Moscow Museum of Modern Art to New Designers in London I always find myself justifying what I do. Is it art or is it design?

Rend Birth 2011

Rend it 2011

Studying ‘Fashion and Tailoring’ in Stockholm, ‘Textiles’ at Norwich University of the Arts in England, ‘Textiles art’ at Osaka Seikei University Faculty of the Arts in Japan and a Masters in ‘Contemporary Art Theory’ has influenced my work and my process.

I am currently living in Edinburgh where I am running a Contemporary Textile Collective with a group called Kalopsia. Kalopsia brings attention to the field and sees textiles as a distinct artistic practice which opens up the debate on “What is Textiles”. I see Textiles as a social, historical, and cultural artefact and as an instrument to show emotions, experiences and thoughts.

Playing hard to get 2012

Alteration 2012

The way I work and the tools I use, the process and the thinking comes from my past in the ballet. I started dancing when I was three or four years old and I was quickly drawn into the world of ‘perfection’ and the strive to push oneself. You can always be better; be the best! You are brought up thinking ‘what is the point otherwise?’ and without having this mentality, you fail. It wasn’t until I was a teenager, having been a dancer at the Royal Swedish Ballet School and done pliés for, what felt like 100 years, that I realised that it wasn’t for me. I quit a few years later and the only thing that stayed with me was the constant realisation of the pushing – the perfection. I have never found that perfection and I am now moving towards the fragmentations of it. Whatever form my work comes in, it ends up with destruction. The more stains and the more fragmentation I can create, the more satisfied I get. I am a perfectionist, but I know that perfection doesn’t exist.

Alteration – lip 2012

Being diagnosed with MS later came to influence my process and this now has a key impact on my ideas about alterations as it is a constant uncontrollable force, constantly changing my behaviour and my body.

I have tried to capture this in my work and video installations from (Un)Conscious Deformation. The rather painful process of stitching into my own skin is an important aspect. The preparation before penetrating a sewing needle through my skin was filled with adrenaline. I stitched myself in front of a mirror and sometimes with a few people around me. The mirror was there to push me – I saw myself changing and I wanted more – it was very difficult to stop. When was I done? Is there such a thing as a final stitch? When is the time to stop? You always forget the pain and it is difficult to look at yourself in a mirror and say ‘done’. There is always something that you can alter.

More: Website | Twitter

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Want to read more blogs by artists? Look here.

What:
82nd & Fifth is the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s address in New York City. The Met have invited 100 curators from across the Museum to talk about 100 works of art that changed the way they see the world. Eleven Museum photographers will interpret their vision: one work, one curator, two minutes at a time.

82nd & Fifth is a year-long series of 100 episodes. Throughout 2013, new releases will appear every Wednesday. You can keep up-to-date with new content by signing up for email announcements on the site.

Why we like it:
If you can’t get to the Met, they’ve very kindly brought the best of their collection to you with an added dimension. Watch curators explaining their selections, see sculpture from previously hidden angles, view Antonio Rosellino’s Faith in 180˚, explore Alexander McQueen’s Extreme Fashion Collection video archive from the runway in 1999 and much more.

Get lost in this website and watch time fly by as you gain inspiration from this exceptional archive.

More:
Website

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For more creative delights we’ve Spotted on the web take a look here.

I design womenswear for my label “ten30” focusing on simple shapes with an emphasis on surface textiles, mainly print and embroidery. Prints are designed in house and teamed with some of the best fabrics in Scotland, from pure new lambswool to Scottish roe deer leather, where possible, everything is made in Scotland, this is important to me. I love collaborative work, and this year I have a lot of projects lined up, including some menswear, accessories, jewellery and exhibitions.

I am based in the newly opened Grey Wolf Studios, the building used to be offices but has recently been renovated and turned into artists studios. The place houses a fantastic mix of creative talent, including sculpture, painting, music, graphic design and film, which is so inspiring to my own work. Being able to talk over ideas with other artists from different disciplines really pushes my own work and my own development as a designer.

I am currently finishing a new collection, working on a look for the From Scotland With Love show in New York as well as designing for Harris Tweed Hebrides and working on a piece for the upcoming Analogue Social PAPER exhibition.

Website | Twitter

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‘Where I Make’ invites readers behind the scenes of artists from many disciplines to share photographs and a little insight about where they create their masterpieces. See more from the series here.

This week, Ironbbratz Studios took over Central Station, posting featured work and blogs. This, their last post, is about Black Cherry Studio.

Black Cherry Studio is a Textile Print Design Studio set up by two graduates from The Glasgow School of Art. They design and create beautiful exclusive Print Designs for the Womenswear Fashion Market keeping their worldwide client base in mind. Their print designs are created for clothing, accessories, swimwear and lingerie and are produced using traditional hand painting techniques along with cutting edge computer technology. This, coupled with inspiration drawn from current catwalk trends, allows them to create a product which is one of a kind and appeals to everyone from high end to high street companies.

Website | Twitter

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Discover more work by creatives we’ve featured, here.
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