Placement at On|Off London & Paris Fashion Week.

I have been selected as an intern for Doll where I will be working at On/Off London Fashion Week & Paris Fashion Week.


Im incredibly excited to be part of Fashion week in both of these AMAZING cities.
This is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity - an opportunity of being able to network with Fashionistas from across the globe.

On|Off has a strong international reputation of showcasing 'design over hype' with a track record of discovering and nurturing new talent including Peter Pilotto, Gareth Pugh, Louise Gray, Yang Du, Mark Fast, Aminaka Wilmont and Hannah Marshall to name a few.

I first became involved with On|Off during a "Guest at Grays" Guest Lecture from Lee Lapthorn - director of On|Off PFW and LFW, Fashion consultant, Print designer & external examiner printed textiles St Martins. 

He talked of how his career as a textiles designer had influenced his involvement within Fashion week and had resulted into the creation of On|Off which I felt deeply interested in.

There is going to be some truly inspiring designers showcasing their work at On|Off and I'm so excited to see them in action. To read about and see some of the designers who have shown at On|Off click here.

Below is a clip of On|Off Paris - Can you spot Vivienne Westwood and some of the other well known names in Fashion?

On|Off Paris SS12 September 2011 from On|Off TV on Vimeo.

Im so excited to begin working in both London and Paris Fashion weeks and you can make sure to keep unto date with both Fashion Weeks as well as all of my own experiences and time in London and Paris via @artnthat on twitter as well as via my schedule below.

Matt's Schedule

London Fashion Week Schedule - Designers showcasing at On|Off  

Paris Fashion Week Schedule - Location and Sneak Peek

London here I come!!!

Gordon Highlanders Scarf Range - The Photo-shoot

These are the scarves which were created by me and my team  for the Gordon Highlanders Museum in Aberdeen. These will be exhibited in the GH museum for roughly six months (dates coming soon!) showcasing our designs, sketchbooks, photo-shoot photos and of course the scarves...

These scarves will be up for sale as well as our designs will be showcased at the museum from the 1st of February!

Gordon Highlanders Museum

February 1 - 30 November

Tuesday - Saturday 10am - 4pm

Tea Room and gardens - admission free.

Museum admissions:

Adult - £5.00

Senior Citizens and students - £3.00

Child - £2.00

Family - £11.00

You can keep up-to-date with ART'n'THAT by following me on:

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MIRRORED - Collaborative Exhibition

Above : Flyer for Exhibition, half Matt half Holly.

A Collaborative exhibition exploring the bridge between Photography and Textiles. 

I worked with my friend and Photography student Holly Aitchison to create a series of photographs and projections which explore the boundaries between textiles and photography.

We worked with Textiles Prints and photographic research I used in projects previously along with Holly's photographic and digital media skills to make a combined set of projections.

These projections then were projected onto each others torso and face, allowing the projection to interact and be manipulated by our positions and angle.

Some of the projections really allowed myself to visualise in another manor how my prints could interact with the human form.

These were then photographed in the photo studio in high quality, adjusted by ourselves then we shortlisted with photos we would use in the exhibition. After much thought and consideration the photographs were then printed digitally to the size of A1 (roughly the size of 8 A4 pages combined).

The preparation of an exhibition was greatly underestimated by myself however it was certainly worth the work.

Myself within a textile photo combination of stained glass window and a Tiger print.

Holly within a photo I took in Shanghai with her Cat's eyes.

Myself interacting with one of my textiles designs

Falling from a hight.

Wings of Barcelona

Holly within my Textiles Print

Holly within the Tiger Beach.

It's me Matt!! With Mini Matt projected
 on my top. I MUST Make a T-shirt like this

The Exhibition opened on Thursday 13th October at Gray's School of Art with a fantastic 

reception along with wine and nibbles. 

A few photos of the Opening night too below.

The Exhibition is running for a week at Gray's School of Art Aberdeen so be sure to pop by if your near...

Bradford Textiles - Matt Russell Print Designs

For our summer project this year we were given the task of designing a range of designs for our specialism - my specialism being Printing .


For this I began as I usually do, with  a piece of inspirational material and go from there. 
The Inspiration I sourced for this project was an antique 1800's book on the British army in spain, with handwritten notes from a sergeant in Aberdeen and his personal experiences in the war. I wanted to capture the age of the book as well as the texture and rough surface of the book facing which had been damaged not only by age but fire also.


I combined the delicate flowing movement of the text as well as the rough and rugged patten of the book cover along with some of the map patterns, a drawing of the Sergeant himself.

From here I created a Client board and Colour board to keep my designs in line with the market and colour scheme I wanted to target.

Client Board

Colour Board

These are some of the textiles print designs I worked with and developed from this inspirational book. Now I will look at shortlisting these to the top ten and make these paper designs into fabric samples and see which ones come out the most successfully.

Print Designs

These designs will go towards the Bradford Textiles competition once sampled and the design and development process is finalised.


Hopefully I have captured something a little unusual to the ordinary applicants by using this original and one of a kind antique book and the naturally aged book pages hand writing and maps.


The Bradford Textile Society's Prize Schemes, which have been the source of encouragement and inspiration to textile students and practising textile designers, and have helped to stimulate new developments in textile design and construction, and finishing and printing techniques.

The original sponsors, the Society itself and the Wool Record, share the distinction of having presented special prizes for design achievement since the Schemes were established in 1923.
 The Society is also grateful to individual organisations and companies, whose support and encouragement has helped the organising committee to increase the total prize money by a considerable amount over the years. 


In particular it acknowledges the generosity of the Clothworkers Foundation, which has awarded a number of prizes since 1968, the Dyers' Company, Prestigious Textiles Ltd, The Woolmark Company, the British Wool Marketing Board, the Association of Fashion & Textile Courses, Holland & Sherry Ltd and Bradford College.


To find out more about the Bradford Textiles Society CLICK HERE

Nanjing here I come....

Cant believe the time is here but this will be my last blog post before travelling to China.

In the next few days I will begin my adventure in China where I will study the Chinese language,the Chinese economy, Confucianism, modern Chinese history, as well as Chinese customs and folklore.

My Travel Itinerary is as follows: 

Saturday the 9th of April I travel Glasgow to Dubai- Dubai to Shanghai- Shanghai to Nanjing.

I will spend most of my time in Nanjing which is in the Jiangsu province -one of China’s most economically vibrant provinces, benefiting from significant foreign investments such as Suzhou Industrial Park. Nanjing, as the capital of Jiangsu province, is situated in the lower

Yangtze River.

Together with Shanghai and 14 other cities, it forms the Yangtze River Delta Economic Zone. It is one of China's most important historic cities along with Beijing and Xian and was the capital of the Republic of China till 1949.

Nanjing has also been a national hub of education, research, transportation and tourism throughout history. The population is over five million which is equal to that of Scotland.

The city still has the best kept city wall built by the first emperor of Ming dynasty in 14th century and I am so very interested to experance the worders Asia has to offer me.

I am currently unsure to what will be the best communication methods will be the best across there as whether as I know my daily photo blog - ARTnTHAT Daily Photo is banned due to its service being TUMBLR as well as such things as YouTube, Facebook and Wikipedia so fingers crossed that I will at least be able to access this blog to keep you up to date.

Howver my plan is to create a mailing list of people who may be interested in having an update with some photographs regularily throughout my trip.

If you would be interested please don’t hesitate to email me at

matt0805@hotmail.co.uk

I will leave you with this quote from the Chinese thinker and social philosopher - Confucius

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”

Byeeeeeee!!!!!  M x

Glasgow Botanic Gardens

Glasgow Botanic Gardens is an Arboretum and public park located in the West End of Glasgow, Scotland. It features several glasshouses, the most notable of which is the Kibble Palace. The gardens were created in 1817, and run by the Royal Botanic Institution of Glasgow

Capturing the texture of the leaves with my macro lens...capturing the delicate nature of the plants.

I love the patten of the branches in this above photo and you can instantly imagine the printed or woven textile inspired by this photo.

Notice the ants in the above photo.

A fantastic image of the iconic Venus fly trap plant where 

the wonderful reds merge with the outer green.

In the 1920s a statue was added in the palace to "King Robert of Sicily" a figure from the works of Longfellow. This is by the Scottish sculptor George Henry Paulin a really beautiful feature I felt to the Glasgow Botanic Gadens.