Reflection

So now i've slept and actually had time to think and reflect on the module I thought i'd write my last post now.

Overall I did find the module really interesting, and learnt alot through the process.

• Designing towards a designer/design house's trademark style was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be. Trying to keep an essence of you, yet meeting all the other criteria (i.e. simple drapery and having to make a tailored garment) wasnt really my style but I believe my end product showed a bit of both in the end.
  
•  Throughout this degree I keep doing things that reinforce what I want to go on and do in the future.
  I know I will never be the best pattern-cutter, but I'm going to work to my strengths and build on these areas to create the best collection I can for my final year!
  Getting more hands on with printing, dying and drapery, I realise how much I love experimenting with fashion and textiles and have started my research on companies/designers I would like to contact for my work placement.
  
• I believe I have improved on my areas of weakness:-
  -2D design developemnt - by finding my signature style (working with watercolours/brushstrokes/photoshop) I have found a way that works for me to show my design ideas at the early stages.
  -pattern cutting - I have spent alot of time this semester working especially on this area. By taking part in tailoring classes, to just spending alot of time playing arougn the get the perfect fit and shape.
  -Time Management - I know everyone, not just myself has struggled with the workload this semester, with marketing, design and learning contract it has been difficult to assign even time to all of them, especially when you enjoy one more than another, but I have tried my best and that's really all you can do.
  
  I really do believe I am growing as a designer and an individual and that the point of coming to uni right?
  *and of course to get a degree!*
  
  #thatisallfornow

D. E. A. D. L. I. N. E

Final Picture!

Purple Fingers!!

I have to go to Arizona to spend a good couple of days just sketching and painting in the Antelope Canyons before I design my final year collection!!

I just find everything about them so inspirational; from the organic shapes formed, silky smooth textures, draped ripple lines and the COLOURS, just amazing! 

2 days later and i'm still feeling the after effects of hand-dying

So thats me basically up-to-date with my blog

sketchbook is calling...


Bye!

Playing Catchup - Friday 7th May: Shell Presentation

Been a very hectic week, marketing report is finally handed in so only two modules to rack my brain around now!

My focus for the next two days is to finish off my garments and present my 2D work properly.

But first I'll explain how I got to where I am now:

Friday 7th May (Shell Presentation)
It was the first fitting with my model who I found on ModelMayhem, Sydney Blake.

The fit was really nice on her and the colour suited her skin tone so I was pretty happy overall that I wouldnt have to make any major adjustments. All that was left to do was to play around with the sleeves a bit more so they draped how I wanted them to look.

For some reason I've really tumbled back and forth about these sleeves, but I'm alot happier (well as happy as I can be) with my jacket than I was last week, Ive changed the style lines to match those of the Antelope canyons in my research creating curves that meet each other at the hem.

For my learning contract I've been experimenting with screen printing and dying, and thought I may as well put my skills to use and dye my fabric for my dress
*that and because AOne Fabrics were sold out of my 3-tone chiffon!


But hey things happen for a reason...

Friday 30th: Toile In progess

Soo its just past 1 and I just had a chat with Karen about my toile.

Her first reaction was "what happened to your exaggerated sleeves"!?

she did love the fit and the collar though!

During the pattern making process of trying to construct a really well-made tailored garment I think design-wise my jacket has suffered so I decided to come to the computer room, sift through my blog and see my design development.

It is so useful having all the stages I've been through all in one place! without having to carry loads of sheets of paper around.(more environmentally friendly too!)
*definitely think blogging should be a method used for PDPs in the future.

Soo I've just been through my blog. Looking at my old posts and where I'm at now I am actually really disappointed in myself. I have pushed myself technically but I think my design has lacked because of this.

I have a final fitting with my model on Monday so 2 days to bring an essence of ME back into my outfit.

BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD...

peace! (scurries off to start drawing style lines on her third toile!! *deep sighh*)

Toile Presentation - Friday 23 April

After battling with my tailored jacket and feeling like I wanted to give up and make something completely different I sat down to sort out my patterns and finished it in 2 days!!

Unfortunately my model was unable to come into uni on Friday so I tried it on someone with similar stature and it fit really well!




Of course there were glitches, especially in my worst area...the sleeves!? (can't seem to get my easing right!)

So my task is to make the ammendments done by Rose and make a FINAL toile by early next week so my model can try it on, do a final fitting and be ready to construct my jacket out of fabric.

Second Garment - draped dress.

I did spend a lot of time on the tailored piece just because I wanted it to be really well made.
My second piece is a draped chiffon dress.
I love draping and find this a much easier way to work so I left this garment till later.

Here is a tacked version of the dress I am going to make in a cheaper version of my chosen fabric.
silk polyester at £2/m.

I really wanted both pieces to compliment each other really well and I think in my chosen fabrics I will achieve this.

Jacket Toile

Designer Presentation: Friday 16 April

Presentation Feedback

• Good presentation.

• Showed interesting knowledge on the designer – from limited information out there.

• Liked how presentation flowed - clear distinction from concept to drapery.

• liked the draping examples.

• Would like to see the brushstroke design development idea used for 6-piece collection.
  
• More successful design method than Photoshop.

From this feedback , especially about my draping design development I really wasnt happy with my jacket toile (shown in the next post) as I felt it had lost that draped look. Given the brief of constructing a tailored piece I have been focusing more on making a very well made tailored garment, but I think my design has been lost from this, so I want to play around with my toile more and see where it takes me.

Research: Diffusion Ranges

We were given the task of creating a diffusion range for our designer, and to be honest I had heard of the concept but I wasn't clear as to what a diffusion range offered, so I began my research online...

"A diffusion fashion line is the name for an accessible ready-to-wear line for the masses produced by a major designer who usual sells expensive couture. It all started when designers began creating diffusion lines of their own labels like D&G by Dolce & Gabbana and Gianni Versace’s Versace Jeans Couture. In the past few years, the new trend is for designers to create fashion lines for discount chains and department stores such as Vera Wang’s Simply Vera line for Kohl’s."

You can read the whole article by Marsha West here.

So it got me thinking about the pros and cons of diffusion ranges in terms of: style, price, fabrics, customer outlets etc before I design my own.

Here are some examples that relate to my designer, La petite Salope. I chose these designers because I like the way these ranges are not too watered down in terms of design keeping a real essence of the designer, which is what I want to create in my own range.

  

The Square Dress from Vivienne Westwood’s Anglomania label.

'The draped tailoring is stunning and very reminiscent of the gorgeous Vivienne Westwood navy pin strip suit that Carrie wore in Sex and The City to her lunch with boss at Vogue.

Perfect for day or night this is a great one piece for work.

Features include a detachable self tie waist belt, buttons to fasten the neck and a cowl neckline. Available for £270 from Net-a-Porter.

The pieces for this range are designed for everyday wear and are great for adding a bit of her iconic style to your closet at a more realistic price.

T by Alexander Wang

This diffusion range consists of cotton basics in 12 styles. Wang launched an online lookbook of the collection ranging from tanks ($28 wholesale) to T-shirt dresses ($40) — all cut in the designer’s signature languid style, with colors ranging from simple whites and heather grays to lavender, chartreuse and cerulean. “Necklines are stretched and armholes are strategically lowered so that it looks worn in,” he explains. “It’s like sleeping in a T-shirt and then wearing it the next day. It’s not this crisp little T out of the dryer. It’s draped and kind of wilted.”

Jean Charles de Castelbajac (JCDC)

The first JCDC collection is called Punkahontas and the Ducks. Jean Charles de Castelbajac JCDC range is made up of shirts, skirts and jackets. Starting from around $85 for a t-shirt.

Rachel Roy debuts in Macy's 

Rachel Roy's diffusion line is available in over 80 Macy's stores. The collection includes sportswear, footwear and accessories. Some items in the collection feature bright patterns and unique prints including a graffiti print that is featured on apparel, shoes and handbags. Items in the line retail from $59 to $299 for sportswear, $79 to $199 for footwear, $40 to $195 for jewelry and $69 to $109 for handbags.

"I'm always inspired by women I meet - how they dress, how they put outfits together," said Rachel Roy. "The art of fashion and seeing it come to life through personal expression and interpretation is a huge catalyst for me. Accessible fashion has always been a passion of mine and was a priority consideration in creating the Rachel Rachel Roy collection for Macy's. I chose to design the collection for the younger sister of Rachel Roy."

Role Play - 6 piece collection

While looking at all my research and design development I had a pretty clear idea in my head of what I wanted to create for my final pieces. 

While thinking of how I would present my collection I did start by drawing garments on figures, however I now understand that I should work to my strengths, and design in a way that helps me portray my ideas as best as possible.
So I began experimenting with some of my draping work and other inspirational images on Gimp.

This was my final outcome, and I think it reflects everything I wanted for this collection as well as keeping an essence of La Petite Salope (power women).
In these draped silhouettes I see:

• a full-length semi-tailored coat at the far right.
• linked to a draped cape covering the head and slouching over one shoulder.
• third-from right: bustier with draped full length skirt.
• middle: jacket with cool pleating detail near the bust with a veil/hood
  

I just found these really interesting and enough to inspire my whole collection.

So from this I took details to start creating front and back views in detail.

In Friday's class I presented these ideas to the design directors (members of my group) keeping the same name from my initial concept board 'Clothed With the Sun', accompanied by my colour/fabric board. 

I then showed them my technical drawings for the garments I was going to make.

Although I didn't really get much feedback from my peers in terms of altering things, I was asked some good questions about my final garments e.g. 'how are they going to get in and out of the draped piece,"

so I want to carry out more research on fastenings used for sheer fabrics and draped pieces. 

While looking at La petite salope's clothes from images it was difficult to see what fastenings they use, however on Julesb.com I saw that they use visible zips in the back of their dresses which are not seen in front-view images.
I, however don't find these aestheitcally pleasing so I'm going to look at more clothing,sewing/draping books etc. to see what would be most suitable for the look I want.  

I really found it useful to talk about my ideas out loud as I think it made it clearer in my head of what I wanted to achieve by the end of this project.

Design Developement

In fridays lesson I began my initial ideas by doing what I thought was the 'right' way to do design development, by drawing straight figures on a page...I didn't really find this technique too successful for me as a means of getting out quickly what was inside my head.

So I tried experimenting with a different medium, I used watercolours to create the flowing drapery lines from my stand work, bleeding colours together and playing with various brush strokes to evoke different fabrics and materials.