Draping: Design Development

Now that I had my colour palette I went to Shepherds Bush to find fabrics to start experimenting with on the stand. I came across this beautiful piece of multi-tonal polyester which reminded me of the gorges as the light reflected off it.

These were ideas i draped for the back of the garment...

For the tailored garment I experimented with more structured fabrics; wool and leather...

Colour/Fabric Board

My colour pallette has been inspired by the Antelope Canyon which lies on Navajo land in Southwest America.

I found some amazing images of the gorges a while ago on www.environmentalgraffitti.com

It has been typecasted as one of the worlds greatest 'natural art galleries'.

It has been formed over thousands of years by the gradual wear of water rushing through rock. People are said to have lost themselves in the wonderful play of light and patterns that captivate its many visitors each year.
I would love to go and experience the Canyon myself one day hopefully before its worn away.


Antelope Canyon
Slot canyons are exceptionally narrow, far deeper than they are wide, and Antelope Canyon’s fantastic whorls and contours can be up to 150 feet tall, while being observable only by very small groups shuffling along the sandy floor. The canyon was formed by the erosion of Navajo sandstone, chiefly due to flash floods that still occur here, making this very much artwork still in progress.
The other feature that explains its popularity to visitors are the occasional shafts of sunlight that shine down through openings in the top of the canyon. The beams of light are typically seen in the summmer months. The play of light is a dazzling phenomenon, catching and reflecting off the edges of the canyon. The way the light constantly changes seems to emulate the continual evolution of the rock faces.

There is a strong sense that this is some kind of sacred space, a womb-like sanctum perhaps, and to the older Navajos entering such a place would surely have been like entering a cathedral. They would likely have left feeling enlightened by nature and in harmony with something greater than themselves. Being inside Antelope Canyon will always be something of a spiritual or transformative experience.













These images also influenced my fabric choice, I wanted to create the reflections, ripples, drapery etc. with my fabric so I looked at silk chiffons, satins and jerseys to create this effect.
And then something more structured for the tailored piece.(wools)

So I started playing around with the images on Gimp (my version of Photoshop) to create the background for my board.




Final Board



After conducting more research I feel like my ideas have developed from my intial concept board so I am going to make a new mood board to reflect where I am now in the design process.

Idea for a background...

HE epitomizes ME as a designer!

For some reason I only just recently came across the designer Haider Ackermann...
but he has already taken his position on my list of favourite designers!

It's like hes creating pieces that I can only envision in my dreams and putting them on the runway
(*sighhs* at my lack of technical ability)
Everything he makes reflects me as a designer; Avant garde drapery, over-exagerrated collars and asymetric lines, yet still so wearable and flattering to the female form.

Brief Bio
Colombian designer, Haider Ackerman (born in 1971) has joined the ranks of notable alumni of the Antwerp Fashion Academy of Fine Arts (Dries Van Noten and Ann Demeulemeester are the others). He then went on to intern with John Galliano for five months before working as an assistant for one of his teachers, the Belgian designer Wim Neels. The following years he worked for various brands, including Bernhard Willhelm and Patrick Van Ommeslaeghe. Before launching his namesake line in 2001.

"I wanted it to be totally up to you," he said backstage at his Fall/Winter 2010 show. With the use of long, undulating collars that can be wrapped around the neck any number of ways and zipped-on peplums that are easily detached, should the woman wearing them so choose. The collection was also made up of leather leggings, floor-scraping skirts with deep slits, along with beautifully tailored trousers.


Although I loved the whole collection(which is very rare for me) here are some of my favourite pieces...

Images: Courtesy of style.com

Wk 3: Fri 26 Feb

Began the morning with presentations...hmmm still didnt get picked, i'm guessing it'll be my time next week now.
I'm actually ready to do it! (well as ready as i'll ever be!)


Then Karen did a fabric burning test.

This reminded of another design module where I was looking at the organic shapes made in burnt leather to create interesting silhouettes for collars and sleeves.
Which then led on to fabric manipulation with one of my favourite fabrics, hessian.

We then put up our initial colour/fabric stories, silhouette, collar and cuff research to aid us in the afternoons Design Development Exercises.



Design Development
20 minute intervals to draw silhouettes, cuffs and sleeves.

Suprisingly I found this difficult as first as I acutally didn't know what was meant by drawing a simple silhouette..emphasis on 'Simple'
After some examples of students work had been put up, I realised my drawings were too detailed for the initial design development process.

We then went onto collars and I slightly loosened up with my ideas, however with the time constraint I didn't think I had enough time to think before putting pen to paper.

We then went onto cuffs, getting a bit more confident, but had no time to add my watercolours in 20mins!!

So I went home, put up the first images that had inspired my concept board, laid out everything and just sat down and drew...at my own pace, in a peaceful environment.
Understandable if I was working in a studio it wouldnt be like this but to get my creative juices flowing and to get me drawing a lot more I felt this was a good way for me to start.



Before I started drawing I started to think more about the fabrics I would want to use to make these garments, and of course to keep an essence of my designer La petite Salope.
They are known for drapey yet structured feminine 'power' pieces known to be seen on very prestiguos women e.g. at red carpet events.

For my Autumn/Winter collection, I really loved a vibrant red wool reminiscent of a statement LRD (little red dress) I had seen from a past collection.
I also considered suedes and leathers for the tailored garment piece whilst looking at more fluid silhouetted for the other pieces of the collection (seperates or dress)


Collars

While drawing collars I was thinking more about elastic, light-weight and drapey fabrics such as jerseys and silk chiffon to create a fluid and layered look.

Cuffs


Sleeves