Chanel Autumn/Winter 2012-13

Whilst doing my research into my trend I came across the Fall/Winter 2012-13 collection from Chanel, inspired by the Subterranean world. I loved the idea of the crystals, and the colours really stood out to me in shades of precious gems. My research had already made me think about looking at underground caves and the rocks and gems in them but this collection really inspired me to go down that route.

Chanel Autumn/Winter 2012-13 Ready-to-wear
Vogue.com

 

Subterranean

I have just went back to college for the final year of my foundation degree and after a long summer off I'm looking forward to getting back to work. The first brief of the year is 'Skills for Making' and we have to use the skills we have learnt over the past year, and start to work in the direction we want to go in. I have to choose one of three trends from 'Subterranean', 'Geometric' and 'Folklore', and research and develop my theme to finally produce a collection of garment fronts. I really enjoyed making my garment front last year so I really excited about doing this module. Out of the three trends, the Subterranean trend appealed to me the most. I thought it would be very interesting to research and keep me interested throughout the module so I'm very excited to get started.

Journeys in beadwork

I recently visited the Shipley Art Gallery in Gateshead to see an exhibition called ‘Journeys in Beadwork’. The exhibition had two parts to it, the first being ‘Culture and tradition in the Eastern Cape’ which explores the history of the beadwork of the Mfengu people in South Africa. The african tribe have beaded collars, ties, necklaces, tobacco bags and other clothing and accessories for generations by hand.

Although, I enjoyed the traditional beadwork, I have to say my favourite part was the second section of the exhibition ‘Dialogues in Contemporary Style’, which featured a display of contemporary fashion beadwork, inspired by the traditional African craft. There were a few designers that caught my eye in this exhibition, one of which was Fabienne Morel who is behind the label ‘BrokenFab’. Her work displayed was called Disco Beading, which is a very appropriate description for her cool, edgy handmade beaded jewellery.

BrokenFab

Another designer I loved was Lisa Folawiyo and her label ‘Jewel by Lisa’. The dress on display was made with beads, sequins and crystals, and really stood out to me.

Jewel by Lisa

 

I found the exhibition very interesting as a whole. I’m already a fan of tribal patterns so I really enjoyed the exhibition and it has inspired me to experiment with beading in my work in the future.

Children's Wallpapers for Kate Usher

I've just recently finished the final module of my first year which was a work based learning module. The live brief was to develop a collection of wallcoverings for north east based design company Kate Usher Studio. Kate Usher is famous for her quirky, hand drawn children's wallcoverings and more recently for her work for the boutique hotel market, so we were asked to choose between the two options for our designs. I chose to follow the Children's route and after much research I went with a wildlife theme. Unfortunately with there being no zoos near where I live, I took a little trip to the Hancock museum in Newcastle and drew some of the stuffed animals..

Continuous line elephant - one
of my fave drawings

Blind drawing of lion

Continuous line rhino
using fineliner

Zebra in freehand machine embroidery

I photocopied a few of my drawings and had a play around with scale and position of my drawings in repeat patterns. It was nice seeing my drawings start to develop into a design.

design development

Final Collection of designs for Kate Usher

I scanned my original drawings into photoshop and played with colour and scale. I found that using a half drop repeat worked the best. I really enjoyed using photoshop and developing my skills, so I'm keen to use it again in future projects.

I added a pattern to the background of this design inspired
 by my drawings of elephants skin. I feel it gives an extra
 something to the design!

One of my favourites

I have really enjoyed this module and I was very pleased with the final outcomes.

Printing off my final designs- exciting!

Wallpaper collection
ready to present to
Kate Usher

 At the end of the module our class presented the wallpapers to Kate Usher in a final crit. Kate chose a winning collection from the class which included a cash prize of £100 and a 40 hour work placement. Congrats to Jan Baxandall who won!

Newcastle Fashion Week 2012

A little glimpse from the felt making workshop I did a couple of weeks ago at Newcastle City Library as part of my work placement for the course. It was one of Newcastle Fashion Weeks fringe events where myself and other students from my course ran various bitesized craft workshops throughout the week, and members of the public popped in and learnt some new skills!

Rowan Mersh

For my final piece for the skills for making brief, I had to make a piece of wearable art, which I have to say did not turn out the way I had hoped! However, through my research for this module I discovered the designer Rowan Mersh and found I loved his work. He took a big roll in helping to inspire me in this unit.

Rowan Mersh, An extract from collections
shown with Valery Demure (Paris), between 2007-2008

Rowan Mersh, An extract from a collection
presented by Rossana Orlandi at
Maison et Objet, Paris, Autumn 2009.

Rowan Mersh, An extract from a collection
presented by Rossana Orlandi at
Maison et Objet, Paris, Autumn 2009.

Looking at his work reminded me of the medals and rosettes with tassels that I had seen the soldiers wearing on there chests in my research into military, and this inspired me to use some of the techniques such as fabric flowers and  smocking circles, to make my piece of wearable art influence by the medals and rosettes.  

Decon/Recon

As part of the fabric manipulation workshops, I completed a Deconstruction/Reconstruction workshop using a garment I found in a charity shop ,which was to do with my military theme. I used a quick unpick to deconstruct and then using some of the skills I had learnt from the other fabric manipulation workshops, I tried reconstruct it into another garment. I really enjoyed the workshop and working on the mannequin!

Garment from a charity shop

Experimenting with pleats

Pinning onto the mannequin
and trying out furrowing!

Slashed tucks on the shoulder

Fabric Manipulation

I produced a collection of samples from the fabric manipulation workshops I went to, using the military theme as a source of inspiration for colour and fabric. I really enjoyed the workshops as I’ve learnt a lot of new skills and it gave me time to practise and improve the skills (hopefully!) that I’ve already got. I particularly enjoyed the extra workshops in the sewing room which taught me a lot of new skills that I found I could apply to my work for the brief and helped made broadened my ideas. The module has also inspired me to get out my sewing machine again at home, it’s been too long, but I’m really enjoying working on it again! Here are some of the samples i've made for this module...

Sample Board

Close up of patchworked 
suffolk puffs 

Fabric flower with a
suffolk
 puff in the centre!

Sample board

Raised ball manipulation
using buttons and beads

Slashed Tucks

Kanzashi flower

Sample Board

Ruffle puff

Close up of
cross-stitched tucks

Close up of smocking circle

Sample Board

Discovery Museum

For the last brief, which was called ‘Skills for making’, I chose to research the military trend for my starting point. I started by taking a trip to the Discovery Museum to see their military exhibition, which I found really interesting seeing there displays of different uniforms and medals etc from different periods in history.

Continuous line drawing using fineliner of a samurai soldier

Continuous line drawing

It was during this module that I have realised how much I love drawing in continuous line and usually with fineliner.

Constructed Textiles

For one of the previous modules this year, I had to start by researching a current trend, for which I chose traveller. I looked at catwalk designers who were inspired by the trend, and from looking at the catwalk looks and researching the traveller trend in more depth, and also thinking about what I thought traveller might mean, I took my research further by looking at Africa and the clothing they wear. When starting my research I looked at a collection by designer Paul Smith because he had tribal inspiration and I enjoyed the colours he had used and the unique necklaces. I also admired the way he had designed his looks which have layers of fabric wrapped over each other, which reminded me of African clothing so I thought this would be an appropriate starting point for my research.

Paul Smith Spring/Summer 2010

Paul Smith Spring/Summer 2010

For this brief, we explored a number of textile techniques through workshops, some of which I have done before and some which were completely new to me but I really enjoyed learning new skills and developing my old ones.  I found that I particularly liked reverse applique and I tried knitting for the first time.  Using the techniques I learnt and my research as a source of inspiration for theme, colour and fabric, I had to construct a garment front.

Final Garment front design – knitted fabric, braided straps, applique, reverse applique and a ruffle

close up

close up

close up

CAD designs

For the ‘Practice Enrichment’ brief I did earlier in the year, I had to design a collection of surface designs either for, furnishing fabrics or for womenswear fashion print using digital applications through Computer aided design (Photoshop). I then had to digitally print my 2 final designs on to fabric. This was the first time I had really used Photoshop so I was a bit worried about not being able to figure out how it works, but I found most of the software really simple and I was pleased it didn’t turn out to be too much of a struggle! I’ve learnt lots of new skills and look forward to trying it again on some of my other work. To create my collection, I scanned in some of my drawings of florals and used photoshop to digitally manipulate my motifs, using different effects and colours until I was pleased with my designs.

Final Design

Final Design