2.3.6. Illustration Development.

I have spent most of last week designing through fashion collaging, Working on boldness, oversizing and the detail of my knit in my designs. This week I wanted to focus on hand drawn illustrations showing a more practical side to how garment could be worn.

I also took my knits to the stand, pinning them in certain places to see how they would drape and the fabric fall and form on the body. Consequently when it came to creating the illustrations I could have more understanding of shape and design. Changing positions of the knit on the stand encouraged me to find different ways of displaying the pattern or shape of the fabric to see if I could create boldness or oversizing.

Within our group we pulled together our final range plan deciding which generic garments were going to be most prominent in our collection. Working together as a team and sharing design ideas ensuring design aesthetics ran throughout each other’s collections. Subsequently leading to repetition when it came to presenting our final collections.

2.3.5. Focus Thinking.

We spent this week pinpointing and identifying our muse, deciding who we are aiming our designs at and for. We chose Missy Peregrym owing to the demeanor of her personality, thereby describing our muse as boyish, sleek, laid back, grungy and sporty.

In our group we decided on a range to plan, design and develop, using illustration collages as a starting point, then extending by using each design and determining how much we could push a design feature in more detail, upscaling and reducing certain aspects of the design and then refining.

With our range plan we decided to continue with the idea of sportswear, specifically which garments we were going to have in our collection. Looking at repetitions of shapes and aspects of garment design as a common, identifiable denominator throughout the range but developed in an individual direction within each garment. In a similar manner to how Marni and Prada have taken design aspects and manipulated them to be different or used a new way but still running through the collection.

Top Row- Marni 2015 ss                    |                   Bottom Row- Prada 2014

Working as a group we spent some time doing stand work with the karate suit discovering how it could be manipulated in different ways. Alongside this, the girls who specialize in printing projected their prints on the stand to see how they would appear placement wise.

This week I am continuing develop my sampling, bringing gradient to the base colour of my knits, in addition to working with the look and feel of yarns and materials, contrasting matte and shine adding a dimension to prevent the colours from blending into one.

Subsequently I plan to spend time undertaking stand work with my knits, in conjunction with more design development of my illustrations.

2.3.4. Technique Sampling.

Over our 3 week break I spent a great deal of time experimenting with crochet creating the forms which are suggested in my sketchbook. Using strimming wire, cables, scoobies, cording, leather and wire working with shape, fluidity and line suggestion.

I researched the work of Sandra Backlund; learning how she has used crochet in such unusual way, taking the idea of manipulating the technique to form shape. Experimenting with strimming wire which will take it own form showing how particular fabrics flow.

I had a few failed attempts at crocheting different materials such as the actual bandages themselves. This didn’t work at all. I tried using the scoobies as the base to work upon, but again failed to achieve the look I desired. Experimenting with this technique has been a very valuable experience; all these attempts have helped me to realise what actually works.

I also re-visited the marks I made when researching the hand-bandages, expanding upon this in my sketchbook, creating new patterns, working with the marks, creating more suggested sharpness in the way the person moves when doing a certain technique in martial arts, with unruled kicks and jumps, taking the notion of this and applying it to my pattern choices when creating detail in my samples. Bringing scoobies into my sampling brought a new element creating texture and a new feel to the piece due to the change in materials. 

2.3.3 Adapting.

With the images and drawing I have in my sketchbook, it was agreed that I work mainly in embroidery and knitwear, designing for sampling, since these are my strongest subject areas. However I plan to knit out plain swatch samples for the printers in my group to work into. 

At the start of this week I planned out some simple knits to work with, using the dubied machines for this, inlaying and selected knitting in places to create the shapes and look I wanted. This didn’t go entirely to plan, as I was unable to achieve the right shape for the design I wanted, however in the long term this has helped me develop and to move on from my initial ideas for processing them, discovering new ways by which to adapt my designs, using different yarn and materials, to attempt it at a different angle.

Also I have been hand embroidering alongside using embroidery machines to manipulate the fabric and create shape in an organic way to reflect the drawing in my sketchbook onto the fabrics.

For me my next step is to create more drawing and design ideas for sampling, developing, modifying and adapting new methods and approaches to take to the practical side of making samples.