Final Digital Collection and Garments

Although I have experimented with my digital print collection quite a bit I finally decided to keep it completely digital. I also altered the colours again to make them more vibrant, like my inspiration Clover Canyon. Prabal Gurung was the inspiration behind bringing back solid lines and grids to contrast with my distorted imagery. I really like how this looks against the more detailed watercolour images, and I even brought it into my screen print collection too.

I also developed my garment shapes to go with my digital collection. Julie's Fashion workshops helped me to look into shape and drape. After more research I found a company called SaboSkirt. They do a lot of relaxed beachwear for higher end high street, but also have a luxe range which is where I found a lot of garment shape inspiration. I particularly like their waistbands and the way some of their garments cross over.

I used images like these and also my stand work/drawings to draw up some designs for garments. I was quite happy with how these turned out, although the only thing I would have liked to try would be attempting a toile to photograph. Due to time restrictions I've had to put my time towards other things, however this might be something I try during Unit X. 

I haven't had my prints digitally printed this unit as some of the fabrics I wanted cant be printed on in our facilities. I am submitting mounted paper prints with fabric swatches to explain my thoughts. 

Unit X | Final Collection

Our presentation to Tom went well last week, and the main point to improve on was the presentation of the samples, and to provide pictures of the knits as they are too complicated to draw. We were really happy with the feedback we got from him and the other groups.

Now that the group work is done we had a week to focus on our individual projects. We have continued to work together in the studio to help each other out until the deadline. Me and Pipp have been taking advice from Nicole on things we haven't had to do before, like garment flats, breakdowns of each design and other things we need to create a final collection file. I'm glad we have had this unit to learn things that are needed to design for the fashion industry, such as technical drawings and range plans. I feel like learning these skills is going to benefit me in future units.

I finally put together my final collection. I made decisions based on people's opinions and I also tried to incorporate as many of my best samples as I could. I wanted to make use of both my print and embroidery samples so that there was a mix of texture through my collection. 

I am happy with the way my collections looks, however if I could go back and change one thing it would be to be less safe with my designs. As this is the first fashion unit I have done I was focused on the new processes we had to do. In the future, I would like to me more experimental and out-going with my final collections. 

Locating | Final Collections

This week I made the finishing touches to both my high end and high street collections.

I'm really happy with how they both turned out. My main fear was that the garments wouldn't be appropriate for the audience intended, as in the Intentions unit I aimed my collection at high street and although it was still high street in the end, the collection was more suited to high end high street, which was technically a different consumer.
Overall I am happy with the final garments and the prints themselves. This week I will be attending to finishing touches such as presentation of samples, consumer boards and finalising my submission for the Bradford Textiles project.

 

 As my final collections are finished I had to choose fabrics for each print to be printed on. This process is very limited for me as I don't have the budget to buy my own fabric rolls, which means I have to use the ones available to me in the studio. I have experienced these fabrics from the previous unit so I already have knowledge of which ones will or won't work for this units prints.

Luckily, most of the fabrics weren't too different to what I imagined the garment to be in which was a plus. After choosing the most suitable fabrics for each print, I had three different materials being printed on; Habotai, Cotton Optic and Cotton Satin. I am really looking forward to seeing how these turn out this week.

 The only major change I would have liked would be the sweatshirt and tshirt in the high street collection, I would have preferred those to be in a more stretchy Jersey material.

Intentions | Consumer

The whole way through this unit I thought that my work was aimed at high street stores like Topshop, River Island, Urban Outfitters etc. Now that I have my collection and it has been refined several times, it looks more like the higher end of high street. For example Whistles, Cos, Reiss, Zara or & Other Stories.

Although my designs are still classified as high street the consumer will be a lot different than it was previously. It is more likely to be someone with more money to spend at their leisure and someone a little less grungy than I thought before. My prints themselves have a grungy feel to them but because of the processes I've put them through, the garments I have chosen to put them on and the fabrics I have printed them on they have become more polished.

I have digitally printed my final collection on a thin silk Habotai and an optic Cotton. I chose which print should go on which fabric based on what it is used for on the final designs. I spent some time in the studio today pinning onto a mannequin to see what the garments might look like physically, seeing how they might drape etc. Overall I am really satisfied, however there were two prints which I feel should be in different fabric.
I sent these off to be printed in the more expensive silk Crep de Chine that I used previously in the project. I thought that this would be too expensive for the audience I am going for but now that I am aiming for higher end high street the price is less of an issue. 

Pinning my designs onto a mannequin has really helped me to visualise what my prints would looks like as actual products, and I am happy with what I have produced for this unit.

Unit X | Photoshop development

I have kept experimenting on photoshop this week, and I have now produced 4 final outcomes.

I really like the four images as individuals. I have completed what I intended to create, however as I am left with a lot more time before the exhibition I would also like to try including more than one animal in each collage. I plan to try layering the animals together, possibly with 3 or 4 in one image. If this ends up working and is successful, I might consider having one larger final piece rather than a collection of four.
Creating my images on photoshop has enabled me to have the distressed effect I have been experimenting with. Like Rauschenberg, I have made layers of different images and blended them together through editing opacities.