Unit X | Group Presentation

This week we have been working on the group collection for the presentation to Tom from James Long.

Although we have been going into the studio and working around each other while we talk through ideas, we have been working on our own collections, just keeping links between them. Our drawing styles really vary so we worked together to create 12 final garments that incorporate everyone's designs.

We all sat and decided on what outfits we were going to create before drawing them out. This really helped us to not throw garments together for the sake of it, and we thought a lot about placement, colour and texture. Elle and I drew the garment shapes, then each of us filled in the area which was taken from our designs. This worked really well for us as our drawing styles came together successfully without the job being left to one person. I am proud of our final line up and I think we worked really well as a team.

Unit X | Fashion Collage and Muse

We've had several workshops since Easter with Sarah, which have been focused on fashion illustrations and collages. The first thing we had to do was pick a muse to aim towards and take inspiration. The muse we chose is the lead character of the film 'Stick It'. She is a boyish personality with a lot of attitude and opinion, but also has feminine features and is pretty. This is the mix that we have been trying to achieve in our collection. 

I started by sketching different images of her facial expressions to work and collage from.

 The next step was to collage together some illustrations, trying to locate where different textures might be on a garment or what different pieces might be made of. I particularly tried to work on print placement and scale, using the photographs from the projector work really helped with shape too. I think these went quite successfully considering I've never done them before and felt a bit lost to start with. I realized the trick was to not think about it too much.

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.

Locating | High End Research

I have chosen to make two smaller collections for this unit aimed at two different consumers. As I have never worked towards a high end client before I decided I needed to do some research on the general shape and designs of designer garments. Taking photographs in Harvey Nichols and Selfridges has helped me to sketch what their garments look like in order to decide on shapes for my own.

Sketches of garments in Harvey Nichols and Miss Selfridge


I also did some research on print placement on high end garments. Theres examples of both repeat pattern and print placement in AQ/AQs newest collection.

Intentions | Garments

In order to have an idea of what my collection would look like, I have been photoshopping my designs onto garments that already exist. I needed to get a sense of what I want my designs to be made into, so to brainstorm I took to Pinterest. The board I created, Garments, has a mix of outfits, individual pieces I like and also some plain garments which I can see my prints being used on. 

So far I have decided that I would like to create a collection of T-shirt dresses and possibly some skirts/shorts. I have created an inspiration board of garments similar to the ones I would like to make. This has really helped me to visualise my end products in more detail. The vision I have in mind is taking my grungy prints and using them on more feminine garments to create a 'girly-grunge' collection. This is what I have in mind when I picture a final collection.

Now I plan to spend time on photoshop using masks to really experiment with my designs and where I would like them to go.