I recognised whilst illustrating that I am becoming quicker at this aspect. I have never felt entirely comfortable with drawing, however since the drawing elective in Year 1 I have seen small improvements ever since.
These stylised illustrations appeal to Miu Miu's edgy nature of the brand with use of thick black marker pen and glue gun to render the shine of leather. The linear style I chose suited the uniformed trend we were working to, 'Your Space' and avoided show-casing my weak areas of drawing... hands, facial features and feet.
It was challenge working within a design team and my first experience of doing so. I was naive not to believe that every single element within the module would either be a compromise or would hinder the progression of the group if an agreement could not be made immediately.Our design team as a whole had a negative experience, especially within the presentation, its difficult to pin-point the cause of this negativity, maybe personality clashes within the team. It was evident within our collection that each member's translation of the trend varied slightly and this made for a weak collection identity.I am grateful for the experience as I have learned to compromise my work and not to be too defensive over my work.Unfortunately I am not proud of any of the work I produced within this module, the personality within my work was lost due to constantly trying to conform to other group members work, in the search of achieving a definite group identity.
Unfortunately there had been some negative rumours concerning this project from previous 2nd years so I was slightly apprehensive at the start of the module.We were placed randomly into design teams and were to work as a team throughout the module. Teams consisted of 5 people, in my team were mainly people I knew and was friendly with already. I was unsure how I felt about this, grateful on the one hand but then again slightly disappointed as I would have liked to work alongside and interact with some new people... this would have felt more like industry.The brief required the team to research into our chosen designer diffusion label (Miu Miu), produce a body of research and design development on a selected trend from Wgsn.Each member within the design team was responsible for apart of the teams collection for example; occasion wear, formal wear, casual wear. A range plan of each members 6 outfits was to be produced and shown within a group presentation as a coherent collection.The final part of the brief was to produce a portfolio consisting of developmental ideas sheets, a range plan and 3 illustrations of outfits within the range plan.
I forwarded my concept of the bottom rever from tailoring processes. It works well and looks fashion forward in a subtle sophisticated sense... perfect for Zara.
Although I am satisfied with the appearance of my tailored jacket, I regret not challenging myself further with regards to pattern cutting. Admittedly I panicked with the time constraints slightly, therefore I decided against experimenting with shoulder pads and seaming the top stitched area on the jacket shoulders.
The inspiration for the blue top stitching on my jacket (princess lines and shoulders) came from my mums vintage leather jacket! I like the contrasting curved seam-line on the bat-wing sleeves.
This module was very fast paced and only lasted a short 3 weeks, this was initially a challenge for me in itself as I tend to work at a slower pace compared to others. However this is the realistic pace of the fashion industry and I need to be pushed to achieve this pace.
The brief consisted of a few factors; taking inspiration from current trends (shop reports), a vintage item and previously learnt tailoring techniques in order to design and manufacture a tailored garment for a chosen market level (I chose Middle market- Zara.)Along with design and manufacture we were to produce a technical package for our design consisting of technical flats, pattern pieces, lay plans and garment specifications. I felt comfortable with this part of the brief as I enjoy being technical and the accuracy that goes with it, it makes a nice change from being constantly creative!
The final sample of my jacket design, the rever is a 'play' on a traditional tailoring technique of hand-padding the rever. I have used a decorative machine stitch rather than hand-padding, for professionalism.
I took inspiration from high profile Tailor Oswald Boateng with his innovative quirky features incorporated within tailoring
(An example of a hand-padded rever.)
This brief focused more on construction and attention to detail on garments (eg: hand finishing techniques) which initially I thought would appeal to my strengths, due to experience of previous modules. The brief required a Research Manual of historic and contemporary tailoring, including; shop reports, exhibition visits and a visit to the costume department at West Yorkshire Playhouse. From my personal research I developed an androgynous concept for tailoring, for example introducing more 'shaping' into men's tailored jackets by using the construction techniques of that of a women's tailored jacket. The second section of the brief was ongoing throughout; a technical file of tailoring techniques, for example buttonholes, shoulder pads, finished hems, the insertion of a 2-piece sleeve and finally creating a collar and rever. Although I now appreciate the knowledge of these techniques, I found most of them time consuming and rather tedious (especially techniques requiring hand-sewing.) For example, hand-padding a rever and various hand sewing of hems. I found creating the collar and rever very challenging indeed, with many elements to perfect. When it came to prototyping our own innovative version of a collar and rever, I did not feel confident enough with the basic construction to do so. However I compromised with the challenge and altered the rever only. The final section of the brief was to create a Professional Design Package. Including design sheets and a working drawing complete with sampling of the final idea. I came up with the design of a bottom rever at the hemline with a decorative take on the techniques of hand-padding. This suited my design nature of simplistic yet innovative and therefore fashion-forward.
I recognised whilst illustrating that I am becoming quicker at this aspect. I have never felt entirely comfortable with drawing, however since the drawing elective in Year 1 I have seen small improvements ever since.
These stylised illustrations appeal to Miu Miu's edgy nature of the brand with use of thick black marker pen and glue gun to render the shine of leather. The linear style I chose suited the uniformed trend we were working to, 'Your Space' and avoided show-casing my weak areas of drawing... hands, facial features and feet.
