Trend Report

On Friday we made a trend report in groups based on the information that we'd collected at London fashion week, through looking at shows and the photos we took while looking in shops. 

I thought this task would be quite fun to do but instead it was extremely difficult, mainly because of some of the people in my group. I found it hard to work with some of the people because they were very unmotivated which brought the group down. Other people seemed like they wanted to work but they didn't contribute any ideas which meant there were only three of us who were deciding every thing and telling people what to do rather than it being a group effort. 

We hardly got any work done in the morning so during lunch and until we had to present, three of us put together everything that we'd made using photoshop. I think we were quite successful doing this because we managed to identify particular trends, colours and fabrics that were repeated in the shows we looked at. However, if we'd been able to work better as a team I think this trend report could have been a lot more focused and we could've added some written pieces as well. 

I think making a trend report is useful for a designer because it helps you to see where fashion is at the moment, into terms of what customers want, and where it could go next and what future trends could be for when designing your next collection. 

Research development

Over the weekend I did more research on the Egon Schiele painting that was in my concept board. On Friday I looked through some books about Egon Schiele and his work. Most of the books mentioned Gustav Klimt because he mentored Schiele before he started to make his own art and there are many comparisons between klimt's work and schieles's early paintings. I chose some of my favourite images, onto copied them and made a concept board from them.

I used fabrics from scraps that I have at home and some of the samples that I collected on Wednesday to create another mood board.

 

I really like the pattern in klimt's painting of a bride so I decided to do some further development of this. I started by drawing it then I embroidered the pattern onto some calico.

Next I created some blocks out of cardboard and did some block prints of the pattern. I really like how these turned out because they turned a fine art piece into something more graphic. I continued to develop this by repeating this but using colours from my mood board. I also painted the pattern onto fabric, I found this quite difficult to do, probably because I was using acrylic paint so I think it would be better if I invested in some fabric paints if I decided this was a technique I decide that I want to continue doing.

I really enjoyed doing this and I think it was useful to me because I tried really hard to take an element to be inspired by and used this to develop several outcomes. I also really like this print that I created and I think it could be interesting to develop this in a digital way to see how it could potentially look on a garment. I'm going to continue doing this with the other images on my main concept board to further develop my research.

Market and Trend Research

Today we went into central London to go into shops and do research on current trends, look at window displays and collect leaflets, catalogues and anything else we felt would help us with out project. 

We started off by going to soho to do some fabric shopping. Although it may not have been exactly what our task was we found that this would be useful for our research in terms of colour and also help with our designs when thinking what fabrics to use. This was a really brilliant thing to do because two of the fabric shops gave us little catalogues with all of the different types of fabrics, with the names and properties. I also got some samples which are similar colours to the colour mood board that I did on Sunday.

Next we went to liberty and on the way took photos of any window displays that we found interesting. I love going to Liberty because you're able to get close to amazing designer clothes and even try them. I didn't get many good photos cause the lighting wasn't the best but it was interesting to look, really closely at the designs and see all of the little details that make these clothes high fashion. I also thought that the window displays at Liberty were really cool, something Liberty is know for. 

After we went to selfridges where we saw apmore amazing fashion, similar to the ones in Liberty.

Concept board

On Sunday I used the images that I'd gathered in my first week to make a more refined concept board using images that I knew I definitely wanted to do more research on and look further into. I felt this was a useful thing to do because it narrowed down the things that I was looking at. I used images that were all different to each other and could lead in several different directions so that each could lead me in many different directions. Hopefully by doing this I will focus my research.

From this concept board I extracted colours from it so I could think more about a colour scheme. A lot of the colours are quite traditionally feminine colours. There are also lots of warm beiges, golds and browns which remind me of skin tone. Underneath each colour swatch I wrote what each colour reminded me of then circled the words that I thought were particularly important and relevant to my project. 

To develop from this I'm going to do research based on each of the images and a few of my chosen words. This should give me a range of research and ideas when it comes to developing my designs. 

Fashion drawing workshop

On Wednesday we had a 2D design development workshop. I really enjoyed this as it eased me into what a real day would be like for a designer.

I feel that overall this day was really successful for me as there was a clear improvement from the beginning to the end of the workshop. At the beginning of the day I was using a biro pen. My drawings looked weak and unprofessional even though I am used to designing. Then when i changed to a fine liner my drawings began to look stronger and more confident. The difference in my work at e two stages of the day made me feel like I'd had a successful day as if was clear that if learned something and gained some new skills. It also made me realise how important it is to draw every day. By drawing constantly throughout the day I began to develop a style and also gained more confidence. 

I also learnt how quickly designers have to work in the real world. When working for a client you're expected to produce 100s of designs a day. I felt by easing us into this and fastening the pace that we worked with each task it helped me to get used to working really quickly.

Another important thing I learnt about today is how important details are to a garment. Even if a garment appears very simple, it's the details that can make it luxurious and interesting. By taking one detail, whether it's a shape or pattern that can be used to inspire seams lines or a way of creating texture like pleating, you can transform a garment into something completely unique and original. 

After doing this workshop I'm going to try to work at a fast pace when doing initial ideas and also use good drawing equipment as it can make a massive difference to my presentation and style. I bought some new fine liners and I think in just a few days my design skills have improved so much. I'm also going to start looking at details more to make a garment interesting rather than just focusing on silhouette and embellishment. 

Drawings at the beginning of the workshop

Drawings at the end of the workshop

Drawings a few days later after drawing every day

London Fashion Week

On Friday we went to London Fashion Week to look at people street style and hopefully to get into some shows. Previously, LFW has been held at Somerset House but this year it was moved to Brewer Street Car park in Soho. I think they moved it here because soho is an urban area and the car park is quite an edgy show space.there are also lots of shops in the area which encourages people, especially tourist to spend money shopping. 

However, I found that the venue wasn't a suitable place for an event as big as LFW. There wasn't enough space, people were crowded and shoved into small spaces and the roads near it were congested with traffic. 

Unfortunately it was practically impossible to get into a show without a ticket. We went on the first day of LFW and with it being s new venue I think everyone was too stressed to even think about anyone who didn't really matter, I.e. a group of fashion students without tickets. 

Luckily we were able to see lots of people wearing the most amazing outfits so I took lots of photos which I'll be able to use as inspiration for this project and others that I do in the future.

Also me and a couple of friends managed to sneak past security and get into the designer showrooms. I saw some beautiful clothes, met loads of designers and got a lot of business cards. 

Working on the stand workshop

During this workshop Becca taught us different techniques which would help us generate design ideas.   We chose interesting shapes that related to our research to create unique silhouettes and details on the stand.

I have done work on the stand like this before but using fabrics and usually I have a rough idea of what I'm trying to create. I found this task difficult at first because it forced me to think in a different way, which turned out to be a good thing. By doing this I was able to create shapes that I would not necessarily think of when drawing. 

I prefer to draw my designs first then go to work on the stand and I think this works better for me. I like to have an idea of the type of look that I'm trying to create before I go onto the stand. This way I'll be able to develop my drawings in a 3D way and still keep the original 'look'.

However, I think that the techniques Becca taught us will be extremely useful if I ever feel stuck for inspiration and need some inspiration. 

Trip to the Victoria and Albert Museum

On Wednesday we went to the V&A museum to see an exhibition about called 'What is Luxury'. I thought it was really interesting as it made think about how luxury can be in your face by having lots of embellishment like beads and crystals or it can look extremely simple but be made from beautiful, expensive fabrics or have amazingly detailed construction which makes it look effortless but gives a garment an amazing fit or shape. However, I didn't find anything that particularly related to my project and the themes that I'm looking at. 

After looking at this exhibition we looked around the rest of the museum. I found a whole section about Judaism and the different ornaments and traditional 'tools' used in their ceremonies. 

I love the detail on all of the items and I think I could use some of the patterns and details on some of my garments maybe as an embroidery design or even for the placement of seams. 

I think this trip was successful as I was able to see some things used in Jewish tradition without relying on the Internet. However, the two exhibition that we went to see weren't relevant to me. I think it would be useful for me to find some exhibitions that relate to my project and maybe visit some synagogues to learn more about Judaism. 

Concept boards

To collect imagery for a concept board I went to the library and looked at books about my two themes, Judaism/religion and sexuality, particularly female sexuality. 

I found a book about traditional Jewish costumes which I found really useful. It had a lot of images showing what Jewish people used to wear and specified what they wore for various ceremonies. I noticed that they wore clothes which covered their whole body, floor length robes, floor length dresses/skirts and loose trousers. I found this information useful as it gave me a starting point on different shapes and silhouettes for possible design ideas. 

For images on my second theme, sexuality, I looked mainly at books about lingerie and how it has changed throughout the years. This was useful because it also gave me ideas about silhouettes and also fabrics such as silks and lace. I also did a lot of reading about the psychology of sexuality and feminism. One book I read made an interesting point about how even though sex is often one of the most dominant of all our thoughts, it is such a taboo topic. I read a book called 'The Female Gaze' which was about how the media and society portrays women. A stereotypical woman is maternal, nurturing, graceful and submissive. Women are meant to attract men by how they look but should be overtly sexual or 'slutty'. These books were useful to me as they gave a contextual background to why women dress the way they do.

 Women often dress for men. They a often seen as objects to be looked at by men so men often influence women's clothing choices. After reading books about feminism it made me ink about what type of woman I want to dress. A woman who dresses for herself without thinking about what other people think, man or woman. Someone who embraces her femininity without wearing typically 'feminine' clothes. 

I briefly looked at some artwork by Egon Schiele because of the way that he depicts women in his work. I really like the colours in his work such as the deep purples, magentas and forest greens. Looking at his work has been useful as the could be an inspiration for a colour scheme.

 

Making these concept boards has been useful for me as it helped me gather some images and display them in an inspiring way which will I can refer to when developing my designs. If I get stuck for ideas I will always be able to go back to them for inspiration.