Personality Project: Day One

Last week we were briefed on the personality project and were asked to bring in 5-7 items that we felt represent a part of our personality. I brought in a hat that belonged to my great grandmother, two travel cards that my mum kept from my first and second birthday, a book about Seychelles (where my dad is from) that my grandma gave me, a photo of a club in Paris in the 1920s, and a novel that belonged to my mum when she was young and she gave to me.
I started by doing a mind map about my items. This was useful because it made me think about more than just my objects and instead what they represented and how they made me feel. It also gave me key words and phrases which I can then research further so that my project is about more than just the objects. The words that I picked out were possessions, things that define us, memories, crowded, claustrophobic, freedom and distractions.

I was a little lost about where to go after this so I spoke to one of my tutors and she gave me some really interesting ideas. She noticed that a lot of my items were things that most people would've thrown away, especially use I don't use them anymore. We started talking about collecting things and how when this gets out of hand it can lead to hoarding. It made think about how maybe I am a bit of a hoarder because I like to keep things.

I did some research and found a book about an exhibition at the Barbican in february called Magnificent Obsessions: The Artist as Collector. It was an exhibition which showed the collections of 14 different artists. It was really interesting to read this book because there were interviews with the artists which talked about why people, artists in particular collect, and how these collections can influence their work.

I did some more research into hoarding and also claustrophobia and found some really interesting photographers and artists who address these subjects. I made a concept board with images that depict my chosen themes and I'm going to further research these concepts.

Details Project: Day 10

Thursday was the final day of our project. I had one or two outfits that I needed to do colour combinations for so I started the day doing this.

Then I began to think about my final line up. Usually when drawing a final line up I illustrate it all myself but I wanted to try something different so I decided to it on photoshop. I scanned in all of my illustrations and then played around with colour on photoshop. I chose to use the head of Julia Sarr-Jamois for my illustrations. Julia is an editor at i-D magazine and I chose her because she is the type of person that I'd want to wear my clothes. She wears bright colours and takes risks with her clothing choices. She isn't considered a stereotypically 'sexy woman' but she is sexy through her confidence and boldness. When she walks into a room people think wow I want to know her.

This is the final line up that I created on photoshop. I think it is a good first attempt but if I was going to use this as my way of showing my clothes I need to practice more. I think the drawings are messy, partly because I didn't have time to draw them properly before I scanned them, so I need to take the time to make these perfect before scanning. I'm also not sure if I like the legs and hands so I would need to find a way to do this better. Although this didn't turn out as well I would've liked I do think it was useful to do because it made me think about my presentation in a new way rather than just doing it how I always do. One thing I really liked about doing it on photoshop was being able to scan my fabrics in and put them into my illustrations. I didn't have all the fabrics that I wanted to use but on the yellow dress and skirt you can really see the texture of it and I think this helps to bring my drawings to life. When I'm next doing a final line up I'm going to go back to hand drawing my designs but maybe find a way to collage a person's face and some fabrics into my illustrations. 

Details Project: Day 9

I have quite a lot of designs now that I could use to put together a collection so on Wednesday I decided to focus on colour and pattern. I did some research on Henri Matisse and found one of his cut outs that I particularly liked. Using some of the shapes I drew a very simple repeat pattern. Unfortunately, I didn't have my laptop with me and there were no more left in the CLR so I had to hand draw the pattern. I played with colour combinations and then drew some sketches of how this pattern could be placed onto a garment. I changed the placement of the print and how much or little could be used Unfortunately, I don't think this was very successful mainly because I didn't have a laptop. If I'd been able to do this on photoshop I could've have made the print more interesting, played with size more and tried more colour combinations which would have made the process much more successful. However I did draw some interesting designs but unfortunately I was thinking about the print too much instead of the details so I don't think they will be very useful.

The night before I did some more research on folk clothing and I really love some of the details in the images so I went through them, picked out the details and designed some more garments. 

At this point I felt that I had drawn enough designs to build a collection so I went through my whole book and drew a pink dot next to every design that I liked. I made the decisions based on my first instincts on whether or not I thought the design was good enough and how well it related to the brief because if I thought too much about it too much I would keep changing my mind. Next I drew the tops, bottoms, coats and dresses all on separate sheets and started to put the outfits together. I wanted colour to be very important but I haven't designed clothes with this many bright colours in such a large quantity so I drew each outfit about 4/5 times changing the colour combinations each time. I asked some of my friends opinions on which they thought worked best. They all had fairly similar opinions and this helped me a lot to decide which colours to use. I think this was successful because I could see how each outfit could completely change just by the different colours I used and in what quantity. It definitely helped me when decided on what my final line-up would be.

Details Project: Day 8

On Tuesday I chose 3 of my details and photocopied them 8 times. I then used these to create shapes on the mannequin. I really enjoyed this task and found it useful for my design development because it made me think about how I could use my details in a completely new way. By enlarging them and placing them on different parts of the body I was able to create completely new designs. I think it's interesting that the details don't even look like themselves anymore, but instead something completely new. I think the process of working on the stand is really important because the end result of clothes will be 3D so it is important to design around the body. From each design that I made on the mannequin there are many ways that I could develop it into a garment. I printed off my favourite designs and did some quick illustrations next to each. I think this process was really good for me because it helped me to quickly generate  lots of ideas.

Next I chose a few of my favourite quick designs and developed these by changing small details each time. I also started to think about colour and fabric choices so I started to draw my designs in colour and put little fabric swatches next to them. By drawing them in colour I was able to start to imagine how these garments would look if they were actually made.

Details Project: Day Four and Five and Six

On Friday I went through all of my research and chose two images that I felt were the most inspiring for colours. Then I went through the colour swatches that I got and chose colours that matched. I felt this was important to do because colour was often very important in folk clothing, different colours had different meanings and were worn for different occasions. I want to do quite colourful collection, so before I started to design I felt that it was important to think about different colour combinations and how they would work in different proportions.

On Saturday I went fabric shopping and because the notes I'd made after reading that book and the colour swatches  I knew exactly what fabrics and colours I was looking for. I wasn't able to get everything I was looking for but I did find a good variety of fabrics such as wool,silk, fur and tweeds. Because I wasn't sure what I would be designing yet it was hard to choose fabrics so I focused on more on getting the right colours.

It was useful to go fabric shopping at this point in the project partly because I won't have time to go next week but also I can start more proper design develop with the types of fabrics that I can use in mind.

On Sunday I went through all of the fabric swatches and cut about three or four squares of each. Then I grouped them thinking about how the different colours and types of fabrics could possibly work together. I found this useful because it meant before I started to design I was thinking about what the clothing would be made out of, which is very important because I need to know which fabrics work well together so I can start to design. I knew that I wanted the colours and fabrics to clash a little so it was important to put them directly next to each other in a group so I could start to imagine how my design could look.

Details Project: Day Three

Thursday was a very productive day for me and I felt like I did a lot of work which is going to help me further my project and start to design a collection.

I started by choosing images from my concept board and some others that I'd collected. Going through them one by one I drew details from the garments such as collars, pockets, sleeve shapes and seam lines. This was useful as it made me think more about specific details rather than just the shape of the garments. Using these details I started to design some clothes but felt it was too early to do this as I need to do some more idea generation. 

Next I selected some images that had interesting shapes and details and cut them out. Then I rearranged them to create new outfits. I tried to play with shape and composition for example making a sleeve into a skirt and a pocket into a neckpiece. This task was really useful because it forced me to think about my chosen details in a different way. By putting them in a place where they wouldn't normally go and changing the size of them I created some really interesting collages which I can develop into to designs. I made the first few collages using only images from my research so they looked like costumes rather than wearable clothes. To develop from these I made more but mixed the collaged details with drawings so they became clothes which could actually be worn. I found this useful because I started with quite an extravagant, outgoing design and developed them into wearable garments.Then I drew some quick designs inspired by these collages.

On my way home I went into B&Q and got some of the colour cards which I used for paint colours. I had an idea of what colours I wanted to use so got lots of cards so I would have a large choice of which to use. The traditional folk clothing is very bright and colourful, especially more so in the 1900s when there were more ways to dye fabric so I decided to base my colour story on these images. I found a book in the library about the specific textiles, colours and fabrics that were used in Eastern European clothes so I went through it and made notes on the colours and fabrics that they used that when I went fabric shopping the next day I would know exactly what I'd be looking for. 

Details Project: Day Two

On Wednesday we met at the National Gallery and chose some exhibitions that we wanted to go to which related to our themes.

Eastern European Folk clothing is quite a specific area for me to be looking at so I couldn't find any exhibitions that related to it so I decided to go to the National Gallery, The V&A and the Museum of London.

The V&A usually has a whole section on East Europe but unfortunately this section was closed when we went so I didn't find anything on Folk clothing but there was a lot of painting of menswear in the 1800s. The Museum of London was particularly good for this because although there wasn't a big collection, I was able to see the actual clothes rather than just a painting of it. This meant I could get quite close to them and draw specific details that I found interesting. There were lots of paintings in the National Gallery but there weren't many that were specific to my themes so I drew some the paintings of women that had interesting details. I found it more useful to zoom in to certain parts of the garments they were wearing rather that trying to draw the whole painting because it forced me to extract specific details which would be more useful to me when I started my design development.

Overall I didn't find this day a good way to spend my time mainly because I couldn't find much that related to me and project. There were some interesting details that I saw in paintings but I think the research I'd gathered from books was a lot more in depth and useful to me. I think it was good to see the clothing on a larger scale than in a book or on a screen but I think this will help me more in another project when there is a exhibition that relates to my work.

Details Project: Day One

On Tuesday we were briefed on the project which is all about look back at historical clothing and picking out specific detailing with could interpret in a modern way to create a 6 look day time collection.

I started by going to the library to do research and look at different eras in fashion and which interested me the most. Lots of people were looking at books about British/American clothing so I decided to look at something different and found a book on Traditional Folk clothing. I was immediately drawn to the bright colours and intricate textiles used. I found a couple more books on folk wear, focusing on Eastern Europe and also one which had detailed drawings of Menswear in the 1800s. I decided these would be my inspirations because I love the contrast between the romantic folk clothing which was more about the textiles and the tailored menswear which could be the inspiration for most of the details.

I spent the day reading these books, researching online and scanning and photocopying images which I particularly liked. This was useful and good task to do on the first day because I was immediately focused on my theme and what I would be looking out for the gallery trip the next day. I photocopied a lot of images from the books so that I would have a large bank of visual imagery that I could use for idea generation and design development.

When looking online I found a Yves Saint Laurent collection from the 70s called 'La Blousant Romaine' named after a painting by Henri Matisse which inspired the whole collection. I love how he interpreted the garments in the paintings and made them into real clothes. As textile technique such as embroidery, are very important in Eastern European folk clothing I'm going to do more research into Matisse's block print, many of which were inspired by Romanian clothing. I think it could be interesting to make a digital print out of them and use them in the same way folk people would use embroidery but make it more modern.

When I got home that day I went through all of the images that I had scanned and picked out the most important ones. There were many that I liked but it was important for me to narrow them down so I could be specific about what exactly would be the inspiration for collection.

Week 8

Monday

On Monday I focused on finishing the pattern for my dress because I knew that I would need to buy my fabrics on Tuesday and I wanted the pattern to be finished so I knew how much fabric to buy. Previously when I'd made a toile of the dress it had been in calico because I wasn't sure what fabric I wanted it to be made in. I chose jersey because it is associated with sporty/ casual clothes and although I'm making a dress which could be really dressy I want it to be more of a casual thrown on dress. So today I did another toile in jersey fabric so I could see how it will fit in a different fabric. I didn't need to make many changes, I just removed the darts and made it a bit smaller because the jersey will stretch to fit over the body.

Wednesday

On Tuesday I went fabric shopping so that on Wednesday I was able to start making my actual dress. The dress has a pintucked edging that goes all around the cut out and the arm hole and since the dress is quite simple to make I decided to get the pintucks done first as this would be time consuming. The pleats took me a lot longer than I expected them to take, I stayed after my lesson till about 7.30pm and then spent another couple of hours finishing them the next day. I found it hard to make the pintucks even as I've never done them so small and in such a large scale. Even though I spent a day and a half sewing the pintucks, I think it was time well spent because this is the most detailed part of the dress.

Thursday

On Thursday I spent a couple of hours finishing the pintucks and then I made the dress which only took about 2 hours to make.

Friday

On Friday I asked my friend Sara to wear the dress so I could see how it looked on an actual person. I really love how it turned out but there are some fit issues that I want to correct such as how it fits around the neck and the back. However, this also could be because it wasn't made to fit Sara. In my illustrations the dress wasn't meant to cover both breasts but I quite like how it fits on Sara as it could turn into an non-accidental nip-slip. 

When glimpsing at my book and then looking at my final piece, I don't think the two are obviously related. But if you properly look through my research you can see the link between the two in the colour and shape of the garment. I think this is good because I don't want people to immediately be able to tell what my inspirations were when looking at the garment, I want them to do their own research on it and really think about the ideas of female sexuality that I'm trying to show. 

Week 7

Tuesday

On Tuesday I went to Shepherds Bush to get some fabric samples. I knew roughly what colours I was looking for wine red, burgundy and maybe a burnt orange. I wasn't completely sure about the exact fabric I was looking for but some that I wanted to look for were a sweater shirt material and quite a thick wool. I was really pleased with what I found as I thought I may not find the fabrics I wanted in the colours I fabrics I was looking for. Luckily I was able to find everything I needed. I've decided to use a jersey for most of my collection as I wanted quite a heavy fabric that can be use in a way that drapes over the body without showing a lot of shape which will contrast with the peek-a-boo cut out which reveal typically 'sexy' parts of a woman's body.

Wednesday

On Wednesday I had my first session with Dan learning how to use photoshop to create a digital textiles pattern. At first I found this lesson quite boring as I learnt how to use photoshop at my previous college and already knew a lot of what Dan was telling us. However, he did teach me new things that made some things I already knew how to do quicker than how I was doing them before. I felt that this day would've been better spent if I could've developed my own project and final piece but I'm glad I had this chance to further develop my photoshop skills and learn new techniques that I could use in the future.

Friday

For our homework we had to develop 3-5 prints using research from our projects to influence them. I had a lot of fun doing this and found it interesting to see I could use prints in the collection that I've already started to create. Then we were put in groups of three where we had to find a way to make our prints work together. Me and another girl in my group had similar colour schemes and as our prints were all quite different, we decided that colour would be the link between our prints. Then we printed two of prints and worked with them on the stand to create a garment. I found it quite difficult to work in group as I found it hard for three people to work on one stand, like there were too many cooks in the kitchen. I decided to take a step back and just give my opinion every now and then. There was one person in my group who I felt to charge but not in a leader way, more in a way that was overbearing and taking complete control. I found it difficult to work with her which is why I felt it better not to push my opinion too much as it could have ended in conflict. I think this task of getting us to work in a group was useful, especially because our next project will be a group one, as it showed me what it is like to work in a group. I find it easier to work in a group when everyone has some idea what their role is  rather than everyone trying to do the same job. Hopefully I will be able to bring this into my next group task.

Week 6: Wednesday

 On Wednesday I carried on with my own development but this time in 3D. I started the day by practicing making pleats which is a technique that has featured in several illustrations. I decided to use pleats as most of my garments are quite simple shapes so I wanted to some texture them to create depth. I want to use pleats along the curved edges but I wasn't sure whether I should do this by cutting the fabric in the right shape then pleating or doing the pleats first then cutting the shape out so I tried it both ways. The second way worked best as when I cut the shape out first the pleats changed the shape of the fabric. By doing the pleats first I was able to get the exact shape that I wanted. I found this useful to do as it helped me to figure out how I would be able to make these pleats before I start to make the actual garment in the real fabric. When I bought samples last week I got pack of several different fabrics that I could by so I went through them and decided to use duchess satin to make the pleats. I like this fabric as the shininess makes it look quite luxurious and also it is quite stiff and strong which is good because I don't want the pleats to look flowy and soft.

Next I continued my 3D development by draping fabric on the stand using my illustrations as inspiration. In my drawings the dress were unfitted and loose but when I was draping I found that I preferred the dress when it was more form fitting so I added two darts, one in the back and one in the front. I originally wanted to do a dress that wasn't fitted as I wanted to almost hide the woman's body which can seem unflattering but then expose one of the sexiest parts of the body, the breast. I was surprised that I was able to create a shape that fitted the body but was not too tight that it exposed more of the body than I wanted to show. I also think the length is quite modest but I may make it longer. I had also planned to have a sleeve to cover the wearer even more and to highlight the exposed breast but since it is quite hard to drape a sleeve I left it sleeveless which I quite like as I don't want the garment to be too asymmetrical. 

To progress I'm going to take this dress apart, make a pattern from it and remake it properly so I can see exact what it would look like. Then I will make adjustments depending on how it turns out.

Week 6: Monday

This week is a time for my group to do development work on our projects and start working towards a final piece. I decided to use today to just work on my designs so I did loads of designs and started to select a few that I like and think  could be developed further into a collection. I started with my knitwear samples, even if I don't think I'll make a knitwear piece it could still be used in drawn mini collection. I found this day useful because up until this point I've mainly doing research and development with a few designs here and there but I hadn't thought about how I could develop a whole collection. I've done quite a few pages of designs so I'm going to visit some fabric shops and get some fabric samples. I'm going to look for quite a thick jersey, duchess satin and maybe some silk satin. 

Week Five: Knitting

Monday and Wednesday

This week were split into two groups and I chose to join the knitwear group. On our first day we learnt the basics of using the knitting machine such as how to cast on, how to set up the machine and then how to knit. We were also taught some knitting techniques such as honeycomb, weaving, drop stitch and making lace holes. I did an internship last year where I learnt how to use a knitting machine so I already knew some of the basic skills. It had been a while since I used one though so I found it difficult to remember all the little things you have to do to but after about an hour or two I got used to using the machine and it was fairly easy to do the tasks after that. On Tuesday we learnt more advanced techniques such has how to create shapes using the bubble and mountain technique. We also learnt how to change colours and how to put one knitting sample onto another. I found the mountain and bubble technique quite challenging at first because there's a lot of things to remember and if you forget something it can go completely wrong. I asked out teacher to show me how to do it again and after practicing a few times i found it easier to do. I enjoyed Wednesday session really fun because I felt like I really knew what I was doing which made me more confident. It surprised me how quickly I was able to pick up most of the new techniques we were taught.

Friday

On Friday we were given the freedom to use the techniques we'd learnt in the past week to make a4 sized samples which related to our project.

I found it hard to use shapes which related to my theme so instead I focused on the colours that I was using. In my mood boards my main colours were dark red, chocolate brown and cream so I focused on highlighting those colours. I wanted to create quite textured samples so I chose to use the fringing technique. If I developed this further I think it could make a really interesting jacket or even a small detail like a pocket. I also enlarged one of the smaller weaving samples that I did on Wednesday but I don't really like how it turned out mainly because of the colours I used. I think if fabric was a similar colour to the yarn it would look better on a large scale and the focus would be on the texture the weaving creates rather than the contrasting colours.

I really enjoyed learning how to use the knitting machine and it is definitely something I'd like to do in the future. However, I don't think I'll do a knitted garment for my final piece because it would be quite a long process to learn how to use knitting pattern to create a garment.

Week Four

Monday

On Monday we did a fashion illustration workshop where we learnt how to draw clothes in an expressive way which portrayed the feel of them.

First we had a session with Sarah were we learnt how to use different thicknesses of line to portray details, seams, fabrics and movement.  At first my drawings all had similar line thicknesses so the drawing didn't look very fluid. As I started to practice more and see the different types of lines that could be created with just one pen. I think this worked well because it made my illustrations more dynamic.

With Dan we focused more on colour and pattern rather than the accuracy of a garment. We enlarged  patterns so they took over the page and the figure was less of the focus. I like this technique, especially if the print is the main feature of a garment and you are visually portraying what is most important. I also used the skills that I'd already learnt with Sarah and combined the two. 

Towards the end of this workshop I started looking at particular details likes seams and the drape of a fabric and tried to convey these through the type of line I was using. Although I made progress from the beginning to the end I think I could work more on developing my own style and signature way of drawing. To develop from this workshop I'm going to do more illustrations using my own designs and try to create a recognisable style of drawing which is unique to me.

Wednesday

On Wednesday we worked with Sarah and Becca to develop the continual research that we're doing in our sketchbook. One by one Becca would give us a task which would help us develop on what we'd done before and hopefully generate ideas for our project.

First we worked into the mind maps that we did in the first week. This went well for me because I thought of ideas that were completely different to what my picture was about but still had some kind of relation to it. We then chose three words and I chose 'power', 'transgender' and 'female sexuality'. I chose these words because they sort of related to what I'd already been looking at but the words 'power' and 'transgender' gave me even more areas that I could research.

Then we made mini moodboards for each of these words finding images, shapes, colours, and a conceptual idea. This made me generate a wide range of ideas from just one words and it also gave me things that I could work from and develop. We also made a collage and wrote a story or poem which joined the three words together. I found the collage difficult because I found it hard to find images that related to my words especially 'power'. My concept for power is about the things that make a person powerful. For me I think one of the most powerful things you can do is the freedom to be yourself so I found images that related to freedom.

Thursday and Friday

I thought that Task three was our homework so on Thursday I'd finished most of what we were meant to do. The task was to develop these moodboards into collages, paintings, textiles, prints, drawing or image manipulation.
I made some collages where I put images of a girl in more masculine clothes/ clothes that covered her entire body, together with a girl who was either nude or hardly had any clothes on. I did this to ask the question 'What is Sexy?' Is it a woman who is completely naked and showing her cleavage, tummy and legs or is it a woman who doesn't have any skin showing but has a confidence and attitude about her. I enjoyed doing this because it directly compared the two sides of sexy that I'm researching but it was hard to do as I couldn't find any images that showed what I wanted to portray. I think it could be quite interesting to buy a men's magazine. Men are often the lookers and women are looked at so I want to try to put myself in the position of men and understand what they think sexy is.

My shape for female sexuality was lips as I think it is one of the sexiest parts of a woman. I did several blind continuous line drawing of my lips in different positions and angles. Then I photocopied this page several times and cut up and rearranged the image to create various patterns and shapes. Inspired by the Gustav Klimt print that I looked at before, I tried to recreate this pattern but instead using the lips. I repeated this many times changing the colour palette that I was using which was based on some moodboards that I'd done before.

I found this process really useful because I was able to develop one fairly simple shape into about 15 different prints that I could possible use on a garment. However, because I didn't have access to a laptop it was very time consuming drawing out the print over and over again so I could experiment with different colours. So this weekend I borrowed a laptop so that I could quickly produce lots of prints on photoshop. I also want to see how to print would look on actual garment so I'm going to try that out on photoshop.

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