Final design.

This is my final design for the frocks to rock fashion show for Jeremiah's journey charity auction. It has a low neck and back line with a chunky waistband and a layered organza skirt detail at the back. The whole outfit is black with black leather piping and the waistband is a deep green. The overall look is striking yet soft in a contrasting way, I am pleased with my final design and I can't wait too see it made. Pictures of the final dress will be in the next post.

Yellow too black?

After extensively browsing the Internet for different ways to dye polyester I eventually found something that could potentially be a life saver thanks to Google. I went onto yahoo answers and much to my delight someone has asked how you dye polyester. There were a few techniques so I though why not try them all!

Firstly, the beat result that was found by others requires soaking the fabric in alcohol to open up the fibres making the dye more intense and actually sticking to the fabric. Obviously I assumed this was going to work so I thought why not put all the fabric in. I then began regrettably the alcohol soaking, leaving the fabric in a whole bottle of vodka for about an hour made the fabric somewhat potent bringing me to the point of sickness. Popped it in the washing machine with the 'velvet black Dylon' on the hottest wash, like instructed, it was then just a case of waiting. An hour or so past, I ran up to the machine ripped open the door in anticipation only to be left sorely disappointed by what I found, a still lemon piece of fabric only this time with a hint of grey and the Oder of an alcoholic. Needless to say that was not successful.

Next it was just a case of still using the Dylon dye, as it has worked for me so many times previously. So I tried dying it in a hot was with no alcohol, no success on that front. Dying it in warm water, this time by hand in a bucket with a wooden spoon, stirring it every few hours over a period of about 2 days, with this method I had no such luck. So progressed onto a delicate wash with the dye and again still a dirty lemon colour, the only plus side to all these processes is that I finally got rid of the hideous smell that once tingled my nose.

Last but certainly not least I tried the same hand dying method as before over another 2 days but this time with very cold water, and much to my surprise it worked. I don't know whether it was this method particularly or the poor polyester just finally wanted to give in! Lucky for me I now have the fabric for the bottom half of my garment all ready and waiting to be fed into the sewing machine.

The dress....

I arrived In university this morning and was graced with a room full of bin bags each individually marked with students names, it was the day we got our dresses.

Each student was passed a bag opening them one at a time, no one was prepared for what was in them, the bright colours and polyester fabrics left concerning looks on everyone's face. I was the last to receive mine, as I opened up the bag I found myself pleasantly surprised, a still polyester but lemon basic dress greeted me. Much to my relief my main colour being black this dress would be easy to dye.

Naturally before and after pictures are needed so here are the before shots of my not so beautiful but easy to work with dress.

A little bit of cad!

Computer aided design is something we all have to do, I have used so many different program's to try out which is best from photoshop, illustrator and touch photoshop for iPad, but out off all the apps and design program's out there I found a simple water colour and drawing app gave me the best effects and it has a rewind tool so if you don't like some thing all you have to do is move your finger in a circle to rewind time!

Being able to do it on my iPad means I don't have to strap myself to the computer screen I can move around and design wherever I feel like it!

Here are some of my designs, these ones created using my paper 53 application.

Time to check in....

Decided to just post an update on the current stage of my work. Firstly deciding to do this on a blog made my life a lot easier, I don't like sketchbooks, I find they always look messy and unorganised, a blog is simpler, cleaner and more structured. As for my actual work the designing is going well, it has been a while since I designed womenswear, but I am finding it a good challenge. The research and mood boards are something I never have a problem with so everything is great on that front, my only downfall is sampling, I like things to be done in A certain way and in the way I work I just don't like to sample, I don't feel it helps me creatively unless I was designing a collection and I was making samples of sleeves or something garment related. Where as for texture and print samples it is just not something that ever has or will capture my attention, it's not something I ever want to use in my design process.

So after saying all of this it is time for me to do some designing on the computer and have a little play around, I will be posting the outcomes shortly!

Knot samples

After playing around with various things such a rope, leather string and plaited leather rope, trying to create different knots I found it to not look as good as I had hoped and found it extremely difficult so I have made the decision to take the knotted panel out of my design. It's all part of the trail and error process and in this case it was error, not to worry though as my design will now fit my more desired aesthetic of simple cuts and no pattern.

I have included pictures of the samples as I am forever reminded to include work even if I do believe it is hideous. I can almost safely say that at no point in the foreseeable future I will be trying to tie a naval knot again because quite frankly these samples are a mess.

Designs

Here is a selection of my designs linking with the brief, they are inspired by my chosen theme of knots and each one has an individual piece of detailing to it incorporating knots. The colour theme for all of these designs are blacks and greys .After looking through all of the designs, I feel I want to make something more edgy and less traditional for the typical party dress. Maybe by adding a touch of leather and a lower neckline or an exposed back, designs will have to be developed to come to a conclusive final design.

 

 

A few more designs

As I am using my blog as my sketchbook for this module I'm finding it quite tricky as I am very scatty keeping hold of my designs, these ones I have just found and they are some of my first ones I sketched so why not include them now, they are a little bit unusual for your average party dress but I'm sure with some development they will be a lot more simple.

Moodboard and colour ways.

To get a solid starting point for any garment or collection you will need besides research a moodboard and colour way board, these will help you have all your inspirational images all in one place which will constantly inspire you whilst designing. The colour board will just keep you aware of the colours you are working too. It's also helpful to have a colour way and moodboard when presenting you work in a portfolio as it will give a clear indication of your starting point and journey.

When I create mood boards I like to keeps things simple and not use too many images and all images I do use are all linear. I also think it is a nice touch to put one or a few of your designs onto it also just to make it a little more interesting.

This is in image of my design moodboard which was created after I had gone through the research process, a secondary moodboard if you will.

The colour way is based on the colour I have taken from the group colours we came up with in the first week, I have only chosen black and shades of black, because you can never really go wrong with a black dress.

Collection development

Today our group met and we all presented our individual designs to one another, the whole purpose of this was to come up with a cohesive collection and pick some key features we could all include in each of our dresses, to make sure they link. After discussing and debating for what seemed like hours we finally came up with some ideas, our main colour is to be black with hints of the other colours ( white,red,gold.) we then came to the decision that we would all use pleating and all include a very textured bottom for the dress.

I took one of my least favourite designs with a little push from my lecturer and completely changed the whole thing to some extent. These pictures are my final design,the groups designs, the final collection, and a few (what may look like scribbles) sketches and the process of me playing around with the design.

Designs

Here is a selection of my designs linking with the brief, they are inspired by my chosen theme of knots and each one has an individual piece of detailing to it incorporating knots. The colour theme for all of these designs are blacks and greys .

After looking through all of the designs, I feel I want to make something more edgy and less traditional for the typical party dress. Maybe by adding a touch of leather and a lower neckline or an exposed back, designs will have to be developed to come to a conclusive final design.

Controversial rope fashion

Found a few more images that I found slightly controversial yet still linking with my lovely naval/rope theme, they are a little strange but who doesn't love strange thought I would post then on here is after all I could well affect my designs and it is all part or my process and journey to my final outcome and garment. These are more the shape of garments rather than little details, these could easily be something I would do myself but its a little to much skin to be shown for a charity auction. The shapes even though the women are exposed I feel is very classic figure hugging style and if the rope were maybe over another fabric to cover everything up it could be an interesting take on some classic silhouettes.

Enjoy!

Knot fashion!

Looking around the Internet for interesting pieces based on knots I came across a blog which I found interesting, the blogger was also fond of ropes and knots, so I had a little look around the Internet to see what I could find and collected a few images of knots in fashion and no doubt in home wear. Obviously every summer the nautical theme will become popular time and time again but I was looking for something a little more than a printed t-shirt of an anchor or knots and I am pleasantly surprised with what I found, so I have included some images for you.

The following images are:

Ismodern cotton cord rope necklace.

De la cuona Ormulo cushion.

Paco Rabanne spring 2006 dress with rope knot straps.

A Thomas Paul Scrimshaw coaster set.

Continental home Pier lamp.

Mikka. (2010). Knotty Monday. Available: http://www.mischmash.com/2010/11/knot-ty-monday.html. Last accessed 2012.

Target customers

Normally for a design project like this we would have to identify a specific market in which our clothes would be sold and appeal too, as our party dresses are going to a charity auction the customer base will be very vast.

However, as I enjoy the marketing side of things I have decided to treat this as if it was going to be made and sold in stores so in this post I will include a customer profile, for my own fun but what's the harm.

When making a garment it is so important to know who your customer is and what sort of market level you will be aiming to achieve. This is vital for the making of any garment or collection as it will be the basis for your fabric quality, trims and finishes, the use of lining, seams, and fastenings all of these things will be based on your market level as it will need to be the correct quality to match, you would never walk in to a couture boutique and see something made to a high street standard, couture costs more because of the fabrics and the time that will go into making the item.

If I were designing this dress for a consumer this is the market level I would base it on.

Customer profile:


Economic level: Middle class.
Physiological makeup: Fashion conscious, loves travel, eclectic taste, mobile lifestyle, university educated, art collector, loves bricolage.
Age: 25-35.
Sex: Female.
Income level: 40,000-50,000 salary.
Habits: marine based hobbies, opera, theatrical entertainment, visiting stately homes, loves concerts and museums.
Work: Editor of own fashion and entertainment magazine, incorporating the role of art editor occasionally.
Shop: High end stores, mainly in London places such as browns, John Lewis, Selfridges and boutiques in Knightsbridge.

Madeline Vionnete

After never really hearing about Madeline I thought I would look her up, in doing so I found that she was on the zero waste fashion movement in the mid twentieth century. Her designs are absolutely beautiful and totally inspirational, she uses a lot of lace and delicate fabrics creating stunning pieces, her designs are classic. When you hear sustainable fashion I know that my first thought is always linking it to hessian or other bland fabrics and tatty garments, but seeing her work and other designers sustainable work has shown me that you don't have to make something that looks 'recycled' its can be a beautiful piece and a work of art in its own right. I thought I would share a few images of Madeleine's work in hopes you will all feel as inspired as I did, and has proved zero waste fashion is the way forward.

Zero waste fashion

After researching into Margiela I went onto looking into zero waste fashion, which I knew absolutely nothing about until now. You always hear about sustainable fashion but I have never really heard zero waste fashion at all. Zero waste fashion refers to clothing that produces little or zero waste during production. It is considered part of the broad spectrum which is sustainable fashion movement. It is decided into two approaches, per-consumer which is where they eliminate waste during manufacture and post-consumer which generates post consumer clothing or second hand clothing if you will eliminating waste at what would be the end of the product use life of a garment. Zero waste is not a modern concept it has been used for years in garments like the kimono, sari, chiton and many other costumes.

The general process of manufacturing a garment produces 15% wastage, which eventually will all add up when building a collection and the wastage will be vast!

Madeleine Vionnete uses a design approach that aligns itself with zero waste fashion and many of her garments generate minimal waste. Alison Gwilt and Timo Rissanen's book shaping sustainable fashion includes a number of references to zero waste fashion.

Exhibitions showing zero waste fashion include:

DPOL by Siddhartha Upadhyaya exhibited at London science museum, antenna exhibition for its breakthrough in sustainable and zero waste fashion.

Bad Dogs by Timo Rissanen's.

ZERO Waste: fashion re-patterned In 2011, curated by Arti Sandu from Columbia college, Chicago.

In my first year of my course we were encouraged to incorporate sustainable fashion as much as possible the way I took this into my own practice was by filling my lay out plans to maximum capacity with all and as many more pattern pieces as I could, obviously with this project we are using old dresses and up-cycling them and using the fabric to create a re vamped party dress, so we are giving something old a new lease of life.

Claire Martin . (2007). Zero waste fashion . Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero_Waste_Fashion. Last accessed 2012.

More Margiela...

I was just casually browsing through a fashion book 'radical fashion' edited by Claire Wilcox and stumbled across an interesting section on Maison Martin Margiela, and his collection of garments that he deconstructed and increased the size of, as we are looking into alternative cutting I thought this could be a technique that I would maybe later find useful for my own collection. I have included a few images I have taken from the book.