Week 14

Day One

After collating images of my developed stand work I began to design of them, my designs were quick only to experiment with the different ways I could reinvent a garment. After this I started to work towards making a final garment, I decided on using a pair of trousers and making this into a top. I began by placing the garment on the stand upside down and I then cut into the crotch seam to act as the top of the garment so the trouser legs were now the sleeves. I liked how this looked however I thought it wasn’t very creative and lacked in developments form the original garment. So in order to develop the garment further I looked into different ways I could alter its shape, in the end I decided upon having short sleeves. Once the garments alterations were pinned into place I started to think about creating some trousers. For this garment I liked the idea of layering and using the garments inside out so the seams and interfacings were showing. I played around with different ways of showing this in an interesting way. This lead me to the idea of having many different trouser waistbands layered on top of each other.  To create this I got four pairs of trousers and cut them along their waistband seam then I layered one on top of each other. This turn out to be more complex than I had anticipated because trying to match the waistbands up was not quick to do as I had to ensure that the sizing was correct. But after I did this they fitted correctly.  However to make this trouser garment I did not cut the forth garment as in order to leave the trouser legs still on. This meant that the garment had a larger waistband that consisted of 4 waistbands and then a straight trouser leg. Again I liked how this looked but felt it could be pushed further, so after developing different ways it could look I altered the trouser leg by aging in a large dart in order to make the leg a skinny fit. This worked well and gave the effect I wanted. But I still wanted to add something to the trousers, so by gathering the left over fabric from the other trousers I cute out their trouser leg seams, which had both edges overclocked, I liked how this looked and decided to use it as a decoration. By referring back to my collages I incorporated the foil effect onto the seams adding the rose gold foil. I then decided to place these separate seams onto the front of the trouser leg, however after realizing the problems this could cause me such as sewing the seams onto the leg would not be possible I rethought this. I still wanted to add the foil effect and liked the aesthetic of the seams but understood that this was not possible.  

 

Day Two

After considering my issue concerning the trouser leg I had found a solution. Instead of adding the seam onto the trouser leg I added it onto the shoulder of the top garment. Then as I wanted the two garments to relate to one another I added the foil effect straight onto the trouser leg fabric. This solved my problem and allowed my garments to be more cohesive. Yet I still wanted to make a jacket to complete the outfit. For this as I was looking at the insides of the garments highlighting the seams, fastenings and linings, I took the blazer jacket turned it inside out whilst placing it on the stand then I put it on back to front. I thought this made an interesting look, by having the high collar at the front. I then began to alter it, first I cut the sleeves off. This left me toying with what to do with the sleeves I tried different things like placing the sleeves on the back or having them pinned to the back but wrapping round the front. I felt that by reattaching them to the back and having them come round the front made the garment more interesting in terms of texture and visually. Additionally to again reference my collaging I wanted to stitched into the sleeves so the stitching was visible. When I sewed this garment together it was fairly straightforward however my needle did brake due to the thickness of the fabric in some places, but I ended up with a successful final outcome. The constructing of the other garments were also straightforward as I did not face any issues. But by taking the sleeves off of the jacket it left the internal wadding and padding hanging out so I pulled this out further so it stuck out, the raw aesthetic was interesting and I felt it worked with the idea of showing off the elements that make a garment.

 

Day Three

After creating and finishing all my garments I wanted to produce a photo shoot showcasing the garments. For this I asked my friend to model for me, I styled her in a simple way, as I wanted her hair and make up to simple and natural, I only added a dark eye shadow. In terms of location I wanted to have an industrial feel to it, so I walked down the riverbank along the river Thames and came across a Boat club that had high metal fencing and metal chains in the area, I felt that this would be to right location for the shoot. The shoot took about 40 minutes all together. Once I had uploaded my photos onto my laptop I could have a better look at them, I believe that the location was a good choice however many of them did not portray the garments very well in terms of the garments colours and the locations colours. However to solve this I chose the five best from the shoot and edited them in Photoshop. In Photoshop I altered the colours by making the background darker but the colour of the garments richer. I also added a purple hue to the photo in order to make the photos feel more industrial.  

 

Overall looking at this project I like my final outcome but believe that I could have worked faster. Also I feel that for this project I didn’t do enough work in my sketchbook in terms of illustrating designs as most of my work was done on the stand. I think I will bare this in mind for my next project so I can achieve an even mix of work in and out of my sketchbook.