Week 15

Day One

Today was the first day of the sportswear project. Today I just spent the day gathering primary research this consisted of visiting shops such as lilywhites, Selfridges, Debenhams and Nike. The purpose of this was to gather up many different images that illustrated aspects of sportswear. I discovered the different types of garments for different sports, as well as spotting similar aspects that the garments feature such as fastenings and fabrics. This helped me decide what sport I wanted to focus on throughout the project, after reflecting on my initial research I settled on cycling to be my focus point.

 

Day Two

By choosing cycling to be my main focus point I wanted to create a concept board. For this I went to the library to find relevant resources, initially this task was supposed to be quick and straightforward, however it ended up being longer than I had anticipated as I could not find a substantial amount of relevant research. Therefore after gathering about five images, I started looking at web-based resources, by researching into the 2012 Olympic games and looking at the velodrome cycling and cyclists. I focused on what the athletes wore and was interested in how their apparel makes them streamline. I found 4 images that represented this idea and used this as the starting point to my project. I developed from my concept board my taking each image and representing the aerodynamics streamline idea by painting over them, that would represent the movement of the air over the athlete.  

 

Day Three

Today I gathered the research I conducted on the first day, I looked through this selected the best images, once I had done this I printed it out twice one for my sketchbook another so I could use it to collage from. I created four collages that used the different fabrics, colours and showed off the seams and stitches. This helped me to identify the colours and fabrics I could use for my finals line up. The colours I chose were neon yellow, neon pink and a royal blue. I wanted these colours to come in a neoprene and a sports mesh fabric. I chose these fabrics and colours because they featured heavily in my research and I felt that they related to the sports theme well, as they are traditional sports fabrics and colours. So for the rest of the day I decided to go to Berwick Street to find suitable fabrics. I found the fabrics relatively easy, and by doing this research trip into the fabrics and colours it enabled me to see that there was a huge range of fabrics and colours that I could use. However I decided to stick with my chosen fabrics and colours.

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.

Week 13

Day One

Today was the first day back after Winter break and the beginning of the deconstruct reconstruct project. To begin this project I had prepared by going to charity shops to gather a variety of different garments, this include eveningwear, outerwear, work wear and knitwear. I started off by placing the garments of the stand and experimenting with how they can be worn in different ways. I felt that this exercise went well for me as it gave me a better understanding of how the garments can be worn differently. I proceeded to look at the construction of the garments such as the type of seams and how the fabric was used. I photocopied close ups of the garments, which I used to collage with. When collaging I tried to use a variety shapes, which I later developed by adding a foil effect and stitching into. I enjoyed collaging because it enabled me to look into how different fabrics can be used together. However I found this activity took longer than I would’ve liked as I was spending too much time deciding the shape.

 

Day Two

I started today by looking at my completed collages, I began to develop these taking inspiration from the shape, this then lead to me doing a small selection of quick designs that took similar shape and techniques from the collages. After this I looked back at the garments and began to take them apart in order to understand the ways they were made, by looking at their fastenings, seams and interfacings or linings. I pinned the pattern pieces to the stand and manipulated the fabric so the shape was different from its original. I didn’t find this to be that affected as the shapes were not very interesting, therefore I decided to take the garments and take off some aspects such as sleeves or collars and then placing them on different parts of the body such as making a pair of trousers a jacket by using the trouser legs as sleeves. I found this technique more effective as my results were much more interesting.

 

Day Three

Throughout the morning I carried on with using the modified garments in different ways. For some I took particular aspects from one garment and then mixed it with another garment. Or even take apart a garment and then pining it back together in a different way to create a different garment, I carried on developing these throughout the day. I liked the results I was getting however felt that I could push these ideas further. I could develop them further by incorporating different fabrics or referring back to my collages, I could include the foil technique or even the repeated stitching.

12 days of Christmas

Day Twelve

Day Eleven

Day Ten

Day Nine

Day Eight

Day Seven

Day Six

Day Five

Day Four

Day Three

Day Two

Day One

Week 12

Day one

Over the weekend I had carried on with researching into my words and presenting them in different ways in order to represent my ideas. I carried on with this during the day. I looked more in depth into the mismatch idea, so as well as using the anges I looked at nuns. I felt by researching into nuns it represented mismatch as itnuns are a juxtaposition to prostitutes and I had learnt from my research that Jack the Ripper's victims were all prostitutes. So I used the resources in the library found some interesting images, some which focussed on corsets and that portrayed 19th century prostitutes, as this was the era Jack the Ripper was from. I like the route that I have taken for this project however today started off very slowly and I think that I struggled with getting ideas as I knew what I wanted to look at but just didn't know where to start.

Day Two

Today I found better than yesterday as I struggled less and I work through my difficulties just by planning out what I wanted to look at and how to present my ideas. In the morning I worked on my mismatch idea between nuns and prostitutes, and then for the rest of the day I was using the heat press to make samples. For these samples I was heat pressing red foil onto black satin, I really liked this technique because I think it tied in nicely with my overall them by using the black to represent hiding and conceal and then the red reminded me of blood so made it look quite violent and represented Jack the Ripper. I kept on using this technique in different ways, sometimes pressing the foil onto lace and then pealing it off to create and interesting texture. I really liked the samples I came up with and I plan on using them in my final designs.

 


After this I carried onto to develop the nun idea which then lead me to start designing. I did some quick designs first which I then developed into sixteen initial ideas, I liked my sixteen ideas I thought that I had a variety which I was ready to develop further.

Day Three

So today was the final day of the 3 words project, which ended with us presenting our work for a group critique. However before this I was finishing off my designs and with the samples I created the day before I added them on Photoshop to four of my designs. Although leading up to the critique it became apparent that I would not have enough time to finish off all sixteen designs. I was disappointed with this as I wanted to finish them off and then develop them into finals.

When going into the critique I was disappointed and was reluctant to show my work because I felt that my ideas and development were represented poorly. The group critique was interesting though as I enjoyed looking at other peoples work and seeing how they had represented their ideas and interpreted them. When I showed my work I felt that the feedback I got was mostly helpful, so when the critique had ended I was motivated to improve my work substantially as I felt that I could improve it greatly and make it a lot better.

Day Four

As the project ended yesterday I still wanted to improve my work. I feel that today I have been able to do this as I have taken another look at my sketchbook, I have rearranged and taken pieces out as well as developing my ideas even further and also improving my designs so they were less literal and represented my theme more clearly. I believe that I have done this as I am now happy with the work that I have produced.

Overall looking at this project I am pleased with the final outcome however looking at how I got to this stage I think I could improve greatly, as I found myself stuck at the beginning of the week I could have avoided this and managed my time a lot better which would have let me meet the deadline with work that was successful and of a high quality as my work had been of a low quality.

Week 11

Day One

Today was the beginning of our two week individual project. The project that I had opted for was the three words project, I was looking forward to starting this as it seemed really interesting. Today consisted of attending two exhibitions the first was the 'Only In England' this included photographs from Tony Ray-Jones and Martin Parr. I really enjoyed looking at these photographs as I felt that they had a clear and strong sense of occasion and celebration as each photograph was interesting to look at as I felt that it represented a story. The second exhibition was of Sarah Lucas's work. This collection of work was very different to the previous exhibition. I found Lucas's work interesting as I felt that it tried to objectify men as well as women, in a variety of different medias and methods.

I found today interesting although I think that if I spent a bit more time looking at the exhibitions I would have been able to deduct a stronger meaning from the pieces.

Day Two

I started off today by choosing my three words, I found this very difficult as I kept changing my mind. I kept switching from using Tim Walker or Jack the Ripper, in the end I decided to base my project around Jack the Ripper as I felt that I could look into many different aspects, I also found the story very interesting which I wanted to overall portray into my designing. My other two words were conceal and mismatch.

The first thing I did after selecting my three words was to create a mind map, this allowed me to discover ideas that related to my three words. Once completing this I had I began to create my concept board, I struggled with this a lot as we were not able to use the internet so I used the resources iin the librabry however found that there was a lack of resources that related to the subject I wanted to explore. I gathered a variety of images some from books and then others from television programmes and films, I looked at 'Ripper Street' and 'Plunkett and MacLean'. I also read up on stories of Dick Turpin the highway man. I wanted to research into the highwayman route as although different to Jack the Ripper I felt there were some similar attributes, such as they were both criminals from the same era, I also noticed the way that highwaymen hid themselves with capes, hats and masks and I found this interesting as it related to my second word, Conceal.

AS i had collected imagery for my Jack the Ripper and Conceal words I needed to find images that represented mismatch. This lead me to looking into angels as the opposite to Jack the Ripper and Criminals would be angels. I found a book that included many different images of angels which I used in my concept board along with my other images.

Day Three

Today consisted of completing two workshops the first was working on the stand. I really enjoyed this as I was able to represent my three words through fabrics and shaping them on the body. I felt that I came up with some interesting ideas that I will develop further. Although some things that I would have liked to have done better would to have worked less around the neck area and focus on other areas of the stand and also to have focussed on manipulating the fabric a bit more to come of with a variety of different shapes and techniques.

The second part of the day was drawing our three words. This included a series of different exercises. At the beginning I struggled quite a lot in trying to represent my words through drawing, however once I had started to think less and focus on what those words made me feel I was able to represent my words in different ways with different medias. However I think that with the drawings I created I would've liked to use them in my research and development but I feel that they are not strong enough to use, therefore if I did it again I'd like to think more of the emotions these words presented rather than the literal meaning of them.

Week 10

Day One

Today I started creating my prints as I had scanned in my drawings, however before I could start designing them we had another group meeting to see the groups progress over the weekend. Everybody appeared to be on track for our group presentation later this week. However I had heard that the colour scheme had been changed, our original one was supposed to be Grey, black, Red and Lavender. This had been changed to Black, Red, Lavender, Pink and Light Blue. In our group meeting I bought this up as an issues because I believed that the additional pink and blue would make our collections appear to be more spring summer, as well as this these colours did not go without theme. After pointing this out to the group we changed back to our original colour scheme, Luckily this did not affect anyone's work dramatically and we were able to move on with our work successfully.

After that I carried on with creating my prints whilst checking in with the group so we could discuss the prints that would work best with the designers creations.

 

Day Two

As I had created some prints yesterday I started to edit them and add them to the designers eight designs. I found this to be time consuming although worth it as I was deciding which points work best as well as the scale of them and where they should be placed on the body. This meant a lot of trial and era coming up with the right prints for the garments as well as showing the designers which prints I thought would look best with their designs.

Towards the end of the day I had placed my prints onto 16 designs, I was pleased with how most of them looked however with trying to meet the demands of the designers it was difficult as the prints I created did not always go with the designs. This meant changing them and rearranging them in order to make the designs look as a collection.

Day Three

Today was the last day of our group project which meant that we were to present our work to the tutors and the group. After watching the other groups I felt that my group could've worked better together as towards the end of the project tension started to build up and it was difficult to present our work successfully.

After looking at the past two weeks if I were to do it again I think that I would put myself forward to have been a leader, as this is what our group lacked. We needed a leader that would've made quick and decisive decisions, which would've helped to push our ideas forward as although I was pleased with my prints I felt that due to a lack of clear direction from myself and the group everyone's individual work did not work fluidly with each others.