Dior Exhibition

                                                                     The Dior exhibition at Harrods was full of life and glamour, I
      enjoyed browsing through and learning more and more about the collections that striked the nations through the years.  Christian Dior is a designer that is classic and sleek the image above is a collation of miniture garments that were present in his collections through the years, the fact that these models were made into a miniture size makes the collection more spontaneous with the fact that we can enjoy and study the detail that is given into the making of these garments.



The image on the left is a toile that was made for one of the garments, this toile is so well made that I can only sit back and admire the detail and work that has been put into it.

  Overall this exhibition was remarkable and truly made Dior shine in the way that he deserves, I think that when something is so simple but yet so beautiful and popular it can go a long way.

Dior continues to stun me everyday with new collections, amazing classic and improves bags which will always be a hit!

Distortion

 The image above is a distorted manipulation on an already distorted catwalk image, the idea of doing this was to create a design that I could be inspired from to create a design that I could develop into a collection.  The base idea to look at distortion was through alcohol and drug abuse as it blurs your vision and distorts what you see, I thought it would be interesting to use this as a starting point because it actually makes sense and to think of all the artists that create artwork under the influence it really is a good base point to work with.  The image to the left is my primary research that I collated from visiting the Tate modern, I was after very

unique and even hallucinated artwork that I could really be inspired from for anything like print work, shape or even texture and layering.  The stand experiments to the side are influenced by the idea of seeing double so I wanted to portray layering and piling, even symmetry in a way as I predicted this would be a good way to start my design development ans gain many ideas from the tests that I have created from my own clothes.  I like layering because it adds an edge to the way of think and the way you develop the work, it allows me visualize and make note of exactly what I am aiming to observe and create, for this project I want to portray the term tunnel vision and seeing double in my research and mainly in my final outcome. I enjoyed this project because it allowed me to think outside the box and create new and fresh ideas. I also experimented with the technique marbling which can be seen below, I enjoyed this technique because the outcome was unpredictable and each time I was surprised.

Idea of being trapped

   This project 'Idea of being trapped' was a personal project that I independently structured. I enjoyed this project as it meant that I was free to take it into whatever direction I wanted to, it allowed me to express my interpretation of research and create garments with a meaning and feel of entrapment.  I looked at institutions, abandoned buildings, torn curtains, fencing, wiring and even furniture this lead to me creating very constraint pieces that processed the idea of being worn out.

I experimented with cable ties to create my own version of fencing this is shown in the sheet on the left, I like working with odd materials as it allows me to be original and creative.  Working with organza and distressing it by hand (shown in the sheet above) allowed me to feel and create exactly what I aimed for, I liked this as I could fully express myself. The sheet below portrays an experiment that I created with boxes I was inspired by a wheelchair and my main starting point this is a very obvious outcome to 'Idea of being

 trapped'.  My designs were created after my photo shoot, the wires shown are taken as inspiration from all the wires used in institutions.  I liked working from 3D as it allowed me to develop more ideas to work with, the sample I have shown portrays what the design on the box will be once making begins.  The image below is a page of my sketchbook from which I originally generated some of my ideas, I used sofa fastenings to create embellishment for my designs, french knots are used in the first image to embellish the jackets, I used this because it reminded me of a padded room in an institution which patients are usually locked in to calm down, this obviously related to my theme as they are physically locked which in my eyes also conveys a 'mental locked' as you are trapped and confused.

 Overall I highly enjoyed doing this project as it allowed me to be free and express my feeling towards my chosen theme.

Styling + illustration workshop

We were very lucky to have Adrian come in and do a workshop with us, in this workshop we explored layering different garments onto a body to create a new outfit.  We then had to illustrate what we had created through quick 20 second sketches from all angles, this was a challenge as I had never experimented or worked with 20 second sketches.  The whole point of this workshop in my opinion was to loosen our hands and become more confident in the ways we sketch and record what we see.

The image to the left is one of my constructed garments that I had created which consisted of a dress, waist coat, scarf, a belt, jewelry and a vintage camera. This look was successful as it portrayed the idea of mixing different textures and making them  work together.

This is my 20 second sketch for the look above, I tried to capture the basic outline to create my silhouette. in the sketch i have emphasized some elements that caught my eye and which i considered as most important such as the belt, camera and the scarf that held the waist coat in place around the waist. Doing this sketch has really developed my understanding of what to focus on under a limited time and i have found this method of sketch 3d into 2d much easier and with a much more successful outcome.

The image below focuses on the lower half of the body. For this i used my prom dress as i had 3d panels attachments around the bust, tacking this into consideration i laid the bust line of the dress around the waist to give the peplum look. I used the leopard dress and wrapped it around the bust contrasting with a printed jumper that my model had originally been wearing to give the effect of princess lines. This look to me was effective in communicating what i had wanted to achieve but also i think it is quite plain and could to with a bit more accessories.    

Here below i had challenged my self to do various 10 second sketches from all angles of interest. I captured different shapes that was being created by the way the garments had sat on the body, due to the way it was held together. I was happy of the end result of these sketches as they show possible silhouette's that can be adapted in the future.

Heat press workshops with Alison!

Every Wednesday after lunch we have 2 hours with Alison who has been doing a workshop where we get practical and explore the outcomes and effects that different materials achieve under the heat press.  I enjoy this workshop as we are given the chance to explore and manipulate different materials so they can shrink or be used as a mold in some sort of design or even just the basic idea of changing the texture of these materials. I can say that my ideas using the heat press flowed like water in a river, I was very determined and empowered to try everything that I could think of to explore many different techniques of manipulation, these are examples of a few that I created:

The first image is the hand drawn original using heat transfer paints.  The second one is that first image printed onto calico, the reason it is so faint is because calico doesnt take up the ink as it should but thats what I like about it as it creates mystery.  the last one is printed on a polyester so it soaked up the colours very well to portray near enough the same image, however I was very disappointed that the shadows came out pink but as this was a trial and error workshop I made a reference for the future if I go to use the red wine colour of the heat transfer paints!

 The samples above are examples of plastic materials manipulation,  I liked this kind of manipulation because so much can be expanded on and produced with it, it is a very versatile technique and I think I will use this for future projects.

The samples above are my favourite of them all, I think they are very success full and look like something that you could defiantly see on the catwalk as a future print.  For these samples I deliberately used different fabric so I could observe the outcome on the different textures.  To achieve the print I painted a piece of card black and used feathers to act as a barrier between the paint and the fabric as you can see above the first 2 samples were most successfull as they were on a polyester fabric and the ink was fresh.  However I am very pleased with the effect that was produced from the 2 below as it gives off a more vintage vibe because the paint was running out so that cause the black behind to be less vibrant, which I think creates an interesting illusion!

Primary Research

I work in a very unique way as I am unable to generate or process successful ideas unless I have completed my primary research!
I have attending various museums, galleries and exhibitions to improve and expand my knowledge some of which include: PoP exhibition at the fashion& textile museum, which I loved as it was such a mix of styles and trends, I found it uniquely inspirational to me as in my eyes it portrayed the word POP in a very different way and I can now say that when someone talks about pop culture I can confidently join in! This is an example of my gathered research:

I recently attended the Valentino exhibition at Somerset house, which I think was good but I wasn't completely satisfied as the exhibition was smaller than I expected and very crowded, however I can say that the garments on display were absolutely beautiful! No photos were allowed so I recorded some of my favorite design in sketches, feel the Valentino below! :


















I regularly go to the British museum and the v&a as for me no matter how many times I go I will always find new and fresh ideas from something that I have seen before!  I recently went to the v&a to attend the fashion motion catwalk show by Fyodor Golan which I thought was amazing and it went really well, I found their work style and then some as it was a range of garments that were all unique within watch the clip below and see for yourself!

I have also attended the Death as a self portrait exhibition and medicine man exhibition at the wellcome museum and I done some quality research at the science museum but you will find out more about that later on!

Shoesss!!

Doing the shoe project I hit alot of hurdles as I made my shoe through improvisation, My initial idea was to combine to shoes to make one, I set out firstly to find an inspirational shoe but stumbled upon 2 pairs that I found very inspiring and thats when the idea of combining the two hit me and I generating idea from then on:

These were my 2 shoes one is a court heel and the other is just the strap from the gladiator style 80's sandal, the sole is a thick, hard sole with a low heel. I had the brilliant idea of gluing the court shoe to the sole of the gladiator sandal and creating a new shoe layout.  Once I had started ideas began pouring to me like water from a tap!!
I can now admit that I struggled dearly putting the shoe together as I found it really hard and frustrating to use the glue gun normally without burning my fingers off!!  but overall I can say that I overcame that with a few burns! but at least I have a cool shoe that I may say I am very proud of. I think in my eyes the most successfull part of my shoe if portrayed in the fact that the sole looks like a converse sole which I did with no intention and then the gap that is created for me is very interesting and adds alot of quirkiness to the shoe!


I then began gluing beads, buttons, cardboard that inspired me and ending up with the result below: