Second Year Blog!

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The final chosen 15 images.

Working with 3rd years...

The day I met my third year, I was really nervous in fact I think we all were. We didn't know what to expect - whether the person we would be put with would just shout at us and order us around, or if they were insanely nice. Mine luckily was the latter. She was lovely, and instantly we got on well. I understood that there was a job to be done, and it wasn't to be taken lightly. They had their final collection to finish, portfolios to perfect and exhibitions to be put up, and my job was to assist them in any way I could.

Week 1
Emma talked me through her idea and sketchbook, and then gave me a list of what she needed from Leeds town. I went to Samuel Taylor's, and asked if they had this material in this colour etc etc. Some things they had and somethings they didn't, I rang Emma to see if she wanted me to go to the market, but instead she told me to go for lunch and then make my way back.
I assisted her in cutting out her patterns for the rest of the day.

Week 2, 3, 4
Again, as she had rather complex patterns she needed them to be re drawn and perfected, which i was happy to do. In fact i rather enjoyed it as it helped me develop my own skills, especially as it is well known that my expertise in pattern cutting is rather.... well rubbish. I did this every week for her. I also helped her model for her crit one week, i felt nervous for her, I suppose as i was helping her do her work, I knew majority about it and wanted her to do well. It did. "a colourful oddity" i think they said.
Her work was based around the idea of Francis Bacon and his works were the basis of her inspiration, and you could quite clearly see that. Her final collection was named "wrapped in bacon".

Week 5
The final week working with our third years, I really enjoyed taking part and felt I had learnt a lot from it, i definitely think its a good programme on the course. But oh god was it stressful. She had her hand in at 4.30pm that day, so the third year class room was manic. We nearly ran out of time redoing her patterns but in the nick of time she got it all in. I was pleased for her.

Evaluation
Working with the third years, made me realise just how stressful it is going to be, and how much you have to wake up and realise that this isn't school anymore this IS the real deal. Instead of running from it I'm embracing it, i understand it is going to be hard and at times I will cry, and feel hopeless, but even after all of that they still all said that they 'will miss it a lot'. Can't of been that bad then? This really was a wake up call... because second year is going to hit us hard.
Hopefully I will be prepared for it!

Easter Holidays

I enjoyed being back home over Easter, seeing family and friends - it is easy to fall behind when your return home, as its comfortable, easy and familiar and way too many distractions. I remained quite disciplined, I successfully produced 20 pages of Metamorphosis the interdisciplinary process and completely finished Fashion, Art and Culture.

Before Easter we completed a Fabric Manipulation workshop - which was really enjoyable. The idea was to create your own fabrics out of existing materials. For example, using bubble wrap and bonding it to a flyer. This is one of the ways you can do it. Obviously there were more successful ones than others. I particularly liked kitchen foil bonded to knitwear - and then stretching it out to create cracks in the fabric... this gives an aged feel to it, and i linked this in to my metamorphosis research by comparing it to ageing skin. I decided to go with the idea of cobwebs, experimenting with wax and sinamay netting, working into images with paint and wax. Cutting out shapes, creating new shapes, photocopying, learning how to knit.... I really wanted to get stuck into this project. I thoroughly enjoyed the fabric manipulation, researching and design development, and looking back, I feel this is my best project so far.

At this point I was clear of what i wanted to produce, I made a toile and was happy with the outcome. However, it was at this point that i started to struggle, i received feedback that I hadn't implemented my own creative pattern cutting or metamorphosis. I started to panic and get flustered, i felt i was running out of time and i just couldn't get my head around pattern cutting.

It took a long long long time for me to finally understand it, it was simply trial and error, i just had to keep practicing. The final idea was a shirt block with bishop sleeves and skirt with darts that made it puff out. I used cotton muslin, which meant the structure of the skirt wouldn't work with this 'floaty' material. I produced an extra under-skirt made out of heavy weight calico, this helped the structure. Because of the nature of the cotton muslin, i could pull apart the weaves, and create a cobwebbed effect, i also added in structured cones that acted as shoulder pads made out of sinamay.

I felt the time we had to produce a garment, was limited. I struggled A LOT with the pattern cutting... creating your own pattern i found extremely difficult, and at times felt like giving up. But powering through, it payed off, i was semi happy with the final outcome, although i feel I could of developed the concept much more. Integrating the idea of cobwebs more.

These are the final images of the garment:

Fashion, Art and Culture

"Imagine no possesions, I wonder if you can, no need for greed or hunger, A brotherhood of man. Imagine all the people sharing all the world" - John Lennon.


I decided to go with the subculture of Hippies. For me this particular subculture is a personal interest of mine so i was looking forward to getting involved with this project. I immediately knew what I wanted to produce for my final piece. My final idea was to produce a garment made for the new age hippie, that would adapt to make a unique silhouette. The idea was rather complex as I also wanted to create this dress using Hessian material. As i researched into Hippies i found they used natural materials such as cotton and hemp, they were not interested in branded products, or labelled clothes. The hessian acted as a blank canvas, and the final image would portray paint being thrown onto the garment, adding to this idea of "individuality".

Ahhh however it didnt go to plan! The actual dress was easy to make, easier than i thought it would be. I used normal string/cord and sew button holes to create a sort of 'rouched' effect, and this was the basis of adaption.

I knew in my mind exactly who I wanted to model for the photoshoot. I wanted to capture the essence of 'hippiness' culture, and i thought no one else would fit the criteria better than my best friend at home in London. With her dreadlocked hair and pierced face, you rarely see her out of the coulourful clothing shops of Camden town, or the raving highlights of SE1. She is the modern day hippy.

This project however, was not my best - which i regret massively as I feel I could of excelled in. Time management was the downfall. And your only left with feelings of "I should of done this... " "Shouldn't of done that..." REGRET. Lesson learnt.

However, I was extremely pleased with the final image. Here is a selection.

"So you want a job in Fashion?"

Visual Merchandiser
A visual merchandiser creates window and interior displays in shops and department stores, their chief aim is to maximise sales. Responsible for the look of the store.

Day to day activities include:

• Conducting research based on lifestyle, concepts and trends as well as store and/or regional attributes.
• Sketching designs
• Developing floor plans
• Sourcing materials
• Maximising the space and layout of the store
• Dressing mannequins.

They work within a visual merchandising team.

You can be creative, and get to meet lots of people as you are constantly travelling however weekend and late evenings work is likely as displays frequently need to be put up when store is closed to minimise disruption from staff.

Starting salary, £14,00 -£16,000 rising to £20,000 with experience.

Career Path - Visual Merchandiser - Visual Merchandiser Coordinator - Visual Merchandiser Director.

Fashion Illustrators

Fashion Illustrators create accurate images out of ideas representing products as diverse as hairstyles and spectacle frames. They work in a competitive market and most of the work is on a freelance basis.

They work alongside advertising agents and design consultants.

• Activities on a day to day basis
• producing drawings and paintings that are clear and workable.
• working with designers or editors
• working with fashion predictors to represent market trends.

Skills - Creative Eye and experience with CAD.

Freelance.

Fashion Stylists

Fashion stylists create visual images such as photographs used in magazine articles or videos used in the music industry. Working from a design brief, stylists work with a team of people such as photographers, designers, lighting technicians and set builders.

Activities on a day to day basis

• Selecting suitable accessories
• contacting PR companies, manufacturers and retailers
• finding the best range of merchandise to be used in a shoot
• Hiring, borrowing or purchasing garments props.
• dressing people.

Some stylists are self employed

To be successful you need a good network of contacts

Personal Skills - Eye for style, creativity and resourcefulness, good interpersonal and networking skills and self-motivation.

“Live your life, do your work, then take your hat”

My favourtie piece I made this year, was my hat that I produced in my Millinery elective.
I think it was very sucessful in terms of how I wanted it to look, and I was very proud of myself, especially as I found hat making is a hard process to go through. These are final images of the hat.