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.

Millinery - Elective

Millinery:

Today, we had our first session in Millinery. I was slightly worried about it thinking it was going to be really hard and quite challenging, but the tutor demonstrated how to mould the felt onto the chosen crown template, and although it required a bit of 'elbow grease' it looked relatively easy and simple. Most people decided to go straight into the moulding of the felt. But i decided along with a few others to carry out some research first, as there are so many different designs i want to be sure with i design i go for as we only have one chance to make a hat. I like the cloche hats of the 1920's but i tend to go for that type of era quite a lot. As its a black theme, i want to go for a simple, sexy, sultry hat, with millinery netting. But at the moment im still brainstorming ideas. I had a really productive day, and produced a moodboard on photoshop, which suprisingly didnt take that long and was really sucessful.

The millinery process: Add steam, and push onto crown template. Do this several times, need it on to the crown. Add pins and elastic to keep into place, and add steam and pull through.

Fashion, Art and Culture

Fashion, Art and Culture:
We started this on this new module, on the 15th of January. And the seminars consisted of a run through of the history of fashion starting from the early 1900's all the way through to present. I have really enjoyed these lectures, because i don't feel any courses i have done have ever done taught you a history of fashion. The way it was taught was through a slide show, and the tutors would explain each slide thoroughly giving you a chance to write down notes for yourself. Ive noticed in myself, that I am becoming much more of a quick learner, i was worried initially that i wouldn't remember things from the sessions, but i have found it really interesting and i think that helps you remember facts a lot more. I wasn't so sure about the discussion bit of the day where you converse with others about what you have learnt as i felt we had already done that, however, i really like how the tutors put you into different groups as it enables you to meet other people in your class. A technique i do hope they carry on with as i feel i still haven't met everybody.

My View:

I was really shocked that technology hasn't actually been around for that long, and its only designers such as Hussein Chalayan and Gareth Pugh who have actually made it as futuristic designers if you like. You can argue that it has been around for longer if you think about when new fabrics were invented, that in itself is new technology. But i am thinking more along the lines of information technology being Incorporated. i.e. Hussein Chalayan's Aeroplane dress.
I was also surprised with the whole "ideal woman" being around as early as 1905 when they had the Gibson girl being the girl that every woman wanted to be and every man wanted to be with. I found it interesting that, that early on, popular culture was starting to arise. I'm starting to look at fashion history as being a sort of domino effect, everything influences the next thing, the next movement, the next style. Very interesting how the war was such a major influence on fashion, because the men were at war the usual jobs a man would undertake - a woman would then have to do, because obviously the man wasn't around. Once taking up this masculine role, they wouldn't obviously wear their pretty womanly clothes and wouldn't throw on something less feminine. After getting a taste of this, trousers and casual wear for women became more common to wear. - It just makes me wonder whats next for fashion? After this futuristic movement in fashion... what more can they possibly invent? That sort of worries me.. where my place in fashion lies.

Resultsssssssss

Critical Studies - A while ago i did my presentation and essay. And i got my mark back recently and was really suprised, i did not think that i was going to achieve a good mark with it, as i was extremely nervous about speaking and thought that it might show through.. but i got a mark i was really pleased with and my confidence increased :)

Creative Design Practices and CDR

Creative Approaches to Fashion: - Notes taken from my notebook.

We had a new briefing, i really liked the sound of this module, the first task was to sign up to the wgsn-edu.com website and find out the trends for Autumn/Winter 08, we was then sent out to find items of clothing that portrayed the trends for the season. With these photographs and research collected we had to represent four chosen trends of the season in four A3 moodboards using a mixture of hand rendering techniques and photoshop.. Aghh the dreaded photoshop!. I chose, Old Heritage, Soft Tech, On The Move and Kitch Mix. At the beginning the market level report really worried me, i was apprehensive into going into the big stores like Harvey Nichols and taking photographs of their clothing. So my biggest mistake in this project was putting that off for a long time, which meant my time management was off.

Christmas Holidays! - Felt so good returning home over Christmas, and worked the whole time to earn some money, i work in a department store which meant i could gather inside information on different concessions, like Warehouse, Miss Selfridge, Principles etc which would help me with the first part of the project, the managers were really helpful, and gave me lots of Visual Merchandising packs, and their trend boards for the A/W08 season.

However, i unfortunately got really ill over the Christmas holidays, and have been since which effected my work. I came back from the holidays, feeling down and worried that i hadn't done much work, however i knew i had time to catch up, and found that everybody else had fallen into that comfortable routine of home, and hadn't completed much either. Lesson learnt. Will not do that again!

Since then, work had been steady and have found it really easy to complete the research and really enjoyed doing it!

The CAD workshops are interesting although i did find that i came out with a migraine after every one. and you do find that its alot of information to take in with one session.

The Final Line Up! - Well that only took four hours to complete...... i do not like photoshop. But practice makes almost perfect! and although it was extremely time consuming, i am so so proud of myself with the final outcome, and i have learnt sooo much with photoshop! I designed for Zara, and my collection was really good, i was really happy with it. Having worked in retail for two years, I know what a collection should look like, although it being the first collection Ive designed now looking back, there are things i would change. But knowing you can improve is a good thing.

Creative Design Realisation:

I was looking forward to this for ages. Having doing a foundation at Camberwell College of Arts, i knew how to complete a good body of research however, they never taught us how to pattern cut or put together a garment.

I was eager to learn, although found it incredibly difficult, I spoke to Angie, and she said my problem was i couldn't see the how the pattern pieces would fit together into a garment, which i completely agreed with.... it just looked like a bunch of lines. I found the lessons were really good and we were taught well, we all had the chance to have one on one with the tutor, and i learnt alot in three lessons. I was pleased with the final outcome, although when i got my feedback and mark i was slightly disappointed, it said that i relied too much on help and needed more confidence - a problem that has been repeated a fair few times in my education. I do feel, that i was awarded the mark i deserved, and took it as constructive criticism and reminded myself that i am still learning. :)