Deconstruct Reconstruct | Shoot

[Lookbook for garment, photographed by me]

Final three images

Model - Cornelia

Deconstruct Reconstruct | Stand Development

After careful consideration, I decided that the only way my designs could move forward was to start cutting up each individual garment to work them onto the stand together.

Deconstruct Reconstruct | Development

One way of developing the mannequin work to designs was to use the fabric in 2D form. I photocopied each item and cut out details and sections that I felt were interesting. Above are a few examples of the designs. Designing in this way was much easier than trying to draw from the mannequin, it produced new shapes and silhouettes and it also highlighted where details from the garments could be placed.

As well as cutting out the photocopied fabrics, I decided to change the colouring of the photocopies to see if it made certain details and shapes stand out more. The item I decided on doing this on was the stripped polo shirt and the suit trousers. Both produced completely different silhouettes and the colour change really enhanced certain details. Again I cut these out and placed them onto drawn illustrations. Although this wouldn't be possible in the time frame, it gave me ideas of manipulating the original fabrics, as well as changing the items around to create new items. The fabric that made the item could be altered, with bleach, dye and paint. The bleach could give a similar effect to the negative photocopy, producing bright whites and reversed colours.

I started drawing up designs from these collages. As all of my previous projects have been conceptual I decided to make something interesting in silhouette and detail, but also ready to wear. So instead of taking the full shapes of these collages, I focused on the details or individual shapes produced; for example, shoulders, collars or sleeves.

Deconstruct Reconstruct | Mannequin Work

Using the collection of garments I brought in, I started pinning, rolling and layering each item onto the mannequin. Using legs as sleeves, collars and added interest. Fastenings as necklines, detail and shoulders. Arms as collars and seam lines, and so on. Each item I made sure I worked with in at least 3 different ways, to produce as many good outcomes as I could.

When working on these in my sketchbook I decided to take inspiration from the collages and work onto different media, layering and drawing into each design. Sometimes designing straight from the mannequin, including some observational drawings alongside illustrations and shape tracing. This generated many more ideas on shape and silhouette, as well as which materials worked well in cohesion and what details and features of each fabrics were strongest. 

I found the more structured clothing like the suit trousers worked really well against the soft materials of the poloneck. The details on the fastenings of the suit trousers produced some really interesting shapes, and mixing these with the rolled up sleeves or collar produced from the top created some great contrasts. I wasn't so keen on the manipulation of the jeans, as it was more a fabrication than a new garment. Reviewing my experiments, I felt I pushed each item and produced some interesting garments. 

I feel this project doesn't need a 'concept' title as such, but instead I am going to remain free with how I work and the ideas produced. I shall continue to develop each aspect, through designing and mannequin work. Without an individual title, the garment will show a clear development from how each item began. 

Deconstruct Reconstruct | Collages

Commencing the introduction to the new project, I collected my old Vogues, Elles, and Teen Glamour to find images of body parts and clothes to mix up and match to new places. After making a collection of images from various books; including Maison Martin Margiela's book and 'Minimalism and Fashion' I mood boarded various ideas that I could carry through to my collages. 

Once I made 6 collages, mainly focusing on the details of the clothes, and the silhouettes you could create through changing where each item was places I decided they looked extremely plain. I wasn't as inspired as I hoped I would be so I decided to work into them.

Printing them onto tracing paper, some in colour and some in black and white, I started to cut out shapes, leave negative spaces and rotate them to place them on top of the original image. As well as this, I used acetate and a permanent marker to draw out a few main shapes and lines.

I was extremely happy with how they turned out, and after working in a few different mediums, I felt much more inspired. From these images, I will turn to the mannequin, alternating where garments could be places, and trying to recreate a few of the obscure body shapes I made in my collages. This technique of using collage with image manipulation has worked well, and one I hope to use in my later work and illustrations.

Deconstruct Reconstruct | New Project

We were just given a new project called 'Deconstruct Reconstruct' which again will only be over 2 weeks. Ahead of starting we were given the online handbook of this part of the project, and so I read and analysed which bits of the brief I needed to look into further, and what I would need to bring in, in advance.

Within the brief there was a variety of designers who use this deconstruct/reconstruct method within their own designs; something I really strongly agree with. The idea of sustainable fashion is a brilliant way of bringing about and modernising thing's people may already have, being inventive with minimal resources and also maintaining the environment. Particular favourites of mine who use these ideas include; Maison Martin Margiela, Comme des garcons and Jean-Paul Gaultier. Although they all use the concept in different ways, all have successfully positively presented it to work into their brand. Personally the designers style I will research into further will be Margiela and Gaultier.

The items I brought in were:
Suit trousers
Polo-neck Longsleeved top
Jeans
Lace dress
Sequinned dress

Purple strirrup sights

Bikini tops

To start my book off I collected various magazines and picked and cut out images, for both 'reconstruct' collages and some mood boards. Once I made the reconstruct collages, I photocopied them onto tracing paper and cut out main shapes, and worked over them onto both tracing paper and acetate. I feel this project focuses mainly on both detail and silhouette. So when working into the images I highlighted both detail and main shapes. I experimented with the figure as well as the clothing positions, allowing limbs and features to vary in size, and garments to be places wherever. To enhance these and take them further I will work from them as inspiration onto mannequin work and also in my illustrations.

Then moving onto a mannequin, I manipulated each garment to create new shapes and details. For example I used the jeans/suit trousers as a collar with a shoulder piece. The stiffness in the fabric allowed me to structure it freely around the neck, using the fastenings as collar detail and shape. Doing this allowed me to get a better feel for what I could do with my clothes to renovate them. I will continue this throughout the project, photographing and illustrating as I go.

Industry | Presentation Preparation

Kirsten's invite design:

Over the project, as well as individually challenging this brief and developing our own work we had to collaborate to present it collectively to the rest of the students. As my group got on so well, working together was really fun and easy. However, we wanted to ensure that we finished everything ready for presentations on Wednesday by Tuesday evening. We already had our garments, samples, photo-shoot and film ready. Instead of using a power-point I had the idea to make a Tumblr to display all the images we had collected and taken over the week, this fitted with our muse as she is a 'Tumblr famous' girl and this would be the way she would present. 

----> http://glorywalk.tumblr.com/

We decided as a group that although Meadham had never made advertising campaigns before we wanted to use some of our best images from the photoshoot for this purpose. We printed 4 images off A2 and cut them to the same size, we decided against labelling 'Meadham Kirchhoff' anywhere on them as the brand wouldn't do this, as they should be recognisable a name tag.

As well as these I made 'envelopes' for our invites out of the brightly coloured mesh, and we made goody bag's for the audience. These bags included various items that one could need on a 'night out'; a condom, tampon, shot glass, sweeties and child-like toy. They were also wrapped in the brightly coloured mesh to match them with our other work and samples.

We brainstormed our actual presentation and decided we didn't want to read off sheets as it flows badly and is less interesting to listen to so Emily rearranged the Tumblr in order, and we all decided which bits we were going to talk about. As an extra idea I decided we should all have party poppers to end our presentation as we were the last group of the day. Kirchhoff are well known for being shocking with their catwalks so Lena and I decided to wear two of the garments during the presentation. We decided to have two boards up during the presentation, one full of mine and Lena's textiles and Divines accessory samples. And the other with Emmanuella's images from the shoot. Alongside this we will project the Tumblr onto a screen and show the fashion film at the end.

That evening, I bullet pointed down what I needed to say in the presentation and roughly learnt it so I wouldn't be speaking off a sheet. I also sewed the envelopes and edited final images for the Tumblr. I am really sad this project is coming to an end, my group became really close and I am surprised at how much I enjoyed working in a team. I think our presentation will be very strong, and I am excited to give it tomorrow. 

Industry | Photoshoot

For our photo-shoot we decided we needed a white room in which we could set up our own backgrounds and props, as we couldn't get a studio room booked we decided to use the disabled toilet. This fitted extremely well with our theme of glorified sex, and the 'night before'. It related to our quote of 'not always knowing, and yet always searching'. Almost as if the drunkenness has given memory less, returning to the scene to find out what happened.

In spite of this, we wanted to ensure the photo-shoot was light hearted. So referring back to our main muse; Arvida Bystrom, we set the room up to be a playful studio, covered in shiny pink fabrics and feather bowers. Among the child-like set up, we included props that kept within our theme, such as condoms and underwear. Both Emanuella and I set up the room whilst Emily and Kirsten took care of make up and styling. Lena was our model.

Both Kirsten and I photographed the shoot on our own cameras, and I also took polaroids throughout to give another dynamic to the shoot. I filmed parts of the shoot so that the promotion girls; Emily and Kirsten could create a short fashion film to show in our presentation at the end.

Whilst shooting, through using both my camera and Kirsten's simultaneously this three panel 'flash' effect could be seen on Emanuella's phone. As a group we felt this really worked with our shoot and I decided to edit my pictures to look like these.

I think it was important that we all contributed and helped each other during the shoot, it brought us close together as a group and we all enjoyed the day. My initial worries of not being able to work within a group dynamic of people I hadn't spoken to before completely went away, and this showed through the final outcome of the images, and how well we clicked. Each person put effort into the shoot, we all came in on the Monday outside Uni timetable to get it completely, and brought in fabric, toys, make up, camera's and Lena brought her garments to style. She produced two outfits, alongside the fabric made up of our textiles. We also had various clothes to style these alongside. At the end of the day we had five complete outfits, which would be enough for an editorial, our aim.

Industry | Mannequin Work

Mannequin work

2 left; My samples. 2 right: Emanuella's samples.

After making various samples from knit and digital printing, I decided to bring back the child-like toy theme and make my own textile from quality street wrappers. This can be seen in the second mannequin picture.

Again this textile was not versatile, it took a long time to make and it was quite fragile. However, the concept of the patchwork and bright colour combination fitted well without our theme of 'Walk of Glory' and true to the quote 'rewound', as it was literally re joining used objects together. The patchwork effect gave a duvet feel to it, keeping in with the sexualised 'glory walk' idea.

Both Lena, Emanuella and I each took turns producing a range of ideas onto the mannequin, from both fabrics like mesh, wool and my textile, with photocopies and scans of previous textile samples. As our textiles were so elaborate, we decided it would be best to keep our garment pattern simple, so not to deflect the attention from the textile. Below, is a final fabric inspired by our textile samples combined.

Fabric made by Lena

Once we decided on our final textiles, I could start to work on a life size mannequin and therefore draw up some final designs in my sketchbook.

Industry | Textiles

Through continuing my personal experimentation's, I decided to look into both knitwear and digital printing for textile samples. After exploring Kirchhoff's past collections, I got a girly vibe from the majority of his clothes, but also this destroyed element. Using knit as a medium in this sense would be quite appropriate as you can create ladders and loop holes to make it look worn out, or "broken and rewound" to refer to the quote. 

I wanted to incorporate 'frills' into my textiles as this was a re-occurring style that Kirchhoff used throughout their collections, so I decided to try to recreate this through knit. In particular using the honeycomb technique but with close together, neat layers to create a folded effect. I found this extremely time consuming on a small sample, meaning it would not be appropriate for this short two week project, however if I had more time then this would be an idea I would like to pursue further. Although using knit in this sense was inconvenient, there were some great outcomes with the textile. For example, through turning down the tension on the knitting machine, tightened the sample enough that it became a tough material. One that could easily be made into a sheet fabric, which could then be sewn into frills by hand. 

I used some of both mine and Lena's textile samples within my digital prints, through scanning them into a computer I manipulated and repeating the patterns made. I made sure I kept to our groups chosen colours, or pink, purples, yellows and oranges. Although Meadham Kirchhoff don't tend to use digital printing, I thought I would involve myself in as many different textile techniques as I could in the time limit, to ensure that we had a wide range of samples. As a group we decided not to include my prints for a final garment, as we wanted to keep everything very 'Kirchhoff'.

Industry | Design Ideas

Sketches made from inspiration of Arvida Bystrom and Toys; 'My Little Pony' and 'Barbie'

Industry | Initial Ideas

Group Mood Board

As we were in a group, we collectively used individual images from everyone's personal mood boards to create a group one. Through doing this we picked the images we felt best represented not only our theme of 'Walk of Glory' but also our chosen quotes. Doing so helped the promotion students and the design students have a better understanding of where each team member's idea's for this project come from. It also helped collaborate our ideas, and pick out initial colour palettes and ideas for textiles.

A personal theme from my mood board, that featured in the group one was the toy's and troll's silhouettes and colours. From using a variety of pictures of these, I took them to draw up a small amount of sketches. I decided initially to not do them in colour until I had confirmed with the group that they were okay. And that everyone in the group was happy with where each designer was taking their individual ideas.

One particular image that really stood out for me in the group mood board, was an image of marks on a girls back. As I am the role of the textile's designer within the group this image was great inspiration, I will work from this image, and hopefully take it to the mannequin soon.

Industry | New Project

Today we started a new project on industry, the aim is to get a feel for what it would be like to work for a big fashion house. This project is in groups, each team was given a house in which we had to collection design (and/or) create an A/W collection. My group was given Meadham Kirchhoff, a pair of CSM graduates with an extremely avant garde style. They involved a vintage aspect, but combine it with outrageous colour clashing, cheap materials and over-the-top styling. In addition with producing garments, we aim to create various advertising campaigns, photo-shoots, catwalk ideas, style the designed garments and produce a fashion film. At the end of the two week project we have to present to the rest of the class. 

After teaming up our group deciphered that their work reminded us of the 'walk of shame,' in other words, the morning after the night out. But due to their feminist/punk attitude we decided to turn this on its head and call it the 'Walk of Glory,' emphasising that a woman should be proud and confident in her sexuality and behavior. To turn the word 'slut' into a positive as such. Due to the vintage themes running through Kirchhoff's work, we decided on keeping frills as a cohesive idea. Other brainstorms included; toys, lost boys, girly colours and texture. 

We were given two quotes in which our theme must be based around, we chose words from the first quote and combined them, this included:

"massive gaps"

"broken and rewound"

"not always knowing, and yet always searching"

These collectively fitted well with our pro feminist theme of the 'Walk of Glory,' using the broken and the massive gaps quotes could be literally taken to show the broken texture and construction of the clothes, and the last was related to the literal mind blank from a night before. The drunk connotations of not remembering what happened, but searching for it.

From these quotes I started to research into the muse we were going to be looking at, and other inspiration I got from this quote. I created a few personal mood boards focusing on the themes from 'walk of glory', alongside Meadham Kirchhoff's muse 'Arvida Bystrom', so I could learn more about her and other inspirations they use, for example Vivienne Westwood. Other similar looks and inspirational people I thought to look into included Yolandi Visser, Beth Ditto and Courtney Love. As the brand is quite new, I felt I needed to explore them further to realistically be able to design a collection that would be new, but also fit into their past work. Kirchhoff's style is quite abstract, and to ensure my designs are 'fitting' with theirs, I will refer back to my Kirchhoff mood board for ideas and themes they use.

 I am really excited for this new project, as it is only a week and two days I will try to keep on time with workload and make sure I have plenty of research to work from. My main worry is that the collection we design could look too similar to their previous work, so to avoid this I will make sure I keep referencing back