Structure and Attachment | Accessories - The Making

For this workshop we were told to bring in a variety of mundane objects, alongside string, wire, tape and so on in order to join our objects together. We spent the day making five separate samples, and the  photocopied them to work into the images. I really enjoyed this task as it wasn't to physically make the accessory, but instead ideas that could inspire accessory designs. This concept was difficult to get my head around at first as it was a conceptual designing workshop and I have never done anything like this before. I was content with all five of my samples, they all turned out very different and abstract from each other, even though the same materials were used to make them.

Objects I found worked well in this workshop were items with hooks or areas that caught on something, so I used food hooks and paper clips. Elastic bands in bright colours also looked good. The main idea I had was to make the samples look as if they weren't made from mundane objects, and I feel I achieved this. My favourite item and one i shall develop further, perhaps to design the final from was the hook and string sample. It reminded me of the knit workshop, and as a flat sample could make some really interesting patterns for fabric or a silhouette for a garment.

Through working with 3D, I learnt new ways to attach objects together, and designing the sample to fit into itself as such, using minimal glue as I felt this ruined the final look of the piece. This is where the string and elastics came in, as well as using for decoration they kept the samples in place and together. In particular, one of my samples I used no glue only elastic bands, this worked well, it was well finished and could be easily moved or changed around, as the sample wasn't glued together it was much more versatile.

I made sure I took pictures of each sample from multiple angles so I can refer back to each idea when designing the final piece, we also had to scan them in and print them. Once I had these images, we worked into them with various materials, I really enjoyed this part. It was very abstract and expressionistic and we could lay it out however we wanted. As my chosen colour is red/orange, I printed my images in these tones or just natural and drew around them in similar colours. I tried to keep my samples within my colour but this was difficult to preplan as I didn't know what I was using my objects for. In the final piece I will spray paint the final object red to make it look complete and professional. 

If I were to do the designing again, I would think more carefully about my objects. For example, I brought allen keys, but could only use them in one sample as they were really difficult to attach to other objects but seemed a waste.

Structure and Attachment | V&A and Natural History Museum

Ahead of accessories week I decided to go to the Natural History Museum and V&A for some inspiration. As accessories can be made from anything, and look however the designer wishes, the possibilities were endless so through making these trips I was hoping to home in on a specific idea that incorporated within my themes.

Natural History Museum

I started at the top floor and worked my way down, the 'Red Zone' was filled with exhibits of volcanoes, earthquakes and other natural disasters. The opening shape of this zone was surrounding the escaltor, it was this huge metal 'lava' like ball, immediately I thought of Mcqueen's Savage Beauty. The ball was gold greys on the outside, but the inside was a burning red. Purely on colour I was completely blown away and I knew my accessory needed to be this burning bright red. I made sure to take as many pictures as I could to avoid forgetting anything if I returned to it later on. The pictures were useful as I had to hand my bag in meaning I didn't have my sketchbook to hand.

The first item that caught my eye was this heat suit; the cone shape of the head was 'out of this world' but could easily be translated into a silhouette of a garment or accessory, it was sci-fi-chic. This got me thinking about interpreting themes like futuristic, or vintage into structure and attachment, where someone comes from or where they are going. A persons Culture. And how fashion changes around people, social aspects, politics and economic status. 

The minerals and rocks were of little interest to me, but the geometric shapes and strong lines could be translated into something more interesting. The skeletons too, were too obvious in the attachment side of the project, but again as a loose idea could be really interesting. Perhaps not taken literally, but more in the sense of how objects could attach to each other, with joints and 'ligaments.'

V&A - Asia

The V&A was more interesting, I decided to wander around the exhibitions that are permanent there as I have never seen them before. The pattern detail and structure was something I realised noticed in the Asia sections of the V&A, it was so beautiful. From rugs to kimono's to paintings, every part of the exhibitions seem to work with the briefing of the project, and I knew it was a theme I had to incorporate into mine. Luckily my grandparents home is decorated with a lot of Asian art, in particular traditional Japanese paintings and masks. One part of the Japanese exhibit that caught my eye was the Samurai section, with the traditional armor and the unbelievable detail on the swords and knifes.

The middle-eastern section was distinctly red, very formal and embroided, one fireplace in particular stood out to me. It was so intricate in detail but had a very beautiful structure, I was completely thrown at how detailed the Asian art was and I hope it is something I can incorporate into my work, not necessarily in the literal sense but in the silhouettes and attention to detail. The shapes of the calligraphy and the bright and bold colour palette.

Structure and Attachment | Monocolour

          

Our project is called 'Structure and Attatchment' and it is meant to be in mono, meaning single colour. Jeong Mee Yoon is an artist who photographed her daughter Seowoo amongst her sea of pink things, from dolls to dresses to stuffed animals. She then began photographing little boys and girls amongst their colour-coded belongings in a quest to better understand how gender shapes our lives from such a young age. This included the 'Colour Project' which was red and blue themed. As my chosen colour is Red I felt this 'mono-ing' of a whole shoot in a single colour was a really interesting take. However there is a always a story behind contemporary shoots like this, the innocence of her subjects begs the question: is there something "natural" about these gender norms? Is it just socially acceptable to love pink as a little girl, and blue as a boy. Yoon finds that craze surrounding pink and blue affects almost all children; mass-marketing has become a universal language. Yoon stated on her website "Today, with the effects of advertising on consumer preferences, these colour customs are a worldwide standard."

The project explored the trends in culture and the differences in children's taste, but also the parents. Is this gender stereotyping of colour influenced by the parents, nature versus nurture, or is it simply personal choice. This kind of work raises many moral issues, such as the relationship between gender socialisation and identity, or even the globalisation of consumerism. This idea can be easily related to Jeremy Scott's most recent collection designed to look like Barbie, the trademark doll. 

Much of the collection kept to the traditional hot pinks, with flirty style and bouncy blond locks, this collection was a perfect example of what every little girl dreams to look like. What intrigues me, is in the current age of feminism and politically correct media, how this slipped to become a craze. 

Structure and Attachment | Digital Printing Final Day

My final two patterns, in blue hues

These patterns, including the red original placed onto white templates

Today was the final day of the digital printing, and I feel I got the hang of it and enjoyed the day as a whole. Pre-planning and sketching out my patterns really helped me visualise what to do with them on the mannequin. We were split into groups of four to work on the mannequins, so although my chosen pattern colour was red, the majority of my group had blue patterns so we made an informed decision to recolour all of our patterns so that everyone's had blue hues. This was a great idea and made our final product look well finished and thought out. 

I decided to start off the placing of our paper prints on the mannequin as I felt it is easier to create something on a started canvas, so even though we decided to move it off once we placed others it relaxed everyone into the task and we all experimented with new ways of putting the patterns on.

I felt it was difficult working in a group in this sense as well all were worried about cutting or folding others patterns just in case they didn't want us to. However I think it's important to be able to work in a group for many reasons; being able to work in a group means you can bounce off each others ideas, learn and find out new ways to do something, perhaps a way that you might not have considered yourself. Another reason is learning to give and take constructive criticism. This, I feel was the most important aspect of our group mini project, I got feedback on both my 'final' designs, all positive. People commented on the interesting composition and shapes produced in my glue print (right image) meaning I followed my theme correctly, and made the mundane interesting. Other feedback included well matched colours and intriguing layered patterns. Dan agreed with these comments, giving me confirmation which I was extremely appreciative of.

In future digital printing, Dan told us to never work off a template like the examples of the images above as it shows a lack of imagination, this was great advice and has inspired me to translate these quick fixes into real designs, perhaps to then print off and try to make from paper. The original paper sculpting workshop helped me a lot during the final day of digital printing, I used techniques like attaching the pieces together before pinning them onto the mannequin.

Structure and Attachment | Digital Printing

The Basics:

Following the pictures left to right;

To create a basic pattern you started by drawing the pattern on a scale of choice, ours was 2cm by 2cm, then making the square into a pattern by clicking 'Define Pattern'. You would then open up a new page, A4 size on the International Paper, then transferring the Pattern into the A4, or paper size of choice. Finally you decided on the scale of the pattern.

Main Workshop:

A few of the patterns designed that day

I started off really uninspired by digital printing. As I have relatively strong previous Photoshop knowledge I felt the workshop moved quite slowly at times, not to say I didn't learn new skills, as I definitely did I just felt tutorials weren't always at a pace that allowed me to maintain steady focus. However saying this, at the end of today I began to enjoy designing the digital prints as we were allowed to design our own. I’ve learnt my techniques and interests lie in ‘hands on’ work, so as soon as we were able to design our own, and start to manipulate our own images I really got into the workshop. I’d say I got on pretty well, initially my designers were uninspired by my own research and these didn’t look great. But once I went through my research and book, ideas flooded in and my designs became much more structured and exciting.

My favourite prints came from a photocopy of glue dried out, the original glue piece attached itself to the paint in the tray it was removed from and these colours were transferred to the glue in this process. It had a very abstract structure which made it easy to work with; I could pick out and repeat sections without it looking mirrored or similar to other people’s designs.

A tool I had never learnt to use on Photoshop previously was designing my own brush print; this was an interesting development to a few of our original practice designs. This can be seen in the middle print in the image above, the rose used as part of the pattern was transferred into a brush, and in a larger scale printed all over the top of the pattern. After getting the hang of this tool I started to think about how it could be used in garments. For example, as opposed to using an accent colour, I could use an accent pattern with this tool and pre-plan to place it throughout the design and then printing it in the correct place on the digital programme. Through practice, I’m sure this could be self-taught, a technique I hope to try out.

In feedback from peers and Dan, the teacher, it was all relatively positive, in particular the geometric shapes and the tonal matching of my chosen colour red. As well as learning to use the brush tool, I developed my knowledge in new ways of using the basic Photoshop tools and improved my speed and therefore time management through learning more of the keyboard shortcuts. Something I could definitely work on with digital printing that I will try to bring into Fridays workshop is to be more brave with my patterns. To step away from ‘pretty shapes’ and colours and looking into making the mundane exciting, everyday objects zoomed into, microscopic levels. I felt I got a good grasp on scale, and the scales that suited which patterns best.  

For Friday I am aware we are translating our patterns onto a mannequin, to prep for this I will sketch in advance various ways my designs could be used, this should improve Fridays work as my scales and patterns will be ready to work with.

Structure and Attachment | Knitting Workshop

My first few attempts at knitwear went awfully, especially casting on took a while to get right. The majority of the techniques were fiddly but once I got the hang of them, they became much more natural and quick to do. I really enjoyed knitwear as all the skills seems extremely complicated at first, but in a very short amount of time you were able to see your technique and time seriously improving. In particular my first attempt at 'honeycombing' went horrifically, the lines and holes weren't lined up and were uneven and I kept dropping stitches, but then through attempting to fix it, I ended up with a series of threads and knots over my sample, unsuccessful to say the least. By the end of the week however, I also taught myself to re-loop a dropped stitch meaning if I made a mistake the sample wasn't ruined.

Ironically after hating the 'honeycomb' technique at first because I couldn't get it right it turned out to be one of my favourites. (it can be seen in both samples) It was double sided in the sense that it looked good either way as look as it was made neat. One main tip I learnt from attempting this technique was not to rush it as the threads are delicate and they snap, which meant it had to be started again which wasted time. The other tip I picked up, particularly with honeycombing, was to work from the outside in, this ensured the lines were even and the sample was kept neat and tidy. This was true to hemming samples too. Another skill I struggled with but soon came to enjoy was 'lace holds' or better know as 'lace knitting'. These dainty holds could be used to line the hem in a jagged style (seen in right sample) or using the technique to design patterns in the fabric. We started off by learning to do a diamond, and I attempted a 'heart' which was unsuccessful as I dropped too many stitches and it fell apart, however I also tried a staggered ladder 'skyline' which looked great so I used it in my final sample.

I felt I succeeded in knitwear and picked it up relatively quickly, as I have knitted by hand in the past I thought I wouldn't enjoy the weeks workshop, however to my amazement I really enjoyed it and am now considering incorporating it into my final project or even part-studying it at Degree level. 

I received positive feedback from my partner and in the final show of everyone's work, one of my designs was picked as a favourite. (The left sample) Being able to see everyone's designs together was beneficial, as we evaluated the good, or bad in each, I could see the broad range of ways that each simple technique could be incorporated together to create designs. One of my favourites simply changed the tension when she swapped yarns which created a dipped effect, these indents could be translated into so many different designs and were easy to create. I hope to return to working with the knitting machines where I can try out some combination designs I saw and made myself again.Mixing the techniques and creating new techniques and patterns was something I enjoyed learning, for example using 'lace holds' to create shapes or ladders in the sample. Or mixing stripes (two yarns) with honeycomb to produce pronounced stripes, all these combinations gave me ideas for garments or details on garments. 

Some design combinations would have looked better simply through matching yarns more thoughtfully, the best samples used similar colours, or the same colour in different tones or yarns, this looked much more professional. In my samples we chose a bright blue with a muted cream beige colour, I thought these complimented each other well. However when incorporating the fringing, I decided on a gold yarn which I don't think worked, I should have used silvery/grey tones or a thicker yarn. I planned out my final samples on paper before which was practical as it meant my final products looked well finished.

Working with someone else on the machine was great as we could help each other and learn from each others mistakes. However it also slowed us down a lot meaning we could only create three final samples together as opposed to four. 

London Fashion Week SS 14 | Somerset House

Going to Somerset House during London Fashion Week was an experience in itself, meeting, networking and taking in current trends and styles. I felt it was important to go as it broadened my ideas, gave me inspiration and helped my research move forward whilst keeping it up to date. It also helped introduce current methods and techniques I am learning into real life, giving each one diversity and helping me visualise exactly what I'm learning and how it could be used. I'd say keeping up with the week was successful, I visited Somerset House twice, watched shows online and outside Somerset House and went to two shows. This all showed me just how important dressing for the role is, simply looking the part gets you noticed. It makes people pay attention to you, whilst also allowing you to be taken more seriously, as a young student trying to get into the industry, these points counted to be vital. 

I got on very well during the week and I got a good feel for what goes on during, before and after shows. Different days at Somerset House produce different sorts of people, four main types; people who go to take pictures, people who go to have pictures taken, people who go to shows, and models. The square is extremely atmospheric, and you can tell when a show is about to start because there is a massive rush and buzz and black cars arrive.  My visits to Somerset House were successful, I managed to get into a Press Event which was fantastic for networking, but unfortunately it was an 'after-show' event so I didn't get a chance to see the show it was for. I learnt a lot about the intensity of the shows, and I managed a glimpse of the 'Here and Now' fashion world. 

As I said earlier, dressing the part was something I learnt to be extremely important, when one photographer shows to take your pictures, they literally come in flocks. Showing trends can be on the Street as well as the Catwalk, and how easy it is to translate a personal style into something commercial. This can be seen through the transitions from Couture into RTW and then into High Street shops like Zara and Topshop and many others. Although saying this, many turn up in ridiculous outfits simply to be "papped" at Somerset House for their 'Street Style'. I made sure to get pictures of styles I particularly liked through the week, which was very useful as it means I can refer back to any of these easily. The main two tips I picked up were to be interesting and to stand out, but in a good way. Tips that will be translated into my own work; there is no use designing items that have been used to death, silhouettes that could have been copied and pasted from someone else. My own work needs to be 'my own' and it has to have a recognisable style. However inspiration is everywhere and for that reason alone, going was very useful.

My main challenge was turning up alone on the second day, however this turned out to be much better as I could keep to my own planning and time keeping. I learnt for next time that pre-planning is vital, getting tickets in advance will ensure entry into shows, as opposed to streaming. Although the 'Front Row' streams were brilliant as I could see any collections I wanted to, it was completely free, and it meant I could pause and return back to any collections I particularly liked or took inspiration from. As well as pre-planning for tickets, checking the weather ahead of time to ensure going on the best possible day. One aspect I noticed was that the weather makes a huge difference to the atmosphere, more people turn up on sunny days both to go to shows and photographers. The week mainly helped my confidence in networking, a vital skill in the fashion industry and gave me a huge variety of inspiration and encouragement to continue in this career path.