Final Boards

 

I have really enjoyed this project as I have been able to explore my own ideas and go in whichever direction I wanted. My concept is surface design-looking at magnified images of interesting objects and texture. I really like my concept; it has emerged in my designs and I have made it my own. My colour palette is clear and strong and I would like to think that the customer profile I have chosen would like the designs too. When doing the shop reports, I looked in Selfridges.  Stella McCartney, Peter Pilotto and Alexander Mqueen had there garments consisting of bold, textured prints. Each designer added something different to them; McCartney embroidered on top of the heavy prints, Pilottos prints consisted of floral and feather designs, creating texture while also adding metallic and  Mqueen used repeat patterns of wildlife to create depth and texture. Designers such as Vivienne Westwood and Victoria Beckham used bodycon dresses; they were simple however the way in which they were made, created beautiful feminine silhouettes.

(Peter Pilotto)

 

I was inspired by doing the shop report and realised that I wanted to do bold, vibrant prints on garments such as bodycon dresses and blouses. I collected many inspirational images; some were my own photographs and others were found on blogs, books and the internet. I then started working on the idea of magnified surface design.

 

I found an amazing blog by Leandra Medine: www.manrepeller.com. She is in her late 20's early 30's and is so quirky.  She is exactly the sort of person I would like to show off my designs. Leandra wears bold prints and quirky cuts; ideal for my collection. Being smart casual; the garments are ideal for work; smart but comfortable. My favourite designs are the prints with the abstract painterly backgrounds and the overlapped line motif, as seen on the trousers. The painterly designs add texture and depth whilst the motifs on top add character and style. 

At the start of this unit, I found producing flats really difficult; "Illustrator" did not agree with me! Nevertheless, after a bit of work and a good play, I found it really enjoyable. I think my flats are drawn very accurately and they would work well with the designs.

Origins

The importance of Research

To kick start the project we started to work in groups to collect ideas for a new theme. We then had to produce a research board showing all of the items found. The board had to include 3D objects, inspirational images, fabric swatches and anything that we found interesting and that linked with the theme. I personally found that the images I collected were very useful; they were either my own work or pictures I found on a blog. However the task wasn't completed as best as it could have been; we didn't meet to create our board as a group therefore not everything linked. Some people collected magazine cut outs and this, in my view,  isn't always the best research. Images found in magazines have already been inspired; the designer has taken inspiration from something or someone to create that garment. However an image of something like a flower or a burst of colour can inspire .
 

Looking at my drawings I realised I wanted to concentrate on surface design. I enjoyed drawing close-ups of fruit and vegetables  as I could focus on the patterns within them. I then decided to look at skin cells concentrating on their shapes and colours .

After having a brief look at skin cells, I realised that I had to make my theme more targeted. Focusing on just skin cells would restrict my work as the shapes are quite simple and would become really repetitive.So I decided to look at surface designs in general focusing on close-ups; magnified surface design.

I collected a variety of fruit and vegetables to draw. I found the exotic, pink mushrooms really interesting to respond to. I like the shapes and lines within the mushrooms . I  used paint very freely to create the abstract images which  I saw. I also really liked the colour palette running throughout therefore I carried on using it

As texture is such a major part of surface design I thought it would be a good idea to explore it further. I responded to it abstractly and in detail. I used the same colour theme and made sure I worked freely, exploring every aspect.

Developing Motifs

I really liked looking at the fruit and vegetables as the shapes within them were so natural and fluid. I decided to take the colours from the cabbage and use them as my colour palette. I used fine liner and watercolour to develop motif ideas and found a pattern I really liked and that I felt would work on a garment.

I love developing motifs from a simple idea; a simple inspirational image or object becoming an interesting motif that can be placed on a garment. I really liked looking at the fruit and veg as the shape within them are so natural and fluid. I decided to take the colours from the cabbage and use them as my colour palette. I used fine liner and watercolour to develop motif ideas and found a pattern I really liked and would work on a garment.

I particularly found the passion fruit  interesting to respond to. Even though it just consisted of ovals and seemed  less inspiring , I found the arrangement of them and the pattern made quite alluring. I really liked my drawing from the initial image and therefore started to work on the colours and the shapes. I scanned my work into the computer and played with the colours and how magnified it was. Depending on the image, magnifying the image too much ruins the mood of it, nevertheless with some images, the more abstract it is the better. I placed my work onto an illustration and realised the potential of using abstract painterly designs in my collection.

Looking at placement of print designs
I thought quite hard about the placements of my designs; it needed to be clear that all of designs were part of a collection yet the motifs etc couldnt be the same on each garment. This was quite difficult in some ways as I naturally play around with one design but in different colours, placements and sizes. Looking at these qualities is really interesting, but I had to do this will a different motif and design. It's interesting how the size of a motif can give a different feel to a grament even though it is exactly the same design. For example a flower; a tiny daisy repeated all over a dress, this gives a very girly feel, however a very large daisy  on a dark background gives a quirky feel. Prada's Spring 2013 Ready-to-wear collection is a great example for the play of placement on garments.

 

This is a review of this collection by Nicole Phelps:

"Dream is forbidden, nostalgia is forbidden, to be too sweet is not good.The clothes are the expression of this impossible dream." The flowers, the pervasive Japonisme—here we had Prada embracing traditional tropes of femininity and womanhood, a geisha's servitude, even. And yet in her signature way, she couldn't help turning those notions inside out.

She opened with a short black dress in stiff satin, a panel print of two flowers stitched to the torso. There were only a handful of looks that followed that didn't have some sort of florals blooming on them: A white fur coat (for Spring!) was inset with Andy Warhol's Pop art daisies in red (adding to the sixties feeling was the collection's whiff of Courrèges). A black satin coat, meanwhile, was embroidered with papery origami blossoms. Still, the clothes had a spareness that worked like a balm after seasons of endless prints.

The collection moved from dark to light. By the end, Prada was manipulating, folding, and wrapping duchesse satin in palest pink and green to evoke the ritual of kimono dressing. (Both the runway and the columns in the show space were decadently lined with that satin.) Prada explained that the Japanese element came late in the design process. "I wanted it to be tough and serious," she said. "All the folding was a consequence." Duchesse satin tough? Again there was that duality.

There was poetry to these clothes, but walking the runway in either towering Harajuku girl platforms or leather judo socks bound with patent leather bows—flats in both cases, Prada pointed out—the models exuded power too. Leave it to Miuccia to tweak nostalgia into something that felt modern and new.

I really enjoyed producing illustrations. At first I found it quite hard to establish my own style but after experimenting and working with different ideas I found my path. I realised that quite a few of my designs are made with fluid lines therefore I thought it would work if my illustrations were too. My illustrations are simple, however work quite well as it sticks with the style of my designs I tried my best to make them my own and I feel I have succeeded.