WEEK 1

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Uniform Project

Continuing my research from over the summer, I focused on PPE uniform, which is currently being worn by nurses, doctors and carers to protect against COVID-19. I chose to look at this as it is relevant in the world today and has not been explored to this extent in the past. I gathered primary research by going into a local doctor’s surgery and taking photos of the scrubs nurses have to wear. I also took photos of the surroundings that had to change due to COVID-19.

As well as this, I started to look at politicians’ work wear and how politicians are portraying, and dealing with, COVID-19. Feedback from this week was to take this research further, experiment with it and do collage work and drawings to start developing my ideas.

 

 

WEEK 2

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Uniform Project

This week I started with combining my research together. I did this through collage work and drawings. I also started to look at designers who’s work connected with my research. Jil Sander, Louis Vuitton and Marc Jacobs all had work which was inspired or looked like nurses’ uniforms. I wasn’t feeling very motivated by my research and wasn’t pleased with the work I was producing this week. I shared these feelings with lecturers and peers in my seminar and after gaining feedback on my work, I knew I wanted to disregard the COVID-19 research. I then focused on politicians’ work wear along with the aspect of gender. I did this as it was something that was more interesting to me and I felt I could produce better design work through these topics.

 

Drawing & Visualisation

This week we started D&V, I was excited to start this and learn new drawing techniques. This week I was to complete nine fashion illustrations from Craig Green’s collection in three different styles. The styles were realistic line drawings, more exocentric drawings inspired by Charles Jeffreys drawings and a Photoshop collage inspired from Edinburgh Collage Collective. I really enjoyed experimenting with this and seeing what different drawings I produced from these styles. I will carry forward these techniques within other projects.

 

WEEK 3

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Uniform Project

I started this week by picking out particular words and phrases that could influence my research and design. These were identity, dress code, representation, professionalism and empowerment. By doing this I could focus my research into specific areas that I am interested in and broaden my research further. I did a lot of research into gender roll within parliament and also in general society. I looked at a lot of images where male and females’ stereotypes crossed over. 

I was lucky enough to visit the V&A in Dundee, where Mary Quant’s work was exhibited and contained a variety of women’s work wear. She pushed the boundaries for woman’s fashion in the 60s and office wear played a big part in this. This helped put my research onto a fashion context. I started to develop my work by drawing garments that were inspired by my research, I then manufactured features of these garment drawings. I made ties, a collar, a shirt body, and a patch pocket.

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Drawing & Visualisation

Subcultures was the new project for this week. I chose to look at Bikers and Preps, I did this as I thought they contrasted well, and I liked both styles. I also knew I could gather primary and secondary research for both. I researched both themes and looked closely at what each group wears. I then combined some on the patterns and fabrics that I found from each to see the contrast they had. I also looked for a celebrity influence that would wear my collection, I chose to use Jenny Humphry from the show Gossip Girl. I chose her as she is a preppy schoolgirl, with an edgy look so I thought she would be perfect for the style I created. I then did some line up drawings of miss matching the subcultures together.

 

WEEK 4

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Uniform Project

Expanding on my samples from the previous week, I looked at designers work who exaggerated parts of shirt garments to make them look more interesting and unique. I thought about the different ways in which the features I had manufactured could be applied to the body and adapted to create an interesting garment. I tried to use these features to play on femininity as I wanted to apply them to a masculine shaped garment. I also started to pick out colours from my research that I thought worked well together. My feedback this week suggested that I started to do line up drawings, use Photoshop to help me with this and experiment with collage work. I was to also think more about a concept and make my work tell a story.

 

Drawing & Visualisation

I continued with my subculture miss match drawing and tried to experiment with them, I took some of my research onto photoshop and collaged them. I think this worked well and I will try more techniques in the coming weeks. My feedback from this was to play with scale and to add more of the preppy subculture.

 

WEEK 5

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Uniform Project

I carried on with research, looking at female leaders from across the world and how their work wear varies. I looked at what makes a suit more feminine or masculine and how this looks on the opposite genders form. I put my primary, secondary and contextual research into a concept board and came up with the theme names ‘tied to a gender’ and ‘nothing specified for women’. I feel these described my project well and I tell a story through the images I have chose. I did six illustrations of garments, thinking of how I wanted my final garment to look. I wasn’t happy with these illustrations, so I knew I wanted to work on these over the coming weeks. 

 

Drawing & Visualisation

This week I finalised my line ups, I did four men’s winter looks, four woman’s winter looks, four men’s summer looks, four woman’s summer looks and four looks to be worn by my chosen character. Alongside these collections, I did a concept board for each to explain the story and why I had chosen these outfits. I was happy with the final outcome of this project and this helped me think about illustrating garments.

 

WEEK 6

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Sustainability Project

This week was the start of the sustainability project, I attended a talk by Sascha Camilli who spoke about vegan fashion materials and I found this very inspiring and fitting for this project. I found this a good way to learn a lot about the topic of sustainability and hear others views about it. It also related sustainability to fashion design as it was speaking about the materials that can be used. 

I then had the project briefing and started to think about what sustainability means to me and how I can portray this within my work. Orsola de Castro, Carry Somers, Patrick McDowell and Helen Kirkuk are designers and influencers who support sustainability, and this is where I started my research. Learning from them was inspiring and eye opening.

 

Drawing & Visualisation

This week I started the Attachments project, I researched modular objects and fashion. Looking at how these fitted together and moved on the body. I then took a jacket and jumper and unpicked every seam to deconstruct the garments. I pinned these pieces together in different ways and photographed them on the body to see what the best garment design was. I then did sketches of the garment and took my final drawing onto Photoshop to lay it over a model. I was pleased with how this turned out and my feedback showed I had done well. I was also told to look at different fastenings such as buttons or Velcro which I could use to attach and detach parts of the garment.  

 

WEEK 7

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Sustainability Project

I picked out key words and phrases that interested me about sustainability, I then investigated them further. These words included recycling, upcycling, circular fashion and consumerism. I started with looked at repairing clothes and the techniques I would use to do this. I found that this research was more textiles based so I disregarded this and moved on with further research. I then looked at upcycling old garments such as gloves and hats into new garments such as jackets. I also looked at upcycling waste products like plastic bags and plastic bottles to use for materials. My feedback from this week was to do more primary and secondary research and development. 

 

Drawing & Visualisation

This week I sewed my garment pieces together, I sewed buttons and buttonholes to parts of it so I could attach and detach peicess in different places. I then took a short video of me wearing the garment and showed how it can be worn on different parts of the body and also changed to look different. I was pleased with how this turned out.

 

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WEEK 8

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Sustainability Project

This week I started doing more research into waste products and landfill sites, I thought about circular fashion and how this could be applied to my work. I took primary research pictures of rubbish and plastic bottles and tried to put these into a fashion context. I struggled with this but did collage work and came up with some fashion garment ideas. I wasn’t feeling very inspired by the work I was producing, and I think this could be seen by my lecturers and peers. Form my feedback I wasn’t sure where to go with my work. I tried to think more about waste and did some research and drawings from food waste and wonky vegetables. After gaining more feedback on this I felt the research I was gathering was restricting for fashion design. It was suggested to me that I look at a particular decade for inspiration and try to work with research that I liked, to show my personality in my work.

 

 

WEEK 9

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Sustainability Project

Doing further research I looked into the topic of consumerism as I have a larger interest in this. I started to think what consumerism means to me and the first thing that influenced me were 90s movies such as ‘Clueless’ and ‘The Devil Wears Prada’. These movies show characters that I would class as typical over-consumers. These characters are seen with lots of shopping bags and wearing teen fashion. I then looked further at the 90s teen fashion and the big styles included A-line mini dresses and skirts, crop tops and flared trousers. I did some rough sketches of 90s teen fashion silhouettes, incorporating the waste plastic bags as materials. My feedback from this week showed improvement from past weeks, yet I still needed to do more research to gain silhouette inspiration. It was suggested to me that I look at 90s furniture, architecture, music, technology and anything else that could influence my design. 

 

WEEK 10

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Sustainability Project

This was my final feedback review. Over this week I looked at 90s items to influence my work, I found that inflatable furniture showed interesting 3D shapes and structures. I also like how different it looked when inflated and deflated. I then looked at other items that could influence my design in the same way, I researched sweets and architecture. I took primary research photos of inflatable pool rings. This gave me a better understanding of the structure inflatables have on the body and also the fastenings that are used. I applied these shapes, along with the 90s teen fashion, to final illustrations and thought this worked well. I was happy with my development over the project and excited by the collection that I had created. Feedback from this week was to develop my line up illustrations more and go back into development drawings. I will continue to develop this project for hand in.