Current Project
so recently we started our last majour project of the year, we have been set a designer that we have to develop a range for, also we were given the choice of three aw/13-14 trends of which we had to incorporate with the brand identity.
I chose the designer brand “basso & brooke” a high end design team the dpecialise in complete deigital print garments, with a simple yet dratic pattern cut style. with this is in mind and the concept of my trend i chose to primaily look at arcitecture for my main inspiration for print and shape, also the art of illusion in layers through choice of print placement.
so far i have worked in paper to see how the print will place and also how the shape of the garment will work, as you can see above here is the print i developed using three building in my local area and edited them into a basso & brooke style print.
Im Back
Ok so i have not blogged in a long time, been so much work in progress and deadlines with uni, but i am slowly getting my life back and cant wait to share what i have been up to, until then heres a peek at my first ever digital print, ill post details in a further post until then enjoy and ponder over what I’m using this for …
Final Outcome
The concept behind the shoot is of a single persons identity having no meaning or being able to place someones identity through skin colour, facial features or body type. My final piece consists of the crop style jacket with the main focus on the collar, built up of the 3d pyramids, staying strong with my concept of shape to represent identity.
Construction Development
with deciding not to go with the idea of using eyelets to construct the piece i found that developing the shape into the pattern pieces would be the best way forward and also have a more cleaner finish. I am staying with the idea of the collar piece as the main construct and keep the bodice and the lapels of the jacket simpler. above is examples of how introducing shape into the pattern works and the fabric i have chosen. the photo shop example is a brief idea of the direction the final piece is heading.
Shape Development Inspiration
Now that i am in the final stages of the design process of my final piece i have my shape and design firmly in place, i came across this amazing book that was a great inspiration and help in the final design ideas.
the book is entitled Shapeshifter; shaping fashion silhouettes.
“In the hands of today’s most experimental fashion designers, the human silhouette is being radically reshaped and the boundaries between fashion, art, sculpture and architecture, fascinatingly redrawn. Shapeshifters showcases a range of inspiring and visually-arresting designs from all over the world. From buldous and voluminous to austere and angular, the looks presented will be provocative, exquisite and sumptuous, and will intrigue with their demonstration of the structural potential of clothing. Displaying astonishingly architectural concepts that are graphically striking and sculptural.”
Editor: She-reen Wong, Crystal Lee
Design & Layout : Shiwei Ng
Craft VS. Design..
Craft is the making of objects by hand while displaying great skills and mastery. It is largely believed to be a labor-based, backward-looking and vocational activity as oppose to having the qualities of being intellectual, forward-looking and academic as found in art and design. Despite this stigma, the status of craft in society has ebbed and flowed. One example of this is the Arts and Crafts movement, where William Morris famously opposed the mechanisation of objects found in the Industrial Revolution.
The paper cut work shown in the picture above, created by Japanese artist Hina Aoyama, is a good example of contemporary craft. The skills and process of making these crafts do not vary greatly from that of traditional Chinese/Japanese paper cut craft. On the other hand, the approach of embracing contemporary typography into this traditional form of craft is very modern and refreshing. It “re-introduces the connecting to the making that we lost with the über-designer handing off things for production to a typesetter or lithographer. It’s come full circle”
It is clear it takes a vast amount of time and effort to construct such a complex and intricate piece of work, all made with just a pair of scissors. The emotion that went into this hand made craft is self-evident and it adds an extra dimension of beauty that goes deeper than just the aesthetics of the object. As critic Louise Schouwenberg puts it: “Craftsmanship can be valued for the psychological effect it exerts on its user.” In addition, there are a lot of thought in integrating the modern and the traditional that went in making this unique piece of work allowing the craft to tell a narrative in its own way. This is the perfect example where the line between craft and design begins to blur, even for the two to become in-distinguishable from each other.
Joining shape development
researching into how i want the jacket to be constructed, I’ve looked at many ways of joining the garment together, one way in particular way using eyelets and linking it together with chain links, doing this on the one side of the jacket and connecting the collar on. the idea of having all the detail of the triangles one side blending into the jacket being simple one piece panels symbolising how single identities can come together to form one and also adding an interesting effect to the way the jacket is constructed. I am going to now look how the new panel technique will look with the collar piece attached.
Developing shape and style
Further experimenting on the stand just in paper at the moment i have continued looking at playing with shape and now proportion. i like the contrast of smaller and bigger shapes mixed together. i believe it gives it more depth and adds another dimension. also with further sampling i have discovered the design will work best as a neck piece. with this in mind i am choosing to do a crop styled jacket with the main focus on the neck piece using my pyramid style embellishment. keeping the theme of “complete androgyny” it will be a tailored style crop jacket to suit both male and female. here is some initial ideas i have completed on photo shop to give a rough idea of how it may look. next i plan to look into playing with what types of materials i will use for the final piece.
Theme and Shape Development
After our last group crit i decided to look into the theme of androgony further and move onto the idea of genderless fashion. i also wanted to delve deeper into the identity side, so whilst looking into the history of gender and identity i came across an old chart that was used to identify people during the hollocaust. it used a shape and colour system to to group people such as gyspsy, homosexuals, jewish etc.
I want to take this idea of the triangle shape and mix of colours to influence the overall silohete of my piece, during the hollocaust one single triangle with a colour was used and that became your identity, so i want to play with multiple triangles of different sizes and possible colours to represt more than one identity, not being able to pin point one specifically.
So with this in mind I’m playing around with paper on the stand and getting a feel for how i could do this, looking at focusing on one area such as the shoulder, neck or back.
