Creative Pattern Cutting Project cont.....

After some research into draping on the stand I can now understand that it is very useful for designing fluid and flowing collections. Lanvin appears to use draping on the stand for their collections. Lanvin shows how fabric can be draped over the female from with such skill it makes the outfits look effortless.
As beautiful as this is, it is also not a look I am trying to achieve, although it may be one I could explore with fabric initially to see if it suits me before I completely write it off.
I have also looked at Vionnet, their collections also appear to use draping as Madeleine Vionnet was famous for this method and it is something that become a signature of her designs along with bias cut silhouettes, so it is only fitting that it would still be used by the current design team.
I like the pleating and the idea of the volume and lines that the fabric create. I still want a more sculpted look, something a little more angular, a little more controlled.
I will continue researching draping designers and look into Vivienne Westwood and Alexander McQueen, I want to also look at Comme des Garcon and some of the couture designers like Dior.
I have started to drape on the stand, and I con honestly say it is a lot harder than it looks.

I started by trying to make the fabric follow the forms of the dummy. trying to create a wrapped design around the bust and to a bustle at the rear and included an origami shape that I hemmed to see if it would hold together.
I want to find some taffeta or heavier more rigid satin to see if I can achieve better origami with a stiffer fabric, but I like the idea of a bustle made from origami flower type creations, however the draping on the stand needs work and better fabric may achieve this.
I also tried to create a cuff like form over the corset bust top edge. Not sure if draping is the best way to achieve this result either.

Creative Pattern Cutting

Been given a new brief, to research designers that may use Draping on the stand to generate designs, then using my final major project designing process to help produce some creative designs using draping methods and deconstruct my efforts to enable to production of a flat pattern and from that a toile of the work, followed by some design development generated from the process.
This caused me some trauma!! I am comfortable with flat pattern cutting and would even consider myself as quite proficient, however draping on the stand and the levels of freedom this suggests is far too much pressure for me. I think I have the ability to see in my head the 3D version of my designs, fully finished  and I am able to mentally pull the design apart and lay it flat on the table. Draping on the stand requires that you forget this and work in a different way, which is quite difficult for me as I am already very comfortable with the flat pattern process.
However, it is a brief that requires just as much focus and dedication as all the other projects, regardless of whether it is within my comfort zone of not.
I need to research designers that drape - to start with I will look at Vivienne Westwood, Lanvin and Vionnet and see where these take me
I will also need to research the process of draping on the stand, how you should start, what you need to do in order to complete the job, look up some online videos and tutorials and then play with a few ideas.

Sainsburys TU Brief - final illustrations

I decided to go with brights but tone down the colours slightly as I believe it is more fitting for the Sainsburys signature so going with a more mustard yellow and a more navy blue. The final line up will be 6 outfits comprising of a short and jacket combo, including a blue check print on the short turn up. The jacket will include elements of the boxy jackets seen on the runway from Chanel but a little more fitted. The other outfits, a dress, skirt, shirt dress, trousers, shirt and peplum waistcoat/shirt. All items can be worn separately with items already possessed in a customers wardrobe but equally can be worn interchangeably with each other. It would make sense for Sainsburys to include each item in alternate colourways, example: the mustard shorts should also be available in blue with yellow check or white with coloured turn-up. The white shirt dress could also be available with blue trim and so on. This would increase the customers choice without adding cost to production, as it would use fabrics that are already being purchased. Using poly cottons and gingham's, with suiting fabrics in blue and mustard's and viscose mix fabrics.

The crit went well, it appears I have covered all the areas requested within the brief, it may be that areas could be improved on, but that is always true of work. Nothing is ever truly complete, everything can always be improved on or added to, but sooner of later you need to put things into perspective and use your time productively. Next brief 'creative pattern cutting', research, experiment and design.

Sainsburys brief - getting into the personality

I needed to produce a Customer Profile, a visual profile of the lady that shops in Sainsbury's but more crucially in TU.
I visited the stores, I listened and looked at the clothes they sold and the people that where in the store. I understand that they store has two key customers. The actual obvious customer, she is a lady that will always shop in the store, she needn't be worried about but equally do not ignore her. Then there is the aspirational customer, the customer that sainsburys would like to aspire to solicit. The ideal, the customer that they can make money out of and as ugly as that sounds, it the reality of business.
This customer is a mum of two or three children, she is a busy mum. One that holds down a well paid job that will probably be part-time in some fashion. She and her husband have a comfortable lifestyle, which has become a little tighter since the recession. She drives the modern, bright family car, probably a 4x4, he drives the car they refer to as 'The Wreck', it is only to take him to work and back and he feels much happier knowing the family have the safer car at their disposal.
She shops on the run, mostly. She likes Sainsburys because it offers her a wide range of healthy meal choices, it offers her choice for packed lunches and it offers her a basics range she can rely on. This is a key word for her when she shops, reliability. She like to shop in stores she can rely on. She has to shop online most of the time and rarely has the time to try clothes on, so want to make sure she shops where she knows the customer service will be excellent.
She buys most of the family clothes in stores such as Next and Debenhams but likes to take advantage of bargains, so doesn't snub supermarket clothes, they are excellent for school wear and she buys a lot of her husbands 'undies' there too. She gets all his workwear from Next, but the odd item has been known to make its way into her shopping trolley.
She like to browse around the TU Women section too, and likes that it keeps trying to reinvents itself, and its clothes reflect the fashion sections in her Sunday magazines. Their new Top Shop range is very exciting, fashionable but safe. She knows she can rely on its sense of style, but equally she can spice it up with other items from her wardrobe for those occasions she is feeling fashionably confident.
She take any chance she can to take care of her health, she runs when she can and always tries to eat fresh vegetables and fresh fruit. This is also reflected in her sportswear, she doesn't spend that much on these items and likes the fact the TU has some fair priced, easy to wear jogging clothes.
Our Sainsburys family are an aspirational family for most but if you look a little more carefully, they are actually not that different from most of us, they are anyone and everyone.

Induction Brief, proposal

At present I am working on a proposal for my Induction Brief deadline. Friday 4pm. 

The proposal must follow a pattern, introduction, design ethos, customer profile, aims, objectives........

I am finding this quite interesting, having to justify to myself and to the rest of the world how my work is relevant. I wish I could have followed all of my research up with a proposal as it has helped me to have faith in my work, to believe that what I am doing is interesting and inspired. I am enjoying this project far more than any of my previous and am looking forward to researching further and to actually researching for my essay.

My essay will be worked around couture and haute-couture and whether there is any need or desire for either in this modern world we live in, I will look into the history and the birth of couture (Haute) and follow its chronological path, I will look into how it has altered throughout the years and what effect modern times has had on the art. I will look at all levels from high end designer to the dress maker on the corner, I will look into the craft of couture and the standards that are required, hopefully using many within my practical project

I am hoping that my research for my major project will assist my research for my essay and that one will become the other. I want my final year to work as a whole as well as individual parts.

I need to look into which books I will need to borrow from the library and which websites I need to cite.

I need to print off my blog so that it can be handed in as a hard copy, this in itself is not straight forward as it is not easy to print from this website - will need to look into how to do this best

I will need to run through all the information I have used and cited within my work so far and create a bibliography - Harvard referencing style

Induction Brief - more Essay

I have been quietly thinking about my essay whilst continuing my Induction Brief unit and I have come up with some ideas, originally I wanted to do something about 'The Rituals of Dressing Up' but am struggling to find the sort of material I want. I have continued to think and see what areas will reflect my work and as I would like to create a couture collection, and there is some debate as to whether couture is a dying area of the fashion sphere, I think I would like to look into whether Couture is dead????

• I will look into the definition of couture.
• The skills require, in order to be able to produce couture work - you've gotta start somewhere!!
• The difference between Haute Couture and plain Couture
• How did the couture business start
• Who started it
• Why was the phrase 'Haute Couture' coined
• What maintains the business Haute and couture
• What has happened to the discipline during economical downturn - austerity?

I will start by looking in the following bibliography:
Couture sewing techniques / Claire B. Shaeffer
Shaeffer, Claire B
Newtown, CT : Taunton Press, c2011
250 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 26 cm.
The dressmaker's handbook of couture sewing techniques : essential step-by-step techniques for profe
Maynard, Lynda
London : A. & C. Black, 2010
160 p. ill, spiral bound
Couture in the 21st century / by Deborah Bee ; portraits by Rankin
Bee, Deborah
London : Harrods ; London : A&C Black, 2010
160 p. : ill.
Secret world of haute couture [DVD] / BBC
London : BBC, 2008
1 DVD (60 mins)
The Zapp method of couture sewing / Anna Zapp
Zapp, Anna
Iola, Wis. : Krause ; Newton Abbot : David & Charles, c2004
128 p. : col. ill. ; 28cm.
Couture culture [electronic resource] : a study in modern art and fashion / Nancy J. Troy.
Troy, Nancy J.
Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, c2003.
xii, 438 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.
Couture sewing techniques / Claire B. Shaeffer
Shaeffer, Claire B.
Newtown, Conn. ; [Great Britain] : Taunton, 1993 (2001 [printing])
217 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 26 cm.
L'officiel de la couture et de la mode Paris
Paris : Editions Jalou Sa
Irregular
Collezioni haute couture
Modena : Logos
2 issues per year
Couture Culture: A Study in Modern Art and Fashion [electronic resource].
MIT Press
Balenciaga and his legacy : haute couture from the Texas Fashion Collection / Myra Walker
Walker, Myra, 1954-
Dallas : In association with the Meadows Museum, c2006
xvii, 162 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 32 cm.
How fashion works : couture, ready-to-wear, and mass production / Gavin Waddell
Waddell, Gavin
Oxford, UK ; Ames, Iowa : Blackwell Science, 2004
xii, 211 p. : il
Also I will use the Internet websites, such as Vogue.com and trendsetter.com and the news paper websites. Hopefully this will provide me with a way forward for my essay and hopefully I will then be able to plan my essay, paragraph by paragraph, what to include and what to not include. Also I hope it will give me a more focused title and concept.

Induction, colour, print??

I have draped Wall paper on the stand to help me gain ideas for colour and print for my Final Major Project.
I want my collection to have a Couture fell, they need to shout beauty, structure and vulnerability. I want to design evening wear/ bridal/ couture wear.
I need to look into Couture. What it means and what makes something couture. I do not mean the french Haute Couture. I want to make custom made, made to measure garments, one offs for someones special occasion.

The colour would need to reflect the occasion. What is the occasion? Maybe a wedding, maybe the Red Carpet, maybe an exhibition piece with three or four more wearable pieces.

I want to design for a Fall collection, rather than summer. I want the heaviness of the structure to be balanced by the colour.
I tried draping stripes, large prints, pinks, black and whites, silver (a colour I was interested in using after visiting the V&A Ballgown exhibition) and purples.

I like the stripes but I think there is a possibility that they drown the look, maybe mix with a plain colour. This could be useful to engage the other outfits within the collection.

I am not sure about the colours though, they look like an ethnic tribal clothing look. This is not the look I am after. Maybe try a two colour look, maybe black and white, maybe as I like these two colours mixed with the silver. This give a sharp and clean look and the white maintains a vulnerability.
Need to look for fabric like this. Stripe, white, black and silver.

Induction again!!!!

More work in my sketchbook has made me look into the London skyline and the buildings that encompass it. The shapes of some of them remind me of origami or folded paper. The structure is hard yet beautiful. I took some photo's whilst in London of the various building and was very interested in the way some looked like pleated fabrics in the skirt of a ball gown.


I also liked the way some of the buildings had scaffolding on them adding to the lines created like a column in the middle, lets say a bias cut dress, tight and narrow, with a layer of scaffolding added as a layer over the top, like a cage, which also reminded me of a Jean-Paul Gaultier dress from Haute Couture Fall 08/09
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
Loving the idea of the structure being a single layer. A cage that surrounds the wearer, to protect or to hold inside????

The Saffold 2003 Steven Kenny

This reminds me of the artist Steven Kenny http://www.stevenkenny.com His work has both a protection and safe guard feeling. The artist seems to paint his objects as if they are vulnerable yet there is something about them that makes you lightly fearful. This in itself give the paintings a primitive beauty yet a carnival of darkness awe.

Maybe use elements of this idea within my design development. But not compromising the beauty within the awe.

Induction Brief continued again....

Ive been busy adding to my sketchbook and I feel as though its going in an interesting direction.
The origami i have produced has made me create shapes around the structure and stiffness of paper.

My Origami

I like the way it looks like a flower but also has the hardness that allows further structure to be placed upon it, like Dior's creations for SS07.



Dior SS07

I like the enormous structures attached to the dress and would like to have a dress that has the impact of a 'here I am people' dress, yet maintaining a fairy story beauty.


Still need to investigate colour. I will need to visit a DIY shop and get some wall paper, drape on the stand and see how colour and print could look on 3D. Hopefully this will help to gain some kind of idea for impact but also beauty.