I know the tears, anger and frustration will all be worth it come June 17th.

The past 5 months studying here have been CRAZY!!! I've learnt so much about myself and feel as though I've made a huge improvement in terms of my work from how I was when I started. But I'm very aware that there is still a lot more to learn and a lot more growing to do within myself and and within my work - I desperately need to improve on my time management and organisation skills. Hopefully, once I get into my FMP these improvements will occur and the growth I've achieved over the months will continue and convey itself through my final outcome.

The tears, anger and frustration will all be worth it come June 17th.

Culture Project

As part of preparing for our FMP, we were given a three week culture project whereby we had to combine two contrasting cultures and come out with a collection that exhibited the joining of those two cultures. My choice was Tibet meets The Roaring Twenties. WHY? Not only because they are two visibly contrasting cultures in terms of dress but on a more social level, I thought it would be really interesting to combine a culture of solitude and old fashioned, more traditional values with a culture that at its time was socially and sexually liberated and outspoken. 

I dived straight into design by individually focusing on the silhouettes of traditional Tibetan clothing before moving onto the silhouettes of clothes worn by flappers (they were my main interest). 

After freeing my mind and hand of ideas, I began to merge the two silhouettes together which proved quite difficult. I think this was because clothing worn by flappers were often straight lined unfitted garments with dropped waists; lacking in versatility whereas Tibetan dress were often pieces of fabric draped and tied around the body according to ones personal taste, never one way and very very 

versatile. 

Project Sportwearrrrrr!!!!!

SS14 was definitely the season of sports on the catwalk. Graced with the circular silhouettes of Chanel's SS14 Couture retake on skate boarding versus the intrusiveness of A.Wang's geometric print for his second line for Balenciaga it was only about time I was able to come up with my own trendy rendition of a classic sport. 
Research was very necessary! This was carried out by taking a trip to west end, sloane street and the Kings road, analysing luxury takes on a particular sport and comparing them to high street interpretations. Overall it was an opportunity to focus on the little features of all kinds of sportswear, from the fastening to fabric types. The information collected was used in three workshops carried out that afternoon. 
In Workshop One I had to create mood boards consisting of the images gathered on my trip plus some images of luxury and high street sportswear ; another mood board focusing on one particular sport ( I chose fencing) and then a final mood board focusing on just one landmark in the UK. ( Almost everyone chose the Gherkin or the London Eye so I decided to use The Eden Project). 

Workshop Two saw me using a small detail of any team of sportswear photographed to create a range of pockets right down to a collection of dresses but it was imperative that I only focused on the silhouette. 

Workshop Three was the most interesting and productive. Becca had us blow up a single line from one of the photographs taken on our excursion which we would then cut out numerous times in different sizes. These strips of cards were then wrapped around the mannequin creating some very interesting lines or seams later when it came to the development of ideas stage. It was very important that we followed the line, allowing it to go wherever the curves of the mannequin would take it. Under no circumstances could I interfere or manipulate the direction of the strip. By doing so, the ideas produced would be too pre-meditated, forced in some sense therefore limiting me in producing a variety of different design ideas.

These are the design ideas generated from the lines created on the mannequins.

Development time.... I began to merge my initial ideas with features of fencing uniform.

1 week later and these are my three final outcome. I was supposed to have six but I didn't like the other three so I haven't included them.

Improvement maybe.....?

I think im overcoming or I've overcome my fear of using colour and my illustrations are now looking a bit more realistic compared to what they were like when i first started the course. What do you think?

Decon Recon

Deconstruction Reconstruction.......The title is pretty much self explanatory. This project required me to bring in some old clothes, take them apart AT THE SEAMS and then put them together but creating completely new and different garments. To start this project, I had to take apart all the old clothes that I had brought in at the seams and construct them into new garment ideas on the mannequin. Each idea was photographed so that I could refer back to them when it came to developing them. Once 20 my constructions had been done, the parts cut up and used on the mannequin were then photocopied and used to create five muses as pictured below.

Each of my muses depicted a specific mood/ character. I purposely did this as a means of identifying who my particular target market would be for the final reconstructed outcome.
I found this collating excercising really useful as it was a new way of generating design ideas as well as a new way of presenting design ideas in my sketchbook.








The following Tuesday I used to design and put together my final reconstructed outcome! Sheer panels, PVC patches....this was definitely a garment do the daring and not the faint-hearted - age had no bearing on this particular final outcome. 

& this was the photshoot for my final outcome. Photography, styling and makeup done by moi. 






Project Deconstruction and Reconstruction taught me the values of recycling when it comes to clothing. It showed me that you can achieve new and fresh items of dress from simply taking apart and restitching old clothes to one another. 

Project PRADA! (Industry Week)

This project required me to be in a group of six and in this group each of us were assigned a role; so from head designer of womenswear to promotion, and this was for one of the six fashion houses listed. Initially I was one of the two in charge of textiles for Prada, but I found it really difficult so I moved to chief designer of womenswear. ( I know, it was a bit of a cop out but design had always been my strong point and I felt like I could produce much stronger design outcomes than I could in textile design, plus who likes being out of their comfort zone?)
First thing first was research. As a group we all decided to research together rather than individually, but to make sure I had a clear understanding of Prada and the silhouettes that were quite consistent throughout their womenswear seasonal designs, I carried out some additional extensive research in my spare time.
Tuesday was dedicated to designing. Using all the research gathered, I was able to come up with some initial ideas pictured below.

I really enjoyed this part and was proud of my outcomes reason being because I had come up with a range of imaginative silhouettes which I thought were interesting; strange, not really Prada (yet!) but interesting. 

Thursday was used to continue designing. A brief break was taken between drawing to do some constructions on the mannequin in a work shop organised by my tutors. Working under time constraint, without the help of a sewing machine, needle and thread or glue, but just tacking pins, this workshop allowed we to freely create lots of quick silhouettes that would then go into aiding me when designing.


On Tuesday, I began to develop my ideas into possible final outcomes. In all honesty, I found developing my initial ideas a struggle! This was because I liked my initial ideas as they were and felt as though by adding and/or taking away from these ideas during the development process would either over complicate the design or over simplify it.

Wednesday was used to draw up my final 5 ideas of which kept on changing or throwing away. By the end, I only had two full colour final outcomes that I liked; loved infact.

What I've taken away from Industry Week was to not give up so easily on something I've never tried before. I think if I had remained with my position as textiles designer, although my final outcomes wouldn't of been as good as say my design outcomes, at least I would've acquired a new skill to add to my portfolio.

The next Steven Meisel maybe? (Styling - Week 6)

  So I was pretty much expecting a week learning the basics of styling and trending and maybe do a few lessons where we had to style each other - but there was so so much more to it than that. The week started off with a very basic task off taking a few Polaroid pictures myself displaying my personality. On Tuesday we were required to go around the high streets in London as well as other places where premium fashion shops were and make photographic notes for a trend report that needed to be presented the following Wednesday. I decided to go to Knightbridge as I'm more into premium, high fashion. The trip was pretty overwhelming; simply because I am so used to appreciating the 'Details of Chanel' and other labels from behind a computer screen, so it was almost surreal to be touching and analysing such phenomenal craftsmanship for real. Not particularly up-to-date with fashion trends ( an awful start as a fashion designer to be... I know) I felt like the trend report an enjoyable and constructive way of being able to keep on top of that. 




Susie showed us some of the work that she had done for magazines such as USED and Wonderland and I was so inspired by her work that I wanted my photo shoot to convey as much thought and preparation as hers did. 
For my shoot I wanted to have my model show my reserved and observant attitude but merging this with my strange necessity to stand out. Mood boards immediately! Hair, makeup, casting, mood/lighting, location, style - staring a bank of references that would help me in really pulling the shoot together. 
Thursday was so stressful! Making sure everything was in place for Friday was not easy but despite the organisational issues, I made it happen. A 9 o clock start to an 11 o clock finish was killer but my determination to really show how much effort I had put into the shoot drove me to working all throughout the night - working into my sketch book as well as editing over 100 photos....on an ipad. The most difficult part of this all was choosing 3 images to present as my final on Friday. Once these images were selected and finalised I felt like a weight had finally been lifted off my shoulders. 
On the day of presentation there were some compilations with printer so I could only print out one photo and to me, this image was strong enough to stand alone so I ended up scrapping the other two images. 


There aren't any ups without any downs.
I really need to improve on my organisational skills and time management because I've realised that they are the two factors that have a real impact on my work and tend to dictate how much I can do and also to what ability. After all time waits for no man. I know somewhere somehow I'm doing myself a dis-justice by not staying in control of timing and organisation. 

An Overwhelming Reality

So I stayed up all night going through Chanel News; watching previous fashion shows, FW14, SS14 as well as interviews and other short films and whiles watching the 'Details of Chanel' I was filled with an overwhelming sense of inadequacy almost. I was exploring the success' if a fashion house and a creative director at a level that I was nooo where near. I found myself quite harshly criticizing my work and questioning myself and my ability. Like this isn't enough. My work isn't enough. Decent illustrations but my designs are crap, amateur; very mediocre - I almost feel like a plagiarist in the sense that somewhere and by someone, my designs have been done and to a much better standard than what I was producing. My work isn't transcending boundaries. It doesn't pop. There's nothing about my work that sets me above the long list of competition - from the likes of Karl Lagerfeld to the student that sit next to me in the same Fashion and Textiles Foundation course. 
How hard am I working? How far am I really pushing myself?

Fact is, I'm entering an extremely competitive and fickle industry which I once could see myself one day tackling and being really successful in. An industry that now I am now struggling to see my place.

Photoshop Week

This week actually wasn't as daunting as I had imagined. Although on my first day I had so much information thrown at me because I was so behind. Serves me right for not being able to come in on the Monday when the course had stated. In general though it was a pretty fast paced course which was an issue at first but then gradually became challenging and almost empowering especially being somebody who had never used photoshop until this week. I felt like I had achieved a lot. 
Creating my own pattern from personal objects and images before 'rendering' the print onto a catwalk garment was the the highlight of the week for me. 
For one of the prints I chose to use a painting of my eyes I had done previously as part of a project where I was trying to convey emotion souly through the eyes without the aid of maybe the mouth or the ears - parts which might make it easier to determine the emotion. I've always been keen on creating a level of ambiguity in my art work.

The second print was created using an area of my native cloth, the Kente.

The final outcomes were really inspiring as it provided me with a view what my prints may one day look like on the catwalk. It also taught me how much can be done on Photoshop in terms of creating intimate variations of print all from a basic image/template. I think finding that out was what made the course a successful learning experience. Next time I'll try to challenge myself more; push the boundaries a bit.

As if doing it by hand wasn't hard enough... (Knitting Week)

The most fiddliest week yet. Initially when I saw the knitting machine thet we would be using during the week I was happy that an easier, quicker, non-electric alternative to knitting needles existed.... That was until Bid, our tutor taught us how to cast on. That was pretty much how the tasks were given during the week. Bid would start off with very simple and easy knitting sample - straight stitch, stripes, lace holes, before going on to teaching us more complex techniques such as honeycomb, V, waffle, pyramid, bubble, casting off etc. as a fast learner, I found it easy to complete the tasks as they were given but that was when the machine wasn't acting up causing timing and completion issues.







Just realising how much you can do with the knitting machine and with knot in general made me think of so many ideas for the future using knit and gave me a good insight into the different variations of knitting that until this week iPad no knowledge of. 

Overall the samples I created, my own pattern was my most favourite simply because it was something I had created outside of what we were shown and was able to produce a consistent pattern. Cable was the hardest but it was also another one of my favorite, probably because it's such a common patter to see on knitwear and because a lifetime of curiously as to how it's done.

Design Development Week

I was wondering when the real design work would come. 
This was a follow on from a task ( which I've named Construction 1) we had done a few days prior - whereby we had to create an abstract shape, cut out at least 20 copy's of the pattern of various scale and size before using those cut outs to construct a collection of garments on a mannequin.
Task 1 required us to do quick, timed drawings of clothing and the various aspects of say a top, for example the sleeves, the collar, pockets etc, using another shape that derived from the shape used in Construction 1. I chose to use an arch. I think the fact that this task was done around time constraints and because it turned into a competition as how many variation of say a top could be done within the set amount of time given it made the task the most difficult for me especially as I have a retarded understanding of time. 2 minutes to me is 15 minutes so it was challenging. However, after the first few sessions I sped up a bit. It's not always about trying to come up with the most professional and intricate piece. Some of the most exquisite catwalk collections especially from designers such as the late Alexander McQueen derived from the most basic of drawings and fueled by the things all around him, eras and imagination. I find myself always wanting to fly before I can even crawl. 

Task 2 was to compose a selection of garments: 5 tops to 5 dresses using the timed sketches. 

Task 3 which was to be presented on Friday was to devise a 5 piece collection with technical drawings using all the information gathered from the past 2 tasks.

I found the comments left by the rest of the students in my group as we went around viewing each other's work so kind and encouraging but there was a sense of disappointment overshadowing all that positive feedback on my 5 piece collection. I realised that most of the comments were celebrating my illustrations/ drawing techniques and not the designs themselves. Red flag. I don't want to be viewed as a fashion illustrator because that not what I want to be but that was what my work was portraying. This was a difficult realisation but luckily realised earlier than later. I'm been too comfortable with my drawing abilities that I've suppressed my designing abilities which I'm now finding difficult to revamp. It's such a frustrating position to suddenly find out that I'm in. Once again I'm questioning my career choice, my capability and if I'll even be able to get to where I want to as fashion designer if at this day and age I'm struggling to design a basic 5 piece collection. There's just that added pressure of being told that with the career path I have chosen, I must start from young. But the good news is that this experience has only confirmed my desire to a fashion designer and has outlined what it is I need to do from now on in order to achieve my goal.


Things to improve : the proportions of my illustrations in order to provide a realistic view on how my garments will look on a real body.

WHO AM I???