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.