Little crafty fabrics…

Graphic Students Sample

Whilst getting a bit of research together for my wonderland, nature project I stumbled across these beauties…

Graphic Students Sample

Graphic Students Sample

Graphic Students Sample

Graphic Students Sample

Graphic Students Sample

Graphic Students Sample

Graphic Students Sample

Graphic Students Sample

These fabric pieces really inspire me to try different types of dying and deconstruction techniques with fabrics.  For my wonderland and fantasy project this could add an antique sense or dressing up box theme.

The link for these beauties and more is…

http://www.graphic-exchange.com/home.html

Nature In Design

I’ve been experimenting with my illustration style, I started practising a continuous line drawing.  I tried to make the image seem natural and raw.  Some of my illustrations do need colour but for now I like this one just as it is.  I took my inspiration from the artist Lucien Freud and the illustration book ‘Desiner La Mode.’

Raw Illustration

I also explored the idea of natural fabrics and textures, from my research I have been collecting in my summer sketchbook.  Muslin is great for draping and manipulating.  It’s rough texture makes it easy to manage, and it’s lightweight structure falls perfectly on a bias cut.  This sample was an experiment taken from a garments detail, at the Madame Gres exhibition in New York.

Muslin Experiment

Designers Guild

Designers Guild

I visited Designers Guild whilst looking around London for interesting fabric shops.  As soon as I was inside I spent ages looking through all of the beautiful fabrics and colour palettes.  If you like textiles this is a must…

Established in 1970 by Tricia Guild, Designers Guild designs and wholesales furnishing fabrics, wallpaper, upholstery and bed and bath collections.  The Company is headed and owned by brother and sister, Tricia Guild, Founder and Creative Director. The Designers Guild business philosophy is to combine creativity and innovation with the highest levels of quality: quality of design, product, service and people.

Designers Guild houses over 5000 fabrics and 400 wallpapers.  Although on initial sighting you may be cautious going as a fashion designer, many of the fabrics are in fact suitable for garment construction.  From chiffrons to silks there’s plenty of fabrics suitable for any decorative fashion collection.

Fabric Samples I collected…

Fabric Sample

Fabric Sample

Fabric Sample

Fabric Sample

Fabric Sample

Fabric Sample

Fabric Sample

Fabric Sample

Fabric Sample

Designers Guild

http://www.designersguild.com/

Style Birmingham Fashion Show

Style Birmingham

Style Birmingham

Style Birmingham

Style Birmingham is an event show cased by Selfridges, House of Fraser and the Mailbox. Together they present a fashion show, encompassing all of the key autumn/ winter season’s hottest trends. The show is sponsored by Style from the Sunday Times fashion magazine. This show featured a range of ready to wear garments, from high street fashion labels such as Miss Sixty, Firetrap or Diesel to key fashion icons such as Vivienne Westwood, Stella McCartney and Alexander McQueen. Key trends for this season feature Dynasty; a selection of beautifully cut suits and jackets,

with elegant evening dresses in beautifully cut fabrics.

Shaped Vs Draped features beautifully fluid drapes in exaggerated forms. Cut and bias is key her in bringing together dynamic fashion silhouettes in unusual fabrics. Get Knitted was a collection full of South America inspired colours. Deep reds and rich colourful trimmed edges to short knit dresses. Pom Pom’s are scattered all over the presented outfits, either as fabric manipulation or accessories. Huge knitted bangles in bright colours rise up the models’ arms, each bangle is wool that has been wrapped around the bangle in plaited or knotted pattern techniques. Other themes include Tweed, Leather, Disco and Mood Indigo. The fashion show was alive with the rich, wide colour palette of this season. Fabrics are wide and diverse but easily interchangeable. The bags featured in the collection are revolutionary, with huge leather bags held by metal structures or large wooden beads. I think a key feature of this season is accessories, bold, bright and symbolic of your personality. Fear is the ultimate enemy in this exciting, vibrant seasons fashion.

Style Birmingham

Style Birmingham

Style Birmingham

Style Birmingham

The Natural History Museum

The new Darwin Centre at the Natural History Museum is filed with thousands of species of animals, plants and habitats, In this collection I found the structures of plant forms and nests very inspiring. In particular, I found a collection of wasps and bees nests very interesting. These nests have been formed from paper, collected fro Trees with paper elements in the surrounding area. The insects have then added a sticky residue to the paper particles creating a paper mache effect. This is very inspiring, the idea that unusual structural forms and functions can be used to create a habitat due to differing environments and locations. The structural forms and functions of the various objects and habitats at the museum encouraged my desire to experiment with garment construction and fabric manipulation.

I found the tree exhibition piece equally inspiring. In South America they have some of the largest trees in the world. This particular tree was cut down at approximately 700 years old. The pattern formed by the early yearly rings are very interesting, I would like to experiment with textiles, creating patterns replicating this structure in various design processes.

http://www.nhm.ac.uk

Natural History Museum

Natural History Museum

Natural History Museum

Natural History Museum

Natural History Museum

Natural History Museum

Natural History Museum

Natural History Museum

Natural History Museum

Natural History Museum

Natural History Museum

Natural History Museum

Natural History Museum

Natural History Museum

Natural History Museum

Natural History Museum

Natural History Museum

Natural History Museum

Natural History Museum

Natural History Museum

Natural History Museum

Show Studio at Somerset House

Show Studio

Show Studio was launched in 2000, for the past decade the website has revolutionised the way in which fashion is globally communicated.  This exhibition at Somerset House is testament to the fact that from the turn of the twenty-first century, there has been a revolution in the fashion image.  The internet allows for a two-way communication where the audience can participate in the art, shaping it’s path.
Show studio communicates fashion through; interactive projection onto fashion silhouettes, fashion films showing the creation and promotion of garments, live models in the exhibition wearing designer’s clothes, and placing designers or models in front of a camera and not directing them for a period of time.
Fashion film gives fashion the communication it has always wanted.  Instead of being restricted to a  static print, dominantly a photograph, fashion is able to be portrayed as a visual, mobile art form.  This gives the garment the visual communication which it is designed for.
The actual definition of Show Studio is unknown to even Nick Knight.  The original concept for Show Studio came to Nick Knight and Peter Saville in 1998.  Both artists were inspired by the idea of having a place to work, that wasn’t created to sell a product, but was instead created simply for the love of art.
Alexander McQueen’s transformation of a bride groom into a bride, is an excellent example of the advantages in communication film gives to fashion.  In a frenzy of cutting, ripping, painting and gaffer taping, McQueen works his famous cutting and draping skills to revolutionise the original fashion silhouette.  The viewer is privileged to watch, what is often, the unseen.  The designer himself at work.  With no where to hide from mistakes and errors, McQueen is put in the spotlight, broadcasted live in front of an audience.
Another exhibit which I found particularly inspiring was the promotion of menswear by stylist Simon Foxton.  Different models at selected times are placed upon a stage with a chair.  The model will be styled in an outfit by a fashion designer at different points throughout the day.  This installation is similar to a broadcast on ShowStudio.com in 2005.  This aimed to replace a photographer with limited gaze, to the impartial viewing of a webcam.  Over a period of four hours the viewers of Show Studio could log on to watch models maintaining their poses, with the option to interact with via the phone number posted on the site.  I think this form of advertising designer’s outfits, is revolutionary.  To be able to interact and watch how a model lives and breathes in clothes, expands the breadths of fashion communication globally.
Show Studio’s Peter Saville collaborated with one of my favourite illustrators Julie Verhoeven, in the exhibit ‘Forget-Me-Not.’  By supplying Julie Verhoeven with images of Japanese bondage, Peter Saville inspired her to illustrate pornographic wallpaper for a labyrinthe.  Verhoeven’s work produced a sequence of female pornography, which grew darker in subject and expressive in execution as the illustrations progressed.  Show Studio’s designer’s incorporated hot spots into Verhoeven’s work, the viewer then interacts with these by moving the cursor over the organs and sexual acts depicted.  This then leads to the next, more explicit level.  Causing the viewer to question to stimulative, active participant they have become.
ShowStudio is responsible for bringing together the missing components in the fashion industry.  As an online source of communication, it uncovers the very essence and capture of creativity in design.

http://www.showstudio.com/

Show Studio

Show Studio

Show Studio

Show Studio

Show Studio

Show Studio

Show Studio

Show Studio

Show Studio

Show Studio

Show Studio

Show Studio

Show Studio

Show Studio

Show Studio

Show Studio

Show Studio

Show Studio

Show Studio

Show Studio

Show Studio

Show Studio

Show Studio

Show Studio

Show Studio

Show Studio

Show Studio

Show Studio

Show Studio

Show Studio

Show Studio

Show Studio

Show Studio

Show Studio

Show Studio

Future Fashion Now – MA RCA Graduates at the V&A

MA RCA Graduates

MA RCA Graduates Illustrations

This exhibition displays work by the 2008 fashion graduates from Royal College of Art. Many of these designers have already worked in well known fashion houses, thanks to RCA’s excellent graduate preparation for the fashion industry . Each garment reveals aspects of the students’ work design process, their research , development and technical skills. With a dynamic collection of work, this collection is a must for any undergraduate who needs inspiration. The identities of each garment, sketchbook and design mood board. Their portfolios are excellent, communicating their concept and feel for their project clearly, through illustration and presentation.

The inspiration for these graduates’ projects comes from a wide birth of architecture, surroundings, shows and presentations. The draping and textile skills featured within this exhibition were revolutionary. This included fabric manipulation of leather, draping directly onto the stand, metre long needles to create knitted garments, paper structures and garment sewn together from separate fabric panels. Pattern cutting, tailoring, fibre identification and a wide variety of materials sourced, is apparent in each designer’s collections. I gained a vast amount of inspiration from this collection, which I intend to use in my next project, Nature and Design.

MA RCA Graduates

MA RCA Graduates

MA RCA Graduates

MA RCA Graduates

MA RCA Graduates

MA RCA Graduates

MA RCA Graduates

MA RCA Graduates

MA RCA Graduates

MA RCA Graduates

MA RCA Graduates

MA RCA Graduates design boards

MA RCA Graduates

MA RCA Graduates

MA RCA Graduates

MA RCA Graduates

MA RCA Graduates

MA RCA Graduates

MA RCA Graduates

MA RCA Graduates

MA RCA Graduates

MA RCA Graduates

MA RCA Graduates Illustrations

MA RCA Graduates Illustrations

MA RCA Graduates Illustrations

MA RCA Graduates Illustrations

MA RCA Graduates Illustrations

MA RCA Graduates Illustrations

MA RCA Graduates Illustrations

MA RCA Graduates Illustrations

MA RCA Graduates Illustrations

Marimekko

Marimekko is a leading Finnish textile and clothing design company established in 1951. This company designs, manufactures and markets clothing, interior decoration, textiles, bags and other accessories.  I visited this fabric shop in London Marylebone, unaware of how vibrant and dynamic Marimekko prints were.  The interior of the shop was bursting with colour and an array of patterns that each held the Marimekko factor.  The collections emphasized the strength of these patterns, and the powerful palette that Marimekko is recognised by.

I couldn’t resist the Finish design by Maija Louekari.  This beautiful illustration features 4 faces, embedded amongst scenes of nature.  The depth of this piece is only significant in time, as the hidden characteristics and details only submerge when your mind is elsewhere.  I also bought a Marimekko bag with the traditional red, pink and orange large printed flowers.  Marimekko fabrics are just irresistable!

Maija Louekari

Marimekko Design

Fairytales and Enchantments

‘All the better to see you with , my dear.’

This is quite a small display at the V&A. However, the collection encompasses a strong selection of ceramics that are inspired by folk and fairytales. Folk and fairytales exist in all cultures. Their traditional purpose is to divert, instruct and caution. Often they explore some act of deception, loss of innocence and the maturity of a child to adultness. Some of the ceramics or items in this collection are said to contain supernatural powers such as the Chinese bixie guardian and the English witch balls.

Collectively these items represent a wide range of periods and cultural traditions. They each demonstrate the power of fairytales, myths and magic upon the youthful imagination. These fascinations have been expressed through decorative arts throughout the world.

Fairytales & Enchantments

Fairytales & Enchantments

Fairytales & Enchantments

This exhibition reminded me of Stella McCartneys autumn/winter disney adverts.  These adverts have natural innnuendos and folk and fairytale essences.   I shall use this advert as inspiration for designer references to Nature in Design.

Islam

The Jameel gallery of Islamic art showcases more tha 10,000 pieces from the Middle East. Famous pieces include the ‘Ardabil Carpet’ from the 16th century, as well as detailed ceramics, dress, worship temples, fabric and illustrated books. For me the crafted ceramics are great examples of how intricately made Islamic crafts can be. I really like the turquoise hue in the collection, and the geometric structures in the ceramic tiles.

Islam inspired Illustration

Islam at the V&A

Islam at the V&A

Islam at the V&A

Islam at the V&A

Islam at the V&A

Islam at the V&A

Islam at the V&A

Islam at the V&A

Islam at the V&A

Islam at the V&A

Islam at the V&A

Islam at the V&A

Islam at the V&A

Islam at the V&A

Islam at the V&A

Islam at the V&A

Islam at the V&A

Islam at the V&A

Islam at the V&A

Islam at the V&A

Islam at the V&A

Islam inspired Illustration