Ravensbourne Foundation Blog: Fashion and Textiles

Day 1: 23rd September:

The approach we took to this project was unlike anything I had thought of before in association with this subject. For most of the first day we weren't asked to think about how shapes of designs would work in fashion or on the body. We spent the entire week working with paper and, having been given a choice of starting points, I chose structure, for which the brief was to construct 5 samples with an emphasis on making sharp, complex shapes.

1. In our lens-based media week we spent some time looking at light and how it affects the way we view things and, thinking about this in terms of structure and 3D objects, I made a kind of lantern-shaped sample out of purple card.

2. Using hard, straight lines I cut out hand shapes from black paper and wove together the fingers. I had to mount them so they would stay upright. Thinking about the human form and structures around that, the versatility of hands has so much design potential.

3. Having made all of my other samples thinking about sharp edges I thought about spiral shapes and how they interact in structure and the contrast between their flat and curved edges.

4. Carrying on these ideas I used rolled-up tubes of paper to create angular shapes for my next sample. I stuck several triangles together in decreasing sizes as I liked the asymmetry this caused. I then chose this sample to make 20 more of in varying sizes (that would then be used to work onto the body) as I felt the juxtaposition of the harsh and exaggerated angles with the body would work well.

5. Working with the idea of how to manipulate the paper I did some origami-like folding and created a cube of black card, again with a very angular structure, I feel this is my most complex and interesting sample, however I found it difficult to work into and in the end felt that the simpler structures left more room for development and interpretation.

1st Experiment

When told we were going to work on the mannequins with our samples I had expectations of what we would be told to do. However I was surprised when we were paired up and then assigned other people's design to work with. As I am sure a lot of other people felt as well, you approach projects like this even at the design and sample stages with ideas about a finished product. Therefore to be given an entirely new idea to work with broke through all that and enabled a freer perspective. With only a few minutes on each station we had to create pieces around a word or idea, giving little time for planning and so all the things created were spontaneously creative. I really enjoyed this and it was unlike anything I have done before. I feel like it gave me a new outlook on the design principles I became used to at previous stages of education and helped me with the idea of pushing boundaries in creativity.