In Industry Project

Following our introductory lessons, the design and media foundation students who had opted for the fashion and textiles pathway were merged into a new class with the fashion foundation students. Our first project was to be a group one (probably for bonding purposes). For this project we were assigned a designer and a group and told to create a campaign and concept for a collection, with each of us undertaking different roles as they would be carried out in the industry. There were six of us in my group (smaller than most of the others) with peers that I had never met before. Within the group I was in charge of menswear design for the range, there was also a womenswear designer, a print designer, an accessory designer, and two promoters (whose job it was to create campaign posters/films, design the catwalk etc). The designer we were assigned (for whom we would hypothetically be creating a campaign, and so would mimick the style of) was J.W. Anderson.

J.W. Anderson:

J.W. Anderson graduated in menswear at the London College of Fashion in 2005. His label was launched in 2008. Anderson in acclaimed for exploring the relationship between genders and blurs the lines with an androgynous style in all of his collections. He won the Emerging Talent Award for British Fashion in 2012.

After being assigned our designer and various roles we were given a quotation, which we could interpret ourselves and use as a premise and theme for our collection.

 'All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses his real conditions of life, and his relations with his fellow men.' -The Communist Manifesto

As a group we discussed this, and decided to focus on the last section, about the real conditions of life and man's relationship with his fellow men. This made us think of conflict and war, and we discussed this further, thinking how it could fit well with J.W. Anderson's usual styles since gender roles are challenged in wartime. When women contributed to the World War efforts it was perhaps the first time typical patriarchal systems were changed significantly, and this blurring of gender roles was something we thought we could translate well in a wartime theme within J.W. Anderson's label. After agreeing on this overarching theme as a group we designed a logo for the collection and put together a mood board with a colour scheme.

LOGO

Group Mood Board

Then we discussed what we planned to do individually, as although we would be presenting the work as a team and would be assessed based on how cohesive our work was, we each needed our own outcomes and work for grading and our blogs. Therefore, once we had done our initial planning we broke off to work individually within our roles. I had expressed a preference to be the menswear designer for our group as menswear design is something I had never done before, and so I wanted to challenge myself and explore new ideas. I also like the androgynous style of J.W Anderson's menswear collections so thought it a good place to start. Therefore, as I gathered my own images for reference, I looked at J.W. Anderson's previous collections and military inspired fashion from both men and women for inspiration. 

With the concept and initial ideas in mind, I started doing quick, rough designs in my sketchbook, doing ten or so jackets, ten trousers, ten shirts etc. From these I developed and picked out several outfits, trying different combinations for looks, eventually coming up with ten design ideas (see below):

Rough Designs and Fabric Swatches

Ten Design Ideas

Final Design 1

Final Design 2

Final Design 3

Final Design 4

Final Design 5

Final Designs: 
After finishing my ten design ideas I presented them to the group and they picked out their five favourites for me to colour. We did the same with the womenswear designer's ideas so for the final presentations we had a collection of ten looks that could work together in a campaign. With my final designs picked out for me, I added colour, keeping to the scheme we had decided on at the beginning of the project. Another idea we had, to bring together the collection, was to add a little bit of red into the palette of conventional military khakis and dark greys, with one piece being entirely red. We felt this was appropriate for the theme. Therefore, in some of my designs, such as designs one or four, there are only very subtle hints of red: the lining of a pocket etc. I am reasonably happy with my final collection, however feel I could have explored and developed the concepts of the theme more.



The group also asked me to model for campaign posters and a video for the promotion side of the campaign. As we couldn't model the clothes we were designing, the concept was more about capturing the mood and theme of the work. We looked back at the quotation for reference, and thought again about the idea of man's 'relations with his fellow men'. We decided that although we would have undercurrents of the war theme, the collection was just as much about human interaction and relationships on other levels, which we could show by having more than one model for promotion.

Promotional Posters

Promotional Poster/Advertising Campaign

Overall, I found this project quite difficult as I felt working with people I had never met before added pressure. Worrying that your work was up to everyone's standard added stress and made it difficult for me to design freely. Also, trying to change your work to make it compatible and cohesive with others was challenging. Therefore, although I enjoyed trying menswear design for the first time, working in groups meant I had less creative freedom to experiment with my own style. As a group the project worked out fine and the final presentation went well, yet personally I felt I hadn't explored the project and possibilities in enough detail before putting together my final designs. I recognise the importance learning how to collaborate on projects for industry and practical reasons however, I think I work better individually. 

Introductory Weeks: Design and Sketchbook Development Workshops

Design Development:

For the final couple of days of our introductory weeks in the fashion and textiles pathway we were given workshops on the basics of design and sketchbook development. For design, we were told to draw several random shapes and then pick one as a starting point for a clothing range. Then, using this shape, we drew a series of rough designs, with five minutes to focus on each item of clothing or detail. The shape I chose was a curved zig-zag, rather like a heart monitor line. With this as a basis, I drew several rough designs for shirts, coats, dresses, skirts, and sleeve, collar and pocket details:

Although I found this method of design challenging at first, as I am usually a perfectionist with my work, after a bit I loosened up and now feel it was a useful exercise to help my design methods. Once we had finished these rough design sheets we picked out one design from each category. This was then developed into five more-detailed design ideas, with front and back views. I drew these working in pen on loose design sheets:

Coats

Dresses

Skirts

Shirts

All the way through you can see the the simple influence of the original shape, bringing the designs together so that they could clearly be a collection. From these more detailed design boards we were then able to pick out garments and put them together into outfits. These we worked into our sketchbooks, adding colour:

This was a short introduction to the most basic form of design and so the day of work was quite episodic and practical. I recognise the applicable skills learnt in this workshop are useful; however, I do not particularly like my final five outfits as I normally prefer to work from more diverse and in-depth inspiration.

My Necklace

Sketchbook Development:

Similarly, in our sketchbook development workshop we used a simple starting point to illustrate the basic ideas. Using a personal object (in my case my necklace) we photographed, photocopied and drew it in various ways, to show the importance of mixed media and different perspectives in our work. Below is the sketchbook page in which I drew my necklace using pastels, pen, pencils, graphite and collage:

Once we had done his we were told to produce several development designs in our books, thinking about turning our interpretations of the object into products, and placing them on the body: 

I used collage for this part of the development, generally keeping my pages quite simple so there wasn't too much to focus on. I enjoyed this day of our introductory lessons especially since I am often quite nervous in the presentation of my work and so being taught and told the requirements for layout and development of ideas in our sketchbooks was helpful.

Fashion and Textiles Introductory Weeks

Introduction to Styling: 

There are many different jobs within the textile and fashion industry, but they can generally be broken down into either design or promotion roles. Stylists fall into the promotion side of the business. It might be their job to select models for the catwalk, organise hair and make-up, photoshoots and editorials, locations and props, shop windows designs, advertising campaigns, set designs, promotional videos etc., coming up with the entire 'look' for a fashion campaign. Although the design side of the industry interests me more, we had to spend a day styling a photoshoot and learning what this entails as part of our introductory lessons into the Fashion and Textiles pathway.

The clothes I brought in to style with

In preparation we were asked to bring in a range of clothing items to style with. I raided the dressing up box we keep in our house, which is full of various costumes, bits of fabric and old ('vintage') items of clothing, thinking that these would be more interesting to use than everyday clothing. We then separated into pairs and were given five minutes to model each other's clothes in various combinations and take photos. My model is Kaira Akuffo and I, in turn, was hers:

After this five minutes of randomly putting together outfits and taking quick photographs that initially introduced us to the idea of styling we were given 20 minutes each to spend more time on one look, and this time thinking about location (obviously limited to around the college), poses and camera positioning and thegeneral 'look' of our photos:

The outfit in these pictures consists of: a kimono dress tied around the waist as a skirt, a lace collar and ruff shirt, cream knitted snood as a kind of sash over the shoulder and an eyemask and stretch black belt. Having put this look together completely randomly out of the clothes at my disposal it struck as it came together that it in some ways suggested the style of a female pirate. I tried to emphasise this through my choices of location and stance. I rather liked the result and the theme of this and so when, in the afternoon, we were asked to plan a full-on final photoshoot, using what we had learned with a theme inspired by that morning's work, I chose to centre my idea around the style of a female pirate. We spent the rest of the day in the library, researching and gathering images for mood boards to develop out ideas for the final shoots, which we were to carry out in our self-directed study time. 

Because of my chosen theme, my first research was into Vivienne Westwood's acclaimed 'Pirate Collection' of 1981 and the surrounding 'New Romanticism' movement, the androgynous and eccentric styles fitting with my vision for the shoot. Gathering images from archived vogue editions from the era and 'Vivienne Westwood' by Claire Wilcox to complement my internet research I put together the following mood boards, which helped to refine and focus my inspiration. 

Portrait of Ching Shih

However, I had started with some fundamental internet research, looking into female piracy in a historical context and not just the more modern fashion and movements that dealt with the theme on a more superficial level. Ching Shih terrorized the China Sea in the early 19th century. Estimates put her fleet at anywhere between 300-1800 with 20,000-80,000 men, women and even children under her command. She challenged the empires of the time, such as the British, Portuguese and the Qing dynasty. Undefeated, Ching Shih is one of world history's most powerful pirates. When it was found to be hopeless to try and defeat her, she was offered amnesty for herself and entire crew, and so became one of the only pirates in history to retire (with all her loot), rather than being killed. Using this historical role model and my other research as reference I prepared for my final shoot, not going for a typical modern-day pirate costume, but more of a suggested overall look with a modern twist.



Another thing a stylist has to consider is the casting of models in their photoshoots. However, I was obviously confined in a way professional stylists are not, as I was limited to casting people I know who would be prepared to do me the favour of modelling.With the look I was going for I wanted an older model with dark, short styled hair to match the conventional strong pirate image.  Coincidentally, I had already thought up these criteria and realised that my mother had the look I was going for, and luckily was happy to model for me.

The clothes I used were all items from the dressing up box in my house. As my main interest is design I was excited about the composition elements of the shoot, as we were told to be as creative as possible and where necessary we could make some props and accessories to enhance the look. Therefore, I made my own, unconventional eyepatch. I dyed a small length of white netting with black ink (as I didn't have any black immediately available to me and preferred the more muted grey result). I then gathered this up and fixed it under a satin black ribbon which I then tied around the head with gold thread. It is a makeshift solution and I was pleased with the result, and felt it suited the overall style, adding some interest and glamour as a headpiece that fits the theme. I am happy with the result of my photoshoot, in which I kept the lighting muted while hoping to keep the colours vivid. Although styling is not an area of the fashion and textiles industry that particularly interests me I had fun with the shoot, research and creative elements of the task. 

Final Editorial/Shoot:

Cover  Image

Location&Props: Garden in front of fence (jungle island suggestions), corner of a living room (designed to look like captain's cabin), window, fold out desk, treasure chest box, ink pot, feather/quill, bottle of gin, decanter, glasses, ship in a bottle, painting of a ship, leather bound books, old papers and candlesticks.
Hair&Make-Up: Red face paint strip across the forehead and brown/grey chalks smudged across the cheek, dark smudged eyes and a little dark red lipstick. Short, tousled hair. 
Accessories: 1 blue, red and gold dangling earring, 1 gold necklace wrapped around the wrist, gold rings, bandages wrapped around the hand, lace up suede heeled boots, a thick brown leather belt and a homemade eyepatch.
Clothes: Yellow/black patterned skirt tied around the waist to create layered draping effect, red/black patterned kimono dress and red silk pyjama shirt as shoulder, black leggings and a cream shirt with lace collar and ruff. 

Back Cover Photo/Promotion Invitation Image