Sportswear Inspired Design: Week Two

Design Development:

The pictures on the right are the work of designer David Koma, a Georgian womenswear designer based in London whom I found while researching for this project. I like his work because of the strong angular lines and panelling, which are styles I want to use in my designs to reflect archery's role in giving women power and freedom to show off their sexuality when they were allowed to participate in the 18th century.



With these ideas in mind and inspiration from David Koma I finalised the design work in my sketchbook and created 12 rough design sheets:

I am pleased with these roughs as the majority of them utilise the research I have done so far and embody the themes I was aiming to convey. I can now develop from these, picking out the most successful elements for my final six styles. In these designs I also established a colour palette and started thinking about fabrics. I gathered samples and started experimenting with draping on the stand. I wanted to use contrasting light materials, such as chiffon, with heavier leathers and pvc to create strong designs but with elements of the flirtation and romance that early archery practice granted women. This stand work enables me to see how the fabrics would work together:

This exercise was useful and I was pleased with the varying results and the ways my chosen fabrics worked together. Using leather belts and jackets, pvc, chiffon and light polyesters I tried different methods of draping, the easier method being to use the heavier materials as a base and structure outline while draping the chiffons and other lighter fabrics around this. However I also tried it vice versa so as to be more unexpected and experimental in my work. Then, I used the knowledge gained from this experiment, combined with my rough design work, to develop my six final designs:

Final Design 2

Final Design 1

Final Design 3

Final Design 4

Final Design 6

Final Design 5

I like my final designs and feel that are a good realisation of the themes of sexuality, romance and strength that I was trying to convey through my chosen sport of archery. The downfall of this project was my six designs were not yet finished by our class assessments on Thursday. I realised that I need to work on my time management skills to ensure I meet deadlines with the required amount of work. Nevertheless, once they were completed my final designs work well as a collection of high-end sportswear-inspired designs, but would likely be impractical in some ways to wear as everyday fashion due to the unconventional shapes and fastenings.