Empirical Menswear

My first step in this project was the trip to Botanical gardens. I got a few good photos from this trip, however they were taken for the aesthetics as we visited before we received the brief. Here are a few of the better photos...

Leaf printing...
Tribal research....

Ink ....
Photo transfer...
Textile designers...

Research into fabrics, how they are made, where they come from are they sustainable ?

Sustainable designers research....

The dandelion is my chosen flower. It does not link to my chosen community but it can be used for medicinal purposes.

I have chosen the Amish people of Lancaster, Pennsylvania as my 'tribe'. I have chosen them because on a trip to America I visited this county and met some Amish people, I took a ride on a buggy around the farmland and my brother was cheeky enough to get a photo with an Amish man. I can therefore talk about the Amish on a personal level i feel, which will be good in my magazine.

These are my 2 final designs, they are quite simple but I like that. In textiles I have been trying and testing pattern repeats and I think I will get a good result at the end.

This was a technique I tried with the foil, it worked well but I think the foil is too much and takes away from the simplicity of the design.

Royal Blue Designs

I felt this project was going really well for me and I was really enjoying it all, until I had to start designing. I seem to have come to a stand still with complete mental block. I don't know why I am finding it so difficult because I love my theme and feel really positive about it.

My theme is Princess Diana and her shows o

f affection to just about everybody. Anywhere she went, people wanted to touch her, see just a glimpse of her, and she wanted to touch the people. For some people that one touch was everything.

Diana was one of the first people to touch people with Aids, she would pick them up and cuddle them. She brought around the message that you cannot catch Aids by showing a suffer some love and affection. It just makes that day for them seem a whole lot brighter.

Here are some photos of Diana showing affection and some of my own photos of regular people showing affection.

Diana is always known as 'The Queen of Hearts'

So I looked at a playing card, I hope the get a few mored esigns from this but so far I have one.

When draping on the stand in class I came up with an idea of a bow being a sleeve that drapes. I really liked this idea so i decided to make a bow out of fabric and see how it works. I really like this idea.

As a starting point to my designs I looked at smiles, and then decided to collage a neckline and top idea from smiles cut out from magazines.

A halter neck at the top of a bodice was inspired by a child's arms around a mothers neck, young children often wrap their arms around their mothers necks, either to make sure they don't fall or as a sign of being closer to them.

This design is an all-in-one suit, the legs can be detached to become shorts. This is inspired by Diana's busy lifestyle, having to look smart for State occasions and then coming home to being a mom and playing with two young boys.

This design would be made from velvet to make it very pleasing to touch and wear. The shape of hands would be at the back on this dress. To look as though somebody is hugging the person wearing the dress, with the hands placed on their back.

As i was finding it hard to design on paper using inks and collage, I decided to drape with materials on my manikin. I found this a lot easier, I seemed to be getting more ideas and it

was easier to visualise different shapes and the way things look.

I'm hoping that getting designs on the manikin will help me to gain more ideas for collage and ink drawing as my next step.

This design is taken from the idea of a mother holding her child. I have a photo of this and their arms are crossed behind them where the mother is holding the child and the child's arm is around their mother. I also think this design is quite feminine.

I know that I have a lot more work to do with my designs, however i'm hoping to get some help and support with this so that I can develop these further and hopefully reach a final design that I really love.

Royal Blue

I have spent my summer holidays travelling the country visiting lots of exhibitions and museums. Because of this I don't have much in my sketchbook, it is mostly still in paper, book and souvenir form.

Here is a photo of some of my collected research...

Before i went exploring the country i managed to get some research on collars, cuffs and corsets into my sketchbook.

Here are a couple of images from those pages..

I have managed to get a couple pages of my research into my Sketchbook. These are my Grace Kelly pages and Victoria & Albert pages.

I went to Bath to the Diana dresses exhibition. I really felt like looking at her clothes and reading about her life next to them made me really get attached to her. I started to understand her I thought and had a strong feeling for her. It really made me wish she had never died so that I could feel more connected to her and really try to understand her more. How big was her heart ? Was there anybody she wouldn't acknowledge and make a part of her life ?

I then travelled to London .. here I went to the V&A Museum to see the Grace Kelly exhibition. I found this really interesting because I had heard of her as an actress but never as a Princess. I really enjoyed it there.

Next we went to Buckingham Palace, The Victoria & Albert 'Art & Love' exhibition and the Royal Mews. This was such an amazing experience ! It's not everyday that you get to walk inside the palace and around the staterooms.

At the Royal Mews we saw all the different carriages, including the Coronation Coach which is only ever used for Coronations. We also saw the Coach that Lady Diana travelled in on her wedding day to Prince Charles. This was a pretty fun experience as it is a part of Royal life that is often dismissed and forgotten, but the way that they travel is actually quite important.

Unfortunately, we were not able to take photographs inside the Palace, but I did take one outside from across the 'garden' to prove that I was there. Inside we were taken around the state rooms, including the room where The Queen does all of her investitures (OBEs, MBEs, CBEs and Knighthoods) and the music room where all recent babies have been christened including Prince William and Harry. Also we walked up the golden stairs where all the Royal visitors have walked.

On a family trip to Madame Tussauds London, we found an area full of royal waxworks. I felt it was only right to have a photo with them all and include them in this project.

I know that they weren't real, and the clothes were just replicas of the originals, but I feel as though I been up close to the people I have been researching and reading about in books. I also touched the clothes and got an idea of material and intimate details. I didn't expect them to be there but I am really glad because i've learnt a lot personally from seeing waxworks of them.

Here are a few examples of me and these waxworks...

Because I have not yet finished documenting all of my gathered research, I haven't chosen a specific aspect of Royalty to research further and start designing from.

I have however really enjoyed the research part of this project...

My time will now be spent documenting research and developing design ideas further leading to a Final Design and garment.