Evaluation of Unit X

With the last final hand in looming, I feel happy to have achieved so much in the past few months. My practice has advanced greatly, and I feel ready for the future. Unit X has enabled me to complete the aims I set myself at the end of the Practice unit, these were to develop my practice whilst still being experimental, enhance my online presence and build both an online and physical portfolio to a professional standard, maintain and build new networks, and work on a collaborative project. I feel that I have achieved these aims to a high standard whilst managing my time well. In the last couple of weeks before the assessment, I need to finish my final samples, check my portfolio has been conducted to a professional standard, and make certain I have fulfilled the learning outcomes for this unit.

I feel that I now know who I am as a designer. There is a part of me, which continues to hold a love of embroidery, and beading and heavily embellished fabrics, with the most intricate of details. This laborious work is something I would like to continue from time to time, it is refreshing to combine the two ways in which I work; combining my heavily woven bright chaotic samples with my profoundly time consuming and intricate bead work. For my final few woven designs for the Manchester School of Art Degree show and New Designers, I intend to fuse these ways of working to portray my working style and myself. I now know, that as a designer I always want to work with sampling. I enjoy being able to produce a design, appreciate my newly created fabric, and then move on to the next idea relatively quickly. I feel that this is a good way to work, as if I am ever to sell my work, I will constantly need to be ready to make new fabric designs.  I have learnt the importance of making each sample different; samples too similar to one another wouldn’t sell in the real world. In the future I need to continue to focus on creating an array of samples, ranging from the simplistic and effective to the more strenuous attention to detail.

Research has been and will continue to be invaluable to my practice. It is important to be aware of the work others are producing around me. It has also been extremely useful in order to help me build my work to the same professional standard as designers working in the same direction and has enabled me to advertise my work in the correct manner (Maja Johansson, Georgia Fisher etc.)

The way I have directed my practice this year has meant that I am confident that I have a breadth of work with different styles to show, different techniques and strengths. I have also worked towards several different contexts, showing my versatility as a designer. Through my interviews so far for internships, it has become apparent to me that I must never stop working with colour, as this is what I have been told is one of my major strengths.

In the final weeks before the assessment, I am now focusing on preparing my work to its most professional level, through my physical portfolio, online presence and creating business cards to allow people to access my work, all of which will be crucial to making connections and networking through New Designers and the MSA Degree show, as well as the foreseeable future as a post graduate. I am extremely excited to have my finished portfolio, and to see the outcome of the collaborative photo-shoot, I feel it will be an excellent way to summarise our collaborative project, particularly as the samples have been extremely time consuming, and they deserve to be shown appropriately and professionally.

Selling work/ final collection and portfolio planning

Selling my work and preparing my portfolio

Through the making of both my online and physical portfolio, I have had to consider carefully my target audience/ career path. Evidently, I need my portfolio to display that my work is for a fashion-based context, in order to gain me a position within a fashion house with a role such as textile designer. Realistically, I am aware that these kinds of positions are very rare, as very few fashion brands create their own fabrics themselves. Because of this, I have also considered the idea of showing my work at trade shows such as Premiere Vision. This would involve designing and making fabric samples, which would be chosen and purchased by designers. Most woven designers work similarly to this; examples of these designers are Bonnie Kirkwood, Dash & Miller, Mr. Grieves Originals and Wallace Sewell. After building several good collections of fabrics each season for similar designers, it would then be possible to make permanent contacts with them and invite their agents to visit in a more personal environment.

Premiere Vision and London Textile Fair

Another way I have considered selling my work is through an agency. I believe that as an emerging designer, it would be useful to use an agent for a starting point; at the beginning it would be difficult to travel internationally to sell work. An agent would be able to take care of showing your work internationally, taking a percentage cut of the selling price. Additionally, another point I need to consider is that woven designs generally sell for £400.00 upwards. As my designs are currently made of silk, very colourful and intricate, it may be harder to sell them due to a smaller demand. But also, they would hold a higher price tag due to the length of time they would take to produce. I need to consider all of these factors and be able to produce a range of samples and diversify my portfolio in order to make the most profit from my work.

In order to show my work to the best of my ability, I have drawn upon elements from my two most exciting collections, ‘Silk Wovens’ or ‘Collection Two’ from the Practice unit, and my recent ‘Jewelled Couture’ collection. I intend to make 4 larger samples combining the metallic jewelled elements with the colourful chaos of my silk designs. I am altering the size of my samples to draw people in during New Designers and our MSA Degree Show. I have also begun designing business cards to display next to my work, and have started making an easily readable professional booklet to allow visitors/potential clients to look through my work quickly before looking through my portfolio.

Initial business card ideas. These need to be finalised, and when I have decided on my domain name I will put my website and my contact details on the front. 

Building an Online Presence

Designing my online portfolio

After researching and analysing several emerging designers online portfolio’s, I finally chose the platform Squarespace to work with in order to build my own website. To decipher this, I looked mostly on the Texprint finalists’ page, and made a note of the websites I thought worked best and would be appropriate for my style of work; I then wrote down a list of the platforms they had used. I thought it would be most appropriate and helpful to concentrate on designers who were working towards a similar context to me.

Some of the websites I found to work the best, which gave me inspiration for my own online portfolio, were Christina Hesford’s, a graduate from last year, Maja Johansson’s and Georgia Fisher’s. After analysing them I considered what they had in common in order to resolve the layout I wanted my own portfolio to have. I felt that overall my own website would be best left simplistic, clean and professional in order to allow the work to speak for itself, as it is very bold and striking. 

http://www.majajohansson.com
http://www.christinahesford.com  
http://www.georgiafisher.co.uk

Analysing other websites to help design my own, Maja Johansson, Christina Hesford, and Georgia Fisher's were among my favourites. 

Working for a high-end target market, I feel that although an online presence is necessary and finding my work online is important, that if it were to be made too available, it would loose its status as high-end work.  I originally considered using Twitter and Facebook as a platform to showcase my work, but after contemplation I decided against it; I didn’t feel it necessary for my style of working. I feel that Facebook is easily reachable for too many people. Instead, designers can work on Instagram by showing only snippets of samples and tagging things that they are interested in; through these common interests, it is then easy to make connections and network without giving too much away. This way of working is much more appealing to me and so overall, I believe that having a well-presented online portfolio, combined with the help of a strong LinkedIn profile and a designer’s page on Instagram is enough for the nature of my work. In summary, I feel that high-end work shouldn’t be easily available for everyone; it has to remain high end and not easily copied.

My website; work in progress but almost finished.

https://eden-blaber.squarespace.com

Collaboration Collection

Haute Couture Collection

Haute Couture has always captured my attention, and wanting to push my work further into this kind of sampling, and with some similar interests in mind, Laura (http://laurakenttextiles.blogspot.co.uk) and I decided to work collaboratively in hope of combining the processes of weaving, glass making and embroidery. Through an experimental approach with careful consideration, our aim was to create a couture collection of small samples and inspiring ideas. The purpose for this collaboration was to generate new art directional work, crafting inspirational textiles, which aren’t necessarily wearable, but more ideas based for a fashion Haute Couture context. With this in mind, I found that through this project my work was more research and photography based, also focusing on colour, mood and style.

Developing ideas through photography

We began the project with our own research. Designer’s I found most interesting to take inspiration from were Iris Van Herpen, Lauren Bowker, Elie Saab and Alexander McQueen as well as woven designers such as Jan Garside. As well as being inspired by previous collections, our collection was inspired by natural forms such as ice and frosted glass and bubbles. However, our work mainly focuses on the blending of three processes and combining our own strengths across several disciplines.  We selected our colour palette from WGSN Spring/Summer 2015 forecasting.

From Left to Right: Iris Van Herpen, Alexander McQueen. Bottom: Jan Garside. 

              Essentially, we have made decisions together through our collaborative work, although it was difficult trying to clarify weaving technicalities so some decisions were left up to me. I decided on the use of a double cloth, threading 250-denier monofilament over 4 shafts, on top of a 2’60’s layer of silk threaded over 20 shafts on a straight. Both cloths were threaded at 60 ends per inch. We wanted to use several colours blended extremely well in order to match visuals of iridescence, and in order to do this successfully, I began by making four hanks of silk. I dyed each hank in tiny section of yellows, limes, blues and purples, which enabled us to gain small sections of colour. Following this, I then wound all of the hanks on to separate cones. I laid the cones out to decide the best order for the warp.

Colour palette, mood board from sketchbook followed by yarn dyeing. 

During the making process, we found that a lot of time had to be taken to consider each sample. Each piece would take so long that it required lots of testing first. Samples eventually took a variety of time some samples taking 2 days, others a couple of hours, one taking 4 days to complete.  We found that the joy of making was discovering through the process.

Images of our collection so far. 

At present we have no final images of our collaborative work, however we are booked to photograph them on Wednesday. During this project, we have also been working with Narita Savoor; a fashion photographer and retoucher; http://www.naritasavoor.co.uk in order to produce professional fashion based photographs to portray our work appropriately in its correct context. We have organised a beauty/ haute couture style photo-shoot, which will include a model to enable us to showcase our samples. This will take place on Tuesday 19^th May, in time to make context boards/booklet for the final hand in as well as adding to our portfolios. Currently, we are in the process of selecting an appropriate model, thinking about positioning, styling and make up. Our work is enriched with turquoises and lime greens encasing glass shards and iridescent colours, which we feel may work nicely with a red haired model. This will mean our final photographs will be enhanced, without taking away from the samples. Styling a photo-shoot in this manner is something neither Laura nor I have done before, and so it will be fundamental for us to work together in order for us to accomplish the desired images of our collection.

Potential Styling ideas; images found on Pinterest

Nemesis Modelling Agency. 

Outward Facing

Future Plans 

I am excited about the opportunities ahead of me when I finish my degree at Manchester School of Art, as I am lucky to have been given many opportunities throughout the summer and next year.

I have been fortunate enough to be given a place at The Royal College of Art to follow a Masters Degree in Textiles (Weave) which begins in September 2015.  I am extremely nervous to be beginning a Masters Degree so soon but I believe the momentum after finishing my BA will enable me to continue at a good pace.  Throughout this year so far, I have used a lot of silk within my designs, this is because it is known for its quality, strength, and beautiful rich dyed colours; it is also easily accessible to buy in the colours I require. However, after research through my extended essay I have become more and more unhappy at using these materials that are affecting the environment and its inhabitants. Due to this, my underpinning research will be based upon my innate need to create unique fabrics using ethical yarn choices, wanting to maintain a textile language of luxury without using wool or silk. Through weaving, I aim to combine my passions of ethical fashion and the preservation and protection of both the environment and animals; creating new innovative and ethical fabrics. In order to do this, I aim to make better ethical decisions regarding the creation of fabrics for fashion. 

      Eventually I am hoping that by completing an MA at the Royal College of Art, I will be able to gain the career that I want as a textile designer for fashion. I am hoping that it will give me the opportunity to make several valuable connections and develop my practice to become more diverse.

Due to my MA coming up so quickly, I have been keeping myself up to date with things that might come in useful to me during my time at the RCA. I have been reading a lot about how fashion has become ‘dead’ and the problems with throwaway items. I found an article written on ‘’Rêve en Vert” to be interesting. ‘’Rêve en Vert” is an online shopping location dedicated to the best of non-disposable fashion and you can read more about it here:

http://www.anothermag.com/fashion-beauty/7239/the-future-of-sustainable-fashion-reve-en-vert

Another more textile-focused piece of research that I found to be interesting was Piñatex. “Piñatex is an innovative, natural and sustainable non-woven textile developed by the Ananas Anam team.

It is produced from the fibers of pineapple leaves, which are a by-product of the pineapple harvest. Initial product work was undertaken in the Philippines and significant research & development is now being undertaken between the UK and Spain, specifically to enhance the finishing technology.

Piñatex™ can be used as a leather alternative or textile in the fashion, accessory and upholstery markets.” You can read more about it here:

http://www.rca.ac.uk/research-innovation/innovation/innovationrca-start-up-and-fellowship-projects/ananas-anam/pinatex/

As well as gaining a place at the RCA, I have also been lucky enough to get a place to exhibit my work at New Designers and gain a couple of placements through the summer months. I am really excited to show my work at New Designers, as it will mean gaining valuable feedback and I will get to make connections and network with other industry professionals.

My first placement is with Anna Grieve from Mr.Grieves Originals: a textile studio specialising in woven fabrics, both digital and hand woven designs. The studio creates seasonal collections for both the fashion and interiors markets. Collections are sold internationally by appointment and at trade shows. Mr. Grieves originals exhibit at Premiere Vision in Paris & New York as well as the London Textile Fair. I am looking forward to this placement, as I believe it will enable me to learn more about commercial weaving, digital processes and seeing how a small business runs. Something I realised through my interview that I feel is valued to my progression as a designer is that as designers, we are not all drawn to the same things, this is something I have always been aware of but it was really drawn to my attention during my interview with Anna. I was expecting her to like the same samples as me, but I found it unexpected how she picked out different ones to the ones I’d thought were the best and so it opened my mind to the fact that a collection should hold a variety and a range for everyone.

From Left to Right: Wallace Sewell scarfs and blankets. Far right, Mr. Grieves Originals woven shirts.

My next placement is with Wallace Sewell, which I won through the Practice unit. I am beginning this placement at the beginning of September and am expecting to help them prepare for a trade show and to learn about how their business works which will be an interesting experience. I have also been contacting Bonnie Kirkwood, a fellow weaver who is also an RCA graduate, with the possible opportunity of a placement, and I am looking forward to meeting her at New Designers.

Bonnie Kirkwood's Woven designs.

Unit X First Collection

Jewelled Couture 

Inspired by the way jewelled fabrics capture attention on the catwalk, and working alongside my original themes of ornate, rich, cultural and intricate, I have designed and created a couture collection of woven fabrics for a fashion-based context. My recent couture collection, has followed and developed on from the Practice Unit, and I have considered similar key themes as devised through my learning agreement however, I have moved my work on by thinking more laterally about my subject area. My earlier samples were largely chaotic, and for this collection I have considered the use of space throughout each of my designs. My research of couture collections, has left me wanting to recreate the same detailed surface qualities, which are so appealing to me. I have chosen to continue to be experimental at this last stage of the year, as I feel there is a lot I want to discover and Haute Couture is something which has always captured my attention, through its strenuous attention to detail and captivating colours. 

Far Left: Christian Dior Haute Couture 2005. Middle: Alexis Mabille Haute Couture Spring 2011. Top Right: Alexandre Vauthier Haute Couture Fall 2012. Bottom Right: Dolce & Gabbana Fall/Winter 2014-15.

In regards to my research, in the Practice Unit I worked directly from imagery, but for this Unit so far I have looked at a much wider range of resources, which I feel has added more of an interest to my samples. These resources have included gemstones and crystals, ornate carvings and gold printed covers on books in the Ryland’s Library, jewelry, Indian embroidery, oriental fashion and gold lame, mosaics and several couture collections. Keeping with my usual style, my samples embrace an element of embroidery; I wanted my samples to feel as though they were embellished with jewels, without having to be stitched on to. 

      Gold ink drawings followed by images from Dolce & Gabbana's
Fall/ Winter 2013 Haute Couture collection. 

              In order to begin my drawing, I looked at jewellery in more depth and began thinking about pattern making. I wanted my samples to feel ornate and fancy. Throughout this collection, I was particularly inspired by Dolce and Gabbana’s Fall/Winter 2013 Collection, which was encased in gold and based on ideas such as monarchy and made particular reference to their branding; the fabrics were encrusted with jewels and held beautiful rich tones. After looking so much into other collections, I realised that Haute Couture collections seem to always be hand stitched and I decided I wanted to experiment using woven techniques to gain a similar sophisticated outcome. I started my collection planning by developing surfaces and drawing in gold ink over mod roc; finishing by sprinkling gemstones over the top, to demonstrate the surface qualities of the type of style and elements I wanted my samples to have.  

              As I developed this idea I realised that in order to weave the extra weft technique, I needed to make and use simpler structures so that I was able to use the most colours for each pattern. Ultimately, I wanted to be able to use different colours for each section of pattern to give my samples more depth. After looking at jewellery more closely, I found that translating some of the vectored shapes within stones to be extremely interesting through my weaving.

Photographs of old rings, looking at vectored shapes within stones,
and developing structures and ideas for weaving using my chosen colour palette. 

             To create a surface comparable to jewellery and appropriate for a Haute Couture collection, I was careful to use the most fitting yarn choices in order to gain the desired expensive, unusual and exclusive outcomes. I chose from a combination of silk for high strength and known for its quality, a mixture of metallic yarns such as Lurex and unusual Indian embroidery threads, and lastly spun silk, which produces a huge amount of shine. My designs reflect my drawings in my sketchbook and design development.  I designed my samples on Scotweave, threading up on a straight draft over 24 shafts. I firstly made sure to test several strips before deciding on my final samples. Something that I found interesting about working on a straight draft was that when I had taken my work off of the loom, I discovered that my samples looked almost completely reversible. I ended up with beautiful ribbon like structures, patterns that I feel I could develop in the future possibly through my Masters Degree.

When considering the relation to the outside world, my collection is appropriately designed for its context, and could be used in the real world; I envisage my samples on elaborate jackets and skirts, or on ends of trousers or edges. I have taken into consideration that in Haute Couture fashion, designs are produced with extreme attention to detail and skills are essential. My samples were time consuming and considered carefully. If they were to be re made in the outside world, budget wouldn't be relevant as Haute Couture clothing is usually known as having no price tag and more luxurious yarns could be used.

My final samples for my jewelled couture collection.