Designer Research: Dash and Miller

Dash and Miller 

Dash & Miller Woven Collection

I have chosen to research into Dash and Miller's woven collections as I am interested in the use of extra weft throughout many of their samples. Dash and Miller's work I feel fits similarly in relation to my own practice, as they produce fabrics for the global fashion industries. Their samples are interesting and unexpected; and they make use of several fancy yarns. A quality that I like about their work, is that is is risky and experimental yet remains professional and sophisticated, and these are qualities I would like my own work to possess.  

Designer Research: Maja Johansson

Maja Johansson: Woven Textile Design

I first discovered Maja Johansson's work on the Royal College of Art website. Maja graduated from the RCA in 2012 after specialising in woven textile design. I have found her work to be very inspiring, both the innovative nature of how she creates her pieces, as well as the pieces themselves. Something that I really like is her quote," A sophisticated result through an experimental approach" which guides her in order to produce her samples. Corresponding to my own work, it is easy to acknowledge her appreciation of the use of strong colours which I feel is something I can relate to as I love to work with bold and brave colour choices. The element I found most interesting is that she combines unlikely materials and yarns, and creates new surfaces which are completely original. In my future collections, I would like to consider taking a similar approach and become more experimental with my yarn choices and approach to weaving in general. In the past, it has been my experimental samples which have always worked best. 

Maja Johansson | Samples from her final collection at the Royal College of Art 2012 

Seeing her work made me realise that I need to push myself in a similar direction in order to progress, and consider making my own yarns to weave with again, and being more experimental. 

The context of Maja's work is for high end womenswear, which I think is evident through the photographs of her collection below, because of this, her work is useful for me to look at as it is aimed at a context similar to my own practice. 

Maja Johansson | Samples from her final collection at the Royal College of Art 2012

Designer Research: Dries Van Noten

Dries Van Noten  

I have found Dries Van Noten's work to be extremely influential to my practice this year and two current collections. In terms of context, Van Noten's brand sits exactly where I want my own practice to be; high end fashion both mens and womenswear. Dries Van Noten's collections continue to consist of several colours, but the pallet always works really well, his work is not overpowering; instead it simply immerses you to look closer, which is a quality I want my own work to have. The collections flow really nicely, each piece is individual yet could not belong to another collection. I feel as though I am developing my own collections of fabrics much better after following examples like his. 

Dries Van Noten | Ready-To-Wear Spring/Summer Collection 2015

For my own collections, I am aiming to create a balance of busy and calm samples, which I feel Van Noten also does, his pattern on pattern busy designs sit next to a relatively calm stripe or plain beige. However, it is not just the designs themselves which keep my interest in the brand, but also the style. Dries Van Noten's work is brave, bold, ethereal and also feels cultural which is largely shown throughout my own work. The feel of the brand is fun and risky but also simple; his work is made interesting through the use of colour and the cut of the clothing. 

I am currently in the process of researching further into Dries Van Noten's brand, as I would really love to gain work experience with a brand I feel so closely links to my own work and which I feel passionately about. 

Dries Van Noten | Ready-To-Wear Spring/Summer Collection 2015

Re Evaluation of project

Re evaluating my work

This week I have begun to question myself and my work, in terms of the outcomes that I am producing. It has helped me this week to take a few days away from the loom to re evaluate my ideas and think about how I can make the very most out of my final year. So far, I am relatively pleased with my samples, but I don't feel like I am pushing myself to my full potential and so I felt like I needed time to think about what it is I'm trying to achieve and how I can achieve it.

Being able to experiment is the reason I enjoy textiles so much, and I feel that so far this year I haven't allowed myself enough time to experiment or challenge my ideas. I have been too wrapped up in producing X amount of samples rather than really thinking these samples through. I need to stop being so fixed by time frames, as I believe it is imperative to my practice to produce outcomes that I am happy with rather than satisfied. Enclosing myself to time frames isn't helping me be creative or enjoy my project.

In the future I am aiming to be more experimental, possibly in Unit X when I feel like I have got to grips with techniques and sampling. I would like to produce much more innovative fabrics and play with materials such as clay, furs, chunky ribbons, and not being overcautious with my colour palette despite wanting to be more restrictive, I have already found that being too restrictive is stopping my work being the best it can be.

Collection | One

First Collection 

For my first collection of woven samples, I have been looking primarily at patterns found in Moroccan landscapes and architecture and drawing through use of layers. With this in mind I designed my warp as a single cloth with two brocades, the first one being copper and the second purple/indigo. The feel of the fabric was very important to me, I wanted my samples to feel luxurious, fancy, rich and ornate. These samples were produced for a High end fashion context, specifically targeting menswear. 

Close up of inlay through my intricate extra warp patterning 

I selected yarns which I felt were appropriate to the market area, 2 80's cotton, and I threaded up at 80 ends per inch to allow my cloth to be extremely fine as my context of these samples is for linings of jackets/ trimmings or edges.  I finished weaving being relatively happy with the outcomes I had produced however a large downside to weaving so fine was that I feel I spent more time fixing my warp than actually weaving it. This meant that I couldn't experiment or push myself as much as i'd have liked to throughout this collection. At the end of the warp I began to come to grips with how to fix it quickly, general maintenance of the warp, and this therefore led to some more experimental samples using inlay; an element of intricacy and embroidery which is an important factor in my work. 

From Left to Right: Ted Baker Menswear, Hackett Menswear London, Dashing Tweeds Bespoke woven fabrics. 

Final Collection of samples 

Practice Unit

Inspiration/ Visual Research 

Since the very beginning of the Textiles in Practice course, I have always been interested in culture, marvelling in traditional woven techniques and textiles from around the world. Colour and world textiles have always been my main inspiration, and so for the Practice unit I have decided to base my visual research and inspiration on my recent trip to Africa. For this project, I am aiming to design and make a body of woven textiles that explores these areas of research, and this will be focused towards a fashion based context; aimed at the top end.

Through my woven sampling, I want to visually explore my experiences in Morocco; focusing mainly on the busy bustling streets and vibrant warm colours. I intend to visually explore these ideas through an experimental approach in order to demonstrate the impact that the experience has had on my work. I would also like my work to continue in embracing an element of embroidery, and also continue to illustrate my attention to detail and intricate pattern making. 

Photographs from Morocco

At this stage in the project I am currently drawing by using found shapes from my imagery and I have also found cut outs to be particularly helpful in order to get me going. I am playing a lot through layering which I have found to be a good way to initiate the drawing process.