Paradisaeidae Bird Street Art

http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoology/2011/05/19/birds-of-paradise-street-art/

While searching for Birds of Paradise artwork I came across a secondary source of contemporary street art created in 2011. The Tropical bird composition was created in London on wooden fence to conceal building work.

The simplistic use of colour and uncomplicated silhouettes is a stark contrast of the elaborate birds in real life conceiving a paradox conception of the birds.

For future work I could take influence from the refined colour pallet if I was unable to achieve the iridescence portrayed in the feathers in fabrics and surface decoration.

Attenborough's Paradise Birds - FMP

I found the initial influence for my final major project while watching the BBC production 'Attenborough's Paradise Birds' in late January.

Inspired by the natural beauty I see around me, nature has always been a heavily influential part of my work. After first watching the documentary my creative characteristic wanted to illustrate and develop the shapes, colour and structures into a fashion outcome.

The shapes and colours exhibited by the male birds birds to attacked a mate are alluring with a romantic aesthetic.

Along with the extravagant plumage of the birds, most of the birds perform dances where they create elegant silhouettes and memorable structures.

The bold shapes created by their feathers and displays embodied into fabric through manipulation and pattern cutting would give my designs a clear influence from the Paradisaedae birds, while also giving a unique spin.

Through the movement created in the dances flashes of bright and iridescent colours burst front the black feathers that could be interpreted into garments to create unusual patterns and surface decoration.

London College of Fashion Interview

Yesterday I attended a interview at Mare Street in London for Bespoke Tailoring at LCF.

To prepare my portfolio for interview I documented my sample garments through photography, used prepared research boards, life drawing, garment patterns, photography work and illustrations professionally mounted.

Three hours before the scheduled interview I dropped my portfolio at the Mare Street building so I was able to go research fabrics suppliers in the Shepard's Bush area.

At two o'clock all other applicants were requested to leave their portfolios with the two interviews, course leader Jacqueline and Rob Stevens the head lecture for the course, while we extended a guided tour of the building and facilities.

After the the tutors examined our portfolios were asked to attended a private interview and I happened to be the first to be interviewed.

In the interview I was asked a series of questions, such as; 

Where did my initial interest in tailoring come from?

Why I have applied for tailoring at LCF?

To choose a example of work and explain.

Do I know the difference between primary and secondary research?

To answer the first two questions I said that my initial interest was gained in 2012 when BBC news covered a story on CE Barrow Bespoke Tailor closing in Lancaster after 140 years. The BBC did a short documentary and part explained the basics of how tailoring can make the body more aesthetically please and I wanted to learn those skills and be able to do that for people using my natural creative characteristic. 

When asked to show and explain a piece of work I chose the images of the projected dress from my chandelier project. I explained my how my concept of light influenced my design for the dress then how rather then having the model wear the dress, a image of the dress what photographed and then projected onto the naked form so my model was wearing the light.

To justify my understanding of primary and secondary research I explained that primary research is something that you document by using photography or drawing for example, while secondary is something that is already documented and has been published in books or online.

Overall I am unable to gage how the interview went as I was only in there a short amount of time and by being the first in makes me think that they had already made a decision when looking at my portfolio and they were unable to give feedback on my work. However I believe I gave strong answers for their questions and showed my passion for the course.

Sample Seam Finishes for Chiffon

To neatly and professionally finish the seams on the chiffon for my designed garments I have sampled three different styles of seam finishes; French seam, clean seam and overlocking. 

French seam is where the wrong sides of the fabric are sewn together before being pressed,the excess is cut close to the line of stitching, a few mm away and folded so the rights sides of the fabric are facing. Then another line of stitching is needed to conceal the raw edge of the fabric.

This style of seam is the most professional in appearance and appropriate for the lightness of the fabric. 

However this style is slightly time consuming because it effectively means seams must be sewn twice and this method can only be used of straight seams.

The second method of seam construction I sampled was the clean finished edge. In this techniques the seam is sewn, ironed opened before the seam edges are turn under and sewn flat.

The raw edges of seam are concealed as desired however the seam is not as strong when compared to the french seam.

This technique of seam finish would be more suited to a medium heavy weight fabric rather than the light weight chiffon. 

Out of the three seams finished this technique took the longest due to three lines of stitching need to finish the seam. 

The last sample seam was an overlocked seam.

After stitching the seam the edges are overlocked, cutting the seam down and preventing fraying in the finished seam.

This is probably the most commonly used way of finishing seams due to quickness of finishing seams. Overlocking seams also strengthen the seam, making the garments more stable.

Yet this seam does not have professional finish desired and with the sheerness fabric can be seen though the fabric.

I believe the best seam to use on my garments would be the french seam because of the strength in the seam, aesthetically pleasing finish and is approbate for the fabric.

Primary and Secondary Research Lecture

This mooring the group were invited to a lecture given on different types of research we have used and will be used for our Final Major Project and documented in our 500 word Project Proposal in sufficient depth for the readers to evaluate the proposed study. 

In the lecture we discussed what primary and secondary sources of research were. 

A primary source of research is an original record created an the time the event occurred such as newspapers, speeches, exhibitions and photographs.

Secondary sources are usually written as the event has occurred. Secondary sources assign values to, analyse and draw conclusions about events reported in primary sources. 

The breadth of our research sources will effect our final mark so we have been encouraged not to just use the internet to gather information but use published sources such as books and magazines and if possible to contact artists and designers to get a first hand account of their work.

To document our secondary research sources we will use a Harvard format referencing system, showing the date, format and source of the research.

UCAS Application and Portfolio Submissions

After researching fashion design courses at the UCAS fair in manchester and the LLF Craft cluster day I decided to apply to four universities, Westminster, Southampton Solent and UAL's London College of Fashion (LLF) and Central Saint Martins (CSM), all fashion design based courses ranging from womenswear design to bespoke tailoring. 

The application process had to be completed and sent to UCAS by the 15th January including a finished personal statement, university choices, educational history, results and a reference from our tutors.

In the past week I've been contacted by three of the universities asking for a portfolio to be submitted by post or online all for the 8th February. Each university asked for slightly different work in the portfolios but all showing creativity, experimentation, research, analysis, subject knowledge and technical competence. 

Westminster asked for the completion of a questionnaire testing my knowledge on the fashion industry and how designers are influence from different sources, along with six A4 pieces of work. 

Southampton Solent asked for a portfolio to be emailed to them containing 15 images of work and an essay with a creative theme.

CSM asked for 10 boards to be uploaded to a online album on flickr, three research, three development illustrations, two final illustrations and two boards of other work showing creativity. 

I decided to create a election of boards to be used in all portfolios tot show the development process from research to final designs of my work I'm producing now to be sent off with other work fulling the criteria asked for by each university. 

Now all three portfolios have been completed, sent and received I can now concentrate on preparing my physical portfolio for an interview for LLF on the 25th February.

Surface Decoration Idea Development

After feed back from my peers regarding the skirt and dress I've created using my textural materials it was suggested that bringing in a pattern as surface decoration would strengthen my designs.

After discussing the idea with my tutors I suggested creating the pattern from the textural materials and screen printing the it on to the chiffon voile and the faux suede to create a suggestion of texture on the flatter fabrics. 

After scanning in and editing the images on photoshop the patterns where put onto screen to be printed from. 

Before printing the patterns onto my fabric I mixed up two colours in different shades to see what would compliment the my less textural fabrics. Personally the pale grey was my favourite as it didn't stand out too much against the fabric linking with the idea of suggestion of texture.

The prints of the textures ties in with the development of my concept for the winter collection without solely using textural fabrics. This means I can use less of the textual fabrics in my designs and that should make the areas of textures more predominate in my designs. 

Development Garments

Using my chosen fabrics I have designed several garments for development pieces before my final designed collection. 

When designing the development pieces I have taken inspiration from my early sketch book work to get the structure within the garments, while also using a relaxed shape that reflects my research of Hiroko Koshino and asymmetric shape from Comme Des Garçons designs.

Using a panel pattern skirt I created a toile from cotton calico before shaping the skirt as in the design to use the toile pieces as a pattern. 

To break up the textures within skirt each fur panel connected to a suede panel. This makes the textural fabrics more defined within the garment. 

Using the textural fabrics against the lighter weight suede was a problem because the suede struggled to lie flat in the seam however after loosening the tension on the industrial sewing machines meant that the suede wasn't bunched in the seams.

In the centre back of the skirt skirt I have put a invisible zip but for the zip to open and close with out trapping the pile of the fabric I had to cut the fur at the seam without cutting too much so the seam became noticeable.

After taking the pattern from a existing relaxed shaped garment and altering to incorporate the design elements such as the zip, deep v neckline and lower back seam. 

When cutting the pattern from my chosen materials it became clear that the I didn't have enough amount of suede needed for the back point, however the garment is long enough to alter to incorporate the design feature in a lesser angle then was desired. 

Both garments need to be finished, a lining inserted, seams neatened and a final press before completed. 

Fabric Choices

Looking back at my research of the folklore tale of Yuki-onna (snow woman) to gain inspiration for my colour scheme. I want to use very pale colours to represent the elements associated with the winter setting such as the coldness and the snow. In the different versions of the tale Yuki-onna is depicted naked or in a white kimono so I could represent this in a sheer fabrics such as voile or chiffons.

After discussing the developing concept with my tutor, it was agreed that the combination of heavy fabrics along with the lighter weight fabrics to give the warmth that is desired in winter clothing would help develop my idea to a concept. 

The suggestion of the use of really traditional winter fabrics like furs and suedes (only faux) and textural fabrics to establish the concept was mutually agreed upon and would have a clear link to the winter environment of the tale.