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.