Day One ( Week One)
Our first two week project is the
"Industry" group project. The aim of this project is to study the
work of successful practitioners, and respond to it with a concept for their
Autumn/Winter 2014 collection. Within our groups we had to each choose a role
to play so that we were able to build up a team of designers, textile
designers, photographers, stylists, make-up artists, and even a marketing
person, to work towards an accomplished idea for a collection. This task will
then give us all as individuals a clearer insight as to what it could be like
to be a part of the industry we aspire to work in.
To initially become inspired, we were
given brief presentations on five established Fashion houses, including
Burberry, Prada, Mary Katrantzou, J.W Anderson, and Comme Des Garcons. The
presentations were designed to give us the key information we needed to know
about the history of each brand, their target market, signature garments or
iconic features, patterns , colours, inspiration, and the type of garments they
design from ready to wear to Haute Couture. These presentations were most
definitely useful for the group as a whole, because some of us were unfamiliar
with some of the brands, in particular Comme Des Garcons, so it was helpful to
become more aware of some contemporary designers.
To form our groups we all wrote down two Fashion houses we would like
to work for, and which role we would like to play within that team. I wrote
Burberry as my first choice as it is one of my favourite timeless British
brands, and also Mary Katrantzou because of her exciting prints and her use of
inspiration from personal objects. I was excited to be put into the Burberry
group, and I put myself forward as a Womenswear designer because I felt as
though I could contribute more strongly to the group being a part of that
field. We began with a group discussion about our roles and how we can all
contribute as individuals to the team. It was really interesting to listen to
my peers discuss their chosen roles, as I haven't had the oppourtunity to work
alongside some of my classmates yet or looked at their ideas and different ways
of working, so I am excited to work with my peers who have interests in
different areas of Fashion to myself.
It was diffciult at first to gather an initial concept from our group,
as we all had such individual ideas, especailly becasue everyone has their own
interests and ways they like to work. We discovered that the best way to listen
to everyones views was to start with an initial mind map. We all brainstormed
ideas abiut the identity of Burberry, their target market, iconic garments,
fabric choices, colour schemes, and just the general feel we get as
individuals when thinking about Burberry as a Brand. This was not only helpful
in terms of gaining a greater understanding of the brand we are working for,
but it was also a great way of listening to how we all might interpret Burberry
within our chosen roles to come up with a new concept for their
collection.
I think that creating a mind map
collectivly as a group is going to be essential for the success of this
project, as it is something that we can all refer back to for ideas so that our
work carries the same message and all links together. I persoanlly find group
work quite difficult, as sometimes the concept can be lost when allot of people
are working together and constantly sharing ideas, however having an inital
refernce like a group mind map will most definatly help our group work towards
a really acomplished outcome.
Day
two
It was important that our group had a theme to inspire a unique
concept for Burberry, and to generate some new ideas we became inspired by
British Paganism. The theme itself is quite dark and eerie, which has a strong
contrast to Burberrys clean cut style, so this should result in some really interesting
ideas and design concepts. We also really liked the connection between Paganism
and Burberry. I felt as though the organic objects and being at one with the
natural outdoors which relates to paganism, has a strong relationship to the
idea of Burberry being all about outerwear and dressing for the typical
British weather, so the mix of the two will bring an exciting edge to our
ideas.
Moving forward we began to think about how we were going to approach
our roles as individuals. Being a womenswear designer, it was important that I
worked closely alongside Joanna who is designing for menswear, and of course
the accessories team. The womens collection for Burberry normally stems from
the mens, so its vital that the design team work closely throughout the
project, so that our collections interlink with our theme, and remain true to
the traditional style of Burberry, so our work is not vastly different but
still incorporates our own individual twist.
We started by referring back to our initial mind map, and our British
Paganism mood board. We wanted to find an aspect of them that we can all carry
through into our designs, even if we interpret them differently. I personally
was very drawn to some of the Pagan symbols. I loved the intricacy of them, and
how the shapes interlocked with one another. We decided as a group to pick
three of the same Pagan symbols that we all found interesting to incorporate
into our work.
The three symbols we chose were really quite angelic, and I was
already imagining them merging into one pattern or interlocking with each other
to form a decorative design feature. I was already familiar with a collection
Burberry have recently done using laser cutting. They designed a really
stunning laser cut trench coat, and also used the designs on smaller areas of
pencil skirts and blouses. This inspired me to maybe re work that idea and use
the Pagan symbols to form a new laser cut design. The best way for me to
visualise and develop this idea was to actually model it onto a figure and see
how the patterns could work together, so I cut some basic silhouettes from
paper and moved onto the stand.
Burberry is a very refined and minimalistic brand, so I began by
focusing on smaller areas of detail on singular parts of the garment which was
the collar for a new Trench coat. I began with ideas for a new collar shape
because I wanted to play on the fact that the Trench coat will be an iconic
part of the A/W14 collection, and changing the collar shapes and detailing
could be quite interesting. I know that Burberry pay strong attention to
detail, and I think that this concept could bring a whole new dimension to the
collection. I tried to make the collar shape a little more dramatic, so I
thought that altering the shape to be circular as oppose to sharp and square
could bring an interesting contrast to the prominent detailing of the Pagan
symbols. I played around with the different paper templates quite allot, and
moved them around onto different areas of the neck to see what worked and what
didn't. I much preferred the collar shape when it fell across the shoulder and
chest of the manikin, because I felt it draped a lot better onto the
figure and was more representational of the elegance of Burberry , as
oppose to the choker style collar which I also experimented with.
The way I like to design personally is in quite a dramatic and
exaggerative way, and as I continued to work onto the stand a member of my
group noticed that my ideas may be a little too over the top for Burberry. This
was a great oppourtunity for me to refer back to our mind map, and more
importantly discuss with the menswear designer as to how I can overcome my
problem. I noticed that the menswear designer took a different approach to me
in developing her ideas. She began by making some rough initial sketches, which
helped her to really capture the silhouette of Burberry and understand the
basic foundations of their style. She advised me to begin to make some rough
sketches of my own, and then perhaps refer back to her and see how our
collections can merge together a bit better, whilst still working to our own
individual style.
Day three
Today I wanted to really try and overcome the problem of my designs
being too over powering for Burberry. I thought that the best way to understand
the simplicity of their silhouettes was to research into some of their previous
collections. I referenced back to their A/W13, and A/W14 collections to get an
idea of the shapes and cuts that they carry throughout their collections, and
how they've modernised their designs over time. The biggest difference in their
recent collections to their older ones was their use of fabrics. The way they
have developed their use of fabrics has resulted in even more opulent designs.
For example they have introduced Laminated leather and calf skin trench
coats, as oppose to the traditional cotton. They also introduced more of a
sheer organza material into the pencil skirts, mixed with a silk collared
shirt, showing how they convey contrast through fabric as oppose to design
features.
This research really showed me how Burberry remain to keep their
heritage style of designing wearable Fashion. The customary style within their
collections will always stay the same, so even though they may modernise the
trench coat with a new fabric for example, the style of the coat has not
changed, and thats the same throughout most garments within their collection.
This has therefore inspired me to design keeping the traditions of Burberry in
mind and not move away from it too much, so I made some quick sketches from my
researched images to help me with this.
I then started to think about the garments I
would like to include into my collection. I designed some quick roughs where I
was thinking about the types of jackets and trenches I could design, blouses,
shirts, pencil skirts, and a few dresses. These garments are most relevant to
Burberrys womenswear collections, and it being quite a traditional brand I
didn't want to focus on garments such as trousers that are not over apparent in
their porsum wear.
Designing quite quickly is something I have learned to
get used to, and I find it extremely effective in collecting allot of ideas and
really capturing the the sort of contour I want to design towards. It did
become difficult at times, especially because I wanted to keep my research in
mind and not design something thats irrelevant to the style of Burberry, but at
the same time I wanted to design using new and fresh ideas.
My rough sketches
were not only helpful for me to become more selective when designing for my
final collection, but they were also great for the rest of my group to look at
as well, as they were able to select the roughs that they thought would work
for the collection and those that didn't, so it was helpful to gather the
opinion of my group and to keep working collectively as a team.
Day Four
The next stage was to move onto refining my design concepts, so that I can move onto a final collection. Creating a large bulk of roughs was really effective in establishing the right silhouette and style that I should progress my designs towards. I began to really narrow down my roughs, and worked closely with Joanna the menswear designer to do so. It was important that we both selected similar design concepts that we wanted to push forward, as it was vital that there was a clear link between the two collections. We both agreed on the fact that there should be a balance within the collection in terms of putting outfits together. We met with the styling and promotion team, and they were able to give us some great advise on how to put together our collection. We didn't want the focus to be just on the signature trench coat, because although its important part of the brand we wanted to really show how we've modernised the collection and made changes.
To start my designs for the collection I began to design straight onto a figure, and this really helped me and my group to see how a garment would actually fall onto a more bodily form. I tried to design around 15-20 refined outfits, mixing and matching pencil skirts with jackets, and blouses beneath trench coats.
I also sketched our laser cutting design features onto some of the garments, and this really showed the identity of our brand and how we've put our own twist onto it. This was the last important part of the design stage for me and my group, as we were able to select the ten final designs for our A/W13 collection.
Day 5
Today was the last day for me and my group to work towards our final outcomes before our presentation tomorrow. For myself and Joanna, it was important that we used our time to complete our illustrations for the collection. It was quite difficult to ensure that our designs marriged together, because we both liked to design in different ways, and sometimes the communication between us got lost. It became harder to design together because we were a little rushed, and perhaps didn't manage our time effectively as we only left ourselves a day to complete our final illustrations.
I worked using design pens for my finals, working towards our group colour scheme of very earthy browns, greens and yellows. I wasn't at all happy with my final illustrations for this project, as I felt that it was hard for me to connect with a brand as simplistic as Burberry, because I prefer to design so elaborately. To me, my illustrations looked very unprofessional and were not representative of how I normally like to work. I think that using a felt tip pen made it harder to achieve the correct colour palette, and I was unable to really highlight the intricacy of the laser cut detailing which I was a little disappointed about. I spoke to one of my tutors about ways I can improve upon my design work, and she suggested broadening my skills in illustrator and photoshop, so that I am able to achieve a more refined form and clearer colour palette.
