De construction - Re construction

Day 1 ( Week one) 

I was really excited when reading the brief for this project. The idea is to take apart old garments and reconstruct them into something new and contemporary. This is a great oppourtunity to turn ordinary pieces of clothing into something really out there, and to be totally unrestricted with design concepts and ideas. It is also a chance to play around with fabrics and components straight away instead of putting pen to paper  first, as you normally would when designing and working on a project. Our tutors first gave us some examples of designers who work with old clothing. I personally don't like the work of designers such as Comme de garcons and Vivienne Westwood who work in a similar way to this project, however they are great inspiration for showing how clever and inventive you can be with old clothing.

I started to gather some old pieces of clothing that I thought would be good to de construct. I had a browse in some charity shops however I actually had better pieces of clothing at home. I gathered some pieces from my family and friends and I tried to look for garments that had interesting detailing. So I was focusing my attention on zips, buttons, seams, pockets and button holes, anything that was visually interesting.

We started to work on deconstructing our garments in the studio straight away. I tried to focus on taking apart pieces such as the pocket, or the zippers, button holes and seams. I also turned some of the garments inside out to unpick the lining, as the inside stitching of some of the garments were really interesting. Some of the clothing were quite difficult to unpick but I actually quite liked the effect of half ripping parts off.

I tried to work with garments like jackets, trousers, and waistcoats, because these sort of garments have the most detail and will be more interesting to work with throughout the project.

Day 2 

Today we moved onto putting together 20 different outfits using the rest of the garments that we didn't deconstruct. We had the chance to style garments onto each other, however I feel as though i work better on a manikin as it is much quicker and the proportions are better. I really let myself work quite intuitively and not try to style a look that is necessarily wearable, as this project is all about creating more of an "out there" look.

I really enjoyed the process of creating different looks! I played around with proportions and used clothing for different purposes than it is intended. For example I took a pair of shorts and placed them around the neck. I used a pair of trousers and twisted them around the bodice. I really tried to think outside of the box, and focused on showing allot of detailing. I really liked turning jackets inside out and twisting them into another garment to form into one. I began to quickly pin torn bits of fabric and old buttons onto different areas to really try and create a 'deconstructed look'. I was surprised at how quickly I was able to pull together a look, and some of the outfits I created were actually really contemporary and almost wearable, so I could see myself designing something similar towards the end of this project.
I made some rough sketches next to each styled piece, jut so I could gain a greater understanding of how the shapes and fabrics fall together when i move onto designing.

It did become hard to try and think of something different to do each time, so I began to incorporate some of the deconstructed garments in with the whole garments, and this actually resulted in some fantastic outcomes, which I can use to inspire my design concepts and final outcome.

Day 3

In order to think about designing a final outcome, we needed to discover our muse. When thinking about the type of person I wanted to design for I am thinking about quite an outrageous, extravagant woman who has the confidence to wear outlandish clothing.

I began to collage together three or four different muses using magazine clippings. The idea was to create really abstract collages that identify the type of person you intend to design for. At first I found this to be really difficult, because I couldn't find that many clippings that represented they type of person I wanted to create. My tutor explained that it was important we captured the right silhouette and style, and it was less important to choose the right images from magazines.

 I started to use handbags as heads, and used images of jackets as skirts, and trousers as sleeves. It was a similar task to the styling part of the project, however this was just creating more refined looks. It was quite fun making these collages because we could make them really abstract and a little unrealistic.

I tried to incorporate some texture into my collages, so I was attracted to images that had pleats, ruffles, button holes, and zips to show how I might like to incorporate them into my final outcome.

Making collages isn't normally the first step I take when designing, so I started to make some quick sketches. Now that I had my three muses it was easier for me to sketch some rough designs from them. I find designing roughs essential when designing, and working from my muses is a good way of capturing a silhouette and style that i can bring forward into my future designs. My first muse consisted of quite exaggerated shapes and heavy pleating, so i made some quick designs based on this. 

I tried to think about how I am going to incorporate pleating into a design, so I thought about designing pleated sleeves, skirts, trousers, and cuffs. I carried out the same process next to my other collages. I created quite allot of roughs, because for me, its the easiest way to move forward with the design process and really develop my ideas from my collages.

I also started to design some ideas onto the figure. I thought about how I can show detailing like stitching and button holes on the outside of a garment, so i designed a few more refined designs just to move my roughs forward and give myself a clearer idea on how I want to progress with my design concepts.

Day 4 (Week two)

I seem to have established an interest in detailing throughout this project so far, and have focused a great deal on making these the focal point to my design. When thinking about a final outcome for this project, I prefer the idea of making an accessory instead of an entire outfit, as I think that a build up of detailed garments could look quite effective.

To move my idea forward I began to deconstruct different detailed parts to garments. I found a fantastic pair of pale denim shorts, that had a really interesting gold zip. I also took some button holes from a dress shirt, the mesh from a bra, and the lining of a waistcoat. I focused on these details in particular because I think that they really bring more visual interest in terms of texture, and I get more of a deconstructed, reconstructed, feel from it. The pieces i cut were quite small, however i wanted to go with the idea of using a build up of details to create a neck piece or small accessory, as i think that could give a great impact.

The best way for me to begin my design ideas is to start my development process and design some roughs. As texture and detailing is a very important aspect of my design ideas, I decided to incorporate some of the deconstructed garments into my design ideas. I started by placing a zip or button onto the page, and then drew around it using a fine liner. 

The idea of making a neck piece came naturally as i began to design. I started to draw in details around the fabric, showing stitch lines and textured areas. I have never designed like this before, and it was a very effective way of getting a more literal idea of what my final outcome could possibly look like. It was also a great oppourtunity for me to see which fabrics work well together, and how i can possibly piece together my garment.

I really liked how my designs draped around the neck of the figure. The detailing i chose such as the zipper for example, is easy to manipulate into a shape that can form around the neck, and so as I began to add different details in, it began to form well as one piece, and I hope to move this forward into an idea for my final outcome.

Day 5 

Today I really tried to finalise my ideas for a final outcome. I wanted to continue with my idea of using different types of detailing from my deconstructed garments to make into one piece. I began to play around with some ideas on the manikin, and experimented with pinning different parts of the garments onto the neck of the stand. This was a really quick and easy way of seeing what worked and what didn't work, and i began to get an idea of the structure of my garment. I started to narrow down my choices of detailing that I wanted to use for my final outcome. I was quite selective in my approach, and went for things that had the most interesting detail.

I looked at a gold zipper that came from a pair of mens shorts, a row of buttons from a waistcoat, mesh from a bra, twisted fabrics from a silk nightgown, and button holes from a shirt. I also looked into the cuffs from jackets and shirts because I like the structured edge that they give.
Placing the different details onto the manikin was a really fun process, because I was able to work quite intuitively without over thinking my approach to design and put together a final piece. I tried to keep in mind a well balanced colour-way, so i kept to quite neutral tones of pale blues, pinks, and creams because the detailing of each piece was overpowering enough, and it was important that I kept my muse in mind.

I liked the way each detail naturally fell and draped. Some fabrics such as the denim and silk were quite difficult to keep in place, and it was hard to form a shape with them, so instead I let them fall naturally into place and that was quite a nice contrast to the more structured appearance to the rest of my garment.
As i continued to pin my pieces into place, I began to see my outcome as more of an executed piece, and it fell really heavy around the neck which i really liked, as I wanted it to make a big statement.

The next stage was to physically put my garment together, and this was definitely the most difficult part of the entire process. When designing my final piece, I didn't keep in mind the fact that all my components were very small and fiddly, so It was going to be extremely difficult to put together. I kept all my pieces pinned onto the manikin and decided that the best way to piece it all together would be too sew it together whilst still attached to the manikin itself. Some of the pieces that I pinned into folds or curves were unable to remain that shape when I began to sew them together, and the only way that the shape of my garment would remain the same is if I kept it pinned together. I was slightly disappointed about this, as I really liked my original shape. I persevered and sewed each component together individually which was very tedious and took allot of time! As i started to unpin my garment it started to fall and loose the bulk of its shape, I  found it really difficult to keep the piece as a whole because I used such a variety of fabrics in different weights and density's.
To overcome this I tried to create a balance of fabrics, so I attached similar fabrics together so that they could hold each others weight, which resulted in a much better outcome but not quite what I had in mind which was slightly disappointing.

Day 6 

I wanted to ensure that my neck piece actually had a good fit. On the manikin the fit was almost perfect, as I physically sewed it together on there, however it needs to fit a person well for my photo shoot. When i tried it on myself, it hung quite loosely around my neck and fell quite low instead of tightly up around my chest and shoulders.

I knew that i would encounter in some fit problems with a garment like this, as it is quite heavy and there is a large unbalance of fabrics and components that can weigh it down slightly. I really wanted to execute this project with a photo-shoot, and due to my lack of time I used extra fabric to tie it around my neck and give it a secure fit for my final simplistic photo shoot.

Final photoshoot