Final Evaluation

My final outcome is very different to what I first anticipated it would be. I thought that my project would end up being largely based on the stylistic codes of subcultures. I also expected my final outcome to be more symbolic of my personal style and people that I have known for a long time but instead my outcomes were inspired by a homeless girl and a boy that I only met quite recently. I actually think this outcome is far more interesting and unique and I am glad that my that my project took an unexpected turn. I think subcultural references are now extremely overdone in the fashion industry and it would have been hard to create something unique and distinctive using subculture as inspiration. This has taught me to be a lot more instinctive with my ideas and not be scared to explore ideas which I might previously thought of as a bit odd. 

In my original plan I was going to use my favourite items of clothing as research and make designs inspired by the symbolism behind them. Looking back, I'm glad I didn't do this as my final outcome would have ad very limited and and unimaginative research sources. I already know and understand my own clothes, and it far more interesting to look at the clothes of others.

Although I branched out a lot from my original plan, I still managed to stick to the most important aspects of it, such as looking at the symbolism of particular items clothing to generate designs and exploring a wide range of techniques. I was actually really surprised at my own ability to use different skills throughout this project. I challenged myself to try digital print, embroidery and had never created my own pattern from scratch before. I felt that during this project i learnt fundamental designs skills by myself to take with my onto my degree course. During this project I also used constructive criticism to greatly develop my illustration style. I also feel that during this project I have developed a strong sense of personal style and a unique aesthetic. The fact that I was told by a lot of people that my aesthetic was very androgynous and the fact that I ended up using male models in both my shoots has made me consider choosing to pursue menswear later on during my degree.

I felt that the turning points in my project which lead to to my final outcome were the point when I realised that I wanted to focus on the symbolism of working class culture, when I created my homeless print, during the workshop putting shapes on the stand where i decided on my final structure. However I think the most important skill I have learnt through this project is how to use life experiences, such as meeting George Watson and the 'strongbow' incident as inspiration for my work. As an artist I feel it is very important for your work to become your life and you life to reflect your work. 

Strongbow Photoshoot

I know that it is morally wrong to ask your current boyfriend to model clothes inspired by an ex-boyfriend in a location also inspired by the same ex, but I did it anyway because I thought there was something intriguingly controversial and almost disturbing about it. He offered to model for me anyway after seeing my designs. 

I chose to shoot my menswear pieces in a typical English pub, as this was the type of place where my initial inspiration for these designs came from. Of course he was also drinking strongbow throughout the shoot. This particular pub is also quite a significant pub for me and my boyfriend Matt, which is another reason why I chose it. The pub is situated next to Camden canal, which also provided and interesting and urban shoot location. 

Matt also decided he wanted to wear his new bucket hat in the shoot, which I thought was a good idea as it added an element of his personal style and related to the strong 90's theme throughout this project. 

Homeless Dress Photoshoot

I originally intended to shoot my dress on a female model, however a lot of people were commenting on how androgynous my outfit was, therefore I thought it would be more interesting to shoot it on a male model. I chose Frankie as my model as I thought he had a very adolescent look and wanted a model that looked like an angsty teenager. This is because one of the initial themes I explored at the beginning of this project was youth rebellion . This angsty teenage look also relates to my 1990's inspired aesthetic which I seem to use very frequently at the moment. To emphasise the 90's teenage theme, I gelled Frankie's hair into curtains which were a style frequently sported by 90's boy bands and football fans. Frankie was also wearing and ear stretcher, which I thought added a reference to modern day rebellion and alternative culture. 

I wanted to use an urban landscape as the location to emphasise the gritty, bleak, urban theme of my outfit. I chose Scape- The Ravensbourne accommodation as the location for my shoot as it provided a good, urban, concrete background without being too obvious. 

Frankie also just happened to be drinking a can of Relentless and I thought it would work well in the shoots as it is quite an aggressive, masculine drink  (it is very high caffeine content and the branding is very harsh), often drink by teenage boys. The green colour of the can was also complimentary to the orange in the outfit. 

I was really happy with how this shoot went as I feel it captured the exact mood that I wanted to portray. If I could change anything, I would have preferred a slightly more interesting and less sterile urban space as my location. 

Making my homeless dress

As this design was a very complicated shape, I realised it would take a lot of planning and experimentation to get the shape right and make it easily wearable. I decided that the best approach was to make it in two parts- an basic under-dress and a complex over-skirt. I drew out how I thought the pieces should be and labelled where they should go. I thought of 3 different possible structures but in the end decided that the third structure would be the simplest and use the least fabric. 

Next I cut these pieces out of pattern paper and positioned them on the stand to try and turn them into the shape that I wanted. I ended up spending a whole day repositioning the pieces and was worried that this structure would not work. i then realised that the paper was very stiff so could not form the soft shapes that I wanted, so I used these shapes as a pattern to make a tiole out of calico to see how it would hang in fabric. For my tiole, I ended up having to change my circle into a bean shape to go get the structure that I wanted. I still wasn't happy with the shape, so I added darts to make it more 3D. 

I soon realised that it would be extremely difficult to make my top connect to the skirt, therefore I had to get rid of one of the front panels and make the dress into two separate pieces. Designing the top was very straightforward, as I only wanted to make a very basic sleeveless turtleneck. I wanted to keep the top simple as a contrast to the complex skirt and prints. 

I ended up having to take apart my tiole to make a pattern, which I felt was as shame but I couldn't see another way to do it and get the darts in the exact right position. I found this pattern extremely difficult to match up because of it very unusual shape. 

I meaured each pattern peice and rounded it off into a square to wirk out how much of each different print I would need. I used the digital printer and printed onto a luxurius feeling silky fabric to create a refined look which was a big contrast to my orginal insiration of homeless people. Once I had cut the printed pieces, I disnt find the garnments too difficuilt to put together, but I struggled techically with the zip and interfacing. Oringally I wanted to use a zip with a rounded ring-pull, but I was told that this was too heavy for the type of garments and fabric so instead had to just use a regular zips. 

I am really happy with my finished garment. I feel my initail sketch has been translated very well into real life and it is both wearable and interesting. If i could change anything about it, I would have used a stiffer fabric for the skirt as then it would have held the shape better. 

Strongbow Shirt

I thought about creating a digital strongbow print using photoshop, but as I unfortunately I didn't have the time to make a shirt from scratch, I realised that there was no point designing my own fabric. Instead, I decided to use heat transfers to put my strongbow illustrations onto my shirt. This method meant that I also had more control over the positioning of each picture. 

To make this shirt more unique I decided to extend the hem, adding 20cm to the front and 40cm to the back to create a very contemporary and interesting shape. On the back of my shirt I added some text of the full 'Srongbow' conversation between the 'lads' at the pub, as i really wanted to emphasise the story behind the initial inspiration for this shirt. 

Like with my other shirts, I added an embroidered ghost on the pocket to symbolise that George was also a big inspiration behind this shirt. I felt the colour was a bit plain so took inspiration from western-style metal collar tips and sewed some strongbow can metal ring pulls onto the tips of the collar. I am very happy with this shirt and I actually also like how it looks on me worn as dress so could even be a unisex piece. 

Awkward.

George mostly wore white shirts with black blazers, so I decided to use these items of clothing which distinctly remind me of him for a basis of my designs. I wanted to create pieces which symbolised his identity using elements of his personal style and his awkward ghost icon. 

He often wore printed shirts so i decided to use the awkward ghost to create a print. I chose to make the quite randomly positioned and sized to make them look free and floating. I also added my 'creepy heart' logo to the collar as I really liked this idea and wanted to incorporate it into my design. I decided to also paint an awkward ghost in white onto a black blazer with the work 'dark' above it. This loosely inspired by the concept of painted customised jackets that I explored earlier in the the project, almost painting on your back a way to express your identity.  I feel that this jacket is supposed to embody George Watson's identity. 

I created some samples to help me work out how I would go about making these pieces. I practised embroidering, painting a drawing to experiment with which application method worker best for what material. In the end I decided to hand draw the ghost print print onto the white shirt, which I think actually worked better than printing as it gave a rougher and more random effect which is what I wanted. I appliqued the hearts onto the collar ad stitched the writing on in black tread to add a different medium and texture. With the blazer, I decided to go back to the punk roots of this project and hand paint the ghost and text on using white acrylic paint. I was surprised how difficult and time consuming it was to get a thick even line. The jacket to many layers of paint, different sized brushes and several hours. 

Onto the pocket of both garments I added an embroidered ghost as I though this was a nice finishing touch which emphasised my theme and made them look like they were part of the same collection. 

I'm a bit obsessed with you now

I feel that I need to explain more about  George Watson. 

I can say this because I'm almost sure that he will never read this blog, but my first date with him was possibly the best night of my life. I have never before met somebody so perfect and beautiful inside and out. I have never been so happy in some body's presence. I have never met somebody who I can relate to so much, who thinks in such similar way. Somebody so kind a gentle. I honestly feel honoured to have even briefly known such an incredible person.  

It hurts me so much that he is going to study in Edinburgh next year. So cliche and cheesy as it sounds, I decided to channel this into my work. In my research book I did some pages dedicated to George Watson which were supposed to resemble a creepy teenage diary. 

On the first page I put a huge picture of him taken, with 'dark' written in the corner because he always described things which were unfortunate, unfair or unpleasant as 'dark' for some reason. I always (in a good way) found his whole aura a bit dark and creepy and wanted to portray this. I wrote his name out in bold black font and next to it I put a little red heart which said 'Creepy Heart' in the middle as I was aware that what I was doing was very creepy. 

He always drew these little ghosts in his work that he called "Awkward ghosts', which weirdly reminded me of the drawings that I used to do as a child. He drew my my own awkward ghost and said that I was welcome to use it in my work if I wanted to. Normally I wouldn't want to copy somebody else's work, but seeing as my project is about symbolism, I felt that this ghost was a strong symbol of his identity so did mu own variations of it in my little booklet which I may use in some designs. I also did a little portrait of the way that I saw George Watson and wrote "You what sorry?" next to it, because he always used to say that.