Hello,
This weeks blog post is the second part of my A-level (AS-level) textiles journey. I decided to split the blog post up as for that year I created two products. Therefore this week's blog is the second product I made which was a 1960s inspired dress.
The brief for this project was to design and create a garment/dress that was inspired by a particular decade. And as I explained last week you can probably guess that I picked the sixties. When I did my wall hanging, i chose to look at the hippy trend of the 1960s, so for this project, I wanted to explore a different fashion trend within this decade. So I started off by looking at some of the iconic designers of this time such as:
- Andre Courreges - known for his space age designs and the introduction of PVC to fashion.
- Emilio Pucci - known for his vibrant psychedelic printed fashion.
- Mary Quant - known for making mini skirt fashionable and creating the Chelsea girl trend.
- Missoni - known for changing the way of knitwear and their iconic zig-zag pattern.
- Yves Saint Laurent - known for the iconic Mondrian dress.
It wasn't until I came across fashion designer Paco Rabanne, that I truly fell in love and found my possible inspiration for this project. I was instantly captured and fascinated by his creations. I couldn't believe he had made clothing, using unconventional materials such as plastic and metal. I had never seen anything like it before. This is what initially started my love of Paco Rabanne and to this day he is still my favourite designer, past and present collections. I love the way he pushed against fashion boundaries and created something that had never been done before. After falling in love with Paco Rabanne's work, I then chose to look at one of his inspirations at the time which was space age. Within this theme, I also found fellow 1960s space age designers Andre Courreges and Pierre Cardin. The work of theses 3 iconic sixties fashion designers helped me to confirm the inspiration for my decade of choice inspired dress. Next, i then started to create my own 1960s space age themed designs which can be found below. (Sorry that they aren't brightly coloured and not very visible but my colour pallet was white, black and silver).
For my end product and final design, i wanted to create: a puffy, rounded, voluminous, circle shaped dress since circles were a key feature in the space age theme. The puffiness would resemble the shape of space suits since space was a big inspiration for Paco Rabanne. However, i want to exaggerate the shape, to really resemble a circle. Since Paco Rabanne was known for his extreme designs, I also wanted to replicate that and create a shape that was a bit more extreme and unconventional. After seeing the use of metal in many of Paco Rabanne creations, I knew that I wanted to feature this material on my work too. Which is why I chose to create a belt like band at the top of the skirt using small silver metal discs.
This project seemed to take a more of a profession direction than I had done before, for example as well as designing and making a garment we also had to do a:
- Designer profile - gathering information on an inspirational designer of that decade.
- Shop analysis - find out key information about a shop where I intend my product to be sold.
- Product analysis - look at similar products to what I want to create that are already on the market and take note of materials and components used.
- Client analysis - explain who your intended client is and what their requirements and needs are.
- Specification - layout clearly what you intend to make and how.
- Manufacturing specification - explain to the manufacturing company what you are making and what it requires such as materials, equipment and a lay plan of pattern pieces.
- Mass production: plan of production - a flow chart diagram that explains the steps needed to be taken, in order to create my garment.
I had never done many of theses before so it gave me an insight as to how the production of clothes happens within the industry. It is not just about designing and making, there are many other factors that need to be considered first. Which I thought was vital to learn if I did in the end, end up within the fashion industry.
As always you can find images of my work below, as I think they help to explain the process of how I created my products. However, i, unfortunately, don't have any in-production photos like last week as I have lost the pen drive that they are on. Sorry.
Thank you so much for reading.
Love Karmann Jean
This weeks blog post is the second part of my A-level (AS-level) textiles journey. I decided to split the blog post up as for that year I created two products. Therefore this week's blog is the second product I made which was a 1960s inspired dress.
The brief for this project was to design and create a garment/dress that was inspired by a particular decade. And as I explained last week you can probably guess that I picked the sixties. When I did my wall hanging, i chose to look at the hippy trend of the 1960s, so for this project, I wanted to explore a different fashion trend within this decade. So I started off by looking at some of the iconic designers of this time such as:
- Andre Courreges - known for his space age designs and the introduction of PVC to fashion.
- Emilio Pucci - known for his vibrant psychedelic printed fashion.
- Mary Quant - known for making mini skirt fashionable and creating the Chelsea girl trend.
- Missoni - known for changing the way of knitwear and their iconic zig-zag pattern.
- Yves Saint Laurent - known for the iconic Mondrian dress.
It wasn't until I came across fashion designer Paco Rabanne, that I truly fell in love and found my possible inspiration for this project. I was instantly captured and fascinated by his creations. I couldn't believe he had made clothing, using unconventional materials such as plastic and metal. I had never seen anything like it before. This is what initially started my love of Paco Rabanne and to this day he is still my favourite designer, past and present collections. I love the way he pushed against fashion boundaries and created something that had never been done before. After falling in love with Paco Rabanne's work, I then chose to look at one of his inspirations at the time which was space age. Within this theme, I also found fellow 1960s space age designers Andre Courreges and Pierre Cardin. The work of theses 3 iconic sixties fashion designers helped me to confirm the inspiration for my decade of choice inspired dress. Next, i then started to create my own 1960s space age themed designs which can be found below. (Sorry that they aren't brightly coloured and not very visible but my colour pallet was white, black and silver).
For my end product and final design, i wanted to create: a puffy, rounded, voluminous, circle shaped dress since circles were a key feature in the space age theme. The puffiness would resemble the shape of space suits since space was a big inspiration for Paco Rabanne. However, i want to exaggerate the shape, to really resemble a circle. Since Paco Rabanne was known for his extreme designs, I also wanted to replicate that and create a shape that was a bit more extreme and unconventional. After seeing the use of metal in many of Paco Rabanne creations, I knew that I wanted to feature this material on my work too. Which is why I chose to create a belt like band at the top of the skirt using small silver metal discs.
This project seemed to take a more of a profession direction than I had done before, for example as well as designing and making a garment we also had to do a:
- Designer profile - gathering information on an inspirational designer of that decade.
- Shop analysis - find out key information about a shop where I intend my product to be sold.
- Product analysis - look at similar products to what I want to create that are already on the market and take note of materials and components used.
- Client analysis - explain who your intended client is and what their requirements and needs are.
- Specification - layout clearly what you intend to make and how.
- Manufacturing specification - explain to the manufacturing company what you are making and what it requires such as materials, equipment and a lay plan of pattern pieces.
- Mass production: plan of production - a flow chart diagram that explains the steps needed to be taken, in order to create my garment.
I had never done many of theses before so it gave me an insight as to how the production of clothes happens within the industry. It is not just about designing and making, there are many other factors that need to be considered first. Which I thought was vital to learn if I did in the end, end up within the fashion industry.
As always you can find images of my work below, as I think they help to explain the process of how I created my products. However, i, unfortunately, don't have any in-production photos like last week as I have lost the pen drive that they are on. Sorry.
Thank you so much for reading.
Love Karmann Jean
1960's space age mood board.
Designer profile: Paco Rabanne.
Product analysis 1.
Product analysis 2.
Product analysis 3.
Initial design shapes.
Design 1 - front of the dress to be covered in metal discs, with a plain back.
Design 2 - metal discs to create a belt at the waist of the dress.
Design 3 - chains and metal discs to create stripes on the skirt of the dress.
Design 4 - metal discs to cover the bodice with a rounded skirt.
Construction development: developing the pattern pieces to create my ideal rounded circle shaped skirt, which took more than one attempted to get the right shape.
Manufacturing specification.
Specification.
Plan of production: flow chart.
Evaluation of the final product.
Evaluation of the final product.
Final product: front.
Final product back.
Final product: neckline and the top half of the dress.
Final product: darts on the bodice and skirt to create shape.
Final product: close up of small silver metal discs (individually hand sewn on).
Final product: skirt shaping at the side.
Final product: side profile.
Final product: close up on zip fastening (which is the best zip I have done so far and I really don't like sewing zips, it always ends badly).
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