patterned weave development

I have been developing the looped weave intensively. I really like the effects, 3d quality, chunkiness. But i feel as though it limits me with pattern and variations for my final collection of fabric which is why I have chosen to add another structure to break up my collection, create more interest.
Based on scar patterns, it uses several ends in each heddle to create a large scale pattern which I think will be very striking from away, when in colours.


i have experimented with colour in illustrator, layering and trying to picture the final outcome. I think this more linear patterned weave does sit well with the loop structure. They are both fluid and textural, mimicking the scarification texture of the skin I have been researching:

Mix it up - 3D weave and plastic embellishment

Texture:
I want people to look at my final collection and question what are they looking at. I have decided to use a mix of materials to create unique textural and experimental pieces. It might look unusual, some may even think it's too much. But if there is ever a time to take risks and experiment the time is now. I think it will successfully create new surface/body boundaries, building layers, extensions of the body and skin with plastics and woven loops.


My favourite designers mixing plastics, liquid gels, embellishment, woven fabric and fur:


Who else could mix crochet, leather, sequins and plastic except Christopher Kane?

Dries Van Noten

Bottega Veneta

Prada

some of my own work using perspex embellishment, digital print and 3-dimensional woven structures:

colour:
refine colour palette. I have so many textures going on which I love. But at the moment things are looking a bit too much, i want it to remain interesting in texture combinations but refining/darkening the colours and developing combinations will hopefully make the collection look more sophisticated..

pre-fall 2012

 my favourite picks from pre-fall 2012. 

Proenza Schouler: They always use interesting fabrics and colour combinations. I am having trouble defining my colours and it's interesting to see the way they use colour. Proenza Schouler use blocks of one of two colours in an outfit, and use more than one or two colours in details to tie the collection together, while also making the outfits stand out alone. It's striking and bold, but uncomplicated and never too much.

J.Mendel:

J. Mendel are specialists in fur. But I don't think it was just the use of luxe fur that made this collection stand out for me. The textures created my mixing soft fur, shiny leather, matt wool and blocks of black and white create contrasting textural outfits. I love the mix of shiny/matt/hairy and would like to think about this in my own work, avoiding the obvious mix of fur and leather. I think texture can be found in all sorts of unexpected materials.

weave development

I have just set up my 3rd warp on a loom. i have decided to take forward the looping weave. it is a double cloth, with one warp at a much lower tension than the other warp. This allows me to pull the warp forward and make loops by inserting knitting needles. These work really well but i need to find/make similar objects that are much cheaper because it looks like i will need a hundred or so if I am weaving a long length.. if i take the needles out as i am weaving the loops get crushed and distorted under the pressure of the beam and lose their 3D effect.


At the moment i have mixed feelings about my weave outcomes.. i think they are exciting and experimental but i think they need some refinement. I want my collection to be fun and bold, but also developed/sophisticated. This is a hard balance... I will need to think carefully about the colours and pattern, and also the fabrics that go with them. 


I also want to look into other fabric manipulation such as embellishment and laser cutting. I want to develop the idea of extending the body, adding to it in three-dimensional ways, reflecting body scarification, physical manipulation and surface of the skin through unexpected materials. (thick cording/leather?/latex)

DYE DYE

Don't dye in a wok at 2am.. because it won't match your colour palette. The colours changed drastically as they dried and as I put the yarn onto the loom. However going through the dying process/mistakes and successes ( i also dyed viscose cord for my weft, this worked much better - viscose takes colour and holds vibrancy in contrast to cotton) made me think more carefully about the colours that I am using. I have decided to develop/change my colours. The pink is either going or I will use it sparingly. However there does need to be a lighter colour to break up the deep green/red tones.

weave development, 3d, layers of the body, adding, taking away to the body..


i want to make a whole coat, big impact.. is this possible in the time limit?
only a few pieces will have hand woven fabric.
the width of the loom is a problem. can i design in strips, blocks over the body, piecing together like plastic surgery, building up the body/adding to it in pieces?

Francesca Woodman, muse

I have been finding it really difficult to describe my muse to people during my project. A muse to me has never been a specific person. For me a muse is someone who evokes a feeling and atmosphere. It's not just about style, but about a mood surrounding the body and clothes. I recently discovered the photographer Francesca Woodman. Often using herself as the subject of the photograph, she played with the presentation of the body, disguising, fragmenting and reconstructing through abstraction. Woodman's photographs are surreal, beautiful, feminine and also sometimes disturbing and uncomfortable to look at. I am using her work to illustrate my muse. 

My muse is the woman in each photograph. She is aware of the power of fashion and the way clothes and dressing up can stir up different ideas on the body. She likes experimenting with clothes and the presentation of the body, playing with identity and her sexuality. She likes breaking boundaries and does not mind taking risks with clothes for fear of looking overdone. She enjoys this. One day she will be subtle and feminine, the next more extreme, mixing pieces together, patterns, colours and fabrics revealing parts of her body through sheer garments, provocatively flashing parts of her skin underneath. All done in a playful way, enjoying the way clothes can change her body. She doesn't take fashion too seriously, and enjoys the camp aspect of dressing up. She finds inspiration in odd subjects, objects and materials, integrating bits and pieces into her wardrobe, the old and the new, influenced by music, contemporary culture and the galleries she goes to on the weekend. 

print development

I want to design some digital prints to sit with my woven designs with my final collection. How do I create a digital design that is unexpected? print placement.. not over digitalised. - scanning in my own paintings/drawings to manipulate

following the body underneath, moving shapes around, focusing on parts of the body at one time. I think having a collection of placement prints will have more impact than repeats. 

experimental draping.

folding, manipulating fabric to create mutilated silhouette. 

visible seams, exposing the flesh underneath and the construction of the garment. 

changing the waistline, pinning, tightening, draping, folding

design development ideas. re/deconstruct.

Over the past few days I have become increasingly interested in Hans Bellmer's work, in particular his dolls. He built, deconstructed and reassembled dolls, photographing them along the way. His work was a reaction against the 'ideal body' and race that was promoted in Nazi occupied Germany, during the 1930's and 1940's. His work shows a fascination in the reconstruction and manipulation of anatomy, gender and sexualisation of the body, taking an 'ideal' body and mutilating it, resulting in an unsettling representation of the body as we know it. 


Although body scarring does not change anatomy, it still plays with the body and its natural state. Isolating, emphasising and building on parts of the body physically. Can these two ideas be explored in conjunction in my work? I think they do share common ideas.


One of my favourite photographers has also been on my mind while thinking about this project - Francesca Woodman. She used her body in the same way Bellmer built his dolls; playing with anatomy and the way her body is presented. 

For my fashion design  and textile development I want to design in the same way Hans Bellmer built his dolls and humans change their physical body. I will add and take away parts of a garment, playing with silhouette, panels and design details. I will also explore this through my textiles, creating 3-dimensional structures in areas as though adding to the skins surface.






"DRESS BECOMES BODY, BODY BECOMES DRESS" - Rei Kawakubo


A body discussion - Rei Kawakubo, Comme des Garcons, has constantly discussed the body and our contemporary attitudes towards it through clothing. It is something I am always thinking about as a designer and I think why I have decided to explore it in my own work. Clothing is the intimate connection between our bodies and the world we are in contact with, which is why it is so tied up with meaning and used to explore ideas of the body underneath - ideas that change between cultures and in history. Every season Rei Kawakubo discusses ideas on the body; gender, sex, surgery, body ideals. I am very influenced by her work, however I want to steer clear of her silhouettes etc. For me, my main challenge is to create textiles that play with silhouette, blur it, add to it - not simply pattern cutting. Here are some of my favourites.

Some of my own photographs - playing with the body's outline:

Hans Bellmer's drawings have inspired me to start designing digital print designs. His presentation of the body is both beautiful and uncomfortable, sometimes disturbing, reinterpreting anatomy and sexuality by combining body parts and overlapping shapes. The results are strangely feminine. I love the fluidity and the layering. For my final collection I want to use a combination of woven textiles and digital prints, layering them and using them in different combinations.

initial print designs:

stretch, distort, pull, tighten

initial textile experimentation, 

exploring the tension of the warp and the behaviour of the skin.

Francesca Woodman - My muse