Unit Five Brief / Dye Room

After a few days off after the hand in of unit 3 we started the new week with our brief for the next unit. The unit will run alongside unit 4 - contextual studies. It seems like the unit will be very full but a lot to look forward to including making a hobbit shirt and designing for the night circus. I want to aim to stay on top of work this unit as much as possible especially as there is two units running at once. We have our presentation for contextual studies tomorrow so I am prepping for that this evening. 

Our dye room induction was also today and so enjoyable! We printed on fabric using binder which I hadn’t done before as well as breaking down  the fabric which involved using various materials to distress the fabric.  We will be going this for the hobbit shirt so it was a good way to learn some techniques before hand.  Jess suggested we try to make them as accurate as possible so I was going to look into how garments are naturally distressed through time e.g worn knees, elbows etc. 

Final Countdown

It is the final couple of days before hand in and I feel like I am on top of some things and not so much others. I have a lot to add to my sketchbook! I am concerned that I haven't got enough research for the characters, but I have a couple of days so will keep adding over the weekend. My tech skills folder is almost complete as well as my COS folder which is great as this gives me more time to concentrate on my Tickly Tale project. Overall I've found this unit quite challenging but I feel that my improvement in some aspects such as sketchbook are huge. My last unit's sketchbook was lacking life and reference completely, so it has been nice to learn what it is that is wanted from a sketchbook and how we can accomplish that.

Peer Presentation

We presented our work to the second year interpreters today. They were very helpful in telling us what we needed in order to create a design that would then be made accurately by a maker. I was slightly nervous when leaving the talk with them as I felt that I didn't have enough time before hand in to improve and add to all the things that they had suggested. I have worked on it tonight and created a breakdown of the costumes to show how they could be created. I will continue to add to the parts they suggested over the weekend.

Tech Skills

We had our third tech skills session today and were focusing mainly on bias binding and piping. I am not overly familiar with either so I thought this session would be very useful for me. I've found that with the tech skills sessions I need to go straight home and work on them otherwise I forget the process. Overall I've found the tech skills sessions very rewarding and believe that the tech file will be something that I can use and refer back to for many years

The Post

We were able to go and see the film by Stephen Spielberg, The Post today as part of our contextual studies.The film was actually very gripping and i was obsessed with how they used filming and angles to create dramatic, intense scenes. I was also interested in the costumes of the film especially an evening gown worn by Meryl Streep.

Session 3 COS

We had our final COS session today. it was a shorter session of 1.5 hours instead of the usual 3. I was surprised at how much I achieved in the lesson. It made me think about how sometimes the pressure of time allows you to accomplish much more than you would normally without the pressure of time.

National Theatre

We visited the National Theatre today and were lucky enough to have a backstage tour as well as see some of the beautiful costumes worn by actors at the theatre previously. When seeing the time and effort that goes into the costumes used at the theatre, it is clear why their costumes are so incredible. I was interested in the props room where we heard from *insert name of man who's name I've forgotten here* although the making of the garments was incredible, I find that I am often drawn to the extra parts of a costume for example the headwear or accessories of an outfit.
I'd potentially like to do a short millenary course at some stage as I feel this is something I would enjoy.

Costume Show

Kevin sent an email about the first yeas being able to go and see the costume show today. I was eager to see what the second and third year students had created. The first half of the show was the design students, some of the designs were absolutely incredible! I found that after seeing the show it further confirmed to me that I want to branch into design in second year. Although the interpretation costumes were absolutely incredible, i found that I was more inspired by the designers costumes.

Bustle

Today I had my second bustle session. I had got to a good point with the making process at home alone but was stuck on a few sections. I found that when I got into the session and just focused on the instructions they became much clearer. I need think I had worked on the bustle for too long at home and the instructions had became a blur. I aim to have the bustle complete by the next session.

Costume Designers

The lecture today was on costume designers. It was very interesting to see the different styles of each designer and how their work looks when it has been created after the design process. I was extremely interested in the designer Edith Head. I found her designs very beautiful and captivating. I liked how she illustrated smaller images of her designs next to her main drawing to show different movements of the design. I would like to take the idea forward to influence my future designs.

COS

Today we had our second cutting on the stand session where we draped an 18th century bodice and sleeve. The bodice had many more panels than previous sessions so was slightly more challenging but I think each session is becoming easier due to the techniques we learn from Kathleen to help us manipulate and move the fabric. It's also interesting to see how each era changes features of dress for example the neckline, type of sleeve etc.

Working Weekend

This weekend I have been working on some ideas for costumes for the sickly tale play. I have been working on sketchbook development and researching for my characters. So far I think the sketchbook is going okay, I feel I need to work harder with trying out different mediums and experimenting with textures etc. 

Sketchbook Development

Today we received our feedback for the last unit. I was graded mainly B's with a few A's which I was pleased with, but would ideally like to be getting mainly A's so that is something to aim towards for future units.

One of the comments in my feedback was to improve on my sketchbook and add more texture to it. I did feel at the time that my sketchbook was rushed and wasn't very visually pleasing.

Yesterday, thankfully, we had a lecture on sketchbooks and how to present them and how to make use of texture and life to make them stand out. This helped ALOT, as I haven't really ever worked on a sketchbook properly in the past. I was using my sketchbook just for sketches and not using much reference and texture and story telling. 

After seeing examples of others sketchbooks I have seen that sketchbooks can be so exciting to make compared to what I have been producing, so I will be starting my sketchbook tonight and will aim to add as much detail and story telling to the pages as possible. 

Tickly Tale

We had a lecture this morning on our next project with Kevin. We met Sally Davis who talked us through the script that we will be designing costumes for, Santa's Tickly Tale, a children's play. For the unit we
will need to design 5 characters, Santa, Mrs Claus, Cheeky Charlie, The Feathered Phantom and a Wizard. I am thoroughly looking forward to this project as designing is what I enjoy most.

I have been thinking on ideas for the characters and have looked up images of Santa in different cultures. Although many of the Santas resembled the traditional Santa, Russia's Santa stood out due to the beautiful costume worn which was all embroidered and so beautiful.

As for the feathered phantom I am going to have to reign it in a little as I enjoy designing dark characters as I think they are the most fun, however I will have to keep in mind that it is a children's play therefore can't be too scary.

Unit 3

Unit 3 has begun as of... now. We had our first lecture this morning where Kevin talked us through the assignments throughout unit 3. I am going to try to keep on top of my work this term to ensure that I am not in a mad panic last minute (like in unit 2).

I also had a session with Nikki today to start our bustles. Again, I am slightly out of my depth with the making of garments but this time I am going to try and get as much done at home as I can in-between sessions, then use the sessions for any parts of the process that I am unsure of to ask for guidance. 

Ruff

I spent my day making my ruff for my Queen of Hearts Character. One thing I have learnt throughout the project is that I often cut my self short with time. I think that something will be a quick job when it's definitely not. The ruff was no different. I'd convinced myself that the ruff will only take a couple of hours whereas the mask may take a lot longer but it was actually the opposite. 

Due to my chosen plastic fabric it was quite hard to pierce the fabric with the needle when hand sewing the ruff. I should have allowed more time as this resulted to my sewing not being overly neat.

I was however happy with my final result of the ruff and I thoroughly enjoyed learning how to create one from scratch. I look forward to making a different style ruff in the future!

Corset Assessment

My corset assessment was today where I handed in my final garment as well as the corset file. Nikki was pleased with my end result but did mention how it could be neater. I agree with her on this as I need to work on sewing neater. I hadn't made anything before I started this course and I was apprehensive about whether I would be able to keep up, so although it was a little untidy in places, I am pleased with my corset and I will work on the neatness of my sewing in the next project.

Final Week

The final week of term has arrived. I'm feeling like I have far too much to do, I don't think I am the only one feeling this way though.
In the most brutal way, I think this project is teaching me to manage my time much in a more affective way. I always leave everything to the last minute (my mum could write a book on the stress this causes her) and I am sure that this is the last time I will do that as I've learnt (again brutally) that I need to start my projects earlier.
I'm already looking forward to the next project knowing that I will tackle it with a better approach.

Swarovski Inspo

After drawing up my final ruff design I stumbled across this Swarovski book in the library. It is a beautiful book full of Swarovski couture images. I thought it was very similar to the style that I have gone for with my design, the red beads and the caging of the face.

Organza Circles

During the final patterns session before the assessment with Glenda, she showed us how to create organza circle ruffles. I thought they were absolutely gorgeous and something I would definitely like to use on future projects. At the beginning of the pattern sessions I feel like I had no idea what was going on around me. I was just following the step by step slides not understanding the practice. However now I have done some of my own research and annotated the instructions in my file I feel I have a far better understanding and view of how to create or manipulate patterns.

Fabric Fails

I started to make my mask while at home today. I purchased three different sized beads and wire to create the cage affect mask. While I was buying materials I also tried to find the red PVC fabric that I wanted for my ruff. I went in every fabric shop in shepherds bush, believe me there are tons and wasn't able to find exactly what I was after so i ended up choosing a clear fabric in the end which I thought I could decorate with beads instead. A few people on the course have said that they struggled to find their desired fabric, this made me think how important it is to do some fabric research and shopping to know whats available and /or in your budget before planning your design around it. I need to keep that in mind for future designs.

Final Corset Session

Today was the final session for corset. This meant that we needed everything finished today or we would be on our own, (without THE Nikki's help). During this session I was overlocking my corset and managed to get it caught in the overlocker which resulted in a huge hole being ripped in the corset. This set me back slightly and meant that I needed to re do a whole panel.
I think that this probably happened as I was in a rush to get the corset finished quickly. I did however manage to get the corset finished today and just have to hand stitch a couple of bits at some point!

V&A

Over the weekend I visited the Victoria and Albert Museum, on elf my favourite places to visit in London. The historical costumes on display are incredible. I mainly went to visit the Balenciaga Exhibition that was on. His costumes are inspiring on so many levels. Each of the costumes on show had a relevance to a different time period of country of origin. One of the pieces was inspired by India. It was based on a traditional Sari, usually formed of a single long piece of fabric which is pleated and wrapped around the body. The Balenciaga couture version is created using many different pieces. The outer layers are sewn and hooked to a boned underdress. A mock drape then falls from the back to the front of the dress to give a traditional feel.

The dress is stunning and Balenciagas way of designing garments in a modern way that keeps their origin is fascinating.

Final Design

I have come up with a final design for my Ruff and Mask. After much thought I decided to go for the Queen of Hearts but a modern approach to her costume. I was watching the Alice in wonderland film with my niece when I decided to use this as my character for my design. The character is famous for her line, "off with their heads" so I thought it would be interesting to create a cage style mask around her head to show the fear of her own head being "lost".

F&S

Todays lecture was from Amy on the Baroque and Rococo period which I hadn't really learnt much about in the past so that was extremely interesting. Before this we heard from Kevin who gave us an insight into his previous work. I was fascinated to see the costumes he's made. I was particularly interested in his replica Marilyn dresses. I have always liked the idea of re creating looks of the past especially elaborately glamorous ones like Monroe's wardrobe.

Kevin's message was to emphasise how important it is to be kind to everybody after he was approached by a random man with a duffel bag, who ended up being the key to his future of making glamorous Marilyn dresses.

It is important to be kind and helpful to anyone who you encounter throughout your life. It is easy to forget this in times of stress but ultimately you should treat everyone as you would like to be treated yourself. Upon thinking about this I realised that my most successful friends and family members are those who chat to everyone and get to know as many people as they possibly can.

"No matter how educated, talented, rich or cool you believe you are, how you treat people ultimately tells all. Integrity is everything."

Corset Cont'd

Our following corset session was when the corset really started to come to life. We added the centre back panels and added the eyelets. They were starting to look so great.
I find in the sessions that instead of just getting on with my work I keep asking others for guidance. Generally I already know what to do I am just worried about doing the wrong thing. This is the wrong way to be thinking as without mistakes I will never get any better (also its probably a bit annoying for me to keep asking people questions). So I need to start trusting my gut as when I work alone I won't have that opportunity.

COS

The cutting on stand session today was so interesting! We worked on draping a 1930's dress. Using a draped fabric we used the weight of the fabric to let us naturally hang the dress. The neckline was a cowel neckline. I found the session very interesting! Kathleen definitely has a knack for working with fabric.  realised during the session that this is a great way of creating your own garments from scratch! After this session i felt inspired so I ordered a mannequin when I got home.

Corset

During the last corset session we worked on a pattern block. This time we were starting to create the corset. At the beginning of the session Nikki showed us what she wanted our corsets to be looking like by the next session. This put the fear in all of us as it looked (to what I thought) seemed like an almost finished corset. By the end of the session I was still tracing the pattern pieces and although I wasn't the only one still at this stage, there were people who were much further ahead so this had me considering my timing of work and how I need to speed up to get things done on time.
Regardless I took the corset home and worked on it that night and got so much done. I found that when working at home without any distractions I could work well and efficiently. Considering it was the first time making a corset and also the first time i'd used my new sewing machine it went well.

Life Drawing

This morning was our first life drawing session. I hadn't ever done life drawing before. Something that myself and also the tutor picked up on was that I draw all my drawings with lines and rarely use shading to start an image and therefore found certain tasks hard when asked to start with just shadow or light shades before drawing in any lines. This is something I would like to work on as I think it could make my designs more realistic if I can step away from the use of lines.

During the start of the session we were asked to stand in a circle and look at the person to the left of us for 2 minutes and study every part that we could during those two minutes. We then had to describe all we could about that individual, for example their hair style, clothes, shoes etc as well as smaller details like chipped nail varnish, scuffed shoes. The point of this task was to emphasise how important it is to really look at a person when drawing them. I'd like to work on making my designs more individual to the person who will be wearing the garment so that the facial features and body shape show them for how they truly are.

CSM Influence

During my usual daily routine of scrolling through Pinterest, I started to look at architects that have moved into fashion or costume design. I stumbled upon a designer named Yuki Hagino, whose work I was immediately drawn to. I couldn't find much info on her though other than the fact that she attended CCW!

Her collection "Sculpting Mind" uses origami style patterns to create dresses that are striking. I was thinking of incorporating some sort of geometric patterns into my ruff possibly using plastic materials. I've been sketching up a few different designs today.

Fabric Shopping

I went to shepherds bush today to check out the fabric stores, and to buy my corset fabric. While looking around I became inspired by all the different fabrics for the personification project. 

A few fabrics that I kept being drawn to were, lace fabrics that I am thinking could work well for a mask that covers the face, stiffened - using fabric stiffener, (glue and starch).  For the ruff I'm thinking I want to make a traditional style ruff but with a modern fabric, e.g. using a PVC fabric but use modern techniques. 

As for colours and characters, I need to work on some ideas and decide on a final product, I think I may do this over the weekend, I have some fashion magazines that I need to flick through and grab some inspiration from. 

I collected some samples from the fabric stores that I was interested in using for the project, so I will attach them to my sketchbook.

Fashion & Style

 Today’s Fashion and Style lecture with Amy Hare was extremely interesting. She spoke about various designers and their work. Someone that I found inspirational was Norah Waugh, although I hadn't actually heard of her before, I had however admired the incredible designers who studied her work e.g. Alexander McQueen & Anthony Powell, whose work are both inspirational.

During the lecture, I felt that there were a few designers who I hadn’t researched enough and feel I should definitely know more about so I’ve been on an amazon spree tonight looking into a few of the books that Amy showed us in order to expand my knowledge on designers of costume and Fashion.

Personification

 Personification [per-son-uh-fi-key-shuh n] 

1.

the attribution of human nature or character to animals, inanimateobjects, or abstract notions, especially as a rhetorical figure.

2.

the representation of a thing or abstraction in the form of a person,as in art.

3.

the person or thing embodying a quality or the like; an embodimentor incarnation

This project has instantly grabbed me and I am beyond excited to get going with this unit. Finally getting to design and create something that we can completely fabricate from our own minds. We must create a character/creature through the design and creation of a ruff and a mask. 

After thinking on what I could create I am thinking of potentially creating something using beading and possible wire for a mask, then possibly a plastic material for the ruff - I need to come up with more ideas for the ruff.

Concerned that my knowledge of making costumes could taint my ability to create the designs that I come up with, however I am excited to get started with this project!