Personality Project (PART 1)

I was intrigued about this project as I had to portray myself in a collection. Which made me also apprehensive as I had to make sure that my personality was presented through the collection. So selecting four objects that have a meaning to me and it will help as a starting point, for me to then be able to develop it into a concept. So mind map was a great way to expand on the objects and by doing this, I gathered the idea of talking about the ISIS problem but then decided that I am not that much of a serious person and wanted it to be much more of a fun collection. So I developed further into the mind map and managed to see that the word 'traditional' was mentioned often and that I could go on just from that word. So thats what I did. I looked at the traditional Albanian costumes, and manipulate them into women wearing the men traditional outfits and breaking the traditional affairs.

Looked at the details of the traditional costumes

Then used my religious upbringing into the project as its something that represents me but not acknowledge as much. I used it to translate Albanian words into Arabic representing my journey at parties with my family especially with my father as he likes to party and have a good time. We would go to a party or a wedding midday and then we leave the next morning, so the Arabic words translate good morning, good afternoon and good night.

I linked some words from the mind map and it led to identity and I wanted to portray the idea of changing the gender between the Albanian traditional clothing; so what the men wear for a woman to wear instead and the other way round, but as I was only doing a woman collection I focused only on that. I want to express the happiness and joy that I have at weddings with my family and our friends and how that summer is always the most fun we have. 

Completion of detail project

Using the details I gathered I photocopied them and created illustrations with magazines and drawings as well. I enjoyed this as it gave new life to the sketchbook and just made it so innovative and diverse from just the designs and photocopies.

I selected three favourite details and then photocopied multiple sheets but enlarging the size of them so that I can work on stand. I enjoyed this technique as I was able to interact with the details, how they can be used on the body. One of the details was a fan shaped but I highlighted the folds with a marker and create the detail to be more modern which was another way of developing my idea unintentionally. As I had multiple copies of the detail I layered them creating this large ruffle down the sleeves but it looked so beautiful and changed the style of the clothing by the amount of layers I added. I enjoy working on the stand as its a way of getting more inspiration and developing your ideas to achieve the best final outcome. I developed rough designs from the stand work that I photographed, in the designs I played around the with the placement of the detail on different style of clothing. I thought I would experiment and try on photoshop to place the detail on a female body, to create some collages that just add depth the sheet.

I continued doing rough design developments, which I believe were a success and the designs were clean and understandable for anyone. I decided to go back to the start and do a little more research on the style of the daywear during that time and found that that it was much more relaxed than evening wear but very beautiful and comfortable for woman. Which then allows me to focus more on every day wear an not just evening wear, my rough designs were ready to wear. Then I selected and placed garments together to create a whole outfit and then came up with a final collection, which I believe is good but next time I should develop more to be able to get a better final outcome, that is much stronger as a collection. However the project does represent the 1930's.

Detail

Start of a new project and smaller time frame for completion in comparison to the first project of the year. It made me a little more stressed as I need to be on top of my game, so that I can evolve as a designer and that it allows me to make my time management skills much better as before they were not the best. The project is called 'Detail' and I loved the sound of it as I always follow a similar process when designing, grabbing small features or details as I should say, and developing it by size and position. Making the detail stand out and be in an unusual place but make the design look amazing and sleek at the same time.

First task was to decide on the era that i'll be looking into and I decided to do the 1930's as I loved the ruffles and the belts on the clothing but had to evolve them onto daywear, which I thought would be difficult but it was fine. I researched the era and then created a concept board, which I enjoy creating. To change the difference in texture on the concept board, I included fabric swatches that I gathered on the day after as, I thought that it creates more of depth of the research and what fabric and colour was used.

The day after went to develop my research further and get some primary research, which was not helpful in the museums and galleries I went to, as they did not have a strong collection of products in that era or any attracted or inspired me for the project. So on the weekend went to look at another one and discovered much better research to help me create further designs. However I used this day to also source fabric samples in the fabric stores around London as they have a strong variety. Enjoy doing research out of the class as it creates a much better experience and you have different feelings toward pieces of art or garments than looking through a computer screen.

The next day I selected the images that I included in my concept board and that I researched further and drew the details, which then allowed me to focus on that and not just the whole image and then create rough sketches of how they can be on garments, look different but still wearable. From the details that were drawn to photocopy those and create illustrations of designs, but playing with mixed media like using paint, fine line, magazines, print outs and the photocopies of my drawings. I enjoyed this as it allows you to be creative but also imagine where the details can be positioned on a garment. Like one of my illustrations included my drawings of bow flowing down the jacket hemline like duffles and I thought it gave a feminine touch and a look of that era but updated.

During the week I completed some designs that I hadn't complete and the illustrations and still thinking about ideas for my final collection and colours that are common in the era and I should use in my collection.

FIN

Received brief for the next term of the course, it sounded very exciting as well as the new timetable is a plus. To end this term, we need to do an assessment and I received my time for assessment and it made it all realistic. It made me more nervous and stressed but I can't wait for it to be over with and continue the process of the Foundation Diploma. I continued during the day developing my idea and doing stand work with brown paper, which allowed me to come up with better ideas of a garment piece. Experimenting like this allowed me to use this technique further on, when doing other projects, as its a great way to create designs and I enjoyed it very much.

Created a toile of my design that I want to go forward with, however it made me understand that I want to make the layers of the wave to be more random and unique than very similar and flow the same way, as I am trying to represent direction and journey. Your journey in life is normally random and takes you to all sorts of places, so that meant I needed to apply this to my design. Now I understand why they are needed to be done, as they allow you to make any mistakes and you can resolve before making the actual thing and so that you don't end up making mistakes on really nice, expensive fabric.

Finishing things and preparing for a small critique, it went well, nerve wrecking as not everything was complete in sketchbook and I discovered some issues when I got a friend to try my garment. So that was good as it allows me to sort it out before my assessment and make it look really good. Overall the first term has been really good, as I have learnt so many new things and made some good friends during the process. It has been more intense and completely different to A Levels from sketchbook to things that I have been taught through the process. I'll use these new skills for the next part of the course but make them much better and make sure my timing get much better too that it doesn't end up last minute.