A1 watercolour painting for FMP

After a lot of research for my final major project, I decided I wanted my collection to have a hand produced look to it. I wanted to include my strengths, I love painting and drawing and feel that this would be a good element to feature.

With this I found some oriental hand painted images where you could see the brush stroke marks which I really love. I began experimenting with the images by recreating them, by playing with the scales and found that the larger the scale the more detail that is seen. I began painting on A1 pieces of paper and decided to have these paintings so that they would be digitally printed onto fabric.

 Large close up of a floral

Beginning with the floral watercolour paintings...because of the scale of these paintings it is a very long process. I decided to have different paintings and have 2 prints on each of my four garments. I began by drawing first and having them so they were all ready at the same time to be painted.

Oriental bird print

I painted each of the backgrounds first, I thought it might be easier to keep each painting at the same stage rather than producing one at a time because they are so time consuming and I had a deadline to get these completed by because of having to get them scanned into photoshop and sent away to be printed onto fabric.

A close up piece of a floral.. which is quite cartoon looking... I am not too sure if I like this...

I love this painting I love the tones and the bleeding tones of red and magenta...nearly finished

A close up image of a floral

Another painting that is starting to look quite cartoon like...which I can not decide whether I like or not

This painting has been design so that it is symmetrical and is extremely detailed...this painting is taking a very ling time.

Another symmetrical painting in a smaller scale than the others I still have quite a way to go with this painting...

Valentino - Summerset House 2013

Master of Couture - 

Valentino's exhibition show cased gowns from 1959 to 2012, a straight walk way with a long collection of gowns either side. The exhibition was very well presented as the gowns were not hidden behind glass, this meant the viewer could see the amount of detail and work that had gone into creating these exquisite master pieces. Each mannequin were coloured by decade in which the gown's were produced. 

Mint mannequins for the 50's, mustard for the 60's, smoke- 70's, terracotta - 80's, parma violet - 90's, cream - 2000's and ice - 2010's. 

Mannequin's were numbered allowing the viewer to be informed about each gown by looking through the 'catwalk' booklet given out before entering the exhibition this gave information on the materials used and in which year the gown was made and in which season. Within the back of the booklet informed about the techniques used to create these pieces and detailing. 

This has to be one of the best exhibitions that I have been to, I loved the layout in the catwalk stage area. Although the only let down would be the way in which some mannequins were positioned so the viewer was not able to see both sides of the gowns.

Layers of circles all sewn together  - demonstration video showed how this is produced

Gorgeous detailing - and seating from Valentino catwalk shows and names of which celebrity sat in each chair for one of the shows.

Gown 49 - S/S 2008 White wool crepe jacket and dress ensemble with embroidered detailing

Gown 53 - S/S 2005 White silk georgette evening dress with embroidered detailing

My Toile - for pre collection

Out of our six designs for our pre collection we got to chose one of those designs to make...Only made up in calico. There is a lot of fabric used on this gown, however looking at the dress you would think it would be difficult to construct but it was very simple. The dress is made up with a floor length tube dress as a base, with a split in the back to allow the wearer to walk. Then I have made seven layers of frills, constructed of four circle skirt pieces joined together to make a complete circle around the width of the dress, all of the seven layers have been doubled up so there are two layers to all of the seven layers. I have broken up these layers by adding two basic shape skirt pieces in-between the frills, I would have like the layers to be varied in length more like my design, however I would of at least had to have four layers in all of the seven layers. The bodice is basic as I have made a leather harness with shoulder pad points, I also made the leather fringing which drapes down the back and the front is tucked into the first leather panel and has been stitched on. The harness of this dress has been inspired by Leonardo Da Vinci's anatomy.....

My toile design....

Front of the toile without the harness 

                                                  Toile dress on the side without the harness

                                                Back of the toile dress without the harness

                                        Back of the toile dress wearing the leather harness

Front of the toile dress wearing the harness

Leather harness one side with fringing and the other without - ideally I would of like the fringing on both sides but we ran out of that leather.

Back of the harness with a separating zip in the back

Designer inspiration for FMP - Guo Pei

Researching for designer inspiration for my Final Major Project I came across Guo Pei, a Chinese Fashion Designer whom mixes fantasy with modern avant-garde.

Pei's designs are very structural and feature surface texture, print, and drama.

These are some of Pei's designs from her Arabian Night collection....

There are so many different design elements to this look, the over sized fur coat, the surface detailing on the neckline creating a detailed collar, the rolls of sculptural frills in the skirt of the dress.

This look I love, the bows of fan shaped fabric layered together at the side seam all in the gorgeous blue detailed floral print. I like the mix of scales within the print and the various tones of blue.

This look is absolutely amazing, the firm cones along the each sleeve with the embroidered print of gold mixed with the mint green fabric looks stunning. The body con features a huge amount of surface texture on the nude fabric with gold and mint green threads, the proportions of this design work extremely well together as this design is highly textural with surface detail and the over sized cone sleeves are balanced out the fish tail skirt.

Loving the layers of fan shaped white fabric with the fitted gown.

The gown is amazing....structure, the gorgeous fabric in panels cascading into the sculptural skirt.

Working on the stand for FMP

After my designer research I began to think about the shapes that have been used to create their designs. I began using some of my inspirations for my final major project of an oriental fan and the parasol, so using a half circle and a full circle. Using a heavy weight cord fabric I experimented by cutting randomly half circle shapes from this fabric in various sizes and seeing what I could create by using only these shapes by working on the stand.

Half circles I used 

 By manipulating the half circles by folding them from each point to create a full circle and building this up by layering various sizes together to create volume.

Using the largest of the half circles to cascade from the back to the front of the mannequin

Mixing a light weight sheer polyester (just to experiment with) however cutting a full circle and cutting a straight line to the circle centre, which makes the circle easier to manipulate. Also experimenting to see which weight fabric works best to create the structure that I would like for my designs.

 Manipulating by pinning the polyester sheer circle in order to create sculptures of new 3 dimensional shapes.

The above 3 images I have developed by layering and carefully thinking about placement and volume and what this what do to the silhouette. I really love these, I think they work really well and create interesting elements to the design.

Developing this look further by altering the placement of the circle piece on the bodice.

More manipulation to the half circles by creating 3 dimensional shapes on the front bodice

Manipulating the sheer light weight polyester to create a floral shape, however I think the sheer fabric is too light weight to achieve the structure that I would like.

Using 4 of the half circles of the same size and repeating and pinning onto the bodice meeting at the waistline and repeating below the waistline...further this design idea by then adding a draped heavy weight velvet piece in the shape of a much larger half circle.

Inspiration for Final Major Project

For my final major project, I wanted to carry on with the oriental theme that my pre collection had development into.

It was coming up to the china new year so there was a lot of inspiration around, therefore I went on a trip to London to gather some inspiring images.

I had also recently watching Memoirs of a Geisha which featured a lot of inspiring oriental elements, the kimonos in gorgeous fabric, the florals, parasols and prints.

Chinese New Year window in Harrods - Oriental printed white and gold plates

I also visited the V&A which has a very large display of oriental kimonos, pottery, fabrics, bowls, plates all having amazing prints.

Inspirational imagery from the movie Memoirs of a Geisha  - I love the parasol and the structure inside the parasol.

Kimono prints and belts

Cherry Blossom floral and large scale print

Floral and bird twin vases from the oriental display at the V&A

Developing my research further, I looked into oriental floral prints from books

I came across some oriental floral paintings which I found very inspiring, I really like that these florals that look as though they are 100 years old, you can see the brush stroke, having that hand produced look, I love this.

I love the tonal affect within this mustard yellow and red tulip floral painting.