fashion studio

concept board 1

Concept Board

Above is the completed concept board. It includes references to the sewing machine, mechanics, space age, human/robot hybrids, and includes the Jeffrey Richter drawing of a woman who is also a sewing machine. This drawing was my main inspiration during the first assignment, as it is so relevant to my whole theme. The biggest difference between this concept board and the one from assignment one is the colour scheme. I liked the neutral colour scheme during assignment one, but I wanted to make this collection darker with more purples and blues to relate to space, which also happens to be a current trend. This will help relate my collection to the Autumn/Winter 2012 season which it is suppose to be designed in relation to.

creating concept board

Concept board from assignment 1

Using Photoshop I created my first concept board for this project using some of the images from my assignment 1 concept board, along with some new elements. It will be updated as my project develops.

As I have not fully decided on whether I am designing for womenswear, menswear or childrenswear I have chosen not to include any market on my concept board at this stage.

considering childrenswear

The previous post where I looked into the idea of inanimate humans and dolls made me consider if I actually still want to be designing for womenswear or not. I think that I would actually prefer to design a childrenswear or menswear collection as I have not created either of those before. I usually just design for women as that is the market I know the best, however I would like to try something new for this project because I have the opportunity to.

Childrenswear could relate to the idea of the humans to dolls idea, but I am not sure whether it is relevant to the idea of a human becoming more mechanical and machine-like, as that idea seems too mature for a childrenswear range. I find the designer's who make their children's collections similar to their womenswear and menswear ranges have the most successful garments. The clothing makes the children look more grown up with a higher level of tailoring and quality than traditional mass market apparel.

The Burberry childrenswear Autumn/Winter 2011 collection shows an obvious progression from their usual aesthetic style. Among the usual winter staples like wool crepe, corduroy and wool, there is a lot of denim, patent leather, cable, cashmere, wool crepe cotton laminate and ottoman felt. Details include detachable collars and hoods, zip off sleeves and cuff straps.

Images from childmode.com

There is a lot to consider when designing for childrenswear including standards of safety and ethics. As I have not fully decided if I would like to develop a childrenwear collection I wanted to know a bit more about the legal side of the industry including the standards so I know how to approach designing.

Responsible Retailing - BRC Childrenswear Guidelines

Childrenswear needs to meet a wide range of uses. The use will often determine the choices of styling, fabric/material, construction and even colour range. There may also be different concerns according to the age of the child for whom it is intended. In considering styling it is established good practice that there are internal company discussions which cover sizing, cut, design and fashion trend, including the colour, sheerness and pattern of fabrics, and their age appropriateness. Colour, pattern and decoration should be chosen with care. Slogans and imagery (including licensed images and brandmarks) must be age appropriate and without undesirable associations or connotations. Skirt and short length, neck/shoulder line and underwear shape need careful consideration, taking account of the stretch properties of the fabric used and the intended age group. Some styles may need adjustment to ensure the fit is appropriate for the intended age, for example, younger and older versions of the same dress style may need a different neckline. Where styling is based on adult fashion trends these should be interpreted in a way appropriate to the age range concerned. This may result in different choices of cut, fabric or embellishment.

youthful ideas

While investigating the idea of human/machine hybrids and robots, several images relating to humans as dolls came up. I thought that I would include them here, as they could be of some relevance to the collection. They do relate strongly with the idea of humans becoming inanimate. They also relate to my childhood memories I mentioned in assignment one, however this would take my collection in a whole different direction.

Images from weheartit.com

humans to machines

Relating strongly to the concept of the sewing machine and humans becoming strongly connected to technology and such, these images of humans being transformed into machines are inspiring to the collection and the mood board. These relate to my macro and aesthetic concepts and will help in developing the collection further from assignment one.

Images from weheartit.com

The above image is probably my favourite as the figure looks human at first glance but with more careful study you can see that she is a machine. I would like my collection to have that type of appeal, where there are subtle details rather than just having the theme of the collection being very obvious and apparent with no thought needed. I would like the customer to be able to view the garment and then view it again and notice new details that they didn't notice the first time. Or to perhaps take new meaning from the garment the more times they wear it.

space age and robots

My original collection although it focussed on the mechanics of a sewing machine, also had some influence taken from the 1960s. The decade was a time of exploration and discovery, including in space. Much of the sixties fashion was inspired by space exploration. I explored this within the first project and found it relevant to the sewing machine as the robotic materials used for garments related to materials similar to sewing machines.

Images from weheartit.com

The idea of the robot also relates to the original collection and how the models morphed from a human into a machine throughout the final six garments.