Pattern Cutting...

This draping project is proving that my pattern cutting skills are awful. I knew I wasn't the best at it so I wasn't expecting it to work perfectly but I was hoping that some sort of miracle would happen and I wouldn't have to change my pattern at all. However this is not the case and I will have to make several adjustments already and I am only halfway through making the dress lets hope that this half works better.

Having said that I feel that my pattern cutting has gotten better during this project as we had to do it independently. This has made me more confident in doing it even if it doesn't work first time.

Kaledo...

Since being introduced to Kaledo I have pretty much fallen in love with it as it is just so much easier than illustrator which I just couldn't get along with and I actually understand how to use it. I therefore decided to create a working sketch of my dress as practice and I'm happy with how it turned out however this was taken from my draping on the stand not my final dress so I shall create another sketch when I have completed the dress.

Blog...

I love this blog!

http://blog.catherinemalandrino.com/blog/

After looking at her website she uses a lot of draping in her clothing and she is a great source for inspiration.

Sidewalk Catwalk...

After finding the dress by Catherine Malandrino I found this event, Sidewalk Catwalk, which is the first public art event to celebrate the home of American fashion.

32 designers were involved and each mannequin displaying there own vision.

KENNETH COLE

TOMMY HILFIGER

CATHERINE MALANDRINO

YEOHLEE TENG

ELIE TAHARI

Catherine Malandrino...

After finally deciding on a theme for my project I found this dress made my Catherine Malandrino made from an American flag. I also thought that it was appropriate as it is a draped dress.

I have always really liked America and everything about it and so am really into the American trend in stores at the moment and this is how I discovered my theme. I plan on using an American flag in order to create my draped dress and collect inspiration from America's patriotism.

Draping...

I have decided to do women's wear for this project and save men's wear for the final collection. When we started it was a tad daunting and I didn't really know where I was going with it but once I got into it I really enjoyed it.

This was my first attempt...



I was trying to recreate the dress I have chosen from the 5 dresses. I think I did it reasonably well apart from the band around the waist.

This was my attempt at my own dress...


I'm pretty happy with the outcome of my dress and I like the way I have used the fabric. I now need to take it off the stand and create a pattern from it.

Jacket...

This is my completed jacket. I'm really pleased with the final outcome and feel that the lining and jacket material compliment each other well.

Colour Palette...

This is the inspiration for my final design.

As the designs I came up with were very straight and structured I decided to look at modern architecture and so went to sandbanks in Poole.
This is where I found this house I liked the contrast between the white of the house against the colours and so I based my collection around this house.

Sharp Suits...

For this final project I purchased this book. It looks at the mens suit starting from the 1860s and how it has changed over the years.

Even though I changed my idea halfway through the project from a suit to trousers and a shirt it has still be very useful and got plenty of inspiration from it.

Fabric babyyyy...

I finally got my fabric to make my final design and I am SO excited to get going and make this bad boy!
For the side panel, collar and cuffs I decided to get yellow, blue, green, red and purple. I hope it looks good when it's finished!

Sketchbook...

I am oh so struggling with this sketchbook.
Originally my idea was to do a suit and so quite a bit of my sketchbook is about that however when starting to make our patterns I realised I would struggle to complete a suit in time and so changed my idea to a shirt and trousers which I am extremely happy about but I now need to show this change in my sketchbook I also need to make it far more interesting!! I need to add some colour into my life!!!!

Oh so many things to do...

The hand in for B&M was last week and I am so happy to have that bad boy out of the way.
It was also the Toile Review which went alright but I have several alterations to make which is no suprise as I didn't really ask for help when doing the pattern and putting the trousers and shirt together. Silly me!

However I think I did reasonably well and making them without any help and I am extremely excited to get back and start making it properly!!!
Now I have my sketchbook to worry about!!

Menswear...

I have always had a love for the tailoring side of fashion as I am quite a perfectionist and it's all about accuracy and so i thought that it would be perfect for me.
However menswear is no walk in the park! It's hard! And I didn't really think about this when I decided to do menswear for this project. Although I am enjoying it boy is it stressful!!

Coco Before Chanel...

I recently watched Coco Before Chanel and it wasn't what I expected at all. I still enjoyed it as it was very interesting however I would have liked to see more about her life in fashion rather than leading up to it and how she got there. Having said that I did enjoy finding out how she came from nothing and got into the fashion industry. I would recommend this film as it is really good but there is not much about fashion in the film.

Nick Knight...

I was looking through this month's Vogue when I found an amazing shoot by Nick Knight who is one of my favourite fashion photographers. In Nick Knight's photography I like the way that he manipulates it digitally so that it looks quite distorted and not real. His style of photography is very contemporary as he is using new technology to create his images and this is why I like his photographs as they are quite different to any others.