Project Proposal- 20th September 2016

I took inspiration from my summer holiday in Mexico, where I was inspired by the beautiful scenery that I was surrounded by every day. I took pictures of the beach, including; close up shots of the waves, sand, seaweed, shells, the sky, and beach huts. I found that these images created really interesting textures and movements, which has given me inspiration for the garments I want to create for my collection. 

Originally I wanted to concentrate on the soft and subtle coastal areas, however I have since changed my mind and developed this idea further. I now would like to focus on how the elements; for example water and air create their surroundings to erode and disintegrate. To see how fabrics react to certain elements, I want to use dissolvable fabric which will give the idea of fabric being affected by the environment.  I have been particularly interested in how water reacts to metals and the colours created when this happens; sometimes the metals look iridescent and sometimes they look old and rusted, with green and copper colours coming through. I have also collated many secondary images on Pinterest that’ll inspire me when making fabric samples, choosing my colour palette and designing my final line up. 

Using my primary images from the beach I will upload these to Photoshop and edit them to create bright and interesting prints, and I will then send my favourite prints off to bags of love and see what they look like on different fabrics and what garments each would look best on. I want to choose fabrics that reflect the movement and texture of the waves from the beach, so garments that are comfortable to wear and flow elegantly when moving. I also want to reflect the texture of the sand, I have found a designer named Maia Bergman a design graduate from Central Saint Martins, who uses beads on all her garments which create texture to the fabric, and also create a slight iridescent shine when the garment is moved, therefore I would like to experiment with this. However, I would also like some structured elements to my outfits, so that they both balance out equally.

I plan to create illustrations that have elements of my designs, to bring them to life more and create a different perspective of the garments. I will use a variety of techniques to make my sketchbook look as creative as possible, also doing this may bring me new ideas. To develop my ideas of how to make my pieces stand out and look different I will be creating a variety of fabric samples, e.g. using the laser cutter to cut interesting shapes into leather, I also want to see what’ll happen to fabric when I burn it, and then using salt water I will leave pieces of fabric to soak for a while and see what happens to them.; doing these techniques will inspire me when designing my collection. 

I also aim to evaluate the work I have completed every Tuesday in class, on a blog, as this’ll help me reflect on my thoughts and ideas. In addition, whenever I do extra work outside college I will record this in the blog too. If I take trips or visits to any exhibitions or art galleries, or anything that relates to my project, I will also record this in the blog too.