Week 2

The week starting September 9th we were asked to create a collection of 5 ensembles that included at least 1 Dress, 1 Top/ Blouse, 1 Jacket, 1 pair of Trousers and 1 Skirt. The garments must coordinate as a set outfit as well as look good when worn with other pieces from the collection and they must range from luxury pieces to high street. We were also asked to produced a concept board that featured these designs as well as the flats to go along the side. I anticipated that this would be a challenge as soon I was told because I am used to being told to design anything, There's no thought of who's going to wear the garment or what shops will sale the garment.

we started off drawing our rough roughs. we had a few minutes to draw as many jackets we can incorporating our chosen object, I chose a ring, then we had a few minutes to draw as many trousers as we can, then tops, skirts, sleeves, pockets etc. I surprisingly didn't do as well as I thought in this challenge. I am an ideas kind of person and this exercise was about generating ideas and getting them down on paper as fast as you can. I was very slow, I averaged out at about 6 per sub heading when others were doing in the 20's. Maybe the pressure of the time limits stunted the flow of my thoughts or maybe I don't work as well as I thought I did under pressure. However I had enough work for me to use to create developmental drawings of my favourite roughs. We had to choose out favourite then develop it, add to it or change it 6 times.

When creating the final 5 outfits I found that it was easy and an enjoyable experience unlike the rough roughs. I have concluded that despite my experience the rough roughs helped this process greatly so I will not be giving up on it just yet. Creating the flats and putting the concept board together proved to take longer than expected (in essence I failed the task as I didn't have a finished concept board). Over the year I have found that I am a very slow worker, it takes me longer to do things compared to another person. Think I need to give my self more time limits so that I get used to working under a time limit. E.g set my self 5 minutes to do one drawing then 2 minutes to do another. Or go to bed later!

Overall I like my end collection however there is always room for improvement. I need to improve my drawing of the flats. I need to now start incorporating colour. I was told by a teacher that I need to practice my free hand drawing of the body. I need to improve my time management.

Over the weekend I managed to go to fashion week. I arrived there and looked around, my initial thoughts were disappointment and boredom. I expected much more than I saw as it was my first time and I always hear such great things and see such great things from the pictures. No exciting outfits, no exciting looking people. I was talking to a photographer I literally walked into about why I was there and a lady over heard our conversion and gave me her ticket. So said 'the show starts in 20 mins and its a walk a;ways to let's go'. I was in shock and awe but obviously accepted her invitation. We saw the Zeynep Tosun show and went backstage and saw a sneak preview of the Ashley Isham show. I was set back by the craftsmanship and dressmaking. Everything looked so pristine and clean. That is what I aspire to produce.

(photos I took back stage at the Ashley Isham Show)