Emily Lawrence x Hannah Kim Ford

Credits: Georgina Nyan, find her on Twitter

Here's the final result of Emily and I's MoDA Obsession project. A collection of two outfits, it was an interesting project, we had very different approaches to the project and it was interesting to see how our ideas could come together and create something new - and I have a new found respect towards textile students, there is so much work and craftsmanship in what they are able to create. And on top of that they are also learning a lot of what the Fashion Design students are learning, so all the pattern cutting etc. on top of creating actual textiles! Gosh! 

/Hannah 

MoDA Obession Show!

We ended up having our fashion show at The Cuban in Camden on the 20th of March 2013.
So here's the result of 3 months of hard work from a collaborative project between BA Fashion and BA Fashion and Textile Middlesex University students! Enjoy the show.

Filmed and edited by Danny Kasirye: http://dannykasirye.com

/Hannah

Making Time!

I think this is my favourite stage of the whole process, seeing the idea becoming a reality. When you have spent 2 months researching, designing and developing your ideas, there's something thrilling lifting the idea from 2D and transforming it in to a 3D object. 

I always seem to get surprised that simple designs turn into a pattern cutting challenge. Simple designs, are not simple to create! Especially not when you are going through a phase of loving panels. 

The MoDA project was probably one of the most stressful projects that I have ever worked on.

As I signed up to be a student rep I also had the task of planning a fashion show with the fellow student reps from the other classes, so juggling that and doing the actual project at the same time, proved to be quite the challenge. Especially considering the circumstances of not having a budget for the show, as in there was no funding from the university and it had to be an of campus location. 

Let's just say that it's an experience that I'm not going to forget anytime soon! 

/Hannah

Doodles

Design work for the MoDA Project, showing sketches from both Emily Lawrence and I - as it was a collaborative project. All the artwork is done by Emily as she is a textile student, so she's been developing ideas for prints and weave designs.

/Hannah   

Key Inspiration

When I started this project I started out with looking at the Dutch art movement called De Stijl, from there I moved on to other interior designers and architects, the last thing I was looking at during my research stage was Van Gogh. 

The different post-it notes represents different things, like; silhouette, colour, design details and interesting shapes in general.

/Hannah

MoDA - Stand Work

The MoDA project has finished to an extend, which means I actually have a little bit of spare time to update the blog. To start idea generating, we are encouraged to work on the half stand, with paper or fabric to create silhouettes and shapes. 

These last few months have been crazy busy with the MoDA project, but as a student rep I also had to help plan the fashion show, which turned out to be a bit of a challenge...

I'll keep you posted!

/Hannah

Working In The Studio

Hey, I found a spare moment in the library to update you on my current project: MoDA Obsession. I'm waiting for Phoenix to finish her seminar and after that we're going on a secret mission!

Here are some pictures from the other day, as I'm not working from my laptop I don't have all the pictures on me - so instead of showing what I've been working on, I thought it would be fun to some of the others work! (Hope they wont get upset, as they don't know about it!)

Actually I've worked on this with my partner Emily, we're currently trying to find out how to place a zip into a curve, which is turning out to be easier than we thought, its still not perfected to the standard that Paul (design tutor) wants, but he seemed slightly surprised, as he's be telling me all a long that its not possible. Im determined to prove him wrong!

Here's Erin, she's probably going to hate me for this, she was not keen on me taken her photo! Hence the blurriness of the image. She's been working on her prototype of her design, see below for the sketch of her design. Erin is a little genius when it comes to sewing! She helped pin my collar onto my jacket, so I could sew it - pictures coming up soon! Erin is in my class, so she's studying fashion design as well!

This is Rose, she's always so happy and cheery. Rose is studying Fashion and Textile and she's a pattern cutting master! She literally knows everything! She pattern cut and sewed her own freaking gloves! I'm telling that takes skill!

Rose has been working on these leggings, don't be frightened by the colour combination! It's just a toile  (prototype). But look at all those panels! 

Feel free to share your thoughts on our work! 

/Hannah

Shirt & Silhouette

Photos taken by Jasmine Wickens. All rights reserved. 

These photos were taken by Jasmine from my class, these photos were taken for a look book that we had to create. I'll show you the full look book, when its finished.

Designed and created with my own to hands! 

/Hannah

The Joys of Being A Student

My new brief:

The Museum of Domestic Design & Architecture is a treasure trove of visual inspiration developed from a number of eclectic collections acquired by Middlesex University between the late 1960s and the 1990s.

The collections include wallpapers, textiles, designs, books, catalogues and magazines from the late nineteenth to the late twentieth century. They are a great resource for any designer looking for inspiration.

Books

There is an extensive collection of books on a range of subjects including architecture, design, fine art, town planning, textile design, cookery, natural history and household management.

Many are interesting for their design, illustration and typography as well as their contents.

Designs

MoDA has around 40,000 original designs on paper.  Most of the designs are for wallpapers and textiles. They were created by the Silver Studio, which sold them to manufacturers around the country, between 1880 and the early1960s.

These designs are in a variety of media, including pencil, inks, charcoal, pastels and gouaches.

Ephemera

Designers who worked for the Silver Studio acquired lots of material for visual reference.  The collections of the Museum of Domestic Design & Architecture (MoDA) include everything from cigarette cards, postcards and newspaper cuttings to an important collection of Japanese katagami stencils.

Designers used these items to help them create designs which showed awareness of key fashion trends, while retaining mass market appeal.

Magazines & Journals

MoDA has an extensive collection of magazines, journals, brochures and retail catalogues, relating to all aspects of home furnishing and home buying.  This includes household management, cookery, DIY, homecrafts and gardening.

We also have material relating to the growth of interwar suburbia, including publicity material produced by estate agents and property developers.

Textiles

Most of the textiles in MoDA’s collections were designed for British homes between about 1880 and the 1960s.  Many were produced for well-known manufacturers such as Liberty & Co and Sandersons. We have examples of both printed and woven furnishing fabrics and some examples of dress fabrics.

Wallpapers

MoDA holds one of the country’s finest collections of mass market wallpapers, dating from the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century.  Some are part of the Silver Studio collection, while others originated from Crown Wallpapers.

We also have a small selection of wallpapers by well-known designers such as Edward Bawden, John Aldridge, Lucienne Day and others.

We want you to get obsessed with the MoDA collections!

You will go on an initial exploration visit to the MoDA museum to have a look at the collections. Find something that inspires you!. It could be a children’s book cover, a fragment of 1920’s wallpaper, a kitsch 1950’s housewives magazine, a faded postcard of a lost resort, an art nouveau woven textile, or a delicately graphic Japanese katagami stencil.

Once you have your starting point, you will become obsessed!. Find out everything you can about it, who made it/ designed it, what is it made of, who is it for, how was it used, when was it made, what is it’s social context…you will become the world’s foremost expert on this starting point!. It is vital that you arrange to visit the museum independently at any other time to further your research.

Your research output should be purely visual, providing information relating to your chosen obsession, from books, films & exhibitions. We would prefer to see your own documentation in the form of photographs, collages, drawings, paintings, stand work, hand work etc…(Images printed from the internet must be of a high quality in pixel size and print). Contemporary fashion images are not recommended, relevant historical fashion images may be used.

You may include some analytical notes, but these must be kept to a minimum, we are fashion designers, we must express ourselves visually!.

Turn your obsessive research to clothing by developing it into details within garments (i.e., pockets, collars, cuffs, fastenings, trims etc…) Visit boutiques, vintage & department stores, turn garments inside out, draw/sketch and photograph the details you see. Buy second hand clothes and manipulate them on the stand. Collect fabric samples that relates to your research in terms of theme, weight, colour and fibre.

From your research and development of clothing details you must design and produce 10 of your own DETAIL samples, which must be made perfectly in fabric and used when you begin your design development work.

Design minimum of 80 outfits, front and back, in colour. Make sure you consider the 10 detail samples! One of these outfits you will have to make and it needs to consist of 2 garments, top and bottom. Think about Silhouette, Proportion, Scale, Detail Placement, Trims, Construction techniques, Texture…

COLLABORATION

No fashion designer works in isolation! As a professional fashion designer you will always been working with others on your collections, this will apply to the design, development and making stages, the whole process from inspiration to runway is a series of collaborations.

Once the research and design development process of your collection is reaching completion, you will be grouped with one or more of your design colleagues either from Fashion Textiles or Fashion Design to begin designing your final collection and making an outfit for your fashion show.

Your final outfit will consist of 2 garments, top and bottom, and will be finished and presented to a professional standard.

OUTCOMES – Per Pair

HAND IN WEEK 23:

• 1 Research Sketchbook
• 10 fabric samples
• 10 samples of details
• 80 design developments in colour, front and back

And the following in Portfolio Format in this order:

• 2 presentation pages
• Line-up of final collection
• 6 illustrations with
• Working drawings and fabric swatches

FASHION SHOW TBC

• Fully finished outfit presented to a high standard with appropriate styling.

Therefor I have been living in the library for the past 2 days and I'm now on my third, posting this from the library, needed a little break from the books!

 ALL initial research must be completed for Monday! Hence my absence on the blog! 

The final images for the Shirt and Silhouette project will be up soon! 

/Hannah

Behind The Scene

 (Photos taken by me)

Here are some behind the scene shoots for the photo shoot we were doing for the Shirt and Silhouette project. We were asked to come together as a class/group to create this look book to showcase our shirts. We decided that we wanted an outside location rather than using a studio, but we still wanted something neutral, so it didn't overpower the white shirts. 

An underground carpark was suggested and we just fell in love with these concrete walls! 

Stick around to see the final result. 

/Hannah

Preparing Myself Mentally

After the second fitting it was time to pull myself together, double check my fabric samples, be sure of my decision of material, taking in the advise of Paul and Aya. Wanting to use two different fabrics, deciding which fabric should be used where - and then there's the buttons... and even though the fabric had to be white cotton and the buttons had to be white as well, there is still surprisingly a wide range of choice, when trotting around the shops of London. 

See you on the other side! 

/Hannah

Second Fitting

Admittedly I have been of the earth the last month, everything has been crazy busy and the blog has been neglected to beyond belief. But I have lots of stuff to share with you now. 

I had my second fitting on the December 3rd! This is the third sample of this shirt, as my second sample got ripped to pieces (not literally) by Paul (design tutor), so 3 days before having this fitting I was cutting out my pattern pieces for my third toile. That put me on a trail, because I had no idea if I would be able to finish a shirt in that amount of time,  considering that I have other lessons to attend to, turned about that I just about could! Thank heavens for that!

It turned out to be worth the stress and hassle, as there were only one or two things that I needed to change, which were minor things! 

/Hannah

Fitting

Last Monday we had our first fitting. And thank God its called a fitting and it's only made out of calico (plain-woven textile made from unbleached, and often not fully processed, cotton) ! As I made some mistakes, as my dear tutors were so kind to point out with a red Sharpie pen! We had a short discussion about what I could improve on my design and ask the model if there were any points were it was too tight or if it felt uncomfortable, the cuff were a bit tight! Apparently I have tiny wrists, as I used their measurement to go after. 

We also discussed finishings and other details, that probably wont be anything to you unless you know about seams and pattern construction, so I wont bore you with that. 

The final thing will be made in white cotton - not my decision, just wanted to point that out. Of course the main focus of this project is the silhouette and not colour or detailing. Although I always think that detailing should be a high priority it is what differs a good outcome from a bad, also if it feels cheap or expensive. 

At the moment I've been working on my second toile (what the model is wearing is called a toile, you could also call it a prototype), I've already made tons of mistakes on that as well. Kind of wanted to rip it a part and burn it on Tuesday, but I refrained myself from doing so. 

Now I'm strongly considering making a third toile, which is a bit daring, as it has to be ready for Monday, not sure I'm going to make it! Wish me luck!

Any thoughts on the design?

/Hannah  

Working On Alternatives

Spec/technical drawing of final design (done on Illustrator) for the Shirt & Silhouette project.

I was contemplating wheter I needed to buy more calico for my toile or not. And as my kitchen table isn't that big, I decided to tape my calico to the wall and place all my pattern pieces to see if they all fitted on or not. Luckily I could just squeeze them all on! 

Back and front of toile. 

Collar. 

Side views of the toile. 

After last weeks assessment for my DESIGN/TEC module, where I passed (first year is mostly on a pass or fail basis), this week I had to pick my final design and get started. 

I was unsure of which design to do, so I consulted with fellow students, the technician (Kerian) and my design tutor (Paul) - turned out to be more confusing than helpful, as they all picked out different designs. In the end I decided to go with what Paul liked the best, he was surprisingly quick at pointing out which one he preferred... Paul liked this one the best as it didn't have a typical shirt silhouette, and only the detailing referenced that it is a shirt. 

I did have to change the original design slightly, just to make my life easier supposedly, but if you ask me I was more annoyed than pleased at first. Alright I get that its pretty important that you can actually get your head into the shirt, I originally didn't have any opening what so ever. 

I tried placing a button stand on the front, design unconventional button stands and nothing worked for me, Paul wasn't any help at all. I later found out that he'd been smiling in amusement over my design issues, while I've been looking at my design developments in frustration. Hmpf! 

In the end the button stand got a place, just on the back of the shirt rather than the front, so it wouldn't disturb any of my lines in the front and I turned the collar around to give the design a more interesting spin. Also I unconventionally used a tux collar rather than a typical shirt collar, just because it's different. Why save something good for special occasions, when you could use it everyday? I really like the tux collar.

What are your thoughts on the design?

/Hannah