PROCESS ANALYSIS DOCUMENT
KOYE OLUGBENLE
E19CA/CB YEAR 3 B.A FASHION HERRIOT WATT UNIVERSITY
de|tached a/w 2016
‘Between the idea And the reality Between the motion8/ And the act Falls the Shadow’ - T.S Eliot (The Hollow Men) My A/W ‘16 collection De-Tached, is inspired by the abridged poem from The Hollow Men, by T.S Eliot. Exploring the juxtaposition of the light and the dark, the movements of the detached shadow, an entity in its own right, the flow of the pas de deux, leaping and twirling to the beat of their hearts. The graceful lines and the compelling silhouettes created by their corporeal forms. Faster and faster they race for the crescendo, pushing past the boundaries and limits of their bodies until they are able to gather themselves and listen to their hearts thudding loudly in the silence. The woman who wears my collection has an ease with which she wears it. Never over or underwhelmed, her effortlessness shines through. Silently intense, she radiates confidence which comes from knowing that care and thought went into what she is wearing. She is aware of the cuts and detailing just as one is aware of a raining sky. The colour palette for this collection is predominantly black interspersed with the shades Jet, Onyx, Licorice and Eerie. The collection explores the contrast of shapes, not unlike the Shadow, with sharp tailoring and exaggerated silhouettes inspired by contemporary dances and the softness that is the Shadow. With fabrics inspired by braille, raised and textured surfaces are the focal point. Ultra sheer fabrics creating shade and movement. Disparity and dichotomy is the order of the day for a De-Tached woman, and she is fabulously content with that. Kóyè O.
CONTENT • Overview • Inspiration • Silhouette • Museum and Gallery research • texture • Colour • Fabric • manufacturing process • Behind Scene at Photoshoot • Bibliography
OVERVIEW The concept of this project was to be a further development of a previous project of our choice with the theme being ‘Sensation’ and Lace being the inspiration. I chose to to develop the project titled ‘Recycle, Reinvent, Reuse’ because I enjoyed the fabric manipulation, textures as well as exaggerated shapes. I started off with researching Lace, and visiting museums and galleries for further inspiration. I did a word map as well and the few words that struck me were; Layers, Intricate, Braille and unravel.
Img 1 & 2 Historical examples of the uses of Lace
Img 3-5 Mordern uses of lace
WORD MAP SYMMETRY LAYERS
COUTURE
LACE
REPITITION
INTRICATE
UNRAVEL BRAILLE
INSPIRATION
These installations by Tomas Saraceno is the embodiment of my interpretation of lace. Lines intertwined and so intricately detailed up close, but exudes deceptive simplicity. Img 6-8 Tomas Saraceno at Venice art
I was also inspired by the photographer, Solve Sunsbo, especially the series of photograph he shot of Alexander Mcqueen garments. The photos had a sense of sureality and movement. The models/mannequins were captured midmovement, the pose etched in the
img 9-12 : Solve Sundsbo
INSPIRATION Japanese photographer Shinichi Maruyama has an interesting series of photos simply titled, “Nude.” Each image shows an abstract flesh-colored shape that’s created by a nude subject dancing in front of the camera. Although the photographs look like long-exposure shots, they’re actually composite images created by combining ten thousand individual photographs of each dancer. The result is a look in which each model’s body is (mostly) lost within the blur of its movement. -TSP Studios (pinterest)
Digital sampes made using the photographs shot by
Shinichi Maruyama
SILHOUETTE Choosing to further develop the silhouette that was my rere project which was inspired by a vase. The shape of it and style reminded me of the kimono which had me researching Issey Miyake’s collections from the 80’s.
img 13: Zaha Hadid homeware
img15&16 : Issey Miyake
Img 14 Mihara ken
Having decided to continue on with the exaggerated shape, I also wanted a contrasting silhouette which was inspired by dance clothes in the way they mold the body and show the slightest movement.
Img 17: Takashi Nishiyama
img159 Dancer
Img 18: Dancer
MUSEUM & GALLERY RESEARCH I visited the Victoria & Albert museum for further research and i was drawn to textured surfaces, braille, a glass mushroom that appeared suspended in air giving the illusion of motion. They reminded me of lace without being too obvious. I also found myself looking at small objects with intricate details that had me thinking of small but impactful details.
img20-23: Pictures from the V&A
I also visited The Wallace Collectiont, and whilst the place was elaborate and full of drapery, lace, metai works and sculptures, I was drawn to a few pieces that related to the art i found in the V&A.
img 24-26: Pictures from the wallace collection
One thing that struck me was the layering that i found in almost every sculpture or painting. Little details layered and multiplied, taking the little detail and making it much more impactful.
TEXTURE Texture was a big part of my previous project (Recycle, Re-use) and i decided to incoorporate that into this project. I used the smocking technique for the previous project and I didn’t want to repeat that so I researched various textile manipulation and made lots of sample, trying to figure out what surface manipulation i would use for the collection. I researched Shibori, a Japanese tie and dye technique and found an interesting image in which this technique had been used on a textured silk fabric and the result was fascinating(pictured below). I decided not to use this technique because it would have been time consuming and with the strict colour palette, i decided not to dye my fabrics.
img 27-28: Shibori Technique
img 29-30 Tyvek Textures
Tyvek Textures is a form of fabric manipulation that involves painting, stiching, heating and layering with other synthetics to create fascicnating textures and sculptures. I decided to not use this technique as it involves the use of materials not readily available to me. I spent too much time trying to figure out the surface manipulation and not enough time on my silhouette which suffered a little as a result.
I was adviced to not focus the entirety of my attention on just fabrics. I came across a scrap fabric from my previous collection that i accident burnt whilst ironing the garment for a photoshoot. I went on to research burnt fabrics and burn outs and i created a texture from burnt polyester chiffon pieces.. The process of making it was long and painful. The heat had to be precisely applied in and in short bursts. The goal was to create holes as well as melted fabric strips giving the lacklustre look of the chiffon a boost to give it depth and shine. Each piece had to be burnt individually which makes this a time consuming process but effectively capturing the textural feel of braille.
img 31-32: Testing fabric manipulation
img 33-34 Testing fabric manipulation
img35-36 Burnt fabric
COLOUR The colour palette for this collection was very strict and I had to choose between White, Black and Grey. I chose to use black as I was very inspired by the colour as i imagined black to represent the Shadow, which was also big inspiration for this project. Inspired also by an excerpt of a poem, The Hollow Men, by T.S Eliot which reads as thus:
img 37: Colour board
‘Between the idea And the reality Between the motion8/ And the act Falls the Shadow’ - T.S Eliot (The Hollow Men)
FABRIC BOARD
Black Silk Crepe Back Satin
Black Lightweight Cotton Brocade
Black Silk Chiffon
img 38: Fabric board
Whilst deciding the fabrics that I was going to use for the collection, i considered many factors like; -How well the fabrics would hold the shape and structure of the garments without needing reinforcement. -Breathable fabrics -Sustanability -Stretch I found some great quality heavy weight cotton which held the structure and shape of my shapes without needing to use interlining/interfacing. I also found some italian stretch cotton which I got a great price on as it was an amazing fabric.
Black Wool Double Knit Jersey
Black Polyester Crepe
Dark Brown Wool Felt
MANUFACTING PROCESS
img 39 : Selected looks from collection
From my capsule collection, i chose to make these three looks that i felt i could create in the time frame and that also captured the feel of the collection. The first look is a fitted dress with a skirt over it. The skirt has flaps stiched into the side seams that can either be work out or laid fkat against the skirt.
The second look is a coat with an exaggerated silhouette with a dress underneath it. The dress has a funnel neck(check for the proper name) The last is a dramatic top with straight leg trousers. I made the trousers rather simple because i already had at least three graments that were time consuming and diffiult to construct and also bearing in mind the hand stitching i had to do.
MANUFACTING PROCESS LOOK 1 I started making the first look by creating the pattern by using the basic fitted dress block in a size 10. I adjusted the bust point and defined all the notable points. Fouad helped me to draft the curve of the bodice and the dip in the back. Then i made the pattern to fit the mannequin by cinching the waist and the hips. I created a vent at the back to allow for movement. I toggled between the idea of making it open or closed vent, but i went for closed as that looked like a professional finish.
img 40-41: Making
To help with support in the bodice, I created a boned bodice (pattern was made from the pattern of the dress). I stitched the front and back components together, then i stitched channels over the stitches before I sew the front and back pieces together, keeping all the raw edges on the inside of the bodice. Then I attached it to the dress although sewing the zipper i was rather tricky as i had to unpick where i had joined the bodices a few times. I top-stitched both bodices for a clean finish.
img 42-43 Making
MANUFACTING PROCESS
img 44-49 : Fitting
To make the skirt that went over the dress, i created a pattern by using a tracing wheel over the dress pattern from the waist down. I reduced the length and also included a closed vent in the back. For the flaps, I drew a shape that was an extension of the skirt so it would fit into the side seam. Tested it out in calico before I made it in the real fabric. For finishing, i put in a waist facing which was top and handstitched into place. The hems for both the dress and the skirt were overlocked and The skirt and the dress were made from the heavy weight cotton fabric.
img 50-51 : Fitting
MANUFACTING PROCESS LOOK 2. For the coat, I started of by using the basic jacket block and patterned a kimono sleve, then I changed the shape of the sleeve, sides and neck line. I patterned the centre front to overlap as it has no fastenings. I used acrylic felt as it was the cheaper alternative to wool felt which will be used if this was going to be produced. Working with this fabric was easy and wasn’t too bulky for my sewing machine. Stitching the coat together was straightforward, the pattern was the only thing that took a while to get right. For the dress that goes underneath, I used the italian stretch cotton as this was a fitted dress. I made the pattern the same way as the dress but instead of two front pieces, I made a panels by cutting down through the bust point. For the (funnel neck), I took the measurement of the neckline and added 2cm seam allowance to the height. For the sleeves, I sewed on a strip of chiffon and handstitched the burnt chiffon pieces to the strip.
img 52-53 : Making
img 54- 55: Fitting
MANUFACTING PROCESS LOOK 3 For the last look which includes a top and a pair of trousers. Trouser: I made this really simple and use the basic trouser block in size 10. I adjusted the waist, length and fit. The trousers were made with poly cotton. I feel this was not the best fabric choice I could have made as it was lightweight and not a winter fabric. For the top, i started of by using the neck lines of the second dress because I had dropped it to suit my purposes. Then i drew on a shape and tried to mold it to the body. This took a bit of trial and error as I initially patterned the top to fit the curve of the body. After many fittings and unpickings, I decided to make the lines straight and geometric with a dip in the waist line to keep the silhouette from being boxy. After making all the garments, i started on making the applique pieces that i was going to stitch on the garments. I used a metre of chiffon, which was cut into little strips, burnt and hand stitched. I used them on all the looks but in varying quantities. The first look had it on the bodice of the skirt which cascaded down onto the skirt.
For the second look, it was applied on as sleeves and for the last look, it was used around the neck line which refers back to my inspiration for rere (the tudor neck ruffles). With the very limited time frame i had to make these six garments (one week), I am satisfied with the work I have produced. There is room for development and i shall be pushing these ideas and taking them to another level.
AT THE PHOTOSHOOT
img 55-57: Behind scenes at photoshoot
These photos were taken during the photoshoot (shot by Adam Linner) with my phone.
The locations were close to school as hair, make-up and wardrobe were done there.
K贸y猫 O.
2015