Etznab • Jodi Easson •
Process Analysis Document •
H00157551 E19FM 3 r d Year Fashion •
Brief
Etznab • • • . . .
Etznab is a collection inspired by a Global Mash up of the mysteriously advanced Mayan culture of Mexico combined with the newly evolving future of Dundee and the new V&A. The Mayans were a primitive race dating way back to 2000BC. Mayans were incredibly advanced for being so primal. They understood acoustics, astrology, art and even mathematics. This led them to build some of the most outstanding pyramids and temples the world has ever seen and all hold so many wonders untold. These temples still continue to fascinate us with futuristic knowledge we find hard to believe is possible, even in this day and age. This primal but futuristic race really captured the attention of Designer Jodi Easson whilst on her holiday to Mexico. She was inspired by the art and mystery of the Kukulkan Temple at Chichen Itza. When she clapped at the base of the pyramid she was greeted with the call of the kukulkan bird bouncing back as an echo to her. From this moment on, she became fascinated with how the Mayans could still communicate with us from all those years ago. She thought about how she communicated to the world and realised she had been communicating through Art her whole life. She spent most of her childhood in an Ice Rink where she figure skated and performed, communicating through dance. Also she has been drawing and painting for as long as she can remember, communicating through her own art. She realised that her culture had a lot more in common with the Mayans than she had first thought. The future has always been in her imagination and seeing how advanced the Mayans were, this fascinated her even more. Jodi imagines a high-tech world full of clean lines and angular shapes. She feels this stems from her surroundings at the Ice Rink, where there are many lines and metallic and shiny, clean surfaces. Her dream of a futuristic world is closer than ever, as her hometown Dundee, will soon be constructing the new V&A museum designed by Kengo Kuma. The building is like nothing she has ever seen before. It is angular, streamlined and metallic, which will look stunning beside the silvery River Tay. Not only is she excited for the beautiful futuristic building, but also she is excited for the opportunities it will bring her and many other designers. It truly is a step into the future. The collection is a collaboration of old and new. Taking the symbols of the Mayan calendar and her very own Mayan birth certificate, to communicate in the same way the Mayans did with mystery and hidden meanings. Using the symbols of Etznab and the Skeleton Dog from her own zodiac predictions to make the garments have a personal meaning to her. Whilst also incorporating the streamlined angles of the future, helps create a modernised collection that the very advanced Mayans would hopefully be proud of.
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Contents Brief
1-2
Summer Project
5-6
Research
7-10
Trends
11-12
Colour
13-14
Fabric
15-16
Silhouette
17-18
Design Development
19-20
Final Line Up
21-24
The Outfit
25-26
Working Drawings
27-28
The Jumpsuit
29-30
Toile
31-32
Garment Construction
33-34
The Leather Jacket
35-36
Toile
37-38
Garment Construction
39-40
Evaluation
41-42
References
43-44
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Summer Project • . . .
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During the summer months I visited many exhibitions, one of which was the M.C. Escher exhibition at the Modern Arts Gallery in Edinburgh. I was blown away by how imaginative Escher was. Creating incredibly detailed and complex alternative realities through his art with the use of optical illusions. I found myself mesmerized at his drawings, which forced me to take my time figuring them out. His drawings are incredibly detailed and realistic which makes these bazaar worlds even more fascinating. For an artist of the 1940’s, his work seamed incredibly advanced like nothing else at the time. For this reason alone, I believe this is what drew me to Escher’s work. I really wanted to achieve this alternative reality in my own work. By combining old and new cultures from different parts of the world to create an entirely new look that could exist as a parallel, futuristic culture in my own world of imagination.
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Research • . . .
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M a y a n s • • • . . .
The Mayans were incredibly advanced for a primitive race dating all the way back to 2000BC. They were savvy in the way sound, space and time worked, which is rather mesmerizing from such an early race. The most famous Mayan Artefact is probably the Mayan Calendar, which inspires this collection greatly. The stone tablet convinced many that Doomsday would happen on December 21st 2012, as that was the last date recorded on the calendar. Thankfully the world still turns and exists. This is because the Mayans did not mean the end of the world but the end of a cycle. One cycle of time will end and a new one will begin. For such a complex calendar the Mayans used symbols to document these moments in time. There are 3 parts to the calendar. The Long Count that represents the Era, The Haab, which is the Solar calendar, and the Tzolcin, the Divine calendar. Etznab is the Divine year on the Mayan calendar in which I was born under. This is why this symbol is the name and main inspiration to this collection. I wanted the collection to have a personal and hidden meaning to communicate through symbols just like the mysterious Mayans. I took inspiration from the shape and lines of the symbol to make contemporary designs that fit my creative handwriting. Also, another main inspiration to this collection is the Skeleton Dog. Which is my Mayan Zodiac spirit animal. From a trip to Mexico, I purchased and studied my Mayans zodiac and was amazed how eerily accurate it was to my talents and personality. This is why I wanted to include aspects of this symbol alongside Etznab, to include a piece of my personality into each garment. The ribcage of the skeleton dog translated well into the many straps incorporated into my designs.
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D u n d e e
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Dundee’s future was also a huge part of the inspiration of this collection. Very shortly, Dundee will be home to the new Victoria and Albert Museum designed by Japanese architect, Kengo Kuma. I am anticipating this greatly as my whole life has evolved around art and having such a well renowned art museum in my hometown is exciting news. The building itself is a huge step into the future with streamlined angles that complement the silvery Tay River and geometric shapes unseen anywhere else in the area. As a Designer, I am inspired by the future. I think the sharp, clean lines are perfect for creating tailored garments. I believe my love for these futuristic angles has come form my surroundings as a child when I figure skated at Dundee Ice Arena. These sharp lines are everywhere inside the rink and subconsciously, I believe that this is where this obsession with the future has come from. I have taken this inspiration and translated these lines into fabric by pleating and folding to create the wonderful, sharp angles that represent the clarity of the bright future of Dundee. By combining both old and new into my designs I am able to create something entirely different that may one day be the future of fashion.
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The Sartorial Purity Trend of Spring/ Summer 2017, Pause, was perfect for this collection as it focuses on tailoring and garment quality. The key points to this trend are minimalizing the features of the garment to create simplistic tailoring with a sharp look and crisp edges. The quality of the garments is also key, as it will establish the futuristic look of the collection, with clean, smooth surface that are well pressed and perfectly balanced, creating a high tech, modern silhouette. I used these key points as inspiration into my collection as I felt they mirrored well with the incredible futuristic structures and lines of the new Dundee V&A. I could almost see the architecture in the garment examples and knew that my ideas for this futuristic collection would coincide well with this clean, sleek, sharp tailored trend. It instantly reminded me of clean, crisp pleated fabric. Perfect for achieving structure and sharpness.
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Sartorial Purity
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The Body Line Trend from Digital Wave Spring/Summer 2017 Forecast focuses its key points on cut out panels, multi-straps and a swimsuit styling using a body con silhouette as main inspiration. This trend also takes inspiration from architectural caging to resemble grid like structures. These cage-like cut outs create “peek-a-boo” panelling that also bring a touch of glamour and seduction. I thought this trend tied in nicely with my ideas for the collection. The focus on the multi-strapping and cut outs were perfect for illustrating the architectural structures of the V&A and also the linear ribcage effect I want to replicate from the Zodiac symbol of the Skeleton Dog the Mayans created. I also took inspiration from the body-con silhouette as I felt that by combining this with the Sartorial Purity’s tailoring would create an interesting blend of tailoring and stretch garments in my collection.
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Body Line
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Trends
Colour The colour pallet of this collection came from a few different places. The first was from the trend Sartorial Purity. The clean white, teamed with panels of navy blue, were perfect for creating a futuristic look. The second time these colours appeared was in the research process of the Mayan people. The tribal apparel they wore was very colourful but the one colour that stood out most to me was the same blue that I saw in the trends. In addition to this, this colour again appeared in the V&A research. It was this image of the V&A that made me decide on the colour pallet as I saw that these blues and silvers worked perfectly together and gave off a futuristic vibe. The fact that these colours kept appearing again and again during research, it was inevitable that I should use them as the main colour inspiration. The final colour pallet line-up is this navy blue that kept surfacing, teamed with pure, clean white with accents of metallic silvers and a hint of black if needed for detailing. I feel that this simple yet effective colour pallet is perfect for achieving a futuristic look.
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Fabric
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I wanted a good mixture of smart fabrics and traditional fabrics, as Etznab is a collection of both old and new. For example, I wanted to incorporate leather into my collection as the Mayan People used leathers and animal hides in their tribal attire. Therefore, it appeared obvious that I should incorporate leather into my collection. In addition to leather, I still had to focus on smart fabrics such as neoprene and scuba jersey to relate to the future. Even though leather is a more traditional fabric compared to neoprene, I feel that leather really is timeless and will never look out of place. For fabric manipulations, I first experimented with pleats on the scuba jersey. I feel that it works well with the futuristic theme as it creates sharp lines on smart fabric. I also fused a subtle leopard print devorĂŠ fabric to the neoprene so that there was an aspect of tribal together with the future and that it coincided with the colour theme. I then used laser cutting to get perfect precision on the Etznab symbols that were made from the fused neoprene. This precision is exactly what is needed to achieve this smooth, streamline line-up.
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Sihlouette
The shapes of the Sartorial Purity trend focuses on boxy, structured garment shapes. Whereas the Body Line trend focuses mainly on cut outs and straps. I wanted to try and merge the two silhouettes from both trends and create an entirely new one. A silhouette that focuses on tailored, classic shapes, but, at the same time, also has that aspect of cut outs and straps. Together, they merge into a futuristic yet tribal vibe that relates perfectly to the theme of the collection. I wanted to make sure that the classic tailoring did not remain too classic, as I wanted to explore futuristic shapes and angles. I experimented on this by adjusting dart positions to sharper angles to create a structured look without adding physical structure to the garments and distracting from the tailoring. I believe that because of the simpler shapes, the collection appears cleaner and sharper which is exactly what I wanted it to be.
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Design Development
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For the design development process, I developed each garment individually. For example I started with skirts. I explored different lengths and shapes. I added different details to push the development of my designs forward creating different variations of the garment. I would do this until eventually, when I had exhausted the skirt development, I would move on to the next garment and repeat the process all over again. I did this process for Jackets, Tops, Skirts, Trousers, Dresses and Jumpsuits. In the end I had hundreds of designs to select from which gave me many options to explore. I then went through a selection process, choosing designs I felt were coherent with one another and also the garments that I personally liked and felt worked well with the theme. I tried to keep the selection to around 3 to 4 ideas per garment. I would then redraw the selected few and experiment with the colour pallet to see which variations of colours went with each garment. From doing this extra step, it helped me see what colours were working and what colours were not. I then did another selection process to the coloured ideas. When I had finally decided which garments I wanted to have in my final line up I had to team the garments together to establish the outfits. I did this by scanning the developments into Photoshop and arranging each garment into an outfit pairing. When I was pleased with the arrangement I then took the outfits through into final illustration drawings.
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• This is the final line up for the Etznab Collection. I selected a variety of different garments for the collection so that there would be differentiation in the collection and not just a line up of dresses. I feel that the garments I have chosen fit the theme well. They capture the futuristic aspect with the sharp angles in the pleating and tailoring but at the same time have a tribal feel with cut out panels, straps and sashes. Also I feel that the colours work well together, especially seeing them alongside each other in the line up. The Etznab symbol is coherent throughout and keeps the collection grounded. I am very pleased with my decisions and garment selection. I feel there is a great mix of lengths and shapes that keep everything varied and interesting.
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Final Line up
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The backs of the collection mainly focus on the rib cage idea I had from the Skeleton Dog symbol from research. I tried to incorporate as many straps as I could to illustrate the lines and structure of the ribcage. The open back style of the garments was a perfect place to abuse this, as there were many empty spaces that could be filled and spruced up. I think these straps work well in these areas, as the fronts of the garment are very tailored so to counteract the front, it made sense to make the backs more strap orientated. I tried to incorporate the straps in every outfit to keep the collection coherent along with the Etznab symbol. I feel there is a nice balance of this and it links the collection together well.
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The Outfit
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The outfit I have chosen to take forward into production is the leather Jacket and Jumpsuit. This combination includes all the ideas I wanted to illustrate in my collection. It incorporates both the future and the ancient aspects of my research, from the pleating that represent the lines and angles of the Dundee V&A building to the Etznab symbols from the Mayan calendar. Merging both old and new together to create a contemporary outfit. It also uses both classic and advanced fabrics that together create an interesting blend of both cultures. Also this outfit shows the contrast of the different silhouettes I wanted to explore in my collection. Using the body-con silhouette to accentuate the tribal cut outs and then the tailored silhouette to emphasize the structure of the V&A’s architecture. I feel that with all these small details, it makes a huge impression in these particular garments as it illustrates my original vision very clearly. I think this is why I favour this combination above the rest of my collection.
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Working Drawings
front
back
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back
The Jumpsuit
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Toile
Before I started on the toile process of the jumpsuit my original design was a lot simpler. I had originally designed the top of the jumpsuit to be plain with no fabric manipulation and be bound with blue fabric. However, when I started toiling the garment, it looked rather plain and boring. I knew then that more detail or structure needed to be added. This forced me back to my research and design development for inspiration to develop a more intriguing design. I had used pleating in some of my other outfits in the line up, but for some reason, I hadn’t included it in this garment. I made the decision to keep the design coherent to the rest of the collection and develop the top to include pleating. I experimented with pattern paper first as it produced a nice structure for the pleats. Referring back to some of my paper samples from my research I produced a shape I was pleased with. I then translated that into fabric and moved forward from there. Additionally, I felt that the original design did not include enough of the Mayan culture besides from a few straps and the occasional Etznab symbol. I decided to experiment with the placement and the quantity of these symbols. I feel this was a good decision as it really adds a dynamic to the garment that wasn’t there before. In terms of shaping, the garment was not far off from the correct measurements. I had to tweak the side seams of the top and alter the hips of the trousers as well as slim the trouser leg down, but apart from that, that was all that needed sorted. With these new ideas, I then moved on into production of the garment. 31
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Garment Construction
Constructing this garment had a few obstacles, but I was not going into them blindly as I had already worked out all that I needed to do from the toile. Main obstacle was making sure that the measurements of the straps were correct and that I kept everything symmetrical when it came to folding pleats and placing the straps. I also had to keep in mind the order in which the pieces were sewn together to ensure that it was constructed correctly. Production was halted when I came to the lining, as I had not previously attempted it and was unsure of how it all connected together. I took some time to figure it out first and then pushed on with the production. I realised that because there was an opening where the zip was positioned, I would be able to use it as the pull through area. However, this meant that the only way to finish off the garment was to hand stich the lining along the zip. As this was the final garment, I wanted everything to be perfect and symmetrical. The finishing details of the Etznab symbols could have been a problem to achieve symmetry, so I decided I would use the laser cutter to make each symbol identical and even. It was effective and much quicker than having to cut each symbol out by hand and it also sealed off the edges nicely. I hand stitched these to the garment as I felt it needed to be precise and accurate and I felt that a standard sewing machine stitch would not cut it in the presentation of the final garment.
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The Leather Jacket
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Toile The toile for the leather jacket was not made out of a leather substitute, as I did not have any at hand. It was made out of thicker toile fabric, as that was the closest I could get at short notice. I knew that not using a similar fabric could have some precautions in the actual construction of the garment but I persisted with this anyway. The first attempt of the jacket was a lucky one as I managed to achieve the desired shape I wanted. The only adjustments needed were that the waist had to be drawn in from each side and also the sleeves had to be drawn in too. Apart from these minor alterations, I was pleased with the overall shape. I was especially pleased with the shape of the collar as it created an interesting feature. The seams of the jacket looked good but I felt that I should look at more options as it was making the jacket look “boxy” and wasn’t really exploring the angled edges from my research. I decided to move the dart to the side of the jacket instead of the shoulder, which created a V shaped panel, fitting in with the collar and my previous research.
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Garment Construction
Constructing this leather jacket has been one of the most challenging and nerve-racking experiences I’ve dealt with so far when it comes to garment construction. Firstly, it is incredibly difficult making that first cut into fabric you paid a lot of money for. Secondly, you cannot afford to make mistakes, as it would be almost impossible to source the same piece of hide, as every hide is different. And thirdly, you cannot afford to sew it wrongly, as the needle would leave holes in the leather. Taking all this into account, I decided to choose a design with at least 4 corner seams which are normally quite “fiddly” to do with normal fabric yet alone with leather. It was a tremendous challenge to construct this garment but by taking my time, I feel this has been successful in the end. There were a few issues faced in the construction of this jacket, although not many were to do with the actual sewing, but the amount of leather I had to work with. I initially purchased 10 square feet of lambskin leather. It didn’t take long for me to realise that this would not be enough to make a whole jacket. When I tried to lay plan, I was just short by three pattern pieces and it was at this moment I decided to shorten the length of the original jacket. I tried my best to source an extra 6 square feet of a similar colour and hide. But as I mentioned previously, no hide is ever the same. When the extra piece arrived, I was glad to see that the colours were similar but the leather did look different. I then had to be savvy and try and organise my pattern pieces in another lay plan so that they did not look out of place when they were constructed. Also to keep the arms coherent with the two different fabrics, I had to do some panelling in order for it to look right. This ended up working in my favour as the seams and angles on the finished garment all line up when worn. Using leather was so different to what I was used to. The processes were all so different. For example, pressing the seams on leather garments requires hammering and glue in order for the seams to lay flat. Also, the machinery needed, special feet and needles to sew through the leather. In the end I am pleased I took on this challenge, as I now have the knowledge of leather crafting and will be able to use more leather in future projects and be more confident about using it. 40
Evaluation
Overall I am pleased with everything I have learnt from this project and all that I have achieved. I feel that I really set myself challenges and I feel a great sense of accomplishment in completing these challenges successfully. My biggest accomplishment in this project was definitely making the leather jacket. I am very proud, as it was my first attempt I was pleased how successful it turned out. Also I found it fascinating to learn about constructing leather garments, as it was something I had always wondered and wanted to attempt for myself. I am pleased with my final line up and I feel I have chosen the right garments to illustrate the main points from my research. Looking back now it would have been interesting to have maybe explored one of my other garments from the collection, just out of curiosity. But I feel that the outfit I have chosen is the right outfit as it illustrated everything I wanted to illustrate in terms of theme, silhouette and colour. When I think about what I would have done differently, I think of all the obstacles that occurred from the leather and wonder if everything would have been easier if I had chosen normal fabric. But then I realise that I quite enjoyed setting the challenge of creating something I had never done before. So I would not change anything as I feel that all these obstacles that occurred were a learning curve for the future. I could not be more thrilled with how my collection turned out and I am pleased, as I have achieved what I had originally set out to achieve. To capture the wonders of the Mayan culture and merge them with my own to communicate my interests through fashion. Leaving my mark in this world for the future to come, just like how the Mayan people continue to communicate to us forever.
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References •
Hand with Reflective Sphere, 1935, M.C. Escher, Lithograph,
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House of Stairs, 1951, M.C. Escher, Lithograph
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Etznab Symbol, Mayan Calendar, Personal Mayan Birth Certificate, Mexico
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Skeleton Dog Symbol, Mayan Calendar, Personal Mayan Birth Certificate, Mexico
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V&A Dundee, 2013, Kengo Kuma, Concept Art, Dundee
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LESS, 2014, Matthieu Belin, WGSN, Pause Trend S/S 17
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Tom Ford Dress, 2015, Vogue Australia, WGSN, Digital Wave Trend S/S 17
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V&A Dundee, 2013, Kengo Kuma, Concept Art, Dundee
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White backless dress, 2015, Jason Wu
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Black cut out jumpsuit, Nastygal.com, via Pinterest
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White wrapped crop top, 2013, thefashionmedley.com
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White backless top, Reformation, via Pinterest
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White backless top with strappy bra top, ShopStyle.com, via Pinterest
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