JODI
EASSON
FA S H I O N
Personal Analysis Document •
UNTRUTH •
CONTENTS concept
3
skirts
5 - 10
jackets
11 - 14
coats
15 - 18
tops
19 - 22
dresses
23 - 26
laser cutting
27 - 32
looks
33 - 44
reflection
45 - 46 2
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CONCEPT UNTRUTH Personalities are veiled. One can never be sure a person is what they truly seem. Are they genuine or is there a hidden agenda? They may appear considerate to the eye but hiding beneath the surface is something sinister. This is the untruth. This collection aims to explore the veil between good and evil and the misinterpretation of human personality. Evil has found ways of weaving through goodness in this world. Misleading good people by posing as a trustworthy face or tempting them with their deepest desires. Hiding behind a mask, deceiving the truth. Eventually, the mask will begin to decay, much like bronze when it starts to tarnish, showing its true colour of teal. It symbolises the corruption within the human soul. First impressions are also misinterpreted. For example, people that are tattooed are often viewed as rebellious whereas someone wearing a suit is seen as respectful. It is rather odd, as these traits don’t determine that person’s true personality, it only makes them appear that way. In reality, they masquerade behind it. So what really is the truth? Perhaps if the veil was lifted we could one day unite all religions with common grounds. Religion shouldn’t be tarnished good or evil. Good and evil is within a person’s soul not their faith. Countless wars throughout history have been the result of religious conflict. If we could just visualise that all faiths are similar then perhaps we could see the mask lifted. To understand that it is not religion or faith that is good and evil but in fact, mankind itself. 4
S K I RT S The first garments I tackled were the skirts as I felt it would be a good way to ease back into the workshop and start with the “simplest garments�. Indeed they are the more achievable garments out of my entire line up but they are far from simple. It took several attempts to achieve the A-line shape that you see in the final representation of the skirts. The preliminary skirts were far too flared and close to a quarter circular skirt. I desired a far more flattering A-line shape, one that was not too wide set, like a circular skirt and not set too close to the body like a straight skirt. I wanted a skirt to simply follow from the natural waistline and sit nicely out from the hips. I feel that after all these tests I eventually got the shape I wanted to achieve.
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The more complicated aspects of the skirts were getting the right shaping in the complex panels that sat over the A-line skirts. I had experimented on many shapes before I got to the final results. The first panel attempts for both skirts were far too large and covered most of the surface area of the base A-line skirt. This I did not want as it hid the A-line in which I had worked on so hard to get right. Through trial and error and many attempts of adjusting the shape, I started to deduct sections form the first pattern piece to get the surface coverage right. Once the initial size was right, I then started to retrace new shapes based on the size of the newly altered panels. From there, I was able to eventually achieve the right shapes I had imagined and feel that they are very true to their original form in the designs, which pleases me greatly.
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With sheer luck, I discovered a “happy accident� in the toiling process. When I was removing the toile from the mannequin, I discovered that I loved the way the panel was draping to the side. I instantly took a photo and decided that the drape of the panel was interesting enough to be made part of the final version of the multifunctional skirt. From the images I took of this accidental draping, I traced the shapes it created into the working drawing of the skirt and included it as a design feature in the final garment.
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JACKETS At the early stages, before I started properly toiling the jackets, I had decided that the shapes I initially designed were far too complex and similar to the shapes on the under layer of my collection. In order for my concept to make more sense, I needed the tailoring to become much more cleanly cut and simplistic so that the dramatic contrast was more obvious when the jacket was removed. I redesigned the shape of the original designs to appear less complex so there was a definite division from the good and evil in the design concept.
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Before the toile review, I had used regular darts in the jackets. They didn’t give the garment the flattering appearance I wished them to have. Seeing this in the toile review, I decided to go back and redraft and re-toile all three of the tailored jackets with princess seam lines. This made for a far more appealing line on the tailoring and just made the garments appear more professional and cleaner looking overall. From having to re-evaluate my collection and to take more time to fix my errors, it changed my schedule drastically, having to take an extra two weeks from final construction to accommodate enough time to ensure I was advancing forward with correct garments. 12
Although simplified there were still many intricate details that needed to be tried and tested. For example, the over laps on the tux dress and suit and the multi-wearable flap of the tailored jacket. Once the pattern was changed to princess seams after toile review, these elements also had to adapt to the new construction. Luckily, the adaption of these complex elements happened almost organically as the seams seemed to mark where each panel would sit almost perfectly, almost as if it were meant to be all along. Once my patterns were fixed and I was happy with the new adapted toiles, I was then able to continue on and get the main garments constructed, getting back on track from the extra weeks used to fix my mistakes.
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C O AT Like the tailored jackets, I had initially used darts in the first drafts of my toiles. Realising that darts were not flattering in any way at all, I had to redraft and re-toile the coats again also, just like the tailored jackets. As I mention previously, this did rob me of a few weeks from my final make but it was necessary and essential in the long run as I was ensuring that my garments would be correct for the finals. I especially needed to redraft the coats as I adapted the first toiles from the wrong block for some reason or another instead of a jacket block. I should have known that something was wrong with the first toiles as the coats were rather tight and had no room for the essentials such as shoulder pads, etc. However, I was able to reuses the princess seams from the tailored jackets blocks and adapt them for the coats, saving some time and allowing me to get back on schedule.
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Also from seeing all the issues in the toile review I was able to go back and rethink about how I could re-represent certain aspects of the garments I didn’t like from the review and rethink them into more stylish design details. A great example of this was the backs of the long coats. Before the review, they were basic darted lines down the back and a harsh waistline through the centre. It wasn’t pleasant to the eye. So I took the opportunity to rethink and design a new back. I knew by this point I was going to be adding princess seams to the garment but with the coats being so long, I didn’t want the princess seams to run all the way to the floor down the train style back. So I had to incorporate some sort of detail that would come to a point just past the waist. I took inspiration from the pointed decorative diamond shapes found in the swirl designs and incorporated them into the back for the seams to ease into. This was really effective and I was so pleased with the way it curved and sat perfectly on the back. However, when I made the final garments, I came to realise that the velvet fabric I was using for the coats made the seams almost invisible, making the new design feature a detail only appreciated up close and personal. If I were to redo this back in the future, I would consider a contrasting fabric in order for it to stand out from afar. This was a learning process but a helpful one for the future.
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TO P S Once all the tailored aspects of my collection were settled I felt that the next course of action was to get a solid foundation for the stretch garment patterns. Henceforth, I went on to develop the stretch tops that paired with the skirts. If I accomplished the right shape and structure for the tops I could use the pattern to develop the stretch dresses that would come after. Developing the pattern was relatively simple. Incorporating the V-neck shape down the front of the tops was the only slightly tricky part. I soon realised that those V-necks could not sit plainly on their own as the stretch of the fabric would pull over the bust area causing the V-neck shape to have no support. I concluded that the V-neck would have to have a transparent panel of sorts in the middle to hold the shape. This ended up making more sense in the end, as the swirl designs that would be added later needed a fabric surface to attach to. I also added stay tape in the final garments down the seams of the V to aid the fixture of the shape even further, which evidently worked.
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Most of the problems with these garments came in the final garment production, as the fabric choice, although esthetical pleasing, was a nightmare to work with. The navy shimmer netting was the most bothersome as it had the tendency to fray if pulled too much or catch (especially on pins) causing awful marks on the garments. Luckily, most of these minor faults were hidden by the application of the laser cut swirls that saved many near disasters. As well as this fragile netting I soon came to discover that the stretch bronze fabric I was using underneath the netting was only two-way stretch, which drastically limited the movement of the final garments, causing me to implement zips and fastenings into the garments which I had not initially planned on doing. This wasn’t such a bad thing as it added more difficulty in technique to the garments. For example, the swirled patterns on the back were situated in the same places as the zips. This made lining up the zips very difficult as the pattern needed to also match up on either side of the zip. I feel I executed this well as they do line up rather well on the final garments. The bronze two-way stretch fabric also had a few faults in the roll itself. I discovered 2 different 1 metre length ladders in the fabric. This caused me to loose out on a couple of metres but luckily this was no problem as I had plenty left to spare.
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DRESSES The toiling process for the dresses was extensive as they each featured a uniquely shaped panel much like the skirts. The process was similar to the skirts in terms of experimenting in order to find the right shapes to represent the designs. In some cases, I was able to drape the dresses on the mannequin to see how they were positioned and were hanging on the garment. If panels were too long or not shaped right, I could simply trim away the unwanted parts whilst it remained on the stand. This worked out efficiently as I could see exactly how it would look on a final garment. I could then subtract the trimmed pieces of fabric from the paper pattern pieces, giving me an accurate shaped panel piece. Although I was happy with the shapes I had achieved going into the toile review, I then realised there wasn’t a way to finish off these complex shapes properly if they were made in stretch fabric. It then became clear the only way to achieve these shapes was if I made them non-stretch and applied the same technique I used on the skirt panels. The problem was that I had already ordered all the fabric and I loved the look too much to find an alternative non-stretch that wouldn’t be what I had envisaged. I deliberated with myself on what I could do to combat this issue. I came to the decision that I could make the stretch netting nonstretch by coating it over a non-stretch fabric. This meant I could still keep the netting I loved and at the same time achieve the complex shapes. It also meant I could still have the base of the dresses made out of stretch fabric but have non-stretch panels that kept their shape and complexity.
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Again, as before with the tops, the dresses were using the same fabric and ended up with the same problems with fraying and the stretch issues. I had to insert zips to allow for easier access, but the problem this time was that there was no seam down the back like there was on the tops. The only seems available that could accommodate a zip was in the shoulder seams, which wasn’t ideal but was my only option in order to make the dresses accessible. If I were to do this again I would take into better account of how stretchy a fabric is and would be sure to have a seam like the tops have, so if it came down to it, I could insert a zip in a more conventional place. Perhaps though, with the zips being in an unconventional place might add to its uniqueness. Another matter I wasn’t too pleased with was the bulky seams caused by the extra layers of fabric being doubled up to make the non-stretch panels. With the extra fabric came the worry of the seams being too thick to sew together. Although, true enough the seams were very thick, there were no actual issues with the construction. Regardless, I believe this is still something that could be done differently in the future.
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LASER CUTTING The laser cutting and process to attaching them was by far the most challenging and time-consuming task of this collection. In total, there are 20 sets of swirl motifs in this entire collection. Each swirl set containing around 2 – 4 individual shapes. It definitely was a gruelling task. Even just sorting the swirls into their proper piles after the laser cutting appointment was a fair task in itself. I did this to make my life easier further down the line and also just to generally keep everything organized. It put my mind at ease knowing that they were all pre-sorted into bags ready for use whenever I needed them.
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THE PROCESS The process was time consuming yet very interesting and I feel as though I should explain further to put into context how much work was involved in this task alone. First off, I would layout the swirls onto the fabric where I wished them to be situated. I would next have to pin every inch or so to attach the motif to the fabric to secure it in place. This took some time as I had to be sure that the motifs were centred correctly. It made sense to take my time at this stage to get it right first time to save the bother of having to go back and unpick it later if it wasn’t positioned right. Once I was certain and happy with the pinned design, I then took it to the sewing machine. With the largest, widest zigzag setting, I secured each piece down the middle so that it was attached to the fabric properly so that it wasn’t just held down with pins. The largest zigzag was used in order for the stitching to be pulled out easily when the piece was secured properly in place. Now for the time consuming part, once the swirls were attached temporarily, what came next was to sew round each and every edge of the laser cut pieces with a small, close zigzag stitch. This by far tried my nerves yet I do feel a sense of accomplishment from having sewn all of those swirls. Although there were many of these design details, I wouldn’t change the amount to be less because I really do feel that they make the collection special. 30
There weren’t many complications with these swirls; it was just really time consuming. From doing all this work, I did come to realise that attaching them to stretch fabric was far easier, surprisingly. Beforehand, I was sure the non-stretch fabrics would sew easier because it had more of a solid base, but it turns out that the non-stretch fabric doesn’t move well with a stretch fabric. There is a clash in the fabrics, making it far more difficult to get the swirls laying flat. The stretch fabric on the other hand was a breeze. There was no constriction between the fabrics that caused them to move as one in the machine. For one of the swirl sets I had to back the fabric with fusible to strengthen the delicate netting as it was too thin to apply the design motif by itself. The fusing could be seen from the right side of the garment so I had to make the fusible almost decorative by shaping it to frame the motif nicely. It is little details like those that I am proud of because they give this collection extra character.
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LO O K 1
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LO O K 2
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LO O K 3
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LO O K 4
LO O K 5
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LO O K 6
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REFLECTION Overall I am pleased with my final collection. In seeing the collection in its final photographic form I feel very proud of what I have accomplished. Although I have spent a year on this concept now and there has been many times when I have doubted decisions or almost driven myself to madness with it all, I think back to these times and appreciate that it was exactly these moments that drove me to keep going and produce the collection I see before me today, A collection that I am proud to call my own. It has certainly been an experience of a lifetime and I’m grateful for every moment, whether good or bad. I feel these strenuous times have made me a better designer by pushing my limits to strive forward and go beyond, not giving up or being outdone by a problem. Instead, facing up to the task in hand with full effort and overcoming all the boundaries in my way. This collection has taught me this and at the end of the day, that is all I can really ask for.
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