Alexander McQueen
Lee Alexander McQueen, (17 March 1969 – 11 February 2010) was a British designer. He was known for having worked as chief designer at Givenchy for 1996 to 2001 and for founding his own Alexander McQueen label. His achievements in fashion earned him four British Designer of the Year awards as well as the CFDA’s International Designer of the Year award in 2003
Alexander McQueen is typically brought and worn by a person who enjoys pushing boundaries in the fashion world and who is not afraid of taking risks and standing out for looking different. Many times, Alexander McQueen has had his work showcased on the red carpet but notorious celebrities. He has had features in magazines and a website that gets many views daily. McQueen’s style is edgy, there are uses of skulls and harsh lines with bright colours but he also looks at flattering the female figure and bringing the contours of a woman’s body to life.
The Helmut Lang fashion brand was created by Austrian fashion designer, Helmut Lang ( born 10 March 1956) in 1986
Helmut Lang has a fashion brand suited to both men and women, with a range of cuts that encompass a more edgy look. This too is similar with Alexander McQueen. Both brands use interesting prints and fabrics that makes them more suitable for a younger, more edgy audience. Clothing price for both brands are similar, meaning wealthier people are more likely to afford these brands.
Six Final Prints
These prints where created from photograph’s taken of exotic plants, like a cactus or Venus fly trap.
These prints where created from photograph’s taken of plants that are found in the garden and on country walks.
Colour Variations
Here are my six final prints for my Alexander McQueen collection. These original prints where in purple tones and I felt that this was the most successful colour palette. However I tried a variety of different colour palettes and found that this pink palette was second best to the palette I originally chose.
These prints are my three favourite out of all colour variations I tried. I feel these are the most successful because they still encompass McQueen’s style but they also encompass my own. Because of this I placed the most successful print inside my basic t-shirt sketch.
Six T-Shirt Designs
Digitizer System
X - Line up with a point
C - Curve Point (Type C Ponit X)
2 - Corner (Type to Point X) D - Delete 1 - Characteristic Point (Type 1 Point X)
7 - Internal Line
3 - Drill Hole
6 - Notch
1F - (At the end of an internal line) A - Grain Line (Click Left to Right)
FF - Finish Function
F O - End of Digitising and Start of new sheet
Digitizing a Pattern In order to digitize our patterns into the computer, we first had to make pattern pieces that where the shape and size of the garment that we wished to mkae. Upon doing so, we then opeed up our pattern pieces onto the Modaris system connected to the printer. Once the pattern is digitized into the computer following the lines and curves around the pattern piece and using the remote on the following page to complete this, the pattern is not ready to use.
Here is an image of what the Digitising board looks, this is where the pattern pieces are laid in order to be traced.
Paperlay Pattern This is a PDF paper layout of what my pattern pieces will look like once they have been cut out.
Setting up a Variant
This image below shows a Variant. This is a seperate document to your Modaris pattern pieces and with this you have to specify the difference in materials. In this case the cuff and collar were made of rib and the rest of the t-shirt in jersey. This has to be set up in the deisplay so that the computer recognises that these pattern pieces will not be using the same fabrics.
Making a Marker This is what these pattern pieces looked like once they had been put into a PDF ready for printing.
Here is a piece of software that is used to make a marker. This means arranging the pattern pieces in a way that is most efficient so that when it is printed out into a paper pattern there is no wastage of paper.
Desk of Stitches
This stage of the t-shirt making is completed on Modaris. It is called Desk of stitches and it is the operation by which you manually sew together your pattern pieces so they are ready to be applied to the 3D avatar. This follows a strict rule of pattern as you have to make sure that no holes are left as this will affect they way the sweater sits on the 3D avatar.
Jersey Workshop
In this jersey workshop we began by doing samples of the rib around the cuff and neckline. Here are some images of those samples. The first one shows what the cuff will look like on the final jersey t-shirt.
Here is a photograph of what the finished jersey neckline looks like. The rib around the neck requires you to roll the jersey in on it’s self and sew it to the front pattern piece in order to create the double sided neck rib.
Specification Sheet
This spec sheet shows what my basic jersey looks like as a technical drawing and it also shows what pattern pieces are used in order to make up the jersey t-shirt.
Modaris
Using Modaris to create 3D fashion is the easiest way to see what your final garment will look like on a model. On the next page you will find an image of what Modaris looks like when your 3D avatar has on a sweater and next to her it will show all of the pattern pieces that were used to make up that sweater. Modaris is quite a complex piece of software to operate but it is useful once you find how to work the system. there are a few general things to remember when using the Modaris software. These are the ‘model’ icon, as pictured below, this helps you to remeber which document you are working on because when you move the cursor over this icon it tells you your document name. You must always remeber to set your access path, this can be found when clicking on File in the top left hand corner, as this will make it easier when saving your work and always remember to name your document something you will remember using capitals and no spaces as this makes it easier to access on Modaris.
Here are my six final prints all put onto an avatar on Modaris to see the final outcome of my jeresy.
These three t-shirt prints are my favourite and I think they are the most successful prints from all six.
How has technology influenced fashion? The use of thermo chromatic fabrics have been around for a number of years, but their main use tends to be for material purposes in fashion, such as Gortex for shows and micro-fibre for raincoats. There is one other feature that thermo chromatic fabrics have and that is heat reactivity. This can come from an outside change in temperature or from being touched. Heat reactive materials change their state, colour and shape when exposed to different temperatures. For example a rain coat that uses thermo chromatic fabrics will change colour when they come into contact with rain water. Most thermo chromatic materials are based on liquid or crystal technology and at specific temperatures, these crystals change colour. These pigments can be used in household products, such as paint and wallpaper that react to heat when a radiator is turned on or a window is opened, but they are also used in fashion. This method of fabric use is not used widely within the fashion world but it is making appearance in clothing collections that are out of the ordinary. There are many small time fashionista’s that are experimenting with thermo chromatic pigments and using them to create dresses that change from plain white to floral with a change of temperature. Thermo chromatic fabrics have been used in sports wear for a number of years. There is a branch of sports wear called Radiate that has a t-shirt collection that changes colour based on how effective your workout has been. It begins white and changes through from pink to blue as your body changes in temperature. This company has been looking into releasing hoodies that incorporate the same technology, but for men and a sports t-shirt for women. Another way in which this technology can be used in fashion is through thermo chromatic dyes. These can be placed into logos that are printed onto clothing and as the body changes in temperature, the logo becomes visible. And likewise when the body cools, the logo disappears. This kind of technology can be useful in fashion as a form of advertising as it can help promote a brand by standing out from other forms of advertising, like magazines and posters. This technology is also used in products like coffee mugs, spoons and beer bottles.
A brand that uses thermo chromatic materials is Nike. The ink that is used in this footwear allows the person wearing the shoes to see temperature change of their feet on the surface of the shoe, but also the shoe recognizes where a football has landed on the shoe. This technology could be further enhanced if it was used in high-end fashion brands. For example, Alexander McQueen could be a perfect example of the type of brand that could incorporate thermo chromatic ink into their clothing. Because Alexander McQueen is a brand that is edgy and uses an interesting mix of prints, this brand could carry the use of colour changing fabric into their already unique fashion brand. Thermo chromatic ink can be used in fashion as a dye but thermo chromatic paint can be used in art. The paint works in the same way as the ink only it is applied to paint so that the paint changes colour based on light. This is called photosensitive paint. When light is applied, the colour changes with 1 – 3 second’s and when light is removed it will reverse back to its original colour within 5 – 15 seconds. Some of these paints come clear, which can be applied as a topcoat to another paint. When using this paint on a piece of artwork, the paint can be applied in arrears that you may want to see a colour change in. There is also a substance that can be added to this paint that makes the colour changes glow when put into darkness. Another use of this paint is in car bodyworks. This paint can be applied to cars using the same method as normal spray paint but has the effect of colour change in the light and will glow in the dark. This form of technology has changed not only everyday items, like mugs and cars, but has also changed fashion in a way that is useful to us. Fashion can be mistaken, as being a way of life but fashion also needs to be of use to us and in doing so needs to help us in some way. Thermo chromatic pigments could be more useful if further research was conducted into how this pigment could be used in hospitals or surgeries where there heat sensitive products could help doctors and nurses. Not only this, thermo chromatic pigments could be used in baby clothes to show how hot or how cold the baby is. Research into this type of fabric would be more useful to the general public and would further enhance its use in other aspects of daily life.
http://fashioningtech.com/profiles/blogs/pattern-and-form-shifting http://www.bitrebels.com/technology/thermochromic-workout-shirts-react-temp/ http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/gadgets/high-tech-gadgets/fabric-display2.htm http://cromaspaints.com/photosensitive-paint/photosensitive-paint.php
Lauren Ludlow