Evaluation

To start off this project I researched into three different past collaborations to get an idea of what a collaboration consists of. I created a 500-word collaboration report detailing my findings and research into collaborations in the fashion world. I then used this knowledge to figure out where the gap would be in the fashion market to see what type of collaboration I would need to make, I realised that I would need to produce a collection that would sit in between the affordability and exclusivity range. After finding out this information, I then researched into three different designer brands to see if I could make a collection with their style. I researched into Versace, Gucci and Moschino but in the end, I decided not to use any of them as they have all had many collaborations in the past with a range of prices and different target consumers. I thought about other brands and came across Louis Vuitton, which hasn’t had as many collaborations as you might think. I mainly decided to pick Louis Vuitton because as far as I am aware, they haven’t collaborated with a toy, so I decided to focus my collaboration on that. Once I had chosen my designer brand, I then had to think about what toy brand I would want to pair it with. My original idea was to use Bratz dolls but after some googling I found many images of Bratz related clothing and didn’t know if it was by a designer brand or not, so I just decided to try something different. I started to think about my childhood to see if there were any toys that I liked when I was younger and that hadn’t been done in a collaboration before. That’s when I came up with using strawberry shortcake – more specifically the 2003 version. It’s a toy that has been around since 1980, it has a lot of history behind it and I couldn’t find any clothes that are linked to it. As I had finally picked my final collaboration ideas I got started on the research of both brands and started thinking of ideas to combining the two together. I struggled with thinking of design ideas so I focused more on making my marketing report, hoping that it would give me ideas along the way, and it did. The parts that helped me the most were my consumer profiles and pen portraits because they both went into so much detail about the consumer and what type of things they would buy, it made it so much easier to try and figure out what type of outfits I should make. However, I still struggled to think of different ideas as I was making a children’s collection, which I haven’t done before. The hardest part about designing for children is making sure that each item of clothing isn’t risqué or offensive/ inappropriate, I also had to remember that even though I was making the clothes for the children I still had to make them good enough so that the parents would want to buy it. Aside from the designing part of the project, I also had a hard time making the market report as it was a new concept to me, and I was struggling on how to lay it out. I know that the layout isn’t the most important part of the work but for this part it really mattered to me so a lot of the time I spent procrastinating about the outcomes of each page and wanting everything to be perfect. Apart from the layout the only problem I had was trying to get used to using InDesign but luckily, I managed to get the hang of it after a while. Overall, I think that the project has went well and that I have impressed myself with the amount and level of work I have made. I think that I should add more to my sketchbook such as some more samples and sticking in more evidence but apart from that I am happy with how it has gone.