Ocean Debris R E B ECC A M U R R AY - H 0 0 1 0 4 6 3 4 - B A F W 3 E 1 9 C A - A U D E L E G U E N N EC & R O B E RT H I G N E Y - PAT T E R S O N
Design Concept
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The Ocean Debris collection takes the physical and visual sensations connected with the seaside and combines them with the luxurious qualities associated with lace. These elements combined transform into an original design concept that expresses a clear ethereal ambiance that is bursting with lavish detailing. The rich colours taken from nature help to encapsulate the deep variety of tones often seen within the ocean and the land that surrounds it. An assortment of deep blues with indigo undertones form the main hues that represent the oceanic atmosphere. Muted golden yellows have been selected to help break up the sea of blues and add another visual relation to the sandy shorelines that further reinforce the main inspiration. For a final touch, hints of iridescent sea greens are used within the details to add another visual suggestion of the assorted detritus left behind at the tide lines. This aquatic colour palette was combined with the idea of 18th century layered sheers which elegantly inspired the idea of a replication of the waves and sea shores through an exploration of layered chiffons. The tangled seaweed inspired embroidery was influenced by the complicated original detail seen in 17th century lace work and is a modern interpretation that has become the stand out feature among the garments. The collection has been designed with the Spring/Summer 16 Trend ‘Nymph’ in mind which focuses on the idea of invisible clear layers of fine materials to convey the idea of inspiration stemming from nature and earth spirits. The collection comprises of high end pieces that can be mixed and matched easily and form one cohesive look that can be worn anywhere. From light cigarette pants to sheer free-flowing blouses, these garments are easy to wear and give the collection a variety of fluid silhouettes that add a feminine touch to the overall look. Designed for the Mid 20s to Mid 30s modern affluent career woman with a high disposable income that buys for quality and prefers timeless pieces, the collection provides them with suitable work attire that adds a touch of glamour perfect for spring and summer weather. Although designed primarily with everyday use in mind, these garments could easily be worn as evening/occasion wear due to the intricate finishings and upmarket fabric choices. An added element of this collection is the carefully chosen hooded light wool capes which help make the garments fully compatible with the unpredictable weather. This collection could comfortably be placed in high end department stores alongside brands such as Sandro and Christopher Kane. The classic natural silhouettes form lasting garments with complex attention to detail that helps set the collection apart from other brands.
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Contents
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Page:
- History Of Lace - Designer Research - Elie Saab - Designer Research - Zuhair Mhurad - Sensations Touch - Primary Research - Trend Nymph - Colour Palette - Market Research - Silhouettes - Fabric Sourcing - Details - Manufacturing Process - Technical Drawings - FInal Outcome - Evaluation - Bibliography -
6-7 8-9 10-11 12-13 14-15 16-17 18-19 20-21 22-23 24-25 26-27 28-29 30-31 32-33 34-35 36-37
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History Of Lace Research
To begin to form the concept for my collection, I first looked into the history of lace to determine what aspects from history intrigued me the most. Looking back into Both 17th and 18th century garments and artwork, I was inspired by the painting by John Singleton Copley (1763), particularly the voluminous layers of material. I really liked the technique involved and wanted to use this aspect somehow within my collection as I felt it gave me a good opportunity to work with sheer fabrics in an unusual way that could be further influenced by my chosen sensation inspiration.
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Designer Research: Elie Saab
Elie Saab adds elegant hand details that gives the lace a modern lift. This inspired use of texture and detailing within garments is a clever way of adding more dimensions to the fabric.
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Designer Research: Zuhair Mhurad
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I found Zuhair Mhurad to be a very inspirational designer through his use of lace. Today lace is often associated with dresses and old fashioned design details but Zuhair Mhurad cleverly uses it in a variety of garments from tailored jackets to jumpsuits which inspired me to think outside of what I would normally associate with lace.
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Sensations - Touch
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When looking at the basic associations with sensations to further my research, I looked into the emotional connotations of sensations as well as the literal senses. The first thing I thought of was what sensations meant to me and I began to recall the visual, physical and emotional sensations from being near the ocean. Having grown up on an island surrounded by beaches, the majority of my childhood was spent exploring my natural surroundings. Sensations to me were the feelings of being weightless in water, walking on the sand, the scent of salt in the air, seaweed tangled around my ankles. I wanted to explore this further as I felt I had a lot of primary knowledge to draw inspiration from and it was something I felt I could connect with and produce creative results from. I wanted to be able to take this natural inspiration and combine it with my own ideas of lace to form an inspired collection. From this I formed the idea of layering varied tones to create a representation of the waves and surf.
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Primary Research
Dall Mor Beach, Isle Of Lewis
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Swainbost Beach, Isle Of Lewis
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Trend: Spring/Summer 16: Nymph
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To bind my concept solidly together, I chose an emerging trend that reinforced my design inspirations. I chose the Trend Nymph because it was about earth spirits and a deep connection with nature. I liked the idea of clarity in nature and invisibility much like the ocean. I felt the colour tones further strengthened the palette I wanted which was a reflection of the muted tones found in the sea. Another element of the trend that reflected the ethos I wanted to represent was the idea of the nymphs preferring layers of fine sheer materials which helped me maintain the idea of mirroring nature.
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Colour Palette
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The colours that make up my palette are tones that reflect the atmosphere of the shoreline. The dominant colours consist of deep varieties of blues with subtle indigo influences that enhance the water-like qualities of my designs. This is paired with soft beach accents to break up the ocean of blue that make up the majority of the collection, primarily soft yellows that compliment and enhance the connections between the water and sand. Finally there is the elements of seaweed green used in embellishments for an aesthetic pop of colour. These tones form the ambience in my mind of tangled seaweed in the ocean sparkling in the sunshine.
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Market Research
When visiting Harvey Nichols, I chose to look at brands such as DKNY and Sandro. I noticed that sheer garments were finished with French seams and double turned hems, however, I found these hems looked too simple and detracted from the overall look of the garments so for my own garments I wanted to look into binding. Brands that my collection aspires to in terms of finishings and aesthetics were Sandro and Christopher Kane. Both this brand and designer are very different from each other but both have aspects I feel my collection aims to showcase. Sandro uses very classic clean silhouettes that are wearable everyday and are able to mix and match with other classic pieces which I feel is a good reflection of my own designer style. Christopher Kane’s pieces although just as expertly finished contain more texture and details giving them a unique, complex look and I felt like this appropriately sums up what I want from my own fabrics, textures and details.
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Silhouettes
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The silhouettes and shapes of my designs aim to reflect the fluidity of the ocean. The majority of the garments have unfixed shapes much like the ever-changing water.
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Fabric Sourcing
The garments had to be light and easy to wear keeping in with the trend and focussing on spring and summer wear. To convey this I chose a variety of chiffons, choosing blue tones that blended together well to create the soft wave like look I had designed. For two of the main tops I chose a catatonic chiffon which showcases a variety of indigos and blue depending on the light. This material was ideal as it captivated the idea of the clarity of water but also that it is never one fixed colour. For the lower garments I chose a soft sand yellow linen for the skirts which were slightly opaque. My original design planned for it to be lined so this fell together perfectly. Having ordered various samples of royal blue linen, I found that they were too thin and would require a lining. As this was to be a summer collection, lining the cigarette pants would have made them too heavy and the seams would have been thick so I instead chose to use a light gabardine as it had a deep blue that I felt went well with the other fabrics. Finally, the wool I chose to use for the light spring capes was a Coated Wool. The fabric itself was very light which I felt was necessary as the bound seam finish of the cape required a lighter material in order for them to sit neatly.
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Details
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The details of this collection are essential to the design concept as this is where the lace inspired elements and sensation inspirations merge to create one cohesive inspired collection. Taking inspiration from the 18th century effect of layering and combining it with the visual impact of the surf and waves, through some experimentation I chose to layer strips of chiffon that are sewn together and appliquĂŠd on to create the illusion of waves on the shoreline. The other final detail that is inspired by the rich images often created within lace is the light embroidery that helps visualise the entangled decorative seaweed motifs that sparkle in the light much like what would be found in the sand along the coast. These details add a luxury touch to the collection while still remaining commercially viable as all motifs can be easily machine embroidered and the layered appliquĂŠ is mainly machine stitched with the exception of the final attachment which I feel for my market meets what customers would expect when paying higher prices for something of quality.
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Manufacturing Process The final garments I chose to bring into production were some that as a designer I hadn’t worked with before and felt it appropriate to expand my pattern drafting skills to bring the collection to life. They also when matched with different pieces go very well together which was important within my market research. I began with the cape as from previous experience, I have found outerwear to be the most time consuming and having never worked on cape before I felt I could challenge myself. Drafting from the basic blouse block I was able to use previously gained knowledge to effectively work out how to add in the arm requirements and create the shape I wanted. This process went smoothly until drafting the hood. Due to the fact that all my designs have quite distinctive structures, I found I had to toile my hood pattern many times from different altered patterns before achieving an effect I was truly happy with. However, finding a material to toile in that was readily available proved impossible in the time frame so I was worried that my chosen wool would not create the same effect when finished. The skirt and trouser designs were the easiest of the garments to draft as the variations were fairly simple to develop. The only problem I had was within the actual fit of the garments when toiling as once I had added the sewn design details I found the finished fit varied from my ideal final result so required some fine tuning. For the blouse I wanted the garment to have a natural drape so I chose to use as little seams as possible and created 1 large piece that I could connect with 2 seams. I also chose to lower the arms holes as I felt this would give the sleeves more drape overall. The difficulty in this particular design was within the finishings. I wanted a concealed button stand as it fitted in with my transparent ideas and this made finishing the piece difficult as I had to research further how to bind on a corner for a clean bound and stitched finish. The concealed button stand also proved difficult as even with pins and basting, the material would slip. For the high neck top, I had to research how to extend the neckline upwards as from previous work I had found when raising the neckline I would also have to widen it and I did not want to do this as I felt with the chiffon, it would drape and not sit the way I desired. I chose to create a separate neck piece that would be attached on and found this a very successful method of replicating my design Idea. Much like the blouse, I wanted the top to have few seams for a cleaner look so created one large piece with one seam at the back which would have the transparent zip fastening. When it came to manufacturing both these garments, I found the chiffon difficult to learn to work with. As it was a material I had never worked with before I found researching methods for working with chiffon very beneficial. Being sure to weigh down the chiffon for pattern cutting helped to cut clean lines without the fabric sliding out of place and pinning extensively helped to keep the garment pieces even when sewing.
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I used French seams for the inside seams as I felt this was the most appropriate finish to ensure my garment was fit for a high end market. . Overall I found the construction of both the blouse and top very successful however, due to a lack of appointments for an inductions to the embroidery machines, I had to choose whether to leave my construction until the last day of timetabled sewing access or to finish making the garments to then take them to the machines. Due to the patience and time I had found needed to sew the chiffon successfully I chose to commit to finishing the garments and then embroider them with the fastening seams open. Having done a previous embroidery sample in the chiffon, I originally had no concerns, however, after finishing one of the final garments, upon removing it from the embroidery hoops I discovered that the pressure from the hoop and machine had caused the material to begin to tear around the sides of the hoops. The damage was frustrating and unfortunate but due to time restraints and a lack of extra material, I chose to leave the garment as it was and hope that the overall work that went into the garment would detract attention from the small linear tears. Overall the main manufacturing elements of the garments went reasonably well mainly due to extensive research and toiling prior to manufacture. This is something that I felt did put me behind in terms of time but I did find to be important in achieving my perfect collection outcome. The final appliquĂŠ of the details was very difficult as the toiles before had been made with similar materials but not exact. I found the finishing of the chiffon strips time consuming and the layers difficult to stitch with as the material tended to slip resulting in uneven finishes, however this seemed to work in my favour matching my ocean inspired design concept.
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Outfit 1
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Outfit 2
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Final Outcome
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Evaluation
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I am very pleased overall with how my collection has come to life. Due to extensive research, planning and a thorough toiling process I feel the overall construction of the garments has been well done and maintained to a high standard suitable for sale within my target market area. With the exception of issues within the embroidery, I still find the detail itself very aesthetically charming and compliments the garments and colour palette well. The collection fully radiates my original concept and I feel gives an aura of the ocean in all it’s glory with all the luxurious elements that lace provides. If I could change anything about my finished pieces it would be the time given to the finishing of the cape. Unfortunately, I ran out of time to finish the cape which I feel makes the outfit design look unusual and unfinished but could not be helped. Despite this, I still feel my design concept and collection have come to life successfully and I am proud of the finished result.
Word Count Including Design Concept: 2700
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Bibliography
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Image references: John Copley, (1763), Mrs Daniel Sargent [ONLINE]. Available at: http://www.the-athenaeum.org/art/detail.php?ID=15683 [Accessed 21 March 15]. Chiaralily, (2012), Ocean Purple Sunset [ONLINE]. Available at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/chiaralily/8273399861/ [Accessed 24 March 15]. Christian Dior, spring collection. 2012. Not Ordinary Fashion. [ONLINE] Available at: http://notordinaryfashion.tumblr.com/post/82654714014/girlannachronism-christian-dior-spring-2012. [Accessed 02 April 2015]. Rabee Younes, (2013), Jean Louis Sabaji, Tidal dress [ONLINE]. Available at: http://www.flip-zone.com/ fashion/couture-1/independant-designers/jean-louis-sabaji-4080/doc116003 [Accessed 30 March 15]. Wolfcub, (2013), Aquatic headdress [ONLINE]. Available at: http://wolfcubchronicles.com/?paged=56 [Accessed 06 April 15]. Garima Dhawan, (2015), Seaweed Pattern [ONLINE]. Available at: https://www.pinterest.com/ pin/156218680796656810/ [Accessed 05 April 15]. Yannis Vlamos, (2013), Elie Saab Spring 2013 [ONLINE]. Available at: http://www.style.com/fashion-shows/spring-2013-couture/elie-saab [Accessed 25 March 15]. Yannis Vlamos, (2014), Elie Saab Couture 2014 [ONLINE]. Available at: http://www.style.com/fashion-shows/fall-2014-couture/elie-saab [Accessed 27 March 15]. Alessandro Viero, (2012), Giambattista Valli Couture 2012 [ONLINE]. Available at: http://www.style.com/ fashion-shows/spring-2012-couture/giambattista-valli [Accessed 27 March 15]. Wedding Inspirasi, (2012), Elie Saab Spring Couture 2012 Blue Floral [ONLINE]. Available at: http:// www.style.com/fashion-shows/spring-2012-couture/giambattista-valli [Accessed 29 March 15]. Will Davidson, (2014), Vogue Australia, Kylie Minogue [ONLINE]. Available at: http://www.fashionmg-style.com/images-for-kylie-minogue-for-vogue-australia-may-2014/ [Accessed 16 March 15]. Jd Forte, (2013), Zuhair Ligic, Jacket and skirt [ONLINE]. Available at: http://models.com/mdx/theup-and-comers/ [Accessed 30 March 15]. Zuhair Murad, (2011), Haute Couture 2011, Chiffon Blouse [ONLINE]. Available at: http://www. fashionnts.com/2014/12/fabulous-finds-with-unique-details.html [Accessed 30 March 15]. Andrew Shapter, (2015), Beach, rushing water [ONLINE]. Available at: http://www.andrewshapter. com/#!7741825078_5c05d5bf90_o.jpg/zoom/mainPage/image_1um [Accessed 29 March 15]. Book References: Santina M. Levey, 1983. Lace: A History. First Edition. Maney Publishing. Wolff, C. 1996. The art of manipulating fabric. 2nd edn. United Staes: Chilton Book Co. Etes: Trend Union Summer 16
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