Show Day

The Collection lined up in bags

Karen took polaroids of the fittings

The final looks

Design Assitant: Part 3

 The Final Days

The last two days of the internship were the most stressful and seemed to blur into one. All of the work needed to be submitted by the Wednesday before the show, a lot of sewing took place in this time.
As I said before, if I had free time I went to the knit room to help out there. In the morning I went to help Sarinya Rattanasusai, she is a knit student, her work was very colourful and dynamic. I had to knit samples which was later sewn together onto a large cape, I only had time for two.  I hadn't knitted in a while and it was nice to, especially as I have chosen that specialism for the rest of my course.

It's unravelling!!! (sorry)

Then I went back to help Karen. I spent the first part of the afternoon cutting out lining material for the garments, and then the remaining time sewing. Her collections feature very transparent fabrics, in order for them to look neat, different seams and hems must be used. I spent most of the afternoon sewing pin hems. A pin hem is a tiny little hem usually used for lightweight fabrics, they're seen a lot on scarves. To do a pin hem you have to turn the hem in 1cm and sew right at the edge, then cut the fabric away right near the sewing line, after you've done this you have to turn it over again and sew. As well as pin hems I had to do french seams for the inside of the overlay, this gives a really good finish. You have to sew the fabric wrong sides together, cut the seam allowance to 0.5cm, turn it over the right way and sew over it so that it is concealed. 

The overlay had to have a zip which goes through the centre back of the garment, however I also had to make a french seam for the remainder. This was incredibly tricky as the zip is facing one way and I had to sew the French seam the opposite way. I spent a very long time doing this, and I did it pretty well until I realized it was on the wrong side of the dress! 

It was a mad rush to finish all the garments, we didn't have time to put lining in one of the tops so I had to sew a rolled hem, this was tricky as the material used is so thick, also as it is in panels the thicknesses in material change through the whole thing. 

The day of the hand in, Karen sent me to Wilkinsons to get garment bags, hangers, and a toothbrush to brush out the mohair making it soft.

All of the garments made for the show had to be steamed and put into garment bags, on hangers with all of the accessories. A picture is taken of how it should all look like together and placed at the front of the bag. Then put onto the rails in the order they will be taken, and left to the tutors to mark. 

By four o-clock it was over, everone went home to sleep and prepeare for the show the next day.

Design Assistant: Part Two

 Karen Luong

For the rest of the intership I worked with Karen on her collection. She is a weave student, her work consits of light tones of grey and blues and pops of yellow, it's very fresh, clean and sophisticated.
She used light fabrics like organza which cover lightly over the woven garments which are thicker in comparison. This is the line-up of her collection, the first three garments from the left are the ones which were made.
As a weave student you have to work strategically, you can only produce the fabric to the size of the loom you are working on. This barrier has been overcome by many of the students, the weave is made and put into panels on the garment, I think it looks very modern and highlights the details in the weave.
In similarity to knit, the time taken to make a weave is painstakingly long. So each sample made is precious. Especially when light, thin yarns are used, in Karen's work she used a mixture of soft wools like mohair with shiny yarns like embroidery thread. The woven samples were all different but worked together really well, large panels were made which were metallic with ridges and an ombre effect, this was used mainly as the base of the garments and then patchworked with other samples, the smaller samples have more detail and take longer, they have a mixture of different techniques and yarns. The statement piece in my opinion was the mohair bomber jacket, made entirely out of weave, I like the contrast between the fluffy mohair and the blocked yellow parts in the weave.

My job was helping her work on a woven crop top, the woven pieces had to be patchworked together. I layed them out on the table and we had to strategically place them so that we were left with minimum waste. We placed them so that they were symmetrical. I like the mixture of all the different weaves together. I then sewed them together and pressed them down so that they lay flat and cut the pattern piece out. After cutting the piece out you have to get it through the overlocker straight away or the weave will unravel.

Patchworked Weave

Weave Sample- Metallic Ombre with Mohair contrast

metallic embroidery thread- weave sample

Mohair Bomber Jacket before the ribbing and zip is attached

Beauty, Photoshop, Continuous Line

Jennifer Lawrence, Scribbles, Prada, Flower Power, Subtle, Lace.

Design Assistant Blog: Part One

For this part of the assignment we had all been assigned a 3rd year student to intern with during the lead up to their final year fashion show. I have been working with two designers, Karen Luong and Jessica Brown, I was working mainly with Karen a weave student but was helping other students in the knit room.

For the first part I was working in the knit room. 

Jessicas collection was vibrant and colourful, the collection was inspired by the Tron movie,  and incorporated British wool, coloured nylon-stuffed Italian yarn and crin, the crin added a futuristic feel to the garments, they look like wires of electricity. She also used Aluminium to make her trousers, the material is used to line the ground of greenhouses. The trousers added a space age feel to the collection, and they could stand up on their own without anyone using them!..

This is the piece I was working on, I worked on the top layer. The was garment crocheted by hand with four layers and a turtle neck. Two layers would fall at the front and two layers at the back.
My job was to sew square pieces of plastic into the gaps in the garment. The pieces had been laser cut and were made from transparent acrylic sheet, with a shiny finish to it.  Jessica was very organised, she had strands of fabric dyed and cut ready for us to use, I then used a needle to feed the strands through the holes and tie in place, after all the pieces had been tied in I had to flip it all over and then sew the loose strands into the garment so that it is neat.

Working in the knit room makes you really appreciate the work that the students do, as you understand how much time and effort goes into each garment.

Back layer with crin

top layer with acrylic square pieces

 

 Some close ups of the knit 

Part Four: Videos

Here's another little post on videos. I did one a while back on contemporary/ expressive dance, with Kate Bush and Florence Welch (babe). I love danicng, I can't go out without dancing I don't know how people do it, if there's music I'll dace, if there isn't.. I'll probably still dance. I said to my friend the other day, I don't really watch that much TV, I don't have time, what I do with all my time I don't know but I think prancing about aimlessly takes a lot of it up.

I want to start dancing again, properly, I also want to go see a Ballet, the movement and the freedom is inspiring and I can relate that to fashion. I would also love to make a fashion film on dancing....that would be fucking awesome.

Interview

 Louise!!

For the assignment we had to find someone to interview which relates to your subculture. I thought it would be interesting to interview one of my friends because the people you keep closest are the ones that have the deepest effect on your own life. Louise is a very close friend of mine, bestie! You may have seen her looking beautiful when she starred in my photoshoot a few months back. I think she has a very unique style, she always wears rings on her fingers, wherever she goes and a scrunchie in her hair.

How would you describe your style?

Oh lord, erm, comfy in the winter, and more skin in the summer. I look at trends but it doesn't really bother me. I like black because it makes me look slimmer haha..tomboy in the winter, girly in the summer

Yeah I noticed that, a Little Black Dress

YES, I love going out and making an effort, love a LBD, and funky black shoes

What about your scrunchies where do they come from? 

Urm, my hair grew too long then I was in Urban Outfitters and saw them, bought a few, then bam!, 90s came back in so everyone was wearing them, actually.. I like 90s stuff, denim jackets, scrunchies, tartan, skinny jeans, eyeliner.

What about your jewellery?

Urm.. I'm literally a magpie! I look at anything silver and with a gem, I think cheap rings look tacky and gold is too old for me, so silver is perfect and it goes with everything.

Are they sentimental?

Yeah some were once sentimental but now they're not really haha, just memories.

So tell me a bit about Guernsey, what's it like there, life, friends etc...

It's small, 60,000 people. Not many shops do everything so we shop online, or everyone wears the same thing from New Look and it gets so boring. We're always at the beach in the summer. Me and my friends love to drink, cause it's the only thing you can do for fun haha.

So how do you make your style unique in Guernsey? Is there a specific style?

Nah there isn't really a style, just trying to be different, Topshop is a favourite and Missguided, you just don't want to be in the same clothes as everybody else.

Has your style changed since coming to London?

Yeah I think so, I wear darker colours a lot more, I'm not sure. I just like an older style you know? 

More grown up? 

Yeah, can't explain how though, I just don't look at what I normally would have, I'm trying to be more unique, different patterns and stuff. Trying... haha.

I feel like being around different people can affect your style as well, like you and Paddy (boyfriend)

Yeah exactly!! Hahah, when I'm chilling I wear Paddys clothes haha

THANKS LOUISE!!!