Final Statement

Overall the final outcome I have produced for the FMP is one Line up board consisting of six designs, a final look consisting of two garments a skirt and a jacket and then a final photo shoot that highlights and emphasises my projects key themes. The starting point to the project was based around narratology, which is the study of narratives and their structures. I chose this theme as it had many different theories related to it, and I was already familiar with these theories and had a genuine interest in this topic. However comparing this original concept to my final concept I would say that I have developed my ideas quite a lot as my final outcome is inspired by things that aren't obviously related to the topic but are inspired by the subjects that narratology discusses.

For example I began by looking into Kate Domailles theory of narrative, where she discusses that every narrative can fit into 8 different original stories. I looked into two of them the first being Romeo and Juliet, I found a quote that was inspiring to me because it consisted of many metaphors that portrayed emotion in the imagery they created. I also looked into the story of Cinderella, which is about dreams coming true. After discussing these concepts with my peers in a series of interviews I liked the different feelings and interpretations people had. So I focused on the Cinderella idea, developing concepts such as the haziness and brightness they contain. Which then lead me onto showing these ideas through fabrics where I collected a variety of metallic, sheer, shimmery, transparent and translucent fabrics to portray these ideas.

I then moved on to looking at my other theories which were Levi Strauss and Laura Mulvey. I briefly researched into Strauss' theory of binary opposites as I didn't want to focus that heavily on it, but I just liked the idea of having two conflicting themes, which I tried to incorporate throughout my work.  The second theory was Laura Mulvey's theory of the male gaze which lead me onto looking into how the media look at woman which is either in a voyeuristic or fetishistic way. This was probably the most important element to my research and development as this theory was the starting point to the majority of my work as it inspired looking into what is considered 'attractive' and 'unattractive' which then lead to distorting the body. I really liked this concept especially of the distorted body because it created some really interesting shapes and it lead me onto looking at photographer Yamanaka Manabu's work, where he focused on societies outcasts such as the old and the disfigured. Where I began looking at these shapes a developing off of them and therefore developing the concept for distortion of the body.

Yet with this in mind I wanted to work in the dreams concept a bit more so I thought about the distortion of the mind as dreams are distorted and unclear sometimes. Also at this point in the project I was listening to trance like music and one of the songs was called DMT by XXYYXX. I knew from my own knowledge that DMT is a drug that it released in our brain when we are born and when we die. It's also released during lucid dreaming. So I wanted to develop this idea because I thought it was quite an interesting and deep concept that I could develop really far. So after watching one particular video on YouTube where someone was discussing their DMT story they described how everything was distorted and disassembling and how it was an energetic and euphoric moment. So I chose 4 words that I felt would sum up the DMT experience the best, which were, Euphoric, Disassembling, Energetic and Spiritual. I then began to represent this ideas through my own research, imagery and drawings. I found my sketchbook really helpful for this mainly because it allowed me to visualise my ideas a lot more clearly and I could identify what areas I should develop and also what areas aren't quite as strong and I should not develop any further.

This lead me to experimenting with knit samples, because I felt that the knitting related to the idea of disassembling. My choice in wool was very important because the metallic wool frilly wool portrayed the dreams aspect so well because its shiny and its also very textually pleasing. This part of the project was probably the first time I had struggled. As up until this point my research and developments had been fairly free flowing, nothing was forced the ideas just all came naturally. But with knitwear I had to teach myself how to knit which is where a lot of my time went. Although I am really pleased with my knit samples and developments off of these samples I do feel that I could have spent less time on this part of the project. As I was quite far behind my plan at this point but up until working with knit I had been on target and things were going well.

I carried on developing my work in terms of textiles such as developing my knit samples and then creating heat press samples and then designing prints inspired by the strongest themes of my project. I had mainly received positive feedback on these samples and developments however my tutor suggested developing shapes that I could use for my final designs. I looked back at my early research and began developing the distorted body shapes with my prints and fabrics. I also spent one day just creating designs on the stand. I feel that this day was the most influential in terms of development from my concepts into and actual final thing.

Before working with the shapes on the stand my tutor advised me to look at the Comme Des Garcon Lumps and Bumps collection. I had a look at this and found it very inspiring because I was able to see how a designer had produced something similar to the shapes I was developing. It really enabled me to visualise how these shapes could be worn on the body and it also allowed me to develop my work in a more fashion focused direction. So working with the shapes, I produced many different design ideas, which I then developed into rough designs. As this acted as the starting point to my designing.

So at this stage in the project I was on target to following my plan as I was not running behind on time and I believe that I had met the first two targets of my work which were to complete the primary and secondary research stages and then to develop these ideas and concepts into designs. Therefore with these targets in mind I was able to develop my ideas clearly and well which then enabled me to further my designing into a final line up board and then one final look which then lead to me producing a photo shoot that portrayed my main concepts and also showcased the ideas of what inspired my final garments.

I am really pleased with what I have produced for my final line up, garments and photo shoot. I think that my line up ties the whole project together as it incorporates the many different elements I looked into and developed. Also I think it shows how I've pushed myself because I have taught myself how to knit and designed quite complicated structures as well as working with difficult fabrics such as the sheer and latex fabrics as well as designing my own print. I have also tried a variety of new techniques within my working such as I have designed in ways I wouldn't usually and I've tried to challenge myself particularly learning how to knit and working with many different ideas but developing them fully and cohesively. Also even though I faced several problems in regards to making my toile and final garment I believe I was able to work past these problems effectively and efficiently as I didn't allow them to make me demotivated I just rethought my plan and tackled these issues in a different way. Lastly for my photo shoot and mounting my board I took the advice from my tutor and peers and listened to what images and edit ways they thought were the most emotional and which ones related to my project best.

I have also pushed myself in ways of meeting deadlines, because throughout the project always keeping my original plan in mind I had mapped out what parts of my work I needed to do and when for, this allowed me to picture the way my developments and final outcomes would happen in terms of how long they would take as well as meeting these deadlines and producing a large variety of work that was of good quality. The most important things I will remember from this project are how to develop my work fully to really exhaust my areas of interest to allow for interesting final concepts. As well as this mainly time management as sometimes I lack motivation and therefore run out of time, or I have not allowed myself enough time and therefore have late nights. Also particularly in this project and example is that in my proposal I stated I would like to make a film to accompany my work, but due to running out of time as well as focusing a lot on my other work I was never able to produce a feel. I do feel disappointed but then if it would’ve meant the rest of my work would have suffered, I would prefer to have no film and good quality work. Although overall I feel in this project even though my time management was poor at times I was able to make up for it in other aspects. Therefore for future projects I will make sure I have allowed myself enough time and aim to finish a week before my deadline as this will then allow me lots of time to perfect my work. 

Concluding that I feel this project has gone well, although at times I faced problems, such as running out of time, demotivation, restrictions stopping me from finishing things or even just being stuck for ideas. I think I have managed these very well, particularly in comparison to past projects where I have let my work suffer. Yet for this FMP I have not let my work suffer and have been determined to push on in order for my final outcome and all of my research and developments to be thorough and of a high quality. The FMP has allowed me to develop as an individual and a designer I have gained many new skills and thought processes that has allowed my work to improve substantially, therefore leaving me with many strengths and skills.

21/5/14

Today I was only in university for a short time because the only reason I went in was to mount and hang my work on onto my board. Before doing so though I talked to a couple of tutors to ask about there opinion and they also agreed with my original decision of mounting the image my model matte PVC over her face. Therefore I mounted this onto my board, I really like this image, however I had though about making it look more interesting such as hanging a piece of translucent fabric on top of it to distort the image, however I decided against this as this would have proved quite difficult and also I felt that the image was strong enough I didn't have to add anything to it. As well as this although my board is quite simple I think that if I had any more or any less on it it would not be as dramatic and it would lose some its meaning and possibly not highlight my concept well enough.

Therefore overall I am quite pleased with how my final garments and shoot turned out because I feel that they represent my concept very well.

15/5/14

Today is the last teaching day as next week I have to prepare everything for mounting my board before the deadline. I mostly spent the day editing my photographs from yesterday as this is the last thing I have to do as my sketchbook is all finished I just need to add in my final images and then its finished.

I looked through my photographs and chose four of my favourite then taking one of them I edited it in a variety of different ways, such as blurring, adjusting the colours and saturation's, manipulating the image and finally overlaying a different image on top. My favourites are the blurred image the one where I had overlaid and image of glitter on top. These two both represent my garments and project well. but after asking different tutors and peers they helped me to decide how I should edit them. I decided on the one with the glitter. I feel that this one probably refers back to my earlier research a lot better as the shiny elements exaggerate the dreams aspect. Where as the blurred one was really interesting to look at it is difficult to see what the garment actually looks like, and I want my garments to be the main focus point as they reflect my project as a whole.

I then edited the other photos in this way, but whilst editing I noticed that two of my images are actually very similar, so I decided to not use it as it wasn't adding anything to my work. The final three images I am really pleased with I think they all portray my project well and they showcase the garments beautifully and they are also really aesthetically pleasing and interesting to look at. So with this final part to my project I am really happy how it has turned out.

Later on speaking to my tutor I wanted to ask her if she liked them and also who I should present them onto my board. She really liked them and we discussed both of our favourite images and in the end we both decided that the image where my model wheres the matte PVC over her face is the best. I then said that I thought about just having this one image mounted onto my board and she agreed. I then printed out this image in A1 and was really pleased with the results, but I also printed my second favourite image out in A1 just in case there were any sudden changes. As well as this when I was printing I printed my three images out on acetate to see what they would look like and although very interesting to look at, they weren't as strong as my final image.

14/5/14

Going into university today I was quite excited because today I planned to do my photo shoot. Once into university and speaking to my model I talked her through my idea and my concept so she could understand the attitude and mood I wanted my photos to carry. I also decided it would be best to take the photographs later in the afternoon when there were less people around and as I was unable to book a studio I wanted to take advantage of natural light. However avoiding the over bright sunshine I waited until about 4pm. I think that by doing the photo shoot at this time I would have a really good natural light that would compliment the garments well.

Whilst waiting for the perfect time for the photo shoot I carried on with other work such as finishing off my CAD designs, which was just editing my final line up and adding final touches so it's ready to be printed out. As well as cutting the loose threads from my garments and checking that it needed no last minute adjustments and finishing touches.

By this time it was ready to do my shoot. Therefore I began to prepare for it, first I needed a white screen and luckily I found this by a large window which was perfect because I had a large white background and good natural light, also it was out of the way so there would be less people to distract me or the model. Then I started styling and dressing my model. I chose my model specifically because I thought her aesthetic would compliment my garments really well as she's thin and tall, this allows the garments distortion to be exaggerated as well as her red hair also adds another element of colour that compliments the garments.

I styled her quite simply mainly because I wanted my garments to be the main focus point. I simply dressed her in the skirt and jacket with a pair of purple frilled socks worn underneath a pair of sparkly socks. I wanted these because they really complimented the shiny textures and frill on the skirt. Also the layered socks made for an interesting aesthetic. She also wore a pair of black platformed trainers. I believe that their clumpy look worked nicely with the distorted body idea as my model looks like she has abnormally long arms and legs and a hunchback. Next I did her hair and make up and as I wanted to work in more of the dreams aspect of my project into the shoot I put a white shimmery eye shadow around her eyes and across her brow, then I added glitter to her eye brows, this look was really interesting to look at because it is very unnatural looking. The next thing I did was cover her eyes with a thin piece of matte PVC because this linked back to some of my earlier developments with translucent fabrics and the hazy vs bright dreams element. It was also one of the styling looks I created in preparation for this shoot along with a collection of inspiring images.

Once covering her eyes I looked back again at the variety of different styling ways, I chose to go for bringing her hair over the fabric. This worked really well as it looked very dramatic and refereed back to my dreams and DMT research which I was was eager to portray and highlight within my final garment. Furthermore as her hair is a rich red colour it complimented the colours in the jackets print and actually clashing with the purple parts the garment which would normally clash however I believe that it strengthened the look because it added anther colour and worked very well with the distorted body, making the overall look odd as it clashed but strangely worked as well. 

Therefore when it came to shoot the images my model was really interesting to look at, especially with the different colours and textures. I think it gave my images depth. I had planned for my images to look distorted and unnatural, so I made my model pose in a variety of positions that looked uncomfortable and odd looking, particularly with the hunched back and lengthened arms. After taking a variety of images I showed my model so she could get a better understanding of what aesthetic I wanted. We then worked together on suggesting new poses and positions, at one point working with props such as her sitting on the chair. I liked the images of her sitting awkwardly on the chair but felt that they weren't as strong as the images of her standing up. Also with these shots I had changed her hair to it being in a high ponytail, and looking back at these images I was able to identify that this was not a strong look because with my whole projects concept her face and eyes being covered emphasised this so much better so I put it back however changing the fabric around her eyes to the purple shimmering fabric that had also been used in the skirt. This was another good look and I think it was important that I changed her styling a bit because it made the images a bit more interesting and added more variety especially as there is little miss en scene with the images as they are just taken with a blank background.

Additionally I also tried to take some pictures looking through the knit sample like I did before when I developed a print off of those images. For this I had to change the camera settings to manual focus because the knit was so close to the lens it couldn't focus. I only took a few photos like this because they came out quite bad and not like they had the first time I tried this technique. I moved on because I knew that they wouldn't create the effect I wanted and I already had a variety of strong images and if I really wanted to use this technique I could always digitally edit the images on Photoshop and create a very similar effect. Therefore moving away from this I tried a few more shots of my model standing and bending awkwardly.

Overall I really enjoyed doing my photo shoot and I am really pleased with the results because looking back at the unedited shots I know I have quite a few strong shots that sum up my project really well. Tomorrow I want to select at least 4 of the best and begin to edit them so I can print them out in anticipation for mounting my board next week, in order to avoid getting behind just in case I need to reprint.

13/5/14

Today I feel a lot better about my final garments. I think this is due to the fact that I was able to place them on a manikin and therefore see how they would look and I believe that visually they look interesting so I am pleased. However I had identified that the finishing on them is poor such as there are many loose threads and I need to hem the edges as every edge is raw and is fraying considerably. 

So by identifying the finishing touches that I needed to do I began by fixing the structure of the back simply just by ensuring that the wire was creating the correct shape. After this I wanted to resew some of my seams, just to neaten them up. However once I tried using the sewing machine I faced many problems such as it didn't have a needle in it I also was missing a bobbin and bobbin case which is incredibly frustrating however after asking around I finally managed to source these things, yet after setting up the machine correctly and checking it, it still didn't work. I found this incredibly frustrating as I had to wait until I got home in order to use a machine that works. 

Therefore I decided to carry on with my knitting, this is a time consuming activity as I have never knitted as much as this before so it is taking quite a while but so far I have found no problems with this and I plan to sew this onto my sleeves once I have a working sewing machine and then my garment will basically be finished. Although I still need to do the finishes such as hems but I think these can wait until my photo shoot as I am planning on doing my photo shoot tomorrow, therefore I won't need my garments to be perfectly finished as the finishing touches won't be that noticeable on my shoot. Especially with what I have planned which consists of blurring the images and distorting them to go with my theme and to exaggerate the translucent effects had been looking into.

Furthermore once I got home I carried on with my knitting and measured it I wanted it to be 50cm in length as I would then cut this in half to create two 25cm cuffs. I did it this way as apposed to knitting two separate cuffs because it saved me time, not a lot of time but instead of stopping and starting a new knit I was able to just carry on with the same knit. 

Before cutting my knit in half I cut the excess fabric off the sleeves, that being 25cm which I would be replaced with the knit. I know that his wasted fabric however I had planned on stitching the knit on top of the fabric but I actually opted against this because I knew I would struggle with sewing it on and it would look messy, therefore this way I am able to attach the knit more neatly and it will also hold better. 

Henceforth after cutting my knit I sewed the edges together creating a seam on the outside and a cuff. It was a lot easier than I expected to sew the knit as I had anticipated for the knit to get caught in the machines teeth, yet it did not. However some loops in the knit did get tangled around the foot, but this was easily solvable.

So after the knitted cuffs were attached I was was finished, all I had to do was cut the loose threads and then hem the edges of the jacket and the skirt. I don't particularly like hemming as I find it difficult and fiddly. However I noticed that my home machine came with a hemming foot. So I used this, by using this foot I was able to hem my garments very quickly without using pins and also it was a lot neater looking than I had imagined. So after hemming my garments, they were ready for the photo shoot tomorrow. 

12/5/14

This morning I set off early because I wanted to go out buy my fabric and then get back home as quickly as possible so I wouldn't waist anymore time, because tomorrow I am planning on doing my photo shoot and my garments need to be finished.

First I bought more of the purple and metallic wool for the sleeves of the jacket. Then I went looking for the metallic fabric that I bought very early on in the project. I went to the shop that I bought it in and I couldn't find it, however I did end up buying a fabric that was even better. They were the same fabric all that was different was the slight coloration as the one I bought is more like a silver where as the one I had previously bought for samples is more grey. So quite fortunate that I couldn't find it because the silver one is more shiny and is better suited to my projects concept.

Once I was home I began by making the skirt, for this I needed to take apart my toile because I didn't make a paper pattern. Once it was taken apart, I pinned it to the fabric and cut out the fabric. The only part where I had difficulty was when I added in the darts because I made the markings with tailors chalk but it didn't show up well, so I had to use a pen and make small dots of where I needed to fold the fabric. Then once sewing the darts together I sewed the skirts front and back together at the edges, but only on one of the edges as I would sew the other edge together once I had attached the other pieces. Yet when sewing I made sure I had a 1.5cm seam allowance because the fabric is very prone to fraying. The next step was adding the purple shimmery fabric to the silver, I cut this out and sewed the two pieces together then sewed it to the silver fabric, yet when I sewed the purple fabric on I made sure that the tension of the stitch was at its lowest because the purple fabric has a very loose weave and is very fragile because it comes unwoven very easily, but with the stitching smaller this will help to stabilise it. With this in mind I attached the ruffle. So now all the elements to the skirt were sewn together and now I had to sew from the top of the skirt to the bottom. I sewed all along the edge however I left a 10cm gap in one of the side seams as this is where I added in the zip. Usually I struggle with adding in zips but this time I had no difficulty.

Making the skirt was fairly easy, I had no major problems, I think because after yesterday I understand the fabrics better and also because it is a fairly easy pattern. So with my skirt finished and my jacket nearly finished all I had to do was add the knit onto the bottom of the sleeves. However I know it will take me quite a while to knit the sleeves especially as I need quite a lot and as my knitting skills are quite basic and I'm very slow. So I started knitting and did so for the rest of the evening, I got about halfway through. Yet as it is taking me a lot longer than I had anticipated I will have to push my shoot back till Wednesday because I just need one more day to finish the garment and then prepare for the shoot. Luckily I checked in with my model and she is able to do Wednesday now instead.

This is frustrating but there isn't really anything I can do, fortunately it won't set me back that far, just tomorrow at uni I will need to finish the knitting and then sew it to the sleeves.

11/5/14

The last few days I have been making my final jacket and skirt. I started with cutting out the pattern pieces. Firstly with my jacket I need 8 small semicircles and then 3 larger semicircles. I cut these out onto my sheer printed fabric it was a little bit difficult because of the fabric being sheer it kept moving, but I cut them out fine I just had to be careful. Then similarly to the way I made my prototype I placed the pattern pieces of the pieces of the jacket and then pinned them together that way. I found this difficult because I didn't have a manikin at home and I was unable to go into uni to use one. So I made do, but I pinned it all together successfully it just took me a lot longer and was a little bit fiddly trying to match hop the correct pieces. So I sewed this together and like in the making of my toile I made a tunnel for the boning. Then I attached it to the jacket after I had inserted the darts which were straight forward. The only real problem I had with sewing the the jacket together was when I sewed the fabric would pucker slightly because it's such a thin and sheer fabric. Also I had difficulty choosing what colour thread to use, because the print is multi coloured and practically every pattern piece is a different colour, I tried red, orange, black and then finally a light grey. The red and black where the most noticeable and the orange worked well so I used that for most of the back which contained a majority of the red, yellow and orange colours, then for the rest of it I used the light grey as this was the least noticeable. I attached the sleeves the jacket after I had added in the front sections. 

So with the jacket all sewn together it was time to add in the boning. I added in the boning and cut the pieces the correct size. However it didn't work the same way it worked with my toile. This was because of the fabric being so thin that the wait of the boning just weighed it down and actually making the jack sag. This was very frustrating and stressful because I was stuck and with the jacket m=being the main feature I did know what to do. I tried pinning it in different ways, but none of these ways worked and I was stuck. Yet after speaking to my parents and telling them of my predicament, they suggested using gardening wire. Luckily we had some in a dark green colour, so I tested it out and it worked so well, I was really pleased that I got past this issue because I was begging to give up and rethink my idea. So I inserted the gardening wire and it gave the jacket a much better looking shape and actually was closer to my designs shape than my prototype was. 

By this point it was quite late so before I went to bed I quickly made the ruffle for the bottom of my skirt, this really quick to make and gave me now problems. I wanted to make that because tomorrow I plan on buying the rest of the fabric for the skirt.