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.