Jacquard Print

Today I had a few hours with Simon, the CAD technologist, in the computer CAD room and for once it went really well. Most of the time when I have been in the CAD room it has never worked out in my favour. For the past few weeks, I have been struggling to get my ideas down clearly and to actually start experimenting with knitted fabrics or to start work in my sketch book. This is because I have done so much research on my chosen topic I was so confused on where to start from. So last week when we had a session with William, I chose an image that I was excited by and that related to my project and I began to distort it. I came up with different prints that I could use as a jacquard print. I made quite a few and the ones I really liked I took two images to Simon so we could knit it up. I was quite nervous when creating the prints because I wanted my knitted fabric to be quite a light weight. As my theme is very fun and colourful, I was worried that I could not use many colours in my fabric because Simon said that it would make the knitted fabric very heavy and ridged on the human body, but to my surprise, I ended up using five different colour yarns. I was really pleased with what we did as it was a sign of progression within my work and ideas, and it showed me what kind of yarn thickness I could use create the effect I wanted. I managed to do three big samples, two on the twelve gage machine and one on the nine gage machine. When I initially did the prints on the computer the colours that I chose made my prints look like African batik fabrics so I decided to change the colours of the yarn I knitted with and to my surprise that made a big impact. My prints went from looking African to all the sudden looking a bit more Caribbean. The first sample I made was great because I got to use 5 colours and I got the fabric weight I desired. But the only thing I did not like was the way I put the colours together. The second sample was my favourite because the colours that I put together really complimented each other and the colours really showed off the print. The only problem was I changed one of the yarns because it kept snapping while I was knitting. The mistake I made was I chose a thicker yarn and it made the fabric a bit heavier than the first sample that I made but overall I really like the two knitted samples. The third sample on the nine gage came out okay, the fabric weight was quite heavy but I think that it could work if I was doing a long jumper, jacket or suit jacket. The only problem again was how I put the colours together. This time, I used 3 yarns but I doubled one thin yarn so in fact I used four. As time goes on I will continue to develop these ideas and see what I can get out of them.

Sample 1

Sample 2

Sample 3

I is Another Music 2

Have a look at Sade's Music Video Here:

Have a look at Alicia Keys Video:

Also have a look at the group Wild Belle's music video for 'Keep you'. Love this one, how the colours are subtle but effective and the prints are really cool too!

 

ENJOY!!

I is Another

I went to the Part one and two of the ‘I is Another’ art showcase at the New Art Exchange, hoping to find some form of inspiration for my MA project. At the showcase, they had quite a few artists from Jamaica exhibiting their work. The artwork was interesting but it was a different type of art to what I prefer. In the first show, I really enjoyed a short video film called ‘Ring di Alarm’. Even though the film focused on a modern Jamaica, there were still some factors that linked to my ideas for my project . In ‘Ring di Alarm’, there was a scene where a couple were dancing to lover’s rock music  and the colours they used to highlight the dance scene were so beautiful and sensual. The colours really evoked an emotion that matched the music and you felt the intimacy between the couple as they danced. It was really breath taking! This video reminded me of a music video by singer Sade called ‘Babyfather’ that was shot in Jamaica. It had a calm, dreamy and sensual feeling to it, the video also reflected  the songs mood which I thought was brilliant.

Another music video was ‘Girl on Fire’  by Alicia Keys, who was  inspired by the Caribbean culture  and the video had a similar vibe to Sade’s video ‘Babyfather’ . The colours and emotion felt the same . I want to try and create this emotional connection within my garments. I want my colours and textures to tell a story and draw you in emotionally. Also, I love the way the way the colours are put together to tell a story. I also want this in my collection.

While at the show, there was an artist called Peter Dean Richards and I loved his work particularly the message behind it. The thing I really enjoyed was the political aspect of his work which is inspired by the UK artist Banksy. I loved how raw his work was and how rough it looked. I want to try and emulate this in my work. I don’t  want my work to look too rough and raw because that’s not what the people on the Windrush were about. However, the conditions that they faced once in the UK were similar.

Here are a few images from the show:

Market ypur Brand!

Today Simeon Farrar the London based designer came in to talk to us about his work and his fashion career. This was a really good talk. I truly enjoyed listening to his journey from his art work to his fashion work. This session was very helpful for me because for the past few weeks I have been stressing and struggling to find what my target market is in the fashion industry.

At the assessment where I presented my work to Katharine and my group, I said that I wanted to create something that was high end. Katharine said that it was unrealistic and that my idea was not high end, it was more urban. I felt a bit disappointed because I wanted my collection to be quite high end, obviously I didn’t expect it to like Dior or Marc Jacobs but I still wanted to aim at a similar market. In the beginning, I did think of Givenchy this was because their men’s collection of late has been quite Urban and has been a hit with the men especially in the area of Hip- Hop. Such men are seen as trendsetters within the Hip-Hop community such as Swizz beatz and Kanye West who have being wearing it and because of that many people have also begun to wear it too. I’m not saying that I’m looking to market towards the Hip-Hop community but I like the fact that Givenchy is so diverse to different clientele. Also another influence of mine is British Designer Alex Mattsson I did my internship with him in the summer. He is an independent designer who inspires me with his work ethic and how he markets himself and his brand. His inspirations are quite urban but his designs are fun, smart and commercial.

Simeon helped me realise for me to be successful I need to find my market and kind of build my brand towards that. The only thing I don’t want to do is to compromise too much of my design aesthetic to please my chosen market. Simeon converted from being an Artist to a Fashion Designer and he has made a success of his work as a designer, I believe, only because he has changed his mentality from when he was an artist and did not want to sell his art work, but now as a designer he does not mind. It is weird because I actually preferred his art work and how it was transferred to his earlier work when he started as a designer. I think that he has refined his work A LOT but it still has the same technique that he started out with (screen-printing). His work now is very different and in a weird way I feel like it lacks the depth that he first started out with. I just don’t want to feel like I have ‘dumbed’ down my ideas so that people will buy my garments because in a way it will feel like I have sold out and I have not been true to myself. I want people to buy into MY brand, in to the life style I am presenting to them. I want to feel I have control of what I put out there. I do want to be a commercial designer put still put my own twist on the things I put out. At the end of the day Simeon feels happy with the designs he has put out and he enjoys his life as a designer, which I really appreciated. I hope that I can have that same feeling and success plus more in my career.

Overall I know I have got a lot of work to do and a lot of research to do about my chosen market.

Print Me 2

Using this image I again distorted it to come up with different prints!

Here is how the came out!

I like some of them and will try and knit this up in a jacquard but I am really sure on the others, I don’t think it looks Caribbean but the colours are nice.

Print Me

From reading the book The Front Room:Migrants Aesthetics in the Home ,I decided to come up with some prints that reminded you of the wallpaper in the migrants home. So from a few images that I liked I began to distort and manipulate them and here are some prints that I have come up with. I like some of them but I know they need further development. Some of them look African ( maybe because of the colours) while some remind me of the background in singer Rihanna’s  video for Rude boi. I need to work in to these prints more and change the colours which will definitely help.

Image from Book 'The Front Room:Migrants Aesthetics in the Home By Micheal McMillan 

Here is the original image that I distorted, coming up with these prints.

I further developed them coming up with these prints, here are a few ( I love the colours)

From these images I continued to distort and come up with these images.

Here Rhianna's rude boi Video: