kmknitwear-blog

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EcoChic Design Award Collection

The last eight weeks of my MA have been dedicated to producing 5 ready to wear and 1 couture outfits (11 garments) to represent the UK in the internationally renowned ‘EcoChic Design Award’ grand final during Hong Kong Fashion Week. 

After completing a day course in Shefeild (see post here- http://kmknitwear.tumblr.com/post/156598916935/ecochic-design-award-fashion-academy-190117) I submitted designs, tech sheets and a proposal for three outfits made completely from textile waste. My concept for this collection was technology working in harmony with hand craft. I proposed variations on my power knit garments that would be worked back into with hand techniques such as embroidery, crochet and smocking to add a tactile connection with the wearer and encourage people to make/repurpose themselves. I proposed to use end of line, discarded cones of cotton and also included seamless hand knitting from shredded jersey and natural dying. 

After being selected as one of the ten finalists I now had to submit three further outfits including a couture outfit. I found this a really exciting opportunity to design something completely different form my MA collection, an indulgent piece with less limitations. I decided I want to include elements of distorting the body with an unconventional silhouette. My couture design ended up being greatly inspired by the Issey Miyake lantern dress i saw at the Disobedient Bodies exhibit and incorporated some boning around the hip.

My first task was to source my waste and I was lucky enough to get a response from Textile Charity Traid who were able to donate jersey t-shirts that I went to collect from their warehouse in London. 

I found the visit very eye opening and was especially inspired by the staff working to sort through the shear scale of unwanted clothing they receive. Warehouse manager Rose was very welcoming and I learnt a lot about the different tears of waste they separate and where it ends up going. 

There was an abundance of jersey t-shirs in mono and primary colours for me to choose from.

The shear scale of waste was quite overwhelming.

I was also lucky enough to receive a donation of yarns with imperfect dye lots from filmar as well as using yarns from fairfield and NTU yarn store. 

Then began the laborious task of forming my jersey yarn..

....and starting the hand crafted elements.

I also enjoyed producing more on the domestic machine.

I wanted to include a decorative darning feature after Angharad Mclaren’s lecture and the workshop in darning at the EcoChic day in Sheffield. The concept behind this is that it will encourage people to think that repurposing their clothes can add value and emotional connection.

Although very time consuming I really enjoyed the hand crafted elements of this collection and it felt like I was able to explore all the elements that hadn’t fitted in with my MA collection. 

I was so glad to finally be able to experiment with and incorporate natural dying into my work. After speaking to course mate Erin and doing some research I decided to work with turmeric dye as it produces such a bright yellow and requires no mordant/is a simple process good for beginners. I was amazed at how easy (and cheap) it was, i did a few test dyes (shown in technical file) trying out introducing salt and using different soaking times and amounts of dye. I have been warned of the down side of turmeric dye being very poor lightfastness which I did not have time to fully test. As soon as it was dry I put the dyed dress in an opaque garment bag to hopefully deter it from fading. The garments have been shipped too Hong Kong for a photoshoot and will not go down the catwalk until the beginning of September so hopefully the dress will still be yellow by then!    

This is the collection almost finished, I am very much looking forward to seeing it professionally photographed and on the catwalk. It has been a tight time scale to work in and as always i feel there are things I could have better developed but this collection has really opened my mind to the possibilities of using textile waste. It has surprised me how easy it has been to source the unwanted yarns/t-shirts etc (all for free!) and how willing companies are to get involved. 

On a final note I was very happy to receive sponsorship from Dr.Martens (with a lot of help from Sean!) who have provided six pairs of vegan shoes to be worn in the catwalk show, this should lead to some exposure on their blog as well ..

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Final reflection on the beany jumper

As previously discussed and apparent from the New Designers selection and proposed Mastered exhibit plan I feel the beany jumper is the strongest piece of my MA and most fits my original aims. It has achieved another level of production efficiency in the fact that it also incorporates a hat into the garment panel piece.  The sustainable approaches that led to this are that these zero-waste/minimal seam elements cut down on unnecessary labour and increase the efficiency of energy used to knit, at the same time the fact the garment only has two seams increases comfort, is less likely to come apart but at the same time should make it easier to deconstruct at the very end of its life. Another core principle demonstrated in this garment, partly through integral labelling, is mono-materaillity meaning it is potentially easier to recycle back into a pure fibre. The exposed care labels become a design feature to spread awareness as well as making it fully reversible, I ended up making the neckline the same on back and the front so that it has can be worn either way round as well as inside out -the idea here is to add longevity to the garment and making it a useful investment piece.

Feed back at New Designers that the design also appealed to men (possibly wth with a different neckline) which I was interested to hear as I was originally intended on making them unisex friendly. If I was going to put this design to market I’d want to get more feedback about the fit, there’s quite a bit of gathering under the armpit which is unavoidable due to the minimal seam restrictions/ maintaining the size of the waste panel hat. Given more time I’d like to have further looked into sizing and how to grade this pattern up to produce two inclusive sizes. I’d also want to gain feedback if my market would actually use it as a reversible peice or if they would always feel like they had it on inside out etc.

Previous posts showing the development of this piece can be seen here:

http://kmknitwear.tumblr.com/post/159456458520/resolving-the-two-seam-jumper

http://kmknitwear.tumblr.com/post/159454939830/forming-mid-tones-in-a-2-colour-jacquard

http://kmknitwear.tumblr.com/post/155957782290/two-seam-jumper-full-scale

http://kmknitwear.tumblr.com/post/154978330175/two-seam-jumper

http://kmknitwear.tumblr.com/post/159457128795/integral-labelling

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Final reflection on the facon cardigan

The facon cardigan is a variation of the beany jumper silhouette by leaving one of those seams open to create the front opening. No waste panel was included determining a shorter sleeve. Tubular jacquard allows for it be reversible and it also includes slightly different ways of wearing depending on where the removable brooch fastening is placed.

The front fold back placket ended up being hand sewn down which obviously added a lot of labour. If i was to take this through to production I would develop a way around this. Again I would have liked to have had time to get more feedback on whether this silhouette appeals to my market and if they would invest more into a garment because it can be worn in slightly different ways. I would consider sacrificing the reversible element of this design to use a multi-colour jacquard if this was more important to my market. 

I am pleased with the jacquard pattern and have had a positive response to its play on vegan stereotypes. I also think it has been a really useful exercise in what is possible with minimal seam pattern cutting.With a larger time frame I would have further developed sizing and how to grade this pattern up to produce two inclusive sizes. There is slightly less restriction than the beany jumper as there is no waste panel to consider but the length with always be restricted by the width of the machine bed.  

Previous posts on development include:

http://kmknitwear.tumblr.com/post/159904052255/finalising-the-two-seam-cardigan

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Final reflection on the sleeveless jacket

The sleeveless jacket was the first one piece garment I developed and has ended up being the most inclusive for different body shapes, it’s very suitable for one size. It would potentially be the cheapest to produce as there’s so little make up labour, just two tiny side seams and a belt that runs just round the front panels.

I'm really happy with the quality of fabric and use of reversible jacquard. I feel I have met my aims in developing my own strong design aesthetic particularly in this jacquard which has used my paintings to generate a very unique pattern. i think in tis case it works well in two colours.

Its ended up being loosely quite kimono style, the small amount of feedback on this so far is that the silhouette might appeal to an older market than my researched one. I would have liked to have had the time frame to hold a focus group with my market and see if they would spend money on this kind of layering garment or are more interested in investing a more conventional jumper with sleeves. I’d also be really interested to see if they could see themselves wearing it across both seasons. 

Previous development posts include:

http://kmknitwear.tumblr.com/post/159904172800/finalising-the-sleeveless-jacket

http://kmknitwear.tumblr.com/post/154976972355/fold-down-cardigan-further-development

http://kmknitwear.tumblr.com/post/153989750370/silhouette-development-2-fold-down-cardigan

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Final reflection on jacquard accessories

The double bed jacquard accessories are fun, extra add in elements to my MA collection satisfying some techniques I was not able to include in my garments. 

The beany beanie plays an important role in the zero-waste concept of my collection, coming from the waste panels generated by the minimal seam silhouette of the beany jumper. Constructed from two rectangles, i decided to include two options for the wearer, buttoned down (with the branded 3D printed toggle) or left open in the style of the ‘pussey hat’- part of a ‘craftavism’ movement representing equal rights (as discussed in previous post - http://kmknitwear.tumblr.com/post/159456884955/waste-panel-hat ). I am really  please with the silhouettes I have managed to create from two simple rectangles. On reflection if I was to alter the design of this hat i would want to add in some knitted branding and look into whether i could reverse the jacquard on the fold up rim. 

The jacquard scarves explore techniques i was unable to use in my garments due to programming/feeder limitations such as plush and many colour jacquards.I feel they bring the collection together with colours and patterns which I think wlll play an important role when displayed alongside the garments in the mastered show. 

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Final reflection on ikat dresses

These dresses again came out of wanting to explore what is possible to achieve in a single bed tube, using the machinery available to me at NTU to understand the principles of seamless construction. After developing a single bed fabric alternative to jacquard - ikat reverse plating only available on the Stoll, the lightweight drape led me to developing dress silhouettes. After lots of toiling considering the different shapes achieved by simply increasing and decreasing a tube, with what originally started as an idea of an adaptable/modular garment, I developed three different silhouettes from one shape altered by the linking/ making up process. The idea behind this was that three different products could be created from one lot of timely knit programming to introduce elements of co-creation where the consumer could potentially decide which shape they waned in which colour.  

It ended up being knitted in 50% organic cotton/ 50% conventional cotton (space dye), I found it very challenging to source organic space dye yarn (possibly because of the high level of dye and chemicals required to active this look?) so ended up with a compromise to meet my aesthetic goals in achieving lots of colour and pattern in a single bed fabric. With a longer time frame I would have loved to have investigated further into the process of space dying, experimented with some space dying myself etc. but in this case wanted to find an answer that is currently commercially viable. 

if this design was knitted on a four bed machine it would be possible to produce a closed hem tube that would require very little labour to link together (especially in open shoulder silhouette pictured on left of top picture). Working with the two bed machines available to me at NTU it was only possible to produce this as an open edge tube meaning a lot of labour intensive point to point linking was required at finishing stage. The pleated silhouette (pictured in middle of top picture) that went through a few different stages during developing/make up stage ended up requiring a separate top trim to be knitted and quite bit of hand stitching to keep the pleats in place. The strappy silhouette (pictured on right of top picture) required strapping added and also some hand sewing to prevent the tube from twisting. Subsequently what had started out as an experiment into seamless construction now felt like quite a labour intensive approach. As you would expect I came across quite a few fit challenges when trying to make one silhouette out of another. I still feel the silhouette that was most resolved was the original one, the open shoulder (pictured in middle of top picture). Including a chunky belt adds a nice contract. This design is the most one size fits all suitable and involves the least amount of making up labour.

In conclusion, I again feel these dresses add an important side to my MA portfolio that considers the possibilities within single bed fabrics and silhouettes. I also see these as more of an experiment into understanding seamless principles than a resolved product I would want to take to production. I would really like to further develop these designs into a wholegarment design during my two weeks training at Shima in Japan. I have chosen not to show these in the mastered show as they are quite separate in principle and aesthetics from my minimal seam jacquard garments that I feel more represent my brand. I am, however, glad to have them in my portfolio to show another layer of my technical knowledge and design diversity. 

Development posts on the dresses are:

http://kmknitwear.tumblr.com/post/159421793710/resolving-dress-style-1

http://kmknitwear.tumblr.com/post/159448528960/resolving-dress-style-2

http://kmknitwear.tumblr.com/post/159449178335/resolving-dress-style-3

http://kmknitwear.tumblr.com/post/159417765080/tube-dress-toiling-stage-2

http://kmknitwear.tumblr.com/post/159417010640/tube-dress-toiling-stage-1

http://kmknitwear.tumblr.com/post/159415192255/forming-my-dress-silhouette-first-steps

http://kmknitwear.tumblr.com/post/156230974050/ikat-plating

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Final reflection on bamboo accessories

These accessories came out of wanting to make the most of the Wholegarment accessory machine at NTU and led me to explore a completely different way of using colour and pattern than my go to approach of jacquard. Working around what is possible as a single bed fabric led to space dye yarn which got me experimenting a lot more with creating patterns through manipulating surface stitch. This led to a plated rib hat playing on a traditional style beanie, after trying out a few top features such as a knot and waste stuffed mono-fillament bobble, it became clear that this was better left as a more conventional silhouette. The snoods actually ended up being knitted on the domestic, with one seam, due to power knit availability at the time but are very much designed with seamless Wholegarment principles in mind. However, I enjoyed the hands-on approach to developing the tuck stitches on the domestic and being able to use some more low tech techniques suitable to use across all the machines. I feel it is good to have some products in my portfolio that could be manufactured on the domestic, be sold as knit patterns and appeal to the hand knit community. 

I also feel it is important to have some bamboo products in my portfolio as the rest of my collection ended up being organic cotton. I would have liked to have explored a few more plant fibres in my collection if I’d had a bigger time frame. I am really happy with the finish and drape of the bamboo and generally it has sparked more intrigue in people than the organic cotton. I think I am closer to achieving the warmth of wool with bamboo’s thermo-regulating properties playing an important role here. However, this has a lower score in my yarn ranking system than Organic Cotton as I am still unclear about the chemical footprint of it’s production process as it is a viscose (some bamboo is mechanically formed, a much more environmentally sound technique, but this gives a stiffer, linen like fibre without the soft drape). I ended up sourcing this yarn from America (a costly choice which would not be feasible if they went into production) from a supplier with limited information about the making process, the website states ‘the production of our Bambu yarn is subject to less chemical treatment than that usually applied to the production of common rayon’ (rayon is considered to use one of the most chemically intensive production processes so in my opinion this is not a profound claim). I would have ideally liked to have had the time to source a Organically certified bamboo from a more transparent company.

In conclusion, these accessories add an important dimension to my MA collection meeting my aims to explore Wholegarment construction methods and use a plant fibre that could be seen as a strong alternative to wool. There are certain aspects I would change if taking them through to production starting with yarn supplier. I see these accessories as more of an exploration into Wholegarment principles than a completely resolved product, they have have played an important role in experimenting with over coming the limitations of designing for single bed production and testing out one of the leading plant based fibres.  

development posts on the accessories include:

http://kmknitwear.tumblr.com/post/159411680855/resolving-my-seamless-hat-design

http://kmknitwear.tumblr.com/post/157158842780/seamless-hatwaste-yarn-bobble-development

http://kmknitwear.tumblr.com/post/156209539270/chunky-rib-hat-visulisation

http://kmknitwear.tumblr.com/post/156211595065/bobble-alternatives

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Visit to Shima Seiki UK Headquarters

As part of the Shima Seiki Student competition final I visited the UK headquarters in Castle Donington. Outside of my competition interview I took the chance to study some of their samples and try and understand more about  their wholegarment ranges, what is possible and how they have been constructed. 

I noticed a lot of raised surface stitches creating very 3D looking fabric from the use of elastic and laying in yarns to create a quilted look. I have only seen these achieved on the Stoll at NTU so was excited to see that Shima are also developing very new looking knit fabrics suitable for active/ outdoor wear.

I loved all the Wholegarment dresses and noticed nice A-line/skater shapes have been created from parcel row knitting. Inset sleeves have been achieved and Intarsia has also been used. Slits have been added as back features etc.

I was really inspired by all the different sleeves achieved in the wholegarments, these ranged from simple slits to bolero type garments, straight dropped shoulders and bell sleeves. 

The inset sleeves continue to fascinate me as i revisited some of the more conventional shapes and blazer I saw on the Shima stand at Pitti. 

I still find it so inspirational seeing whats possible with Wholegarment and it makes me realise how much I have to learn about this production technique. This is something i want to really focus on within my two weeks training in the Japan that I have been lucky enough to be awarded as winning design of the Competition!

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4/5 Colour Jacquard Scarves

Due to the feeder limitations caused by my single pattern pieces I decided to add in 2 more scarves in 4/5 colour jacquard as I felt my jacquards would benefit from being many colours. it was a great chance to add in some new designs and work without as many limitations. 

To come up with new jacquard designs I revisited my sources of inspiration i collected many months ago. I decided to go for a fruit salad/ dessert theme.

I looked back on my own food photos and selected the two that I felt I could still get new patterns from. Re-looking at the fudge pictures I wanted to try and come up with a design that linked the patterns on my ikat dress with my graphic jacquards. 

Live tracing and combining elements of my paintings from my fruit salad pictures led to this design, I also added in the curly font used on my brooch for the branding. I built on the feel of the jacquard on my sleeveless jacket as this had received the best feedback on social media.

The fudge inspired design was most successful in my mind as it is so simple but has a high impact 1960s feel to it with the choice of colours bringing together the whole collection. Although they felt like a bit of an afterthought I’m really glad I made time to showcase my designs in multiple colours and hope to show them at New Designers and Mastered show. 

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Preparing for my photoshoot

I knew that I wanted my photoshoot to really communicate the fun side of my brand, break expectations of what vegan and sustainable fashion looks like and share the inspiration behind this collection - retro food. I was hugely inspired by Aesthetica Magazine’s 1970s style photoshoot involving salad jellies! I had already practiced making vegan jelly to inform my jacquard designs and loved the idea of basing a photoshoot around something so unvegan!

I also had a think about my product shots as i knew I wanted to photograph the garments flat as well. I loved the idea of displaying my hats on plates/cake stands in amongst jellies/cakes/fruit.

I ended up sourcing MANY jelly moulds on eBay and after some practice runs got the consistency just right using tapioca setting agent.

I even put jelly inside jelly and recreated some 1970s ‘window pane’ style blamanches 

I took over the fridge..

....and whole kitchen !

I also wanted to experiment with some spray painted fruit..

and sourced some all day breakfast rock sweets to go with the facon cardigan.

There were some jelly casualties...

....but the majority of them came out in one piece !

I originally liked the idea of using coloured backgrounds and my photographer Rebecca suggested we try out a few coloured gels over the lights, I found this gave quite a faint suggestion of colour where I was looking for block colours so i decided to go for a white background and play about with adding colours in post production.

I ended up really liking the white background and felt it highlighted the colours in my knitwear.

I was also lucky enough to borrow shoes from vegan shoes brand Bourgois Boheme who i met during fashion revolution week event. This included Pinatex and cork shoes.

During the product shoot it was clear that there was no need and no time to use props so i keep this simple with website shots in mind. 

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Designing my own fastenings

As discussed in previous posts I decided to add in two fastenings to finish my final garments. The first being a toggle for the waste panel hat to allow it to be worn buttoned down or open (in the style of the ‘pussey hat’) I decided to 3D print my own branded toggle in the shape of a bean, I had not knitted in any branding to the hat and wanted to add a further unique, fun element in the fastening. I had always been interested in the sustainable credentials of 3D printing after reading about its potential to cut out plastic pollution. As it prints one layer at a time using only the necessary amount of material for each part it is considered a very energy efficient, minimal waste production technique. I have also read about lots of 3D printing start ups in underdeveloped countries where they are turning plastic waste into the 3D printing ink.

With the kind help of Nick, YouTube and Ryan i managed to model a bean like button in the Rhino programme. Unfortunately I have lost the screenshots of this to show the process. But this is how it came out :

The printer I had access to only uses black or white ink which meant i had to spray paint to my desired colour (not very eco). Ideally I would use a coloured one in production (or cast this and make a mould). There was a little more waste material printed on the stand than I expected, apparently this could in theory be recycled back into the ink. It was also washed in what Ryan described as ‘quite a toxic’ solution. If these went into production I would like to use coloured recycled ink or as I say 3D print one and then cast in an eco friendly material/ recycled plastic- I would have liked to have time to have time to have compared the waste levels of casting... 

Overall I was really happy with the finished product and think it will add an extra unique element to the waste panel hat. I would love to further explore the possibilities of 3D printing in the future and look into recycled plastic 3D inks.

Brooch 

After trying out buttons/toggles/eye and hook on the two seam cardigan I came to the conclusion that a removable fastening would work best to allow the cardigan to be worn in slightly different ways. I decided a decorative, branded brooch would again add another level to the design. I considered a knitted or crochet brooch, recycled plastic or wood, but wanted to add a contemporary look/not too homemade looking as well as considering the sustainability of materials. I came up with a laser cut design and wanted to cancel out the potentially wasteful element of this technique (produced off cuts) by making the brooch out of offcuts itself. I had the idea of using a sustainable vegan leather alternative and have always been really interested in working with pineapple leather, especially after seeing all the possibilities at the Pineapple Rooms pop up shop. Unfortunately it seems Pinatex is very much in demand and i was unable to source any from the companies i wrote to within the time frame I had. As I wanted to have it finished by my photoshoot I decided to go with my next best option- recycled cork. I managed to source a cork fabric from Portugal made from reformed coloured cork.

On reflection I probably could have spaced the pieces next to each other to cut out further waste.

As the cork fabric is quite thin I ended up glueing four layers together and painting two of them (with environmentally friendly gouache paint). This added a lot of unnecessary labour and potentially harmful chemicals. If i was to further develop these into a feasible product i would carry on trying to source a thick vegan leather alternative that could have a design embossed or sewn on with minimal cutting and mixing of materials, inevitably it will always have to mix a metal brooch back with another material so I would have liked to have developed a design that could be more easily deconstructed at the end of the brooch’s life. it would have been great to have time to collaborate with a jewellery/product designer and explore lots of other materials...

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Fashion Revolution Week 2017

Fashion revolution has played a large part in my awakening to ethical fashion since it begun in 2014, this year's campaign and week of events were bigger than ever and I knew I wanted to get involved in as many ways as possible across Nottingham and London.

#whomademyclothes #showyourlabel

A large part of fashion revolution week is made up of the social media campaign challenging brands to go transparent and give us more information on the individuals that are making our clothes. I challenged Monki and urban outfitters.

I also teamed up with other ntu students interested in ethical fashion to set up an information board in bonington foyer and encourage people to get involved in the social media campaign. I really enjoyed speaking to people about their approaches to shopping and designing ethically, lots of people were really interested and keen to get involved. I was also slightly surprised at how many people hadn't heard of the fashion revolution campaign considering we were in a creative/fashion campus...

Emotional Fit Fashion Salon

This showcase of collaborative research into fashion and ageing carried out by Kath Townsend, Juliana Sissons and other staff from NTU FTK was a really eye opening event. The project that studied the changing physical and emotional fashion needs of a group of older Nottingham women (55+), focused on            co-creativity and resulted in a collection of garment prototypes co-designed on sustainable principles. Talks from Kath, Juliana and some of the participants plus a powerful video following their journey brought to my attention how underrepresented this group are in fashion considering they are currently the highest spenders. I was particularly interested in the minimal waste silhouettes that came out of designing for inclusivity .  

Fashion Debate at The Conde Nast College of Fashion & Design : Is Fair Fashion a Feminist movement?

Panel of Tansy Hoskins-Journalist and Author of ‘Stitched Up’ , Sophi Skater of ethical brand Birdsong London and Ayesha Mustafa of ‘Fashion ComPassion’

All aspects of fashion affecting women was discussed in a refreshing way with varied viewpoints from working in fashion, running a brand and how it has been covered in the media. Unsurprisingly the most overwhelming problem of garment workers rights was greatly discussed including sexual harassment , violence and imprisonment. Other issues included body image and inevitably ended up touching on capitalism and distribution of wealth. The recurring question was whether we should add another loaded term to what is often seen as an already exclusive movement. My final take on the subject was that regardless of gender, coming together and putting pressure on the people at the top has got to work eventually.

Just Got Made Breakfast Club

Rosie Martin, author of DIY Couture and No Patterns Needed and Helen Kemp, founder of Just Got Made got together to discuss ethical manufacturing, production visibility and the idea of 'opting out'.

Rosie’s approach to ethical design is to encourage people to start making which has a knock on effect to changing their attitudes towards the worth of clothing. Many useful brands were discussed and it got me thinking more about the role that craft has in slowing down fashion.

Pineapple Rooms Talk on Running a sustainable vegan fashion business 

In conjunction with the launch of their new Piñatex™ collection, independent vegan footwear brand Bourgeois Boheme opened a week-long pop-up and social hub to showcase during fashion Revolution week.

The shop featured like-minded brands sharing vegan approaches to sustainability and innovation across art, fashion, food and lifestyle. I really liked the display of the stages from pineapple to Piñatex™ product and was inspired by how many stylish brands were pushing the vegan and sustainable message in an on trend way. 

Company founder Alicia answered some tricky questions on running a vegan label with a focus on the importance of getting your brands story across and persisting through inevitable learning curves. She also stressed the importance of physical presence and not rushing sampling - she worked with over 20 factories until she found a handful of reliable ones. She touched on how seasons are merging together more now and how she has managed to start wholesaling through taking a 30% deposit from retailers.

There was also a vegan buffet including vegan caviar and pineapple crisps!  

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DISOBEDIENT BODIES Exhibition JW Anderson curates The Hepworth Wakefeild

This exhibition is first in a series of of collaborations between The Hepworth Wakefeild and individuals from disciplines outside of the visual arts.

Jonathan Anderson’s starting point for this exhibition was drawn from early works of Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore leading to an exhibition exploring how the human form has been reimagined over the course of the last century.

It was so fantastic to see Issey Miyake’s Lantern Dress up close. I’ve read about his pleating process, where he shapes and cuts the garment first then adds pleats after to allow the garment to be folded down into compact circle, like a lantern.Seeing it in the flesh allowed me to deconstruct it in my mind and I started to imagine this form as a series of knitted tubes...

Merce Cunningham’s Scenario performance video and Commercial des Garsons ‘3D Gingham top’ portrayed simply how easily clothes can distort a body completely, for me the beauty of knitted and jersey fabric is that it can so easily be distorted within its construction or simply by the wearer.

I was interested in the shapes created in JW Anderson’s A-symetric draped knit tops. They have been created from simple rectangle patterns formed into one sleeve with clever seaming leaving the remaining fabric sitting on the other shoulder causing the neckline to engulf the wearer’s face. It made me want to carry on my basic draping exersizes that started my silhouette development, to come up with some less conventional silhouettes.   

Amongst everything else this show made me really think about interesting ways of displaying garments . These three jumpers tied together is so simple but so effective and fun.

The central forest of elongated jumpers appealed to me most on a purely aesthetical level. It is in many ways such a simple idea but has such a powerful impact and creates childlike delight, I love how by simply changing the scale of one aspect of a garment it instantly gives a humorous aspect. i again was looking at everything in tubes and imagining how i could develop silhouettes by moving a body around a closed tube...  

The interactive elements within this show as usual felt like the main attraction. On a basic note I think it is always really important to remember the importance of a tactile experience within fashion and how touch informs understanding objects.

[kmknitwear-blog]

Finalising the sleeveless jacket

The silhouette was resolved for this garment some time ago, see FOLD DOWN CARDIGAN FURTHER DEVELOPMENT blog post from December, now that i knew we could defiantly get a jaqcuard programmed on there I assembled many of my paintings into a pattern suitable for tubular jacquard. 

i need to add in a belt knitted on the dubied, i ws initially thing something striped but now am considering a cord like structure...maybe even macrame 

I considered leaving it unseamed completely but this made the garment slide down and look very messy. I settled on inserting very small seam under the waist line allowing the belt to fasten just around the front two panels leaving the impact of the back jacquard uninterrupted.

I think i will need to add a couple of hand stitches to the shoulder turn ups , over all the finishing time should be less then 10 minutes on each garment.

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Finalising the two seam cardigan

This garment is a variation on the two seam jumper , by leaving one seam open, shortening the sleeves and lengthening the body. There are no waste panels this time as the sleeve length is shortened and an overlap is added in to form a fold back placket.

I created a toile and developed two ways of wearing it, fastened at the top with fold back collar or more of a open blazer style. 

I came up with the ‘facon’ design adapted from my paintings made suitable for a tubular jacquard.

Reversible and fastening options.

I still need to secure the front fold back placket either with stitching or bond-a- webb was suggested...

After brainstorming fastening such as buttons and eye and hooks none of which I felt would look right I came up with the idea of creating a removable branded brooch the can be moved around for different ways of wearing. I made a naff cardboard version for the fitting but this idea really needs developing . i’m hoping to use scraps of vegan leather possibly pineapple possibly later cut.

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Developing jacquards from painting

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Integral labelling

I wanted my labelling to be knitted in to my designs integrally for the following reasons:

- To allow the garments to be fully reversible

-To cut down on labour , fitting in with my minimal seam - less labour, less energy, less waste ,more efficiency

-To avoid mixing materials - generally woven labels are made from unsustainable materials such as nylon. Adding different elements adds more work when deconstructing a garment for fibre recycling.

-Comfort

- Making a design feature of showing your labels to spread awareness of sustainability fits in with my brands ethos, my market and organisations like fashion revolution‘s campaigns #showyourlabels #whomadeyourclothes

I tried out the idea of including a QR code that could be scanned to go to a webpage to trace the garment’s journey.

Through converting the generated QR code in the Shima software and scanning it off the screen I found that the code had to be quite big- around 10cm square in order for the image not to be too pixelated to scan. I didn't necessarily mind this as I think the QR code creates a nice pattern in itself and could fit in with my designs.

Once knitted up I found it did scan about 1 out of every 10 attempts as it had to be placed extremely flatly otherwise the stretch of the knit distorted it too much. I decided against using including the QR code in my final garments as I really think it needs to be easy to scan in order to be such a prominent design feature. I was in two minds about QR codes as they do seem to be viewed as a technology fad that is not widely used. I will perhaps consider using them on paper tags further down the line.  

I did decide to include 

-origin - in the future I would like to be able to add more specific details about who made the item -this is maybe something I will build into a paper tag/ on website. Im am still unsure about where my clothes will be manufactured , made in UK may not end up being a feasible option for my brand but in this case it is made in the U.K.

-Composition This is extremely important to my brand, I want people to know it is vegan, made from 100% one fibre that is organic ,this will be backed up with information on the website including my fibre ranking info etc.

-Washing Instructions I have included low temperature washing instructions to encourage low impact washing habits, researching into this showed that 30 degrees is sufficient to removing dirt from cotton and reduces the carbon footprint of a garment by huge amounts, again i will include more information on this on my website.

-LOGO As I don't have a set logo yet just an idea of the style I decided to vary the design to fit in with each individual garment’s theme/jacquard. I think this has worked really well and shouldn't confuse my brands identity.

RECYCLE I included the recycle logo to encourage people to think about disposal of their item. As a brand, I would offer a take back service- similar to what Patagonia do, enabling customers to send back their garment at the end of its life that we would then recondition and resell or gather together to be recycled back into a fibre – Ive been researching developments in textile recycling that was included in the Design museum exhibition, although it’s not currently a widely available service I’m hoping as all my garments are purely one fibre they will be more suitable for recycling in the future .