ynightingaleworld

[ynightingaleworld]

Week 9 - the end

Ladies and gentlemen, I am happy to announce that this project is over.

This week was awful - I did not sleep for two nights already - I put our presentation for Friday together. Also, I did the range plan and helped with the Draper Studio etc.

But now everything is over. We will have a presentation to Faye and Kate tomorrow. And after all the presentation will be finished, they will give us the name of the winner.

[ynightingaleworld]

Week 8 - final toiling

This week became one of the most expensive one in my life ( I am not talking only about the fee which I had to pay for the lost property to Yellow Buses company). Finishings, final fabrics, printed leather, zips, hooks etc etc etc. And I am not including styling.

Because I did not do ladies wear since the beginning of the project, I am not a fan of it. Especially, I do not like that it is my third dress (in each project I am making a dress). Also, the fabric remains those cheap linings which you can find inside every one pound New Look bag. But with the fabric I did a very big mistake - I did not have to agree with my team members when they proposed it to me. However, I decided to be a good team player, stepped on my throat and do not like my dress at all.

I cannot say the same things about my bag. I feel very excited making it and finally want to see it in the final printed leather.

But my team would not be my team if we did not any dismissing, communication or responsibility. On Friday, Lilla, Jodie and Georgia had to do Draper Studio toiles photo shoot, but who did it by the end - me and Katie, who did Draper Studio on Friday evening when nearly everybody was gone home - me. I am very tired already, I do know that some of my team members hate me, and the thing is that, since the start on Week 3, I said that we need to split, but Maria was frighten that we all are going to get bad marks because of the split that is why we reunited again. But nothing changes - they all are always in Uni doing their own stuff, very often not connected with Unit at all. Katie cannot do line plan because  Georgia and Jodie still are doing changes in their designs. I am doing the changes as well, but I did not work in the same category all the time - that is why I feel that my garment is not very elaborated (the reason why I hate my dress)

Next week will be the final one and I will get ride of my favorite team without any tears or regrets  - I really want this project to finish, I sleep 3/4 hours per day, drink 5 caps of coffee and smoke 13/14 cigarettes per day.

[ynightingaleworld]

Week 7 - fabric selection

 This week was very stressful for me - some of our team members think that their opinion is one and only and do not want to listen to anybody else. But we will leave it on the side.

On Monday and on Tuesday I did 3D development of my dress for stitching it on Wednesday and on Friday. Also, I started toiling my bag. Everybody was very happy with it. Unfortunately, Georgia and Maura wanted me to recolour my print again, because they could upload it. But I had no time for that. Last Friday me and Maria did print recolouring and all the rest were doing their own things. I think I deserved time for my toile development. 

Right now I work on the dress and bag final toile patterns development, there are loads of things to do next week! Wish me good luck.

[ynightingaleworld]

Week 6 - the presentation

On Monday I finished my trousers and the shirt toiles and started working on the bags. I had sleepless night doing them. I called a guy from my work to help me - he agreed to be my model. 

The Tuesday morning started badly. Not all members of our team decided to follow the plan - to make during the Monday the range plans of their garments. So I had to do that for everybody. Also, not everybody was ready with their toiles, but we discussed it on the previous Thursday and expected everybody to be ready with the toiles by Monday evening. Not everyone found a model so Maria  called over all her friends from Uni to help them. 

The presentation went quite well. Faye and Kate were happy with our prints, but found that our menswear pieces were not cohesive. 

On Wednesday, we had a meeting with Kristian and Ren - they gave us some good advises about our toiles. By their opinion, I had to return back to the block and make my garments more fitted and more masculine. 

Thursday gave us an opportunity for another meeting, but this time with Penny and Iain. Now I can describe another misunderstanding case in our team. Maria thought that we were going to meet Penny after lunch and discuss the prints, but I proposed to meet her at 11 and talk about the attitude and behaviour of some of our team members - Jody and Georgia. Georgia is always disappearing without letting anybody know her plans. She did not have a design made by her self - Maria helped her all the time, instead of working on her own designs. Jody is never turning up in time, very often she is missing our meetings and is saying that she likes to sleep so much that cannot wake up in time! To be honest, I like to sleep as well, but I am always in Uni and never let my preferences to come over me. When Jody is fortunately in Uni all our meeting turn into the discussion what she has to do with her design, because she has completely no idea and no knowledge of pattern-cutting etc.  Or she is starting talking about the thing very important for our meeting - juices, vegans, food, her parents etc...

Iain and Penny decided that for me it would be better to return back to women’s wear and to turn my shirt into the dress. 

Also, I spent a sleepless night on Thursday doing the print variation and pattern-cutting my new dress. Friday morning instead of working on the sample men’s tailored trousers I spent doing some more prints. Penny agreed with some of our prints. I decided to do a plain dress because there are too many prints happening in our collection - only Maria is doing 8 m of printed Satin Plaza and 2 extra m of printed chiffon. But I think, in the collection should be something plain, because not every woman would like to wear everything printed day to night.

[ynightingaleworld]

Week 5 - starting toiling

This week started very dramatically for me - my flight was delayed for 2 days and I spent them in the airport. But on Tuesday evening I was back to work to my team.

On Wednesday we had a meeting with Iain and Penny - they were not very happy about our collection and found it more suitable for the winter wardrobe of the retired grannies. So we did some changes into our designs and we got Maria, Lilla and Georgia’s prints for development.

On Thursday and Friday, I did the first toiles of my shirt and my trousers, I was not a big fan of how the garments fit. So I did a few changes in the patterns. With the shirt I did a yoke a little bit smaller and the yoke line in the front up and in the back down. With the trousers I added 1 cm into the front and into the back. For both cases I used the loose fit blocks.

On Friday I also did a little prints development from Maria’s prints. Also, I did pattern-cutting of both our bags.

[ynightingaleworld]

Easter break

So after week number  4, we had a little break - Easter! 

During this time I had an opportunity to go back home (unfortunately, since the last year spring I have some family problems, which I would like not to speak about). However, I had some tasks to do - to write a draft of a brand report and to make a collection of prints for our team. Prints which I made are more suitable for a fall/winter collection - that is a reason why we refused them.

The brand report feedback from Anna covers the following points:

Good discussion of brand, products

A clear attempt at customer profile.

What are their ‘customer realities’? Also later on ‘all the sweet things’. Not sure what you mean by these phrases – try to clarify

Generally well written, but a few overly long sentences – keep an eye on this.

Don’t forget to include images e.g. of specific garments / products you discuss, and references to any of the research you have done e.g. about Coast or about that sector of the market.

The end of the break was not very good for me - I had to spend 2 nights in the airport, but now everything sorted and I am back to work. 

[ynightingaleworld]

Week 4 - The final design

During the last week we made final decisions about our collection for Coast. I am doing a shirt and trousers. 

Then, on Tuesday we brought all our designs and print ideas together, Penny and Kristian looked through and gave us their feedback. Kristian advised me to look at Yohji  Yamamoto men’s collections, because Mr. Yamamoto creates very drape garments and uses unusual garments like skirts and dresses for men, but the collections still look masculine. 

On Wednesday and on Thursday I did development of the outfit and tried to drape it on the mini-mannequin. 

Next 2 weeks we have an Easter break - this time I would like during the Easter consider more ideas for prints. Also, by the 16th of April we have to present draft of the brand report. 

[ynightingaleworld]

Week 3 - The separation

Because of the little problems and argues we were splitted into 2 groups under one title - Resort - Resort evening wear and Resort day wear. I am working on the men evening wear collection (cocktail, between 5-9PM). 

The Monday was a Dye Lab day, when I searched for the suitable dyes and screen prints. Unfortunately, I got loads of samples and colours, but there were only 3 or 4 which I would like to keep. 

On Tuesday, we had a report writing tutorial: we learnt the subject which we had to describe in our report (our work during the Coast project) and the language (casual one). Also, I did a little draft - the structure of my report which I will focus on during the Easter. The afternoon, we spent doing designs and we had design selections of the print and the designs to develop. 

The Wednesday was a very difficult day - we had an our work review. I was fed up with the behavior of some of mine teammates and I mentioned that to Iain and Penny. They helped us to make the decision about the new concept (Resort gallery visit which you start in the morning with the Surrealistic painting and by the end (the evening time) you come to the Impressionist stand) and also as it was described above we were a little bit separated under one title. 

The Thursday was all about draping on the mini-mannequin: draping of the calico, draping of the paper, draping of the print. By the end I got interesting shapes which I wanted to develop. 

On Friday, the sewing of the tailored trousers was not finished and the end of the day I spent in the Library doing more collages and more designs. 

Next week, we have another design selection. So will see what will happen.

[ynightingaleworld]

Week 2 - The beginning

The week number 2 started quite good - on Monday we made our decision about the colour palette - it was inspired by Impressionist paintings. Then we started working on the designs and silhouettes. In our group we all are very different and some of us cannot find inspiration in Impressionists paintings and they will look at the Surrealists paintings/  for the inspiration. 

On Tuesday, we submitted learning agreements and had a tutorial about the blogs. The afternoon, we spent with Penny and Christian looking for the new ideas of our concept and we got an interesting homework - to describe your ideal resort and the outfits for that. Mine perfect resort is a trip to Batumi, Georgia, with Tilda Swinton and Raf Simons: I would be dressed in something very light from Haider Ackermann, Raf Simons and Loewe collections.

On Wednesday, we had Draper workshop section with Carl - Draper Studio is a feature of the Kaledo Print where you can fit your print into the garment digitally. The afternoon, we spent with Ren studying different types of sleeve pattern-cutting. The sleeve, first, became one piece with the front, then with the back. In the end, we got very interesting kaftan  shape. 

The Thursday was the day when we had independent study day. I spent it with my team discussion and drawing prints and silhouettes. 

On Friday, we sewed the mens tailored trousers.

That is mostly it!

Next week we have design review with Iain and Penny, so wish me good luck!

[ynightingaleworld]

Week 1 - Coast project

The last week we started a new term called Design Enterprise and Innovation. This year AUB has a collaboration with Coast - a fashion brand which focuses on the occasion wear production. In the end, our team has to produce 8-outfit capsule collection containing different technics: print, embroidery, fabric dyeing. This collection needs to be suitable for Coast resort concept. 

We chose as our starting point Impressionists paintings and the idea of escape. We decided to do escape after we looked carefully who is Coast customer and what they are doing for the resort. When person wanted to go travelling, she or he would leave all the reality behind. That gave the idea of the escape from the reality as Impressionists did in the end of the 19th century - mostly all the artist produced realistic art and Impressionists came with the different vision that human body was not necessarily to be always nude - it can be purple or even red, that the summer trees were not only green - they could be blue or yellow. Personally, I also looked at Lucian Freud art pieces and Pre-Raphaelites - Julia Margaret Cameron and William Morris. Our fashion inspiration became Dries van Noten with his close to Impressionists colour palette and identical embroidery and print technics. 

Coast managers were happy with our starting point and gave us a few advises about concept development: we talked a lot about print (produce very linear print) and pastel colour palette. Fortunately, they brought the fabrics which they worked with for spring/ summer 2018 and final garments. One of the fabrics was colourful jacquard black on right side and light-pink on the wrong side with the floral motives waved on it. It was exciting to see it! Thank you!

On Thursday, the 8th of March (Happy Woman day everyone!), we visited Bicester village looking at high-quality garments and researching for the various textile technics. I went to my favourite Loewe store which I thought it could be a new direction  for Coast resort.  Also, I visited Celine, Dior, Marni, Givenchy, Balenciaga. 

Next day, it was sample trousers manufacturing day - I sewed a front, but, unfortunately, I had a little problem, because as I understood that not all of course mates can do well pattern cutting and mostly all my pieces were not matching to each other. That was a problem, but I solved it - I just recut them.

This week we are focusing on print, silhouettes and colour palettes buildout.

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A photoshoot day

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Week 9

I finished my garments!!! How do you find them?

[ynightingaleworld]

Week 8

This week will be dedicated to my final garments. Wish me good luck!

[ynightingaleworld]

Week 2

A FAT project is a collaboration between Fashion, Architect and Textiles student which we had during the week 2. The main goal of the project was to create a piece which combines together all our methods of working and connects different aspects of culture, skills, and perspectives of Poole High street. As you could notice by the task Poole High street should become our influencer. Also, we had to find our inspiration in texture. Poole is a site of fishermen based on the large natural harbor. For us, there were no reasons why we could not use the shells and fishnets as our inspiration and in our presentation, we give exploration of shell shapes in 3 different examples: garments (Fashion and Textiles), lighting and sitting spaces (Architecture). Also, masonry of   Poole High street translates best of al¬¬l the idea of structure, which we had to explore during this project. The bricks lay unusual ways diagonally, horizontally or vertically which creates the shapes and reflect the idea of structure. The structure of the stones by themselves is also interesting. The stones which were used in the stonework are also very different: granite, basalt, marble, sandstone, and limestone. Even the pebble from the seaside area was very interesting to explore. However, we faced with a problem what to do. During our first day of the FAT week, it was raining all day and we noticed that there were not many spaces to sit outside and have a conversation with your friends or the members of your family, eat and even smoke. We decided to make a roofed bunch and everyone would access it 24/7. The bunch follows the ideas of our research – its shape was inspired by the seashells. We decided to test it and made a model of it. For us, as Fashion students were attractive to see the other ways of solutions to the task which we had to solve during the project given by textile workers and architects. For example, we have never done the model of the bunch and architecture students - Beatrice Rita and Sam Adams – gave us a lot of advice in model-making. To sum up, the FAT project was useful for all of us because it gave us such a good opportunity to see the various versions of working on the same project and practice our communication skills. The diverse ways of doing the research and the different point of view on the development of the project increased our capabilities. The abilities to cooperate, listen to each other’s ideas, criticize and receive the critic were a good experience. Unfortunately, I felt sick on the first day of the project so I was not useful for my new friends all the time, but still tried to take part in the project and did as much as I could.

[ynightingaleworld]

Week 7

This week we had Final toile review. After the review I finalized my jacket with lining on the sleeves and successfully fitted my dress to the mannequin. On Wednesday we tried our sample jackets on FLO in 3D.

[ynightingaleworld]

Week 6

On Wednesday we explored the tech pack - First fit sheet, Costing sheet, Size specification and Working sheet. Also, we looked at the care labels of our garments and learned care label symbols. We did size grade tables (2 version - manually and in Lectra) for our sample jacket. I finalized the patterns for my garments and did the patterns for my lining. Time for my final toiles!

[ynightingaleworld]

Week 5

On Tuesday, we had First fit toile review. Unfortunately,  I had them only on the mini mannequin, so after the review on Wednesday I start doing the changes and at the same sewing full scale garments. By Friday I finished both and start working on lining. Also, I digitized my mini mannequin patterns and I changed the scale of them in Lectra.