Digital Wave Sportswear

[digitalwaveprojectlj]

Final evaluation.

digitalwaveprojectlj:

This project has been very interesting and enjoyable, yet challenging at times. I have enjoyed working with the digital wave trend as I already find a lot of inspiration in this 80s influenced trend.

Working on a sportswear collection has been extremely interesting for me, as sportswear is a sector of fashion that I have never thought about working in. This project has opened my eyes to other possibilities and also proved to me how important research is when designing a collection.

There have been some challenging obstacles to overcome when working on this range. For example, when starting this project, I found myself getting lost in the different aspects of the digital wave trends as there were so many different ways to go with it. Whilst researching for inspiration from designers/brands, I also realised how difficult it is to find a link between the brands I wanted to use initially, and the brands I ended up using.

Overall, this project has been very eye-opening for me and I feel as though I have really benefited from it. I believe that my knowledge of the industry, as well as my research and design skills have improved immensely throughout this project and I am excited to start the next one.

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digitalwaveprojectlj:

To create another print, I ruled off different coloured lines in different directions. The first design as inspired by the stripes on the pattern behind. I paired this crop top with a pair of shorts to keep in line with the spring/summer theme. My second design is a long coat, made from light or even see through material so that you can see the clashing prints of other garments underneath. For my final design that was inspired by the print behind, I wanted to focus my attention on the cropped pants, making each leg a different pattern. This was to symbolize the way I merged the print from this page and the next page to make the print shown on the bottom left. To create this print, I overlaid the two prints and used the opacity tool on Photoshop.

 I created a colourful chevron print, which I then adjusted on Photoshop with the liquefy tool, which made the print have more of an 80s feel to it. The first design uses triangles on the legging and cut out triangles on the top to show the chevron pattern. The second design uses a monochrome version of the chevron print. I also used the shapes from the print to create an interesting hem on the shorts. The final design on this page is my favourite, as I wasn’t expecting the triangular poncho to match so well with the asymmetrical, drawstring skirt. Unfortunately, I am unsure about using this design for my collection as it doesn’t fit well with the active wear/dancewear concept.

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digitalwaveprojectlj:

Due to the 80s vibe that comes from the digital wave trend, and the influence from designer Zandra Rhode’s extravagant prints, I decided to use oversized, geometric prints throughout my collection. This mood board demonstrates the different colours and shapes I am interesting in using to design further prints.

 My first attempt at a geometric print is a very simple yet effective design that I create by cutting different coloured card into geometric shapes such as squares and lightning bolts, etc. By sticking these shapes together, I have created an abstract 80s pattern. I scanned this image into the computer to change the colours and brightness. I decided to make this print a repeat pattern, which I then used the neon glow filter to create a completely different print. These prints inspired me to design an oversized hoodie with clashing prints of the sleeves, bodice and underneath bodice.

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digitalwaveprojectlj:

To tie in the 80s theme from the Digital Wave trend, I wanted to look into geometric prints. This is where I got the inspiration from to create this illustration. I think the contrasting colours and shapes against the black and white background demonstrate my ideas very well.

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digitalwaveprojectlj:

Janne Parviainen is a contemporary artist from Finland that to me showcases an 80s vibe through his work. As the most well-known light painting artist, Parviainen manipulates photographs using different light sources during long exposures. This creates the effect of neon lights which makes me think of the 80s influence on the Digital Wave trend.

The designs on this page are inspired by the work of Janne Parviainen, along with some primary images of sensory light. For each of these designs I have tried to demonstrate the way in which Parviainen makes the body shapes with light by using different lines, etc. I have also used the sensory light images to make a squiggly pattern for some of the garments.

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digitalwaveprojectlj:

In order to take some more primary photographs, I visited the Festival Gardens to attend a light show presented by Luminous Landscapes. There wasn’t much there that inspired me, yet through the images shown I found some interesting silhouette inspiration (from the image of the lotus, for example) and ideas such as using feathers on shoulder pads which was taken from the flamingos.

For the first design, I took inspiration from the woman’s cloak, using different patterns for each leg of the culottes.

 The second design is more unusual as I used the lotus petals to design and interesting collar, I paired this hoodie with a pair of cycling shorts that used the pattern from the man’s jacket as the side panels for the shorts. 

My third design for this mood board, is again taken from the woman’s cloak, using patchwork to fill an oversized, asymmetrical t-shirt.

The crop top on my next design is supposed to symbolize the petals from the hanging flower. I would like to use this design for my collection and fill it with a loud, extravagant print. I paired this crop top with jogging pants so that I stayed within the active wear range.

 Finally, the shoulders of this tank top are linked to the flamingos from the primary images, as well as the power dressing trend from the 80s.

[digitalwaveprojectlj]

digitalwaveprojectlj:

I found a neon sign of the word “motel” when taking some primary photos, which gave me the idea to develop my designs using slogans. This inspired me to look through magazines for bold words and phrases that would work well for active wear. Another aspect from these primary images that I attempted to recreate through my designs was the spiral of the helter skelter. I found this difficult at first to find the right way to incorporate the shapes with the silhouette of the figure. Eventually, I decided to make the clothing oversized so that it didn’t matter whether it fit the silhouette of the figure.

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digitalwaveprojectlj:

My first design, an oversized poncho with a hood, looks quite simple in the sketch and was designed taking inspiration from the draped fairy lights, however, I think this design would look better with big oversized prints such as the one with hearts from my last post. 

The second design with the cowl neckline is also inspired by the draped fairy lights, however for the pants, I decided to use triangular cut outs inspired by the neon sign for BaaBar. 

The third design is quite simple as I wanted to focus on slogans, like the one shown in my primary photographs. I researched when Nike was founded to make the design more authentic. To incorporate Zandra Rhodes in this design, I would probably add a print to the leggings and sleeves of the jumper. 

The next design uses an oversized cowl neckline on a hoodie, again taken from the fairy lights. I paired this design with some shorts to keep in line with the spring/summer concept. 

Finally, the heart shaped crop top was taken from the photograph of the heart lights.

[digitalwaveprojectlj]

digitalwaveprojectlj:

Due to my initial research, I went to take primary photographs of neon lights/signs. At the time, there was a Christmas tree erected in the city centre that was made up of light up hearts. I decided to photograph this with the idea that I could play around with the RGB filter on Photoshop and possibly make a digital print that could be used for my final designs. 

When printing out the primary images for my sketchbook, the ink of the printer started running out which created multi-coloured stripes on some of my photos, in particular, the one on the bottom right.  I kept these images for my sketchbook because I liked the outcome and decided that I would recreate this with paint on different types of paper and ways of scraping the paint across it. 

When using acetate, I used a sponge to spread the paint, whereas when using normal paper, I used a piece of card. My preferred outcome is the sample on acetate as it gives the texture I had hoped for.

[digitalwaveprojectlj]

Digital disturbances exhibition.

digitalwaveprojectlj:

As a class, we traveled to London to visit The University of Arts to see the Digital Disturbances exhibition. The exhibition was very interesting as it gave the audience a new perception of fashion/art through showing digital glitches. For example, in the second image, the mannequins were all made to look different shapes and size which was unusual to the eye as we are so used to seeing the one sized model. The other two pictures were taken from a video being projected onto the wall. These videos shown the model dressing in what looked like blocks of jelly and moving around so that the garments moved with a slight delay. 

I think that this exhibition was very effective and gave me a lot of inspiration to go about my work differently and incorporate the unusual.

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digitalwaveprojectlj:

To showcase my colour pallette, I created this moodboard using images from my pinterest board on the digital wave trend. I wanted to use bright/neon colours that would contrast and clash against each other in my patterns.

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digitalwaveprojectlj:

My initial ideas when given the Digital Wave brief was bright colours, influence from 80s music and dance, geometric patterns, as well as the idea of neon lights/signs. I want my collection to be extremely loud and “in your face” because I’ve found that most sportswear tends to be monotone colours with the occasional coloured stripe, which is something that I wanted to avoid. I think these initial ideas will give me a lot of different ways to go with this sportswear range.

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digitalwaveprojectlj:

I wanted to focus my active wear range on urban dancewear, I visited a dance class at the college to take photographs of the way the dancers move so that I could incorporate that in my designs. This really helped me when designing as I then had a better idea of how the clothes would need to move with the dancers, and the flexibility and versatility needed from the garments.

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digitalwaveprojectlj:

For this blog post, I wanted to show both my final lineup presented in my sketchbook, along with my digital final lineup. The final lineup in my sketchbook also includes swing tags that I created using the laser cutting machine. I am going to attach the swing tag on the bottom right to the garment that I produce in construction.

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Fashion illustrations.

[digitalwaveprojectlj]

digitalwaveprojectlj:

For this project, I needed to design a new logo for the swing tags that go with my collection. I designed two logos to choose from. 

For the first logo, I chose one of Zandra Rhodes’ prints and put it onto the Nike “swoosh”. I decided to keep the brand’s name, as well as adding Rhodes’ signature logo so that it is clear what brand and designer are collaborating. 

For the second logo, I decided to keep it simple by using the original Nike logo, but changing the ‘i’ to a lightening bolt filled with one of Rhodes’ patterns. This was to reflect on the digital wave, 80s influence as well as to show the collaboration between my designer and brand.

[digitalwaveprojectlj]

digitalwaveprojectlj:

After discovering that some of my prints would work better for accessories than garments, I decided to design a few backpacks to accompany my collection. Each backpack is made of a different pattern and contrasting handles/straps that match one of the colours from the prints. I used the logo that I have created for this project on the bags to tie in the ideas from my initial proposal.