Amy

First Year Fashion

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Final Lineup

I did detailed, coloured sketches of my final lineup. I used my mood boards to help me to think of detailing to put on them. I was inspired by all the badges and how they resembled different forms of patchwork. I tried to develop this and incorporate it into all of my outfits. I styled all of the designs with neckerchiefs, knee high socks and chunky loafers, to tie back to the original scout uniforms that they were inspired by.

I developed each design individually and did some textile samples to go with some of them.

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Design Development

I sketched out some design ideas that I had and then picket my favourite 6. I did up line drawings and then colour blocked on them based on my colour board.

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Mood Board and Colour Board

I created my mood board, I featured the uniform and many different badges. I want to play around with proportions as well.

This is my colour board. The main colour pallet will be based on the Rover Scout uniform. The accent colours will be taken from my group neckerchief and some badges.

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Utilitarian Fashion Design

The scout uniform's design has utility at the forefront. Utilitarian clothes are practical, user focused. They value comfort, functionality and clever design. Although they were not initially designed with style in mind, utilitarian clothes have definitely become a fashion staple. The most popular utilitarian piece in contemporary fashion is definitely the cargo pants.

Sources:

Zimmerman RTW Spring 2019

Givenchy RTW Spring 2019

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Uniforms

A uniform is worn to show that you are part of a group. Many people are forced to wear uniforms at school. For them, they are symbols of oppression, they associate them having unnecessarily strict uniform guidelines, that suppress their own individual expression.

In my opinion, they should be worn willingly with pride, not forced upon us. We should be proud to be apart of a group. I really like the uniform for Scouting Ireland. They make you both recognized as a scout, while being customizable to the person wearing them. Your neckerchief (scarf) tells of where you came from, you own troop. Your badges show what you have achieved as a scout, the skills you have learnt and the places you have gone. The Irish uniform is also adaptable to the weather conditions you are currently in. The pants zip off into shorts and the shirt has tabs to fold up the sleeves.

https://theirishscouter.com/2014/04/30/uniform-thinking/

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I starting a sketchbook project now. I took a selection of primary photos to base my designs on. I chose to do my project on the scouts. I have been part of the scouts for 14 years, it is something that I have a lot of love for and it is a big part of my life.

I want to look at the uniform and the neckerchiefs as they are very iconic and recognizable.

I put my primary images on the wall in the fashion room. I stuck up some images of my uniform, my neckerchiefs and my scout handbook.

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KitX

KitX is a brand founded by Kit Willow. They did a collection out of recycled denim. This is because millions of discarded clothes go into landfills everyday. I really like their skirts.

Both mine and theirs are made out of recycled denim.

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Upcycling Project

For the last two weeks, we have been doing an upcycling project to work on out technical sewing skills

I started this project by draping and pinning my two starting garments over a mannequin to try find the vibe that I was going to work with. My two garments where a pair of black cargo pants and a pair of burgundy jeans.

I used a basic skirt pattern to make a calico mock up of a skirt, and then I adjusted the pattern to be wider and more A-line. I also adjusted it to fit, myself rather than the mannequin. I kept the waist bands mostly intact to do the top of the skirt and then cut trapezoidal panels to make stripes. I also kept the cargo pockets from the cargo pants.

I plan to photoshoot the skirt in the next few weeks.

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On Thursday, we did a photoshoot of 3 of our outfits. We were experimenting with different coloured lighting and shadows.

For the outfit that Praise was wearing, we were inspired by Botticelli's painting, The Birth of Venus (1484 - 1486). We used folded paper to get the effect of clam shells.

For the photos of me, we used a reflective, shimmery background and blue lights to get the effect of being under water. I used a net as a prop.

For Sasha's photos, we used the lightbox projector to project shadows onto her. We used a mixture of trasnparent, coloured objects and opaque objects to get the desired effect.

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Melissa Kritsotakis

Melissa Kritsotakis is an Australian fashion designer. She makes sustainable gowns.

I really like her collection that she did for the "Waves of Change" fashion show. She created an ocean inspired collection. She created two mermaid inspired gowns and one aqua gown. I really like her use of texture within these gowns. I really like the blue gown, the flowing silk gives a real sense of movement and it is really beautiful.

I think her work is similar to ours, in that she was inspired by the ocean and that she pays close attention to detailed textures.

Sources:

https://schmidtocean.org/waves-of-change-fashioning-an-ocean-friendly-future-convenes-fashion-designers-performers-and-musicians-to-celebrate-the-ocean/

https://www.melissakritsotakis.com

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This week, I started Fashion as my discipline. We started by bringing in clothes from home and then styling them experimentally onto mannequins in our groups.

We chose the theme "Up Till The Oceanic Dawn" for our project. we wanted our collection to encapsulate the transition from night till day in the ocean. We did this through our use of colours, textures and patterns. I really liked the designs that we made.

We also made some mood bords to accompany this collection.

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Self Assessment

1. Learning Outcome 1: Aptitude & Ability in Elected Areas: What skills or strengths do you think you demonstrated in these electives? What did you learn that confirmed your choices? Where did you struggle, and how did you improve?

I enjoyed the creative freedom of sculpture, but I found it too open for me. I did not like how conceptual it was. I prefer to figure out how to make things, I don't like thinking about the meaning behind them. I did not feel particularly inspired by the pieces I made. I only really enjoyed the physical and tedious process of making the sculptures.

I really enjoyed fashion. I found it really fun and engaging. I liked that i was making the sketchbook and that I didn't have to use the computer as much as in other electives. I liked that it was a lot more practical and less conceptual than sculpture. I didnt really struggle with any of the parts of fashion.

I enjoyed print a lot. It was definitely close behind fashion. I liked turning my drawings into finished prints. I enjoyed the process and I was really fascinated by the physics behind the electro etching. I think that i take quickly to learning new hands on skills. This was my first time trying etching and woodblock, but i think I was good at it, and i liked what I made. sometimes when I was carving, the friction of the wood on my skin would hurt my fingers, so i wrapped them in masking tape to help. I did not like how long it took to print the etchings, I found it boring and annoying, so i didn't do as much experimentation. I think I should have had more patience for it and tried more. I definitely preferred making the woodblock prints.

2. Learning Outcome 2: Creative Use of Materials, Media, Processes: Which materials or processes did you explore? What creative risks did you take? How did your material choices support your ideas?(Required field)

Although I didn't use that many different materials in each elective, I think that I did a good job of using them in experimental ways. In sculpture, I used cardboard and paper a lot, but i used light and shadow as part of the pieces, when I used paper, I weaved it in different ways to try to get different forms. I used wire and created the illusion of a hand pushing through it. I was proud of my creativity. If I was to try again, I would use materials that I have never used before, or more recycled materials. In fashion, I mostly was drawing and planning my designs, I didn't do much textiles, but i did do two. I weaved fabric so that I could compare the difference between weaved fabric and weaved paper. I also tied reverse appliqué when making the pattern of the train seats, I really liked the reverse appliqué and would definitely try it again. I also used recycled train tickets in my mood boards. In print, there is not as much freedom in the processes or materials. I learned how to do etching and woodblock prints, I printed onto white card. I experimented with the colours, opacities of ink and with the compositions. If I was to do it again, I would do more experimentation with the etching.

3. Learning Outcome 3: Research & Contextual Understanding: What research did you carry out? Which artists, designers, or movements influenced your work? How did your research appear in your final outcomes or Tumblr?

I am proud of the amount of research that I did in this project. I consistently researched loads of different artists and was always looking for new primary research. I think that I did a lot better in this section this semester than last semester. I found that I was very drawn to abstract art. I think this is reflected in my abstract pieces and my consistent exploration of patterns throughout the project. I posted my research on tumblr and I explained how it related to or inspired my work.

4. Learning Outcome 4: Creative & Conceptual Development: What ideas were you trying to communicate? How did your concepts change as the project developed? What parts of the project show your conceptual thinking best?

The theme of this project was Public Transport. I was very drawn to the different iconic seat patterns that were present on public transport. I tried to explore these as much as possible. I also used the motif of people sometimes to express the human role in public transport. I was looking at physical hardware (seats), but the people and the community are the important part. I do not feel like this project was as personal to me as the last one. The last project was drawing a lot of the time on my feelings of existential dread, where as this one was a lot simpler and based in reality. Although I like the work that I made, I think it would be more impactful if the theme was more personal to me.

5. Learning Outcome 5: Commitment, Motivation, Self‑Reliance: How consistently did you work throughout the electives? How did you manage your time or overcome challenges? What evidence shows independent thinking or initiative?

I think that I was very organised, I produced work that I was consistently proud of throughout the project. I documented it and put it on tumblr along side my research. I tried to have really good attendance and I tried to be working for as long as I could on my projects. I felt more confident in this project than the last one. I was able to work by myself most of the time and come up with my own ideas with little help from lecturers. They still helped me though occasionally in how to carry out my ideas. I am proud of the amount of primary and secondary research that I did, because that was something that wasn't the best in my last project, so i tried to improve. I think that my tumblr is layed out well and that I explained well what I was working on.

6. How did you bridge your three elective areas? We had 5 intended learning outcomes for you but did you discover any unintended learning outcomes?

When I was deciding what order to do the electives in, I thought a lot about how I could bring the project through them. I bridged the 3 areas by making art that was inspired by the art I made in the previous elective, by using the same theme of public transport and through my use of the seat patterns

I learned that my art didn't have to be complicated for me to be proud of it.

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Yesterday, I was using my woodblocks prints to experiment alot with colour and the movement through different opacities of colour. In most of the pieces, I use two separate woodblocks and overlay them.

In this collection of prints, the red is strongest on from the left and weakest from the right. I used the colours green and red, because red is the colour of the Citylink bus (this image was inspired by the seat patterns on the Citylink bus) and green, because that is the colour of TFI.

In this piece, I experimented with the opacity in the same way as the collection above, except this time, I printed them side by side and changed the colours. I used two very different primary colours. Yellow is very light and the blue is quite dark. I wanted to see how they interacted with different strengths of each colour.

In this piece, I inked up the woodblock with a gradient and it more loosely around the page. This one has a less intense composition.

In this piece, I used just one colour and printed it side by side and letting the colour fade. It gives the impression of movement across the page. It also reminds me of a film real, because the image is only slightly different in each one. I like that as it fades, colours left on the block from previous prints start to show through.

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Piet Mondrian

Piet Mondrian was a 20th century Dutch Painter. He was best known for his abstract paintings. His art was highly utopian and in search of higher values and aesthetics. Because of this, he confined his art to horizontal and vertical directions. He also restricted his use of colours to only the primary colours (red, yellow and blue). As a result of his unique style, his paintings as highly recognisable today.

I like the simplistic, yet bold compositions of his work. I like his use of cubism as well. I think that in these ways it is similar to the woodblock prints that I am currently doing.

Sources:

first image: Tableau I, 1921, Kunstmuseum Den Haag

second image: Composition II in Red, Blue, and Yellow, 1930, Kunsthaus Zürich

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piet_Mondrian

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This week, I did a woodblock print. I did a piece based off of the seat patterns on the Citylink bus. I was experimenting with positives and negatives of the pattern. I like how it moves from light to dark as you move across the image. This adds to the theme of movement.

I made a second woodblock that just prints in the are of the rectangles, this way I can add more colors to the pieces.

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While I was on the plane, I did some watercolor paintings of my view out the window.

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Recently, I travelled to Lanzarote. While I was there,

I tried to research what public transport was like in other countries. I documented every bus and bus stop that I saw. Since Lanzarote is a popular tourist destination, many of the buses are run my tour companies like TUI. I also noticed that their bus stops look far different to the ones in Ireland. The benches were cool, because they were simplistic, They offered places to stand, lean or sit, depending on your preference. They did not have the narrow anti-homelessness benches that we have in Limerick. All of the bus stops could be identified by the simple bus logo. It can be recognized by anyone, there is no text on it, and therefore no language barrier. This is good, because there are people of all cultures living in Lanzarote.

I also took pictures while I was at the airport and on the plane. Planes are not the first form of public transport that you would think of and they are not operated by TFI like most other ones in Ireland. It is not often that I would get the opportunity to travel on a plane, so I documented it.