Paige Alexandra Eager

Fashion Designer and archive of inspiring design.

[paige-eager]

Please follow my blog change on bloglovin!

I will still be blogging just on my new website www.paigealexandraeager.portfoliobox.me so to contiue following click on the link below to follow via bloglovin or save my new address!

Thanks!  

[paige-eager]

Portfolio and blog of Performance Sportswear Designer Paige Alexandra Eager.

[paige-eager]

Sketchbooks of Zandra Rhodes

An inspiring and intresting peak into the sketchbooks of great British designer Zandra Rhodes...

[paige-eager]

The Ultimate Apocalypse Jacket?

Designer Marie-Elsa Batteux has designed the ultimate survival jacket for the end of the world. The jacket titled 'We Are On The Edge' combines first aid, Protection, weapons for self defence, as well as a few other things you may need in a post apocalyptic world! All the instuructions for each function are printed on the jacket for easy use. Batteux said "I believe Prepping can really become the next big design trend, the way sustainability did a few years ago."

The following short film illustrates all the functions of the jacket. 

[paige-eager]

Recycled Speedos

After the astounding world record breaking LZR Razor suit, launched in 2008 by Speedo, was banned by the FINA in 2010 Speedo was left with a significant number of the polyurethane swimsuits. They decided to collaborate with British fashion students and eco brand From Somewhere to create these fashionable sportswear pieces from the left over LZR suits. 

Speedo have also done a more recent collbaouration with Orsola De Castro, of From Somewhere, pairing up with Falmouth University graduate Rebecca Jayne Taylor. They created a beautiful ball gown from surplus fabrics of the Fastskin Super Elite swimsuit. The dress inspired by water and the importance of conserving it, was created from the use of sportwear design techniques, De Castro said “The sewing, finishes and details were constructed as if the dress would also have to withstand swimming, which presented an exciting challenge.”

More on the work of Orsola de Castro from From Somewhere here.

[paige-eager]

McQueen and Hirst Team Up In New Scarf Collection.

Some people love shoes, or bags but for me its scarves. I just love them. Of course the classic Alexander McQueen skull scarf has been on my need want list of my, so far imaginary, designer scarf collection for a long time. The new collaboration between McQueen and artist Damien Hirst has only reaffirmed my love for the classic British McQueen scarf. The 30 piece scarf collection has been created to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the British design house. Along side the collection photographer sølve sundsbø has created a short film capturing the slightly eerier aesthetics of both artists. 

The scarves take imagery from Hirst's entomology series. Butterflies and various other insects have been put together to create kaleidoscope patterns, and a few of the designs are pulsing out from the classic McQueen skull. The limited edition scarves are available in chiffon, pongé, twill and cashmere, ranging in price from £315 to £715. They are only available online and in McQueen boutiques and are on sale now. My personal favourite is the 'Forgiveness circular skull scarf' (Third down on the left) if only my student loan could be more forgiving!

[paige-eager]

Dame Vivienne Westwood for Lush

Lush have teamed up with Dame Vivienne Westwood to try and tackle the issue of how much unnecessary wrapping paper we use and dispose of each year. Did you know we could wrap the world up nine times with all the Christmas paper used each year?

Lush, well know for its eco cosmetics and Westwood, known for her eco fashion and climate revolution campaigns, have designed a scarf that can be used as an alternative to wrapping paper. The scarf which in itself is a gift is made from 100% organic cotton produced by John Spencer Textiles and printed by Standfast and Barracks both based in the UK.

"I always say, buy less and buy better quality - so that what you buy will last. These Climate Revolution Knot-Wraps can replace wrapping paper and will last a lifetime. More importantly, when you buy them you join an uprising: the Climate Revolution that we need if we are to have a future that we can survive and thrive in." - Dame Vivienne Westwood.

The scarf, avalible in pink and beige are £15 and available in shops, as well as online, from the 18th November. Each scarf also comes with a note on how to tie them in different ways, although Lush do some great videos online with ideas too!

I personally love scarves, and Lush's creative use of them caught my attention a couple of years ago as well as their amazing cosmetics. Its such a great idea! This year i am going to try and get scarves from charity shops to wrap my christmas presents to all my family! - And of course rushing to my local Lush to get one or two! 

[paige-eager]

What if we could sustainbly grown our own clothing? Well Suzanne Lee is a Fashion designer pairing up with biologists to discover a way of doing this, by using a mix of bacteria, yeast and microorganisms. Not only has she developed this process of creating a new fabric Lee is also developing ways it can be shaped around the body and dyed naturally. This is again another inspirational TED talk looking into the future of textiles and fashion and how it is developing alongside science. 

[paige-eager]

Fam Irvoll is one of my favourite up and coming designers! I have already posted about her S/S13 collection here, when I first noticed her quirky style and lovely illustrations. Fam Irvoll's has created yet again another great collection, naming her S/S14 collection 'Call The Exterminator'. The collection, presented at the Freemasons Hall with Vauxhall Fashion Scout, featured Irvoll's quirky printed illustrations of bugs, birds and rodents, hence the collection being call 'Call The Exterminator'! Irvoll's colour scheme mainly consisted of mint greens and pastel purples, pairing well with latex accessories which were part of a collaboration with VO by VIN + OMI. 

[paige-eager]

My last project from Year 1 at Falmouth was in collaboration with Watershed, Newquay, a surf and skate lifestyle brand. With myself being a new pro surfer I wanted to focus on new trends within the sports. I soon came across the exciting new sports that is night surfing. Nike host an annual night surfing event in Newquay, I looked into what clothing was trending at these events. British heritage and chunky knits were reported as key trends. I focused on playing around and experimenting with textiles and technology. I wanted to explore these trends and incorporate new ideas relating more specifically to the idea of night sports.

This is where I came across the idea of using glow-in-the-dark materials, and retroreflective yarns and materials. I knitted and wove them, inspiring my designs further by the idea of creating my own fabrics. I was quite limited by what I could do as I didn't have access to quite the right equipment at the time and wish I could have got my hands on better yarns, however this is something I'm not going to discard, I want to explore them a bit more in my own time and in later projects.

I also thought about how wearble techonolgy could be incorporated. I researched into alot of different companies who supply premade circuit boards and LED lights and came across Aniomagic. I used Aniomagic's circut board and simply set up the LED's to play around with how this could work. Again this had so many possiblities and I only briefly touched on it! After playing around with these technologies I started incorportating them into my 'British heritage' designs. 

For my final line-up I had a mix of pieces that were made from a light weight orange jersey knit, combining it with woven and knitted retroreflective and glow-in-the-dark jumpers, as well as loose trousers. Pairing them them with chunky knitted accessories. I also designed a wool coat as well as a lightweight transparent jacket which each had LED's incorporated into the sleeves.  

[paige-eager]

Looking through my tumblr blog I realised that I hadn't uploaded any of my recent Falmouth uni projects! So here is a little update on my work...

This is a short snapshot my yoga wear project where I designed a one piece yoga suit for the Hayman island spa in Australia. After researching into current yoga wear and yoga trends I really liked the idea of creating a piece that could be worn in either a hatha yoga class or whilst doing SUP (stand up paddle boarding) yoga. This meant the piece had to be quick drying and have a two way stretch, my first time working with stretch materials! My main inspirations came from bugs and beetles, in particular their exoskeletons. I then experimented with cutting up the beetle exoskeletons and placing them on a model, from there I could then design more detailed pieces. I felt this was such a short project and there was so much more to develop and play around with, but it was all an experience and I feel I learnt a lot about my own style and way of working, helping me progress with my later project.

The second part of the project was to collaborate with fashion photographers, which was a new experience and so exciting to be 'behind' the scenes during the shoots. Despite being in a chilly England I wanted the look book photos to look like we were really in Australia! Lucky for us Falmouth has some lovely beaches so with a little bit of editing the look book had a hint of Australia!   

[paige-eager]

Amazing live knitting on a bilboard in Shanghai, part of Nikes new 'free flyknit' trainer advertising!

[paige-eager]

Yarnlight Collective: Can Knitted Garments Improve Well-being?

Can knitted garments really improve and protect our wellbeing by naturally balancing our energies, reducing stress? 

Well this is the question Yarnlight Collective set out to discover. After designer Adam Jones, formally a knitwear designer at dior and Kenzo, seeked the help of a wellbeign energy specialist he came up with the concept of creating clothing that could naturally balance and restore your enegry levels, reducing stress, as well as creating a barrier from harmful electromagnetic pollution. After researching into quantum physics and ways of imprinting energy into a material he decided to experiment and research this concept within knitwear. 

This project was with the help of Linea Piu, one of the worlds most innovative textiles spinning companies. The collaboration with Linea Piu developed the Yarnergy technology to create the yarn. The yarn produced is made up of a carbon core, it is a very conductive material as well as an insulator, allowing it to be imprinted with energy. This is then spun with a combination of bamboo and ultra-fine cashmere. 24 carat gold has also been spun and used in the collection. Gold is said to have emotional healing properties as well as help with physical problems such as cancer, an ancient belief sighting all the way back to the Egyptians. Each Yarnlight garment comes with a little guide to meditation, showing the wearer how to connect with the clothing, allowing them to be able to release any stress and anxiety. 

These garments haven't just been produced and sold without Yarnlight backing up their claims of encouraging a healthier lifestyle. Testing of the garments has been carried out by Dr W. Tiller of Stanford university, using the significant development of measuring energy in water samples. Lutz Rabe, who is the head of the Bioelectrophotonics institute in Germany, has also tested the sweaters. Rabe conducted his experiment by using EPC/GDV technology, measuring the human body for energy after wearing a Yarnlight sweater for 30 minutes. The results (see image below) show a significant improvement in the persons energy field, energy levels had increase and stress decreased. Yarnlight also claim a garments can protect from electromagnetic pollution by up to 63%. The energy imprint increased the protection from the garment by 28%!

The sweaters are currently only selling on the Yarnlight website. The sweater are 'one size fits all' and available in 4 different colours for $350. So what do you think? Personally I find this really interesting and inspiring bit of research and design. As a person who enjoys practising yoga and enjoys science, I would love to try out this sweater and get my hands on this yarn. The possibilities of combining textile and science are amazing!

[paige-eager]

Nudie Jeans: Inspiring recycling.

Nudie Jeans have taken action on reducing and recycling their waste products. Nudie Jeans, a well known brand for selling ... you guessed it jeans, have started collecting old, and worn out jeans and giving them a new lease of life as a rug! 

Using Pinking shears the jeans are cut up, then sewn together, and wound, forming a spool of denim, ready for weaving. 

The weaving loom is set up with indigo-dyed thread as a weft then the denim is hand woven. Creating this beautiful handmade, eco-conscious, and durable rug! It's inspiring to see companies trying to minimise the wastage their product has on the environment.

[paige-eager]

Another inspiring TED talk this time from Brooke Roberts a Radiographer turned Fashion designer. I have been following Roberts for a while now inspired by her use of medical science, drawing inspiration from what some people view as maybe disgusting into a beautifully crafted piece of knitwear. 

I particularly like her SS12 'Wo-Man Machine' collection. Inspired by 50's sci-fi and imagery from the Allen insitute for brain science. Such a beautiful colour pallet and the subtil uses of different yarns to create textures shows how well science and fashion can come together perfectly!

[paige-eager]

Super inspiring Ted talk from Orsola de Castro, creative directer of From Somewhere and co founder of Estethica at London Fashion week, on sustainable fashion and textiles!

[paige-eager]

Inspiring; Love Brand & Co

I recently came across Love Brand & Co a luxury beach and swim wear company for men and boys. In their collection they have a basic short, polo, and t-shirt, which they produce in a variety of different colours and patterns, using organic cotton and nylon. The most interesting and inspiring aspect of this brand is that it donates 5% of its sales to elephant conservation. Working along side the Elephant Family, Tusk trust, and the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust Love Brand & Co create 'fashion for the greater good'.