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We’re looking at creating a garment so that by the end of three days the young people will have created their own piece of work
using the post war modern as a starting point.
Today, which is our first day, is basically looking at the exhibition,
coming up with concept ideas, drawing up patterns, and then preparing for the next two days.
Initially I took the students around the Cold War Modern exhibition.
What I always think is very important to explain to them is that they don’t just immediately go for fashion exhibits.
A starting point might be a piece of sculpture, a painting, a textile piece or even a piece of furniture.
Well, in the exhibition we looked around the cold war and in the museum and there were loads of
buildings and sculptural ideas with lots of lines and spikes and things and I really thought that was really good.
There were posters and stuff which I looked at and they all have very simple quite bold messages,
as you’d expect from a poster, but in their own style which seemed common at that time,
and I tried to take that and see how I could put it into clothes.
Well, I looked at a lot of the shapes. I thought a lot of the shapes were really organic,
and they were all really simple to make a really interesting thing.
I drew a Vesper here, which has got really simple shapes, but it’s really interesting to look at.
Tomorrow, hopefully, we will be cutting the patterns, sorting out fabrics and starting to create the garment in its earliest form.
It’s all quite basic at the moment. I haven’t actually added any detail.
I mean, I’m going to add a few patterns and stuff. I’m going to make a button hole and there are silver buttons over there because I’m using the Cold War idea.
The buttons are quite military like. And then I’m bringing in through a few patterning by sewing there and there white lines
which I’ve taken from one of the poster ideas within the exhibit.
This is my design. I’ve made it out of paper.
And then basically I’ve cut a section out of it and cut it into pieces here to create the pattern pieces.
So this used to be here, and this here. And I cut that out and put it together to create a corset that fits around here,
which will be the top part of my dress and my design.
Initially this was on the other side as well with the patterns,
and then I had to cut that off and make the actual patterns into the fabric.
It will pin there and go back around the sides to the back.
I just need to get these two panels finished, and I can start on the skirt.
Yeah, this is my dress and the first two panels are PVC.
And then, I’ve had the idea of... later on I’m going to put tubing to make it stick out a bit.
Round the back I’ve used silk which I thought would give a different effect of the PVC and I’m doing some ruching.
By the last day, Friday, they should have completed the whole garment. So that will be completed, all the details, so, fastenings, buttons, zips, etc.
Erm, there were quite a lot of sculptures and buildings and things, and they had a lot of spiky architecture. So this is what the lines were.
Never done a fashion designing course before, so I haven’t really got anything to compare it to, but I really enjoyed it and I thought it was really interesting.
I’ve made these in the past but not in this sort of atmosphere. Like the atmosphere of a workroom sort of thing. So it’s more formal in that way, but not like strict or anything.
Starting off I was a bit unsure, if I had enough ideas and stuff like that.
I’ve taken army-esque, Russian style. Taken that forward, which I had near the beginning, and gradually refined and refined till I got this, which as you can see is pretty refined.
When my mum put me through this course, I was like “Oh, I’m never going to finish anything. It’s just going to be a bit of material”, but to actually make a dress is really good for me, because I’ve never done anything like this before.
Design, generally, particularly for young people, and in schools, I think can often be quite limiting. And I think what we need to recognise more is that design is transferable.
That if you can look, if you can think, if you can be creative you can transfer those skills into other areas, whether that’s literacy, numeracy, science.
So design for me is a good starting point and a good transferable skill to have.