Session 3: It’s All in the Details

My last design session ever. Definitely did not think this day would ever arrive, although I will say I’m thankful for everything I’ve been able to learn and improve on from all the design sessions we’ve had this year.

For this session, we were told we would no longer be looking directly at our chosen brand, which I thought was quite freeing as it meant we could be more instinctive with our design choices. We learnt the essence of detailing in designs and how they bring a garment into a realistic form, particularly for more modern designs and our own collections we’d be creating.

We began by doing some historical research (I chose 1720s to 1750s as I liked the extravagance of the menswear at the time). This method was certainly a new and interesting way of researching and I definitely found it helpful for detailing as I could picture some of the elements like the buttons and the sleeves on my own designs and detailing was something I think I lacked in my previous collection.

After this, we took this research and applied it to our own mirrored images we had done the previous week. I used my research sparingly, really focusing on details such as the buttons and sleeves in order to gain a more realistic idea of how I could incorporate these elements into my designs. I found I was able to create some button and pocket details that I thought could work well for a jacket.

We then went on to revisit colour and fabric choices like we did in Part 1. However, we had the option to choose our own colour story this time independent from our artist research, so I decided to take this opportunity to test my creative colour coordination as I wasn’t a fan of the colour stories I had created last time using my artist research.

I wanted earthy tones for my palette (inspired by the colour of a coat that I research from the previous historical activity), so I decided to go for some brown tones mixed in with an orange and greens. I may adjust the hues of these colours going forward when I begin really evaluating my colour choices for my design, but for now, I’m quite happy with my selection of colours and can see how they will integrate into my designs well.

For fabrics, I selected them based on what I could see my current designs in, as well as what would work well with the colour palette I had created. I also still wanted some element of organic and sustainability to be present so I ended up going with wool, woolen tartan, vegan leather, linen and suede. I think these textures are reminiscent within some of my artist’s works as well, as well as the simple angular shapes of my designs resonating with his style.

Textured artwork by Ed Ruscha – reminds me of linen texture that I want to bring into collection

Going forward, I want to solidify my colour and fabric ideas and work on hand drawing my line up, possibly incorporating mixed media while doing this to achieve more 3D-looking outcomes. I want to look up online how to draw realistic fabrics as well for the fabrics I’ve chosen to further achieve this. I also want to develop the detailing I’ve learned from this session into my designs and just overall have them finalised within the week and have my lineup complete, if not almost complete, so I’m able to focus on my business work next week.

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