Hand In...

Deadline day at the university, and one thing is for sure, students based at the arts campus are unorganised! Patterns were randomly spewed all over the floor of the computer room, and people were starting to shout "I don't care if you've run out of magenta!" at the printer... but luckily for me, I was just finishing off to hand in, after managing to pretty much organise myself as much as possible last night (well, this morning if you want to be precise...)

I am so glad to get this work in... I am definitely NOT a designer or a manufacturer. I'm just me, and a me that is really looking forward to next semester! We got our timetable and Christmas holiday homework - not only do we have placements to look forward to next year, but also a self-organised photo shoot, based on a given magazine. We get to finally do knit, and are making our own accessory for the shoot! I immediately thought of knitted glasses and a bow tie... and luckily I got Dazed & Confused magazine as my style, so I am already running a million ideas through my head on set, make up, poses, the type of model I want to use etc.

Of course, I've got the whole of the holidays to look into different types of garment/accessory/house hold item I would like to make and how I'm going to do my shoot, so no need to jump straight in with my first idea. However, I always end up coming back to my original thoughts, and just love playing with ideas!

I can't wait!!

EthicAlice

Following on from my previous post, and in the vain of my posts of recent times, I want to talk again about my future, this time focusing less on the actual job role, and more of the general feeling I want to go in. As you know, since attending the Global vs. Ethical seminar, and also doing the Fashion Issues project I know that I would definitely like to incorporate ethical and ecological viewpoints into my work.

Fashion Issues

This semester we've had a module called Fashion issues... Here is my work:

Fashion Issues Review

For the Fashion Issues module we were firstly in small groups where we discussed all and any issue we could think of with the fashion industry. This ranged from consumer problems, such as size or age, to concerns to do with the environment. However, from the very beginning of this module, I knew the topic I wished to address, as it is one I am passionate about. I decided to focus on the issue of ethics within the fashion industry. This is a large subject as there are so many different issues that could come under the umbrella of ‘ethics’ and, of course, what may be moral to some, may be less important to others. For example, you might think choosing organic silk is the ethical choice, however, for those who believe strongly in animal rights the problems arising from centuries of inbreeding, and the treatment of the larvae at the hands of the silk harvesters is definitely not ethical.

Because of this, I determined to look into the branches within the tree of ‘ethical fashion’ that I was most interested in, and thought was more of an issue both in the industry and commercially. After attending a seminar about ethical fashion, I became intrigued with the idea of ‘upcycling’, where you re-use materials to make something of more value, as opposed to recycling where quite often the value of the product was decreased. I felt that this was important to both the designer and consumer. I am also concerned by the globalisation of the industry. There is a place for it, but unfortunately of an ecological viewpoint, it makes very little sense to be transporting goods from a factory in India, to the UK, then back out to other parts of the world through distribution. As a result, I wanted to look at the British fashion industry, and felt that the wool industry in particular was important and fitting with my aesthetic.

I started out by looking at jewellery, and designing with the idea of using degradable products like wood, natural and reconstituted materials such as wool, and upcycling materials we no longer needed, in this case, broken tiles. I got my inspiration for this in particular from a photograph I had taken of Gaudi’s Park Güell in Barcelona, where broken tiles had been used to create seating and add interest to roofs etc.

The outcome of this, and of my research, was what I feel to be a very organic and natural feeling collection, making use of organic and ethically man-made fabrics, recycled and reconstituted wool and yarns, and jewellery made from upcycled products such as tiles, and laser cut wood. The colour scheme (cream, sky blue, reddy-brown, earthy green and pastel pink) was taken from a broken-floral tile, forest floors, and a breed of orchid that happens to be called ‘Alice Goodman’!

I feel that my collection is unique in the fact that it uses both the idea of upcycling, and also organic and ethical materials to create fashion forward pieces for any occasion.