Global vs Ethical Student Conference - The Trend Boutique

This looks interesting, I'll be attending as it links into my theory work rather nicely... Covering sustainability, environmental, ethical & global issues from a retailers, brand & designers perspective featuring some of the pioneering names in this arena.
Global vs Ethical Student Conference - The Trend Boutique

Studio Space

Millbank Penitentiary Cells

The Morpeth Arms pub in Pimlico has in its basement some of the original cells remaining from Millbank Penitentiary.
Here are a few of the great images that I got!

Inside/ Outside Project Ideas

Research
This project began by looking at the history of the Millbank penitentiary, which is now the site of Chelsea, Tate Britain and Burberry HQ.
Focusing on a time near the closure of the Prison, circa, 1880,at the height of the Victorian era which was also the time Burberry was establishing itself as a great british outdoors brand.
With the great outdoors comes a need for protection from the elements, and Burberry did this in the form of their creation of ‘gabadine’, a woolen fabric that was waxed before it was woven.

I also looked to the fashions of that time, this came about in the form of my great-grandmothers’ post card collection, cards depicting frozen sepia actresses and models in corsets, their dresses nipped in at the waste revealing ‘perfect’ 20’’waists- their bodies imprisoned by stiff structures that distorted a natural frame.

I took some photographs of the remaining cells in the basement of the Morpeth Arms pub, a couple of streets away from Chelsea. It was an eerie place to be, seeped with history and I felt a little uneasy being there.

Both of these ideas (protection and imprisonment), serve as a kind of second skin, an extension of the body in some way or another, although their concepts are fundamentally very different and contradictory; one is a form of protection, and the other a form of imprisonment- they are however both inclosing, inward.
I want to play with these ideas perhaps trying to combine them to reveal a contradiction, tension or oddity. I would also like to play with a slight feeling of unease, a feeling of something being not quite right.
I plan to take some more photographs, perhaps double exposures on a lomography camera, allowing my bleeding colour palette to seep in to the images themselves, these will perhaps be the basis for my digital prints that I could then work into…

I would like look to ideas of waterproofing: varnishing, latex, plastics, ways of finishing: bonding, foiling, darning, mending, embroidering,
Idea’s of tension, how are things joined, peeling, stiffened
Idea’s of contradiction, heavy duty things:leathers,wools edged beautifully, or combined with more delicate things, papers, silks etc

I might physically construct my samples, giving an implication of detail or a suggestion of an accessory?

Sustainability
I intend to use recycled fabrics wherever possible within this project. I have collected old prison blankets from Brixton Prison, which once offered a form of protection and I have second hand leather off-cuts to play with.

Colour Palette
My colour palette finds its inspiration within the photographs of the old cells, my great-grandmothers postcards and some of my own drawings.

28th October

Inspiring light in both of these shots!

Research Images

Burberry Project Autumn

The project with Burberry is called ‘ Inside-Outside’ and asks the students to design a collection of beautiful fabrics to inspire fashion designers, which makes the most of their fabrics’ qualities in stitch, weave, knit, print and digital production.

The link between Chelsea College and Burberry is our location here at Millbank as well as a deep commitment to the development of innovation and quality in the design and use of textiles.

Location: The site of Chelsea College of Art and Design, together with The Tate and Burberry HQ occupy territory, which was once Millbank Penitentiary. There is a rich source of historic information and detail concerning a period in which social structures and values of all kinds were different from ours today, providing contrasts and comparisons. Social anthropological and environmental detail concerning the factors associated with the history of this site is well documented and, with the addition of some fictional accounts, can paint a picture of life in this location, up to 200 years ago, including the experience of prison.

Heritage: The project encourages the students to explore the rich local reference, and to research this period of Millbank’s history as a prison, with all the conceptual interpretations it affords. The students are being asked to connect this with a contemporary interest in longevity and sustainability in products as a way of reducing waste and providing beautiful experiences for people to enjoy. Their experimentation will be connected to such issues as careful selection of materials to express their ideas and the introduction of textile techniques to develop characterful, personal fabrics, which tell the story of the collection.

The Slow Movement places emphasis on quality and lasting value. Using models of production, valuing craft skills and awareness of new technologies, the project emphasis on sustainable luxury offers a model to translate ideas into action. The exploration of local history and contemporary local design production will give the collection a sense of the ‘terroir’ often associated with locally grown produce.

This is a ‘call to arms’ for sustainability in manufactured goods and an examination of values. Select materials and processes to explore fully the concept. Long Life fabrics are sustainable in their continued usage and heritage quality, avoiding landfill for the longest time. This should encourage and develop an understanding of current thinking in design of all kinds of products along with social and economic imperatives, whilst providing a platform for individual practice.

Values: The project will encourage the examination of historic detail, to uncover and revive vintage materials and historic processes. The possible connection with new (often digital) textile processes and contemporary innovation, can make the designer more relevant and well informed in the professional environment.

Innovation: The theme should inspire the invention of new fabric structures, surfaces and qualities which locate and capture the intellectual concepts as inspiration for making new textiles. A ‘grave to cradle’ perspective will give a new life to material considered to be waste, or of little value.

Deadline: Friday 3rd December - Burberry Selection Day
From 'Chelsea Students Project Blog'

Photoshoot

The dress finished as it was in the show, photographed in the studio.Thanks so much Sarah for being such a great model...xxx.....

Fitting of my 'Mock-Up'

Here are a couple of shots taken on my 35mm, Pentax ME Super. Sarah trying on a mock up for the dress.




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Sun-Dress:the process

While thinking about the process that I could use for my prints for my fabric, I came across a process called 'blue printing' or 'cyanotype' which was discovered at the end of the 18th Century as a means of developing photos by sunlight. So i found out the names of the chemicals and managed to order them on line. After blowing up photos of my environment, subject matter for my prints( the process was almost more important than the prints themselves in this project, as it adhered to both the ideas I was investigating of things responding to sunlight as well as being sustainable(by not using harmful chemicals or having any wastage)).
First I mixed the two chemicals together and put them in a dark bottle in the dark and coated the fabric in the dark, which in my case, was the bathroom, with multiple layers of newspaper to soak up any excess. This was then allowed to dry in the dark and then once dry taken out, with my images on acetate and then pinned on to the fabric which was being stretched out on foam board. It was then left to expose in the sun, whereby the images where transferred to the fabric and then I could take the acetate off, and my fabric would be printed. After washing out the excess chemicals, I hung the fabric out to dry. Here are a couple of photos illustrating the process.

Sway 'Sun-Dress'

Sway was a fashion show project in which we were asked to draw information from movement in nature. I was looking at phototropism; how plants and flowers turn/bend towards the light, maximising the light that they receive. I made a short time lapse to illustrate this.

Although the plant does not grow that much during the video which takes place over a day, you can see the shadows changing throughout the day and I thought it was still great for my project because what is the significance of light without shadow?

Illustrating the Muse

The idea was to somehow visualise the prints you had done so that someone else could imagine the kind of idea you had for the final part of the design process. I decided that I wanted to contrast my soft, moody and somewhat feminine prints with a more tailored utilitarian or almost military masculin-like look.

Muse

Muse was a project which comprised of six final prints that we took to exhibit at Indigo, Premiere Vision in Paris at the beginning of February. This collection was inspired by the poetry of Khalil Ghibran, a Lebanese-American poet. The prints themselves was made using a combination of chalk pastels and oil pastels. They were then digitally printed onto a Crepe de Chine. The top layer seen in the next post is Silk chiffon, hand dyed and painted to create a suggestive layering effect.






This design(below) was sold to Roberto Fantoccoli, an Italian based manufacturing company.