Garment Deconstruction (25/10/11)

In preparation for this week's session we had to purchase a men's tailored jacket (preferably second-hand). The aim of the session was to explore the make of a jacket by de-constructing it and to re-assembling it's pattern pieces into a new garment on a mannequin.

The first steps of the exercise were to explore all sides of the jackets. 

All seam lines, pockets, details, buttons etc.. 

Front View

Side view

Back view

Inside lining view

Collar view

Sleeve view

Inside view of buttons, button holes, inside pocket and care label

The first stage of the deconstruction was to fully remove the lining from the jacket, leaving all seams joined except the seams which holds the jacket on to the lining.

Front of lining

Sleeve seams in detail. As we can see, the seams are not matching each other which shows its poor quality .

Side view of lining

The next stage of the exercise was to experiment with the lining and the top half of the jacket in order to create new designs and shapes. I decided to use only the lining because it drapes well and had a beautiful colour which i wanted to experiment with. 

I firstly started by pleating the bottom end of the lining upside down along the shoulder line creating two big knife pleats which covered the whole shoulder. 

The next stage was to drape the lining from the left side of the mannequin onto the right side, positioning it under the pleatin of the shoulder. 

The bottom back of the lining was situated at the front, creating a wide ''V'' neckline. 

After draping and pinning all the lining around the front of the mannequin I ended up with the sleeves hanging down. I hid them by tucking them into one of the pockets which was situated at the side, creating beautiful volume at the bottom of the design. 

Final look of the lining.

Glue and Cloth demonstration (Continuation From Week 5) (18/10/11)

This week's session was a continuation from last week, working with shapes created on chairs using materials layered on top and glued to hold the shape. 

The first steps of the exercise were to slowly remove the fabrics off the chairs.

After removing the pieces off the chairs we started to work with them on the mannequins. The first piece that we used was the chair piece with tights and mutton cloth. 

(Texture in detail)

(more details)

We decided that the piece would best suit a shoulder embellishment as it had a lot of volume and texture which would be a great shoulder detail for a garment. 

(Front view during adjustments)

(Side view)

(Final side view)

(Final front view after a series of adjustments)

The next part of the exercise was to repeat the process using the second piece of work. 

(Piece pinned, without any adjustments)

 We started off by placing the whole piece of jersey on the mannequin. We thought that it would be great as a whole garment and not just a piece of embellishment or decoration because it was quiet big, enough to cover up the body. 

(Side view of piece, with no adjustments.)

There were some beautiful shapes and bends within the fabric, so we thought that if we pin them around it would enhance their look and they will be brought up more. 

(In detail)

(back view before)

(side view before)

(Final right side view)

(Final left side view)

(Detail of fabric)

This is the final look we came up with. We decided it had a very sculptural and minimalistic look, with many different and unusual angles at unusual places around the body.

Here are two quick sketches of the garment that I made after class. 

Private Studies

I decided to carry out some research on sculptural art and fashion after this week's session, as I found it very interesting and different.

Nanna van Blaaderen

Her 'More or Less' knitwear collection really reminded me of the first experiment we carried out today

 

 

  

Zuzana Kubícková

  

These pieces reminded me of the second experimentation which we did because they are very structured and look in place.

 

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Glue and Cloth demonstration (11/10/11)

The aim of this week's lesson was to create unusual shapes by dressing up chairs and odd objects in order to absorb their shape and use it as a garment or as a piece of decoration. 

(Equipment needed: 1 litre PVA glue, 1 roll of cling film, one roll of ''mutton cloth'' and a selection of tights)

The first step of the exercise was to pick a chair of out choice and cover it up with cling film. There a few reasons for that, firstly by 

covering it with cling film we protect the chair of any damage and secondly the lines of the cling film make interesting shapes which will transfer onto our fabric later on. 

(Brown tights wrapped around )

(Black tights added)

After that, we started wrapping the base of the chair with different tights, all around. Using twists, knots, plats etc.

We mixed different types and colours of tights to give it more detail. After we finished with the tights, we added the mutton cloth on the top and covered the chair with PVA glue and left it to dry in a safe place for next week. 

(Mutton cloth added)

For the second part of the exercise we decided to combine two different chairs together to give a bigger and better shape, with more angles and unique shapes. 

We used two small chairs layed on top of one another and secured them tightly. After that we repeated the process of the first exercise which was to cover the chairs in cling film for protection. 

For the second part of the exercise we decided to use grey lightweight jersey.

(Wrapping the two chairs into jersey)

The final part of the session was to cover the second piece of chair experimentation with PVA glue and leave it together with the first one to dry for next session.