Prada AW12

I am keen to keep up with fashion trends and I endeavour to familiarise myself with the latest collections. On reflection of my own work, I immediately noticed that there were immediate links with Prada's AW12 collection, featuring geometric and quite solid prints. The colours are quite striking and appear to be quite optical.

 

The way that Prada have used geometric prints as well as a strong use of colour is interesting in itself, however the cut of the garments is quite an important statement within this particular collection.

 

The simple straight trousers temed with long flowing jackets and tops allow the print to be showcased to it's true potential. The movement of the garments whilst the models are walking down the runway accentuates the busy nature of the prints.

 

 I also find the way that the print has been applied to the floor using a suaded carpet and it allows the audience to be completely immersed in the prints that are included within the range of Prada's clothing. The jackets and trousers are also embellished with Rhinestones and jewels which also adds yet more depth to the prints.

WGSN

I luckily have gained access to Trend Forcasting website WGSN, which is allowing me to identify the key colours, trends, silhouettes etc for all areas in textiles which will mean that I can develop work that will be relevant if it was to be made into a product and it would be on trend for it's release.

Before going into knit within the Construct textile "world", I wanted to identify what would be on trend for knitwear in the coming seasons. I looked at this trend report entitled "Knitted Cooridnates" which automatically appealed to me and appeared to be relevant to my own methods of working.

WGSN analysis

• Silhouette: sweaters are fitted, skirts are pencil or A-line shaped
• Colour: monochromatic pattern or primary brights work well to maintain a retro feel, in keeping with the 1960s mood. Alternatively, use a darker palette of burnt reds, ochre, sage and navy for a more autumnal feel
• Yarn & stitch: simple yarns and subtle knit-stitch completes this look. Use micro-geometric repeats, contrast-colour border placements, traditional cables and Fair Isle patterns. A play on variated scale and openwork or pointelle stitches look newest for this trend
• For further 60s inspiration, view the recent 60s Modernist: spring/summer 2013 women's catwalk capsule trend

The analysis also allowed me to look at these images that give a general feel for the emerging trend

These outfits that the Trend Analysis provided shows clear use of geometric shapes and repeat pattern which are a point of interest in my own work. It would be a good idea for me to persist on using these patterns as it fits in well with this particular emerging trend.

There is some clear evidence of colour blocking, simplifying detail down into clear and quite structural shapes. I could take my own colour pallette and take shapes from drawings etc within my sketchbook.

Manchester Art Gallery, The First Cut exhibition.

I first visited the exhibition as part of the event that was put on by University, to try and allow people to network with artists, designers and other students from the school of art.

I decided to visit the exhibition again to get a real look at the work as I did initially find it very inspiring and was quite similar to the work that I like to create. A whole exhibition dedicated to artists that love to spend a great deal of time and effort into pieces of work that can sometimes be quite small in scale but very intricate and complex.



I was particularly interested in the work of Peter Callesen. I loved the delicacy of his work and the ways that he amazingly managed to cut a very complicated design into a single piece of card and allow it to remain attached to the page.

I liked some of the humour behind his pieces, particularly in the piece that features a man that is climbing up a "mountain" (a crumpled piece of paper). The man is absolutely tiny and is in perfect proportion to reality of a man climbing a mountain.

I'd love to try and complete my own versions of this kind of work, working with just paper and a scalpel and be clever in how I cut my paper in order for a shape to be formed that can still be attached to the page within my book.

See link for more Peter Callesen images http://twistedsifter.com/2012/11/sculptures-cut-from-single-piece-of-paper-peter-callesen/

Weaving

During my time in weave, I've learned that choosing my yarns carefully is an essential part of creating a successful weave.
I have an interest in colour anyway so experimenting with colour through yarns was a new challenge and a new way of working that I'm still getting used to. I've tried many combinations ranging from mainly neutral colours in a selection of creams and beiges with flashes of a bright colour such as lime green and hot orange and then the other way round, using brighly coloured yarns and cooling the pallette down with softer biscuity tones.
I devised my warp by creating a series of yarn wrappings around card and seeing how the colours interact with each other. I opted for a cooler pallette, using creams, beiges, biscuits and other neutral tones with  flashes of yellow, lime green and blue with the occasional end of orange in the weft.


  Threading up in weave was the most challenging process of creating woven fabric. Using the mill was quite a confusing part of the job. Counting the ends whilst spinning the mill in a particular way was a challenge in itself. I then though that it may have been over for the time consuming jobs. I was wrong. I then was shown how to raddle on and then thread up which took hours and hours and then each and every single individual yarn had to be passed through a very narrow metal framework.

Then the weaving began, learning how to convert a grid into knowing which shafts needed to be lifted and in what order was also difficult and could be compared to learning a new language. However, with practice, weaving did become easier and I did begin to get into the rhythm of it and did start to enjoy the process on the whole.

 

Whilst acutally weaving, I decided to use structures that reflected my work within my sketchbook. My work is generally quite structured and well considered so I wanted to choose structures that showed some sort of pattern and order such as "Tile" (below



 

 

 "Stripe" (below)



 

 

"Crater" (below)

 

 

 

 

and finally "Diamond" (below)

 

 

How did I make the new prints?

Within my sketchbook, I decided to take the shapes that I preferred the most and arrange them in different ways and displayed these through drawing. Instead of collaging, I thought that photoshop would be an easier way to create the prints but I decided to decide on the shapes I would create on photoshop through drawing within my sketchbook.

I decided to make it easier for myself by showing the amount of the shapes I needed and the lines of symmetry were added to show how I would reflect the shapes and in what axis etc.

New prints

I decided it was the right decision to make some more prints, using the pieces that I have cut out from the other prints that were made earlier in the Journeys unit. I kept the pieces safe, knowing that I'd find some use for them and scanned them into the computer. I then decided to use Photoshop to rearrange them and create new and interesting patterns, working from my range of pantone colour charts that I have collected earlier. There's something about the shapes that is quite intriguing, I think I like the irregularity of them all.

Pantone App for iPhone

This app is amazing. I decided to download this on my iPhone as I thought it would be useful to have this colour identification tool at my finger tips at all times. It's very simple to use, you take a photograph and use your cursor to pick up all of the colours within that small section.

It has been useful within my current project as I have taken photographs of my work and identified my colour pallette.