Deadline Week

It's that time of the semester again, the week we all dread (and sort of look forward to it being over) "Deadline Week". This is where hours of hard work go into completing projects that we have been working on for about 3 months. Sometimes we're sick of these projects, can't wait for them to be over and just power through the late hours of the night adding the finishing touches. Other times you can feel satisfied with the work, and just glad that you'll get a good mark that you can be proud of, this is usually when you'll have been really organised throughout the whole semester and put a lot of time into the project. This semester for me, in my Design Development module has been mixed emotions. I was fairly organised, worked hard and planned my time well, however you can never stop the little things going wrong can you? Anyway after a long weekend of non-stop Adobe Illustrator and putting the finishing touches on my work, I am quite pleased with the final result, especially the flat drawings and illustrations which I think have improved greatly from last semester! Here are some examples of my work:

Images of my work from my camera

Sustainable Style

Since the new term began in January, I have been researching into slow fashion and designing for a sustainable brand for Burton Menswear in my Design Development module. This has been extremely interesting as we not only had to look at the world around us and how fast fashion affects it, but we were also made to think about how we affect fashion and how we let fast fashion dictate our lives.

I am someone who rarely chucks anything away, after living in a small town in Lincolnshire for most of my life, I would rarely go shopping (due to lack of time and travel facilities). This would mean I was encouraged to keep hold of the clothes I had and to make the most from them. It also meant when I did go shopping, I'd buy something I loved rather than something that would be liked for a small amount of time. However that doesn't mean I haven't bought things and then only wore them a few times, surely that's is every girl's weakness?

I decided to aim my collection at a young market, to make them aware of sustainable fashion and to give them the option of affordable clothing that lasts longer. After researching into the more affordable end of the market for young adults, I found that Burton Menswear does not currently sell a "sustainable" collection or brand, so I decided to create one for them.

The brand is called Sustainable Style, and is aimed to be stylish, fit in with their usual seasonal collections, but to also contrast towards usual features and stand out as something different but also something good. Below you will find the Customer Board for this brand:


The customer is aged 20-30 years old, and would have a low disposable income. This fashion conscious gent, is creative, appreciative of music, has a great social life and loves to travel, however, he is also very aware of his personal social responsibility. He would choose this collection so that the items would last longer but would be in style with other items from Burton Menswear. The mood for this collection is also the mood for the brand, using natural shapes, features and fabrics. Below you will find the Mood Board for this collection, entitled Natural Nostalgia:


I am currently working on my design development for this brand, including unique features to make garments long lasting, but also very interesting.

Images are from my own camera.

Design Development

Below is a selection of some work from a Design Development project. This was the first time I'd really attempted to draw fashion illustrations and to create fully readable flat drawings of a final capsule collection. As a reminder, at the beginning of term the class was put into groups and researched into a designer's brand, customer, and style and researched into trends. Our designer was Martin Margiela. Once the research element was complete we then designed individually. First I am showing four pages of design development where I work through each garment, altering style features developing them to make a collection that will work together but also a range of garment styles within this. I started my design process by writing a list of the areas I wanted to design in and what percentage these would take up in my design development.


I started with jacket shapes and styles, looking at past examples in collections and thinking about how they could be structured.


I then looked at trousers and shirts, creating a formal aspect in my designs, but there were also casual jersey items, leather jackets and trousers.


Below are two flat boards. I scanned in my design development flats of the ones i was using in my capsule collection and traced over them in illustrator. I tried to make them as clear as possible and easy to read.


I stuck squares of fabric samples to the board displaying not only the fabric that would make up each design, but also the colour.


My illustration pages were next drawn up. I'd practiced some styles of figures in my development and practiced drawing on my garments. I then tried different ways to color them and chose this style.
I used this background and layout as Margiela is known for his simplistic style, as you can see from his website.

Images are of my own work.

Menswear Trends Autumn/Winter 2010/2011

Here are some of the trends that have been predicted for Autumn Winter 2010/2011. These have been chosen because they are somehow linked to the Maison Martin Margiela brand and the collection I am designing for this project will be influenced by a mix of some of these trends. The trends have been analysed to show links between the elements of the trend and the brand. This could be on colour, keywords, predicted shapes or the fabrics within the trend.








All images are of my own work compiled from www.maisonmartinmargiela.com and WGSN.com

Inspiration for my Maison Martin Margiela Designs

Below shows images of the customer board, mood board and fabric board that will help to inspire my design work for this project. These will be used throughout the whole design process and have been developed through out research into the Maison Martin Margiela brand, customer and collections.

Customer Board

Mood Board

Fabric Board

All images from my own camera