EVALUATION

My final outcome is a halter top with a fringe trim, a jacket with pleated sleeve and a pair of flared trousers. At the beginning of my project I had no idea what I wanted my final outcome to look like or where I was going with it. All I had was a list of designers, artists, photographers and musicians who inspired me and they were going to direct my project.

My main of working has been through the use of my sketchbook. All of my ideas go in here and it has become a visual diary of everything I do from research to development to final designs. Have all of my work in one place has helped me to develop my ideas because they're all in one place so I can constantly look back on what I've previously done in order to help know where I want to go next. While using my sketchbook I tried to forget that it is something that will be marked and graded but examiners at the end. By doing this is helped me to express my ideas in my own ways such as collaging, writing little notes to my self and drawing. Because I was focused on how I wanted my sketchbook to look, not how an examiner might see it, I think this benefited me because my sketchbook now has a very natural, organic flow to it rather than a check list to getting a distinction.

Another method that has helped me develop my work is the use of my blog. My sketchbook is mainly visual so having a blog were I can write down all of my ideas and clear my mind has been extremely useful. Sometimes it can be difficult to visually portray what I'm thinking so my blog has helped me to explain my thoughts. It is also a way for other people to understand my thought process which may not always be clear from just looking at my sketchbooks.

I have found my one-to-one tutorials really useful in this project because it really helps to get a fresh pair of eyes to look at your work because they always notice things or have ideas that you wouldn't have thought of. One piece of advice my tutor gave me was about the models I was using in my collages. My project is on black feminism but for a lot of my collages I was using white women's because black women were harder to find in magazines. She told me that the collages were great but I have to keep my theme running throughout the whole project and stay true to what my theme was. Although it seems like a simple piece of advice it made me think that I always had to go back to my theme and my research because if I didn't refer to it there was no point doing any research at all. This is something that I tried to carry throughout the whole project which is why I was still researching right till the end.

One thing that I'm going to take away from this project and try to improve on is my time management. Although I made a timetable at the beginning of the project I only looked at it a few times. I was never falling behind but I think if I had continuously looked at the timetable I wouldn't have had to rush toward the end to get everything finished. I'm also going to try to become more organised with written task such as blog. I was on top of my blog till around week 5 when I became lazy and once I'd stopped doing it, it was hard to start it up again without think about how much I had to catch up. This is definitely something that I need to find a way to keep on top of.

The main skill that I have feel I've improved on in this project is to think of my designs as clothes not illustrations. By thinking this way it forces me to think about how this item of clothing will be made, what will it be made from, what kind of zip will it have etc. By having this 8 weeks I was able to have time to think about these things rather than push them aside like I did in the two week projects. Another thing that I think I was good at was the research. Having nearly a whole sketchbook dedicated to research was amazing for me because any time I was slightly stuck about where to go next I had masses of images, texts and drawings to look back on to inspire me. Doing extensive research before I begin to design is definitely something I will continue doing as it helps so much with the design process.

Next year I am going to study a degree in Womenswear Fashion Design at the Paris College of Art and I am excited to see my skills continue to develop in a new environment.

WEEK 9

I spent this last week putting together the final outfits for my final lineup. I used the Sam technique as I did when deciding on the colours for the outfit I made. I tried out lots of different combinations because even though I loved all the clothes the outfits could have a completely different vibe depending on how I put them together.

Once I'd figured out most of my colours I went fabric shopping again to get the specific swatches that I needed for my final lineup.

Then I experimented with different ways to draw my models and decided to draw them the way I'd styled the photo shoot, with a head wrap and smart buckled shoes rather than trainers like I usually do.

Finally I drew my final line up, flats and stuck the fabric swatches next to each outfit.

WEEK 8: DAY 3

Today I went through all my photos and chose the best ones to edit. I didn't change them too much because I wanted everything about the photos to be as natural and untouched as possible. I'm really happy with the outcome and I feel like the photo shoot perfectly sums up my project

WEEK 8: DAY 2

Today was photo shoot day abd from morning to end everything went smoothly. Luckily all the garments fit her and when I put the head wrap and makeup on her I was really pleased because the look turned out just how I had imagined it in my head, if not better. I'm really happy with how the photos turned out and there are lots of great ones for me to choose from.

WEEK 8: DAY 1

Today I prepared for my photo shoot by making a mood board of the look that I was going for and how this could be achieved through styling and props. I want the model to look quite ethereal and very calm and at peace. I knew I wanted to incorporate my research on flowers in the shoot so I picked some flowers the morning of the shoot to use as props. I don't want any accessories because I think they'll E just distract from the clothes but instead I want the model to have a headwrap as iris a very common hairstyle for black women to wrap their hair in a scarf. I found a really nice beige mesh that I bought a while ago which I think will be perfect because it won't stand out too much and overpower the model but I am also going to bring in some ther possible fabric choices which I could use. For make up I want it to be very simple because I want her natural beauty to shine through so I'm just going to put some orange eyeshadow on her to match the jacket and some mascara.

I also pressed all of my clothes so I don't have to rush to do it tomorrow morning.

Today was a very useful day because now I know exactly what I'm going to be doing at the photo shoot and how I'm going to create a look that sums up my theme in a subtle way. I'm going to show the photographer and model this mood board to give them an insight to my project which will help then to understand what I want to achieve from this shoot.

WEEK 7

I spent the whole of week 7 making my garments for the photo shoot. Luckily there were no complications, probably because I spent so much time perfecting my patterns. This meant I was already used to making the clothes so when it came to making the final garments I was already used to all of the steps.

Even though I had fit all the toiles to my model as a made them to make sure they were the correct size, I tried them on her again so that I knew I wouldn't have to make any adjustments on photo shoot day.

WEEK 6: DAY 4

Today I went to Shepherd's Bush to buy my fabrics. I wanted to get either neoprene or something similar to this for the jacket so it would hold the shape I wanted it to have but I couldn't find anything similar to this in the right colour. I decided to go for colour over fabric and found a really nice one which is fairly sturdy in a burnt orange. For the trousers I went for a plain navy cotton and for the top I bought quite thick fabric (not sure what it is exactly) but it is sturdy so will hold the shape and seems comfortable to wear.

After thinking about it a lot I decided that I didn't have enough time to do the print on the material and if I had wanted to it should've been something that I thought about a couple weeks ago. I spent some time redesigning the top using different weaving techniques that I learnt a couple weeks ago. I thought about making the whole top from a weave but decided that this would take too long. I decided on a halte top with a turtleneck and then a woven fringe trim along the bottom.

I also changed the design of my trousers slightly. I bought a really cool embroidered navy fabric last week which looks really good with the cotton I bought for the trousers. I also bought an amazing like green zip which is going to be the fastening for the trousers to match the green topstitching.

Then I drew out each garment that I'm planning to make and illustrated how they are going to be constructed and with what materials. Finally I cut out all the fabrics so I'll be ready to start sewin tomorrow.