Sourcing Trip #1

I had a totally exhausting day yesterday trekking around sourcing materials for my collection. I was a bit disappointed at the selection of wool available out there, and I think I will have to check out some websites or something for a bit more of an inspired selection. Here are the results of my quest-

Writing about Sustainable Fashion

On top of creating a fashion collection this year, we write a dissertation into a selected area of fashion theory. I have been writing the draft up this week, and thought I would share a bit of my proposal-

“The proposed research will examine how the appeal of sustainable fashion design is broadened by moving away from an eco chic aesthetic towards the concept of sensory aesthetics. It will demonstrate how this shift allows sustainability and style to coexist rather than compete in the fashion designer’s repertoire generating greater creative possibility and mainstream interest in a sustainable approach to clothing design. In doing so, the research will first define the current sustainable fashion aesthetic before it proposes an alternative sensory aesthetic, and look at how this different approach changes the fashion designing process. Case studies will be used to analyse how designers have incorporated the new aesthetic into their work by slowing down the consumption cycle, using local resources, and encouraging collaborative design. These examples will demonstrate the creative possibilities of sensory aesthetics and redefine a sustainable approach to fashion design without the limitations that were present in past notions of eco chic.”

Designs #1

A couple more pages from my process journal. I am at the stage now of designing garments and outfits for the collection, based on draping exercises we completed in class. As you can see- there is alot of work to do yet!

Young Designers

These are some young designers that I really admire-

Source: http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/whats-on/exhibitions/exhibitions/manstyle2

Romance Was Born: The highly theatrical label of duo Luke Sales and Anna Plunkett is known for its craft-driven, over-the-top approach and favouring of one-off pieces. Their clothing is irreverent, fun and colourful with a firm tongue-in-cheek tone.

Source: http://www.threeoverone.com/

Three Over One: With the by-line “Honest, Hardworking, Men’s apparel” this label focuses on practicality and functionality. Each collection centres on denim, with the name based on the structure of denim fabric and is inspired by menswear of the 1930’s to 1940’s.

Source: http://www.instylemag.com.au/Article/Fashion/Latest-News/The-rise-of-Dion-Lee

Dion Lee: Lee graduated from the Sydney Institute of Technology and won the L’Oreal Fashion Festival Design Award in 2010 for his 6^th collection. His label mixes slick styling with an attention to detail, sharp tailoring and experimentation.

Source: http://www.songforthemute.com/collectionaw11.html

Song for The Mute: Begun by graphic artist Melvin Tanaya and fashion designer Lyna Ty, this menswear label won the Melbourne Fashion Festival Designer Award for 2011. They mix androgynous shapes with draping and muted colours for a sophisticated take on menswear.

Source: http://arabellaramsay.com/index1.html

Arabella Ramsay: Ramsay started her label in 2006 after studying textile design in Melbourne. Her style is quite preppy and quirky with a strong focus on original prints and fabrications.

Experimenting with knit

These are a couple of samples that I completed on my old singer knitting machine. The top one is a rib, suitable for a cuff, or around the hem of a jumper. The second is a bit of a pattern that I produced with a pattern guide- the machine has 20 of these pattern cards- lots more samples to go!

Mentor: John Wolseley

Tracing the Wallace Line; wing leaf and land, 1999
Source: Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery

John Wolseley inspires me because his work encourages a different vision of the world, but doesn’t force it on the viewer. This establishes a sense of excitement and delight when people discover things for themselves and means the work is more personally meaningful for each individual. A similar directive could be applied to the design of clothing, with the wearer discovering new things about their garment as they wear it. This would create a more meaningful relationship between the wearer and the garment as they interact and impact on each other.

Mentor: Maison Martin Margiela

Mask Bolaro Source: Maison Martin Margiela Artisanal Spring / Summer 2009
<http://www.maisonmartinmargiela.com/en/collections/PE2009/collection-1.html>

I am inspired by Maison Martin Margiela’s experimental but eminently wearable clothing, because it provides me with proof that creative and commercial success can co-exist in fashion. And while the fashion house doesn’t produce Haute Couture in a traditional sense, it does go about the production of clothing in a very artisanal way. The refashioned second-hand pieces are particularly interesting to me because they redefine luxury as an appreciation of expertise rather than expensive material. As a student, I often feel constrained by cost concerns so it is refreshing to see that so much can be created with so little material outlay. Also admirable is that all of this investigation is achieved without straying from the brand aesthetic.

Draping Pants

I just thought I would share a few pages from my journal, so you can see the direction that I am taking with my collection

Some of the shapes at the moment remind me of the Leigh Bowery outfit that I saw recently at the NGV ManStyle exhibition.

Why 20 x 12?

I realise that this should have come earlier in my postings, but I would like to explain why I have chosen my blog name. I guess it took me a while to work it out for myself, hence the delay. ‘20 x 12’ was inspired by a conversation I had with my dad about his youth- it was the nickname of a beach where my dad went for family holidays, so called because of the mission huts that served as accommodation along the beach. Mission huts are of a standard 20 x 12 square foot dimension and this is how the beach came by its unofficial name. From the outset I liked the sense of place contained in ’20 x 12’, and apart from being catchy, it is a nice note on my personal history. Additionally, I will start my fashion career in 2012 so it also contains personal significance for this reason.

So that is why I guess...oh plus I am a big fan of the 2012 disaster movie

ManStyle

Ties on display

On the right- the embroidered pattern for a man's waistcoat, on the left- the finished product

A costume from performance artist Leigh Bowery

Patchwork coat by Alasdair Duncan Mackinnon

I saw this today at the National Gallery of Victoria and have to say I was a bit disappointed. It had been billed as ‘the first exhibition to focus on menswear in Australia’ but I thought it was very thin on the ground. The exhibit had big holes in the range of fashion (meant to represent 18^th century to present day) and the links between outfits seemed tenuous. They didn’t even manage to put shoes with all the mannequins- covering some with pairs of paper ‘shoe-masks.’ Maybe they should have outsourced some of the outfits to provide greater depth in the exhibition. That said I really loved the footage they recorded of men talking about fashion. It was refreshingly honest, and demonstrated that men do actually care about what they wear.

The Big Green Conference

There has been a bit of a delay since my last post because this week I went to Melbourne to a sustainability conference that I really wanted to talk about in this blog.

Yesterday I attended The Big Green Conference in Geelong, which aimed to address sustainability issues and challenges in the context of Australian TCF industries. Personally, I was a bit disappointed by the small number of students who showed up. For a $99 student price for a whole dense day of information – why wouldn’t you? We need to be at the forefront in this area, yet (borrowing from Tourism Australia) “where the bloody hell are you?” Maybe raising greater awareness in universities is something the organisers should consider for the future of the conference.

Apart from this personal gripe, I thought it was a wonderfully organised and informative conference. The variety of people speaking was refreshing and a great way of gauging the scope of sustainability within TCF and how people are approaching it from different angles. The speakers left ample time for questions which led to engaging debate on issues which are really confronting the industry.

Andreas Schimkus, Senior Advisor and Program Manager of Textile and Fashion Industries of Australia (TFIA) spoke of the growing importance of quality in manufacturing in light of rising costs in fashion design. He argued that the trend of ever cheaper clothing is over, and as consumers from China and India put pressure on demand, the costs of materials and labour will rise- starting now. The solution for the Australian industry, as he sees it, is emphasis on a quality driven product and a return to expertise and traditional techniques as a way to survive these new conditions. His argument really struck a chord with what I have been thinking and reading lately across a wide forum of design fields, and aligns with what I wish to achieve this year through my design practice and my collection.

I was similarly interested by the viewpoint of Matt Perry from the advertising agency Republic of Everyone. He highlighted that the problem of communicating sustainability is its complexity and reinforced the difficulty of turning this issue into a simple, interesting and engaging message by using examples from current advertising campaigns. I thought Levi’s Go Forth advertisements were particularly clear and engaging at distilling a huge issue like urban decay into a single tag line “Go Forth.” Perry sees smart companies integrating sustainability into their brand, not just tacking on a small range or some other token effort. Overall it was just nice to hear that the future of the industry is heading in the direction I would like to follow when I graduate.

Finally, this conference was particularly pertinent in light of the government’s carbon pricing – government representatives were keen to sell their solution to industry, but the main response seemed to be frustration that this hasn’t happened sooner.

On the train back to Melbourne I reflected on the irony of a Big Green Conference which stressed that sustainability was much bigger than being “Green” and became excited at the thought of applying all that I learnt during the day to my fashion practice.

Fun Design

All too often design is taken very seriously, though I find that my favourite pieces always have a bit of humour to them - design should be fun! I am not saying that they should be so comical as to not function, but shaping a stapler into a fish or a tape dispenser into a cassette tape sets them apart from the other staplers and tape dispensers out there- they are surprising and delightful, and well... a bit silly, but that’s why I bought them. If one of sustainability’s aims is to increase attachment between a consumer and a product, designers would be wise to incorporate a bit of humour into their concept. Its not easy, particularly in fashion when the person wearing the ‘joke’ can easily become the joke but I think it should be utilised more cleverly and go beyond the slogan t-shirt.

Use of colour can influence the tone of a design so much; just look at these shoes- what’s so fun about them? I would argue its the colour, maybe even the plastic material that reminds you of being a kid. Anyway, this is just one small example of a tone of playfulness that I hope to bring to my collection this year.

Inspiration on the Web

There are bunch of great websites which I look to for inspiration, so I thought I would share a few with you all so you can see what makes me tick.

My homepage is set to the Fashion Source news stream, which is Australian industry focused. Dry I know, but it is a great site to check out what is happening and the opportunities that are out there at the moment (and its free to register). It also has a great sourcing database for just about everything-that-you-could-ever-want-ever.

For inspiration of a more creative persuasion I look to Fashion Incubator by Kathleen Fasanella. The site is based in America, and some of the posts are quite specific to this area but there are a huge number of practical articles and interesting patternmaking which I can relate directly to my practice. The site has a very practical, hands-on approach that is really useful, as well as inspirational.

The Ethical Fashion Forum, meanwhile is more for lusting purposes- they run tonnes of amazing workshops and conferences in London (maybe one day!).

For lusting of a more material persuasion I can’t go past the shop at Not Just A Label (NJAL). Oh if only I could afford anything in that shop! But seriously, it has great articles and photography and allows you to enter your own profile with all your details which is good for networking so its well worth checking out.

I would love to hear some of your favourites too, so let me know!