Hussien Chayalan - My historical designer for contextual studies

For contextual studies we have to choose a historical and contemporary design and compare the two together.

I first found Chayalan in a magazine that displayed his work over the years. Looking at the article and his work it made me realize that a lot of his work involve a lot of shapes and are demonstrated in a creative way.

There are many elements of Chayalan that I could use in my report and I'll explain in a further post.

V&A The Glamour Of Italian Fashion

Last week I had the opportunity to go down to London for five days for a holiday, exciting right??

Anyway on my trip I managed to get lost for about three hours on the tube (as you do) and I stumbled across the V&A museum. Seeming as the museum that I originally wanted to go had a massive line out of the front I thought 'Why not!' 

Baring in mind I wasn't aware that the glamour of Italian fashion was taking place in the museum that I was going to.  So as I went in I did get one hell of a surprise. 

There were multiple parts of the museum that displayed so many areas of fashion, sculptures, drawings, continental fashion from Asian to Africa to Europe and they also went off into their own studies. This would lead to looking further into oriental designs and historical armour.

There was also an area that displayed the history of fashion starting from the very end of the line to the latest updates. There were displays of Prada, Gucci and Christian Dior, they also displayed an original copy of Vogue from 1927.

Now to the exhibition!!! It was so beautiful no words could describe. There was everything to anything! It displayed Italian fashion from the very end of war to present, showing designs from both women and mens to show the quality and the materials the journey that the designs have gone through through a period of time.

The exhibition opened up with telling the history of Italian fashion, opening up with Sala Bianca's catwalk that was held in Florence. 

There were so many ensembles on display from Valentino to Gucci and Dolce & Gabbana to Fendi.

The way that some of the ensembles that were displayed were so creative. Some were positioned in a catwalk style, showing the designs on a walk way with lighting focusing on just the walk way. There was also a big screen at the back of the walk way that shown other designs and models that have worn these designs. There was also a voice over that was telling us information about what was being displayed.

Further on in the exhibition there was displays of tailoring.

 

Man's wool coat by Carlos Palazzi, A/W 1969/70

This showed mainly mens but it did however show a women's vision in the same style as the one displayed here. They also displayed on of JFK's suits that he had once worn.

Also!! At the gift shop I was able to purchase a pair of Emilio Cavallini tights. I already have 2 of his tights at home but these were by far one of my favourites of his. They are black and white striped at the back and to the front they seem to join into a square spiral design which i thought was interesting.

Over all on the experience I thought it was absolutely amazing.

It did cost money but thankfully I was able to get a student discount which was roughly £6 pound.

The exhibition is still on till the 27th of July so if you're interested then you better get there now!

Embroidery styles

 

So today I went out in attempt to buy some beads but instead I came across these small flowers.

At first I thought they were cute but after buying them I started to think that maybe they will look tacky once they were added to my embroidery design.

 

Placing them onto the design they tied all of the colours together making them join to one another. Also grouping them together made the design complete, filling in gapped areas.

Before and after adjustment twarl

 Before

 After   

Here I've made the bodice to fit the bottom half of the garment.

Changing the panels as well as the waist band to make sure that they fir in line with each other.

What does need to be changed when it comes to constructing with denim is the placement of the back pockets. This did take some time to create but I know that when i put in my detail that it will take even longer to do.

DIY Jeans

 

Click to enlarge image ^^^^^^

My very own DIY jeans.

What you'll need:
- A bath tub
- Patients
- Thick bleach
- An old pair of jeans
- Rubber gloves (To protect your hands)
You could also wear an apron if you wish to

These would be my second pair that I've bleached. My first bleached pair were burgundy which then turned into some crazy spirals. To make those I used thick bleached and poured it all over the jeans in different direction.

For these in particular I wanted to create a faded/half and half look. To make these I used the same thick bleach (which could be found under your kitchen sink) and squeezed it out along the waist band and then rubbing it in using a cloth to smear it down towards the knee. (Do this in the bath so it won't ruin the floors and your clothes)
I then repeated the process on the other side. I then checked on them ever 20 mins to make sure that they were changing and rubbing the bleach in even more to speed up the process. After about an hour or so I rinsed out the bleach and threw my jeans into washer machine by them selves with some soap and made sure that it was on a quick wash, other wise you'll be using a lot of water for just one item of clothing.

The out come as you can see came out quite well, they aren't' exactly the faded effect that I was going for but that's the reason why you do these kind of things on old clothes so you don't ruin your new ones.

I would recommend using a mask though because after a while I did get a little light headed which then made me ill. The amount of bleach that I used and the amount of time I spent in the bathroom was not good for me.

Multiple style choices (Click to enlarge images)

                                                           

  My multiple styles.

As a person who reflects her style off of their music taste I like to change every now and again.

These outfits are some of the ones that reflect my taste the most.

Here I'm showing sides of Punk, Metal Chick and Goth as well as skin head retro. Supporting Dr. Martins, tartan, Fred Perry  and yellow laces.

I like to reflect my style on my music taste because it shows a side of my interest as well as me as a person. The great thing about listening to different type of music is that I'm able to change my style depending on my mood. Some of the thins that I've worn also makes me feel confident like dressing Gothic for an example. Showing  my body figure with a high waisted belt, thigh high socks and platform boots to elongate the legs and a a light wooly top to add detail to the black on black.

Although I do wear a lot of black and most of my wardrobe holds a lot of black items, I do own a few coloured items that would cut in to the black. The colour that I use most is red, it's a bald and confident colour and I use it highlight a certain area. Like for an example, I wear red lipstick a lot (although it is not an item of clothing) and is now a signature thing for me, highlighting my lips and distracting from the black outfit. I also use red in tank tops, wooly jumpers, Band t-shirts and shoes.

Last Week - Pattern Cutting (click to enlarge images)

 

Last week I started making my pattern pieces and my twarl.
For my pattern pieces I ended up separating my play-suit into two separate pieces. Making a bodice and then the pants, adjusting the bodice to fit the pants.

My design originally had darts on the back and the front of the bodice, instead I changed the bodice into panels. This would create a clean line from one side to the other connecting the lines to the pocket shape and the darts at the back of the pants.

I also changed the block pattern pieces for the pants into a bootcut to elongate the leg.

I then drew out a waist band that would fit in between the bodice and the pants.