OVERALL REFLECTION

BEAU SCARLETT-PITT - 28/10/2014

As I have come to the end of my project I can say that I am proud of what I have achieved. However many set backs that I have had, I feel that it has moulded my design into something even better than I had imagined. 

FINAL PHOTOSHOOT

Due to the accessories shoot being a success, I decided to keep the same mood board and general feel for my final outcome shoot. However, I did have to change my model for a slightly taller one due to the length of the dress. 

I'm really happy with all of the images and how they've turned out. Again I only tweaked them slightly in terms of lighting and contrast as I feel that the images are quite striking in the sense that they are quite bare contrasted with such a harsh red. 

My only wish on this photoshoot would have been for me to instruct the model to contribute more abstract poses. I feel that my garment could have really flourished with some poses matching the mood of its existence. 

One thing that was challenging was the fact that I had to focus all the images individually as my auto focus on my camera was broken. However, it was a blessing in disguise as it produced some very different shots that I wouldn't have been able to capture with my trusty auto-focus. 

CONSTRUCTION

BEAU SCARLETT-PITT  - A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE BODY HANGING.

Having already made a paper toile/pattern when working on the stand, I found construction of my garment fairly straightforward. 

As I couldn't get red neoprene that was to my satisfaction, I had to opt for the white, which in fact I'm glad that I did as the print came out incredibly strong! However, this meant that I had to spray paint the edges of the cut pieces as i didn't want to have white seams showing. I had to use two coats as the first one came out slightly pink. After they dried, I could start to construct them together which was made extremely easy by the plan that I had written to myself on the pattern pieces. I had to make sure that I was sewing the pieces accurately as every single seam had to match up otherwise all the jigsaw puzzle pieces wouldn't fit together later. i think this is what i flung the most challenging as without it, the whole structure would be different and wouldn't successfully represent the reflections that they originated from. 

 THE START OF CINDRUCTING A SEAM

Once I had constructed the body hanging, I then moved onto the rib knitted dress element of my design. Knitting was the most stressful element of my garment. Every time that I tried to carry it out successfully, I would be knitting away and it would out of the blue just fall off the machine. I tried this a number of times before I made the wise decision to quickly change my idea which wouldn't include the knitted dress. I decided to whip up a quick pattern from rough body measurements of my model and cut it out of a red sweatshirt-like material as I wanted something warm and relatively  close to wool in properties. 

STAND PHOTO OF RED UNDER DRESS

After my garment was finished I reed it on my model but I still felt as if there was something missing. So I came up with the idea to make a snood like garment out of my failed knitwear attempts. I am actually really pleased with the outcome of the overall garment as even though mistakes have been made, I feel as it they have been rectified. 

PHOTO OF RVERYTHING ANFD 

PRINTING PROCESS

BEAU SCARLETT-PITT - PRINTING ONTO NEOPRENE

I had the privilege of being able to use the digital printing facilities at Ravensbourne. The process started off by printing out 4 A4 sized sheets of sublimation paper with my print on them in order to test out how well my fabric and some other testers would hold the ink. I proved that it did very well as Nick the printing technician said that he he'd never seen a bright red so vivid before. 

As the fabric took well to the dye, I then printed out the two metres of print that I needed in to different sizes; a large artery print and then the medium sized one. This is just to create a little bit of excitement within the print as opposed to being samey all the tine. 

Once the paper had printed and dried, I placed the paper face down onto the fabric and stapled one side to secure it so it dent go walkabout within the hot roller machine. I then had to carefully feed the paper and fabric through the machine to make sure that it came out perfectly. However, something had gone slightly wrong in the machine and had crinkled the paper a tiny bit. Luckily it was unnoticeable. 

Overall I would say that my printing experience was a success as i have produced the intended printed fabric for my garment and I'm very excited to use it. 

PATTERN CUTTING

From looking at my final design, I knew that I was going to have to to immediately start work on the stand. 

My first point of call was to draw shapes that from my necklace reflections and the turn those into pattern pieces to construct a garment with. It was essentially quite easy to do, however, I had to make sure that i wrote every move that I made down so that I was able to construct it later out of my real fabric. 

This concept of working straight onto the stand is still quite new to me as I have never really needed to do it before. However looking back at it now I should have been doing it this whole time. I have found this method to be much more efficient and accurate that flat pattern cutting. Thus improving my time management skills in the process. 

I'm am quite happy about what outcomes I have come out with today as I feel like i'm finally on track with my making progression for my final garment.

FINAL DESIGN

BEAU SCARLETT-PITT - 17/10/2014

FINAL DESIGN IDEA

From looking at my initial and developed ideas, I have chosen a final design. I feel as if this design represents my concept the best as it is an idea that has run the whole way through this project. I am really looking forward to how this design is going to materialise into a final outcome!

FINAL PRINT

BEAU SCARLETT-PITT - 15/10/2014

This is my final print design that I am going to be printing on the structured body hanging. It's hard to tell but it's a slight adaption from the one that I created in print week. I've made this version a better repeat making sure that their are no trap lines whatsoever, and also adjusted the colours slightly to make the red so insanely bright. I'm hoping to print this onto a strong sturdy fabric such as neoprene as I have been advised to by both peers and fellow peers. I believe it would give my garment that edge and strikingness in combination with the unusual structure of it.  

FABRIC SAMPLES

BEAU SCARLETT-PITT 10/10/14

Today, myself and a classmate went on a fabric sample shopping spree down on Berwick St. Home to many fabric shops, we were spoilt for choice. I found loads of fabrics that I had never encountered before, my favourite find was the maroon vinyl that I got from Misan Textiles priced at £20 a metre. Due to it's polymer form it was quite structured yet fluid which would seem like bipolar opposites but somehow it worked. 

Reflecting back on the usefulness of this research, I feel that it is extremely important to do some kind of fabric investigation as it makes you a considerate designer. It has helped me realise how I want the fabrics to collaborate with each other when using them together. 

ACCESSORIES SHOOT OUTCOME

ALL PHOTOS BY BEAU SCARLETT-PITT - 10/10/14

I loved doing today's shoot! After plans to do it the previous day fell through due to flakey models and the disappointing weather, I made the sensible decision to shoot it in a relatively plain room at Ravensbourne. This also goes off the advice that John gave me. I had originally planned to shoot it in a hospital or medical confinement when John suggested that it may involve too much faffing around and may not live up to my expectations. I am so glad that I listened to this advice as the body cage is already a complicated object and to put it in an environment of numerous machines would just make the image too busy and hard to take in. 

As there was no direct lighting equipment that I was using for my shoot, I played with both the room lighting and also natural light via the blinds. I wanted to mix the two to experiment with how the different light hit the headpiece and the body cage. The room lighting particularly worked well with the low angle shots (the first image) and gave the image a harder and edger look due to the pure brightness of it. The natural lighting real picked up all the detailed nooks and crannies of the accessories. 

While shooting, I had many ideas of particular shots that I wanted. I asked Jad (my model) to try a majority of poses to accentuate my body cage and to develop the mood of the shoot. I asked him to keep moving in order to generate a fluidity of poses to make them seem less rigid. A downside to this was that there were a lot of images that weren't focused and a lack of clarity. I did try to remedy this using the sharpen filter, however this didn't prove as effective in order to save the photo. Fortunately some didn't have this blunder on them, which are the ones that I took to edit. 

On photoshop, I didn't want to do too much to the images as again I didn't want to over complicate it and I didn't think the images needed that much editing. I played around with the exposure, brightness and contrast, and also curves. I feel like this was just enough to enhance the photo without saturating the image with effects. 

Overall I am so happy with the outcome. The images above are my favourite from the shoot and I feel like they portray the themes and moods of my accessories. As a reflection on the whole week, I have really found it useful and also fun! It has been quite interesting to see how both design and promotion interlink. Although I am a design student, I have always loved doing the promotion side of things and this week has made me love it even more. I hope to have time to do a shoot for my final outcome for this project.

HYPE X FATS FOOD COLLECTION LAUNCH

Yesterday I went to Hype's launch of their fats foods collection in collaboration with Asos. The sixteen piece collection included sweatshirts, short and long sleeved tees, joggers, dresses and backpacks all taking heed of the excessive branding of fast food chains. 

This trend has filtered down from Jeremy Scott's loud and invasive designs from his takeover of Moschino for AW14. Scott's use of staple brand colours, shapes, logos and chain slogans are eminent throughout hype's collection but also show the adaption from high end to high street. Hype have also manipulated this inspiration for the streetwear market by the use of classic shapes used in the field and conveying an attitude within the designs. 

The launch event saw the store in Boxpark (Shoreditch) decorated like a fast food chain and was given the temporary name of Hype FC. We were given happy meal type boxes upon arrival containing a complimentary gummy sweet pizza and a free beanie. The store genuinely felt like a fast food chain at the lunch time rush, however more enjoyable thanks to the free Red Stripe.

PHOTOGRAPHERS RESEARCH - KYLE THOMPSON

KYLE THOMPSON 03/11/13

KYLE THOMPSON 07/09/12

As part of styling week, we were asked to plan a shoot for our accessory that we had made in the previous week. I wanted to do some research into photographers that reflect a similar mood in their work to the one that I want to express. I have been following Kyle Thompson's work for a while now because I feel that it has a certain quality to it that is extremely expressive of the suppressive emotion.  This is due to the fact that most of his work consists of some sort of facial covering. This is something in which I wish to explore in the styling element of my photoshoot.

Revisiting the draping that I did in the early weeks of the course, I had the idea to use the headpiece that I made as a facial covering to artistically respond to Thompson's work. I feel that the combination of the two pieces will really compliment to mood that I want to portray through the shoot. I am really looking forward to developing this idea into a mood board and a final outcome.

WONDERING AROUND LONDON

 BEAU SCARLETT-PITT - 06/10/2014

OPENING CEREMONY MENSWEAR SELFRIDGES DISPLAY

BEAU SCARLETT-PITT 06/10/2014

McQUEEN MENSWEAR SELFRIDGES DISPLAY 

Today we were given the task of taking a mystery tour around London's shopping district. It was actually really interesting to see the retail industry from a different perspective as there is much more to it than just shopping. These are a few images that I had gathered throughout the day that I found useful to take note of whether it be because of the visual merchandising, or the little things that just make the shopping experience unique. It was really useful to see as well how much styling came into the retail industry. The retail giants are practically styling us without us even knowing, which I found extremely interesting.

ACCESSORIES DAY 3

BEAU SCARLETT-PITT 04/10/14

Following Wednesday's experimentation with the heat press, I started to design ideas for a final accessory outcomes. I really liked the way that the red thread that bound the heart together and I wanted to replicate this in my final design. I drew a few sketchy ideas from my research that I collected so far and came up with this body cage idea. I used the idea of the bounding and encasing the body from the heat press heart I made. 

The image above is my final accessory. I am really happy with the overall result as I feel that it reflects my idea and my progression really well. However, I found it really challenging to construct due to the unruliness of the wire. It also took a lot of time and effort to make the structure secure as I had designed it to be. I did get feedback from a peer (niovelouca.blogspot.co.uk) who I got to try it on , who said that it did feel a little unsafe to wear as there were some ends of wire sticking out scratching her. To resolve this issue, I made extra sure that there were no sharp edges sticking out of the body cage by cutting and sanding down the pricks to leave them blunt and safe.

Prior to the accessories shoot next week, I do want to add the extra touch of spray painting the body cage red to keep to the mono colour brief. 

All construction notes are included in my technical sketchbook.

LACOSTE #LS12 LAUNCH PARTY

 BEAU SCARLETT-PITT - 2/10/2014

Yesterday, I went to the launch of lacoste's LS.12 trainer. The revival of this classic tennis trainer from the 80's strips the world of trainer design back to basics. I really like the simplistic detailing of the trainer design with subtle references to the clean lines of Lacoste's sports heritage. 

IMAGE TAKEN FROM LACOSTE WEBSITE