The photoshoot of the final garment for my FMP 'Architecture & Urban Surfaces'.

For the house project I decided to do a photoshoot based on balance and falling. This idea stemmed from the circus performer who married an Earl at Dunham; from this I looked into the Victorian circus with gymnasts and acrobats. I wanted the photos to show the way the body is balanced and unbalanced and how this effects the way a garment moves and fabric falls.  I used lots of excess material to show this movement in the photos with the final photographs show the control when balanced and uncontrol where the material is blurred.

So today was my first day back at college and I thought I should also get back to posting on here!

We were given a project to start researching over summer so I'm going to be updating you about the progress of that as well as a few other things I have lined up.

 

The summer project is called 'house' and the brief was to research a historic house or building as well as the dress the occupants wore at the time. I decided to choose Dunham Massey a stately home in Cheshire because I thought it had a few paths I could go down for research. The image above is the visual mind map I made for the start of the project with key images gathered from my research.

 

The house was built in the 1730s replacing the previous Dunham Castle. A lot of the rooms are decorated in an Edwardian interior style and I particularly like the prints on the wallpapers, ceramics and soft furnishings which I could develop prints from or use to inspire fabric samples.

At the moment an exhibition called 'Dunham's Lost Years' is on about the 7th Earl who married a circus performer. From this I looked into 1850s circus costumes and I love the contrast between these free flowing shapes and the stiff corsets and crinoline cages of the time.

A fine artist, Karen Le Roy Harris, had adapted rooms as part of the exhibition to reflect the neglect of Dunham during these 'lost years' and in one room had fashioned outfits for each of the five servants who still lived there.

I also looked at the house during World War One when it became a military hospital. The military and nurses uniform is another aspect which really interests me as well as the soldiers themselves and their stories whilst living at Dunham as many of them had never experienced such grandeur before.

Finally I visited the fashion and Freedom Exhibition in Manchester which looked at how women dressed before and after the war and ran along the theme of restraint and freedom. They'd got university students to design outfits from this theme as well as top designers like Vivienne Westwood. I felt really inspired by a lot of the concepts they'd come up with and the silhouettes they'd created.

 

I'm can't wait to do more research and start designing because I feel like there's so many styles I could explore! I'll make sure to keep you posted on the blog too.

 

Polly x

 I've never really tried styling and image making so it was something I wanted to have a go at doing this summer. When I was on holiday and saw this corn field I knew it was the perfect opportunity and persuaded my sister to model for me. It's only my first attempt but I've chosen my favourites images from the shoot to share with you .

 

 

 

 

At the start of the project one of my aims was to involve a lot of photography in the project and having achieved this I thought I'd share with you my favourites photos. I've  put together this little photography gallery to share with you some of the best photos as well as the ones I drew most inspiration from.

Polly X

15th May '16

I've started dying my final fabric having cut out the two top pieces and put them in the iron filing mix to leave overnight. The two bigger pieces wouldn't dye in the bucket which I realised was because the surface of the fabric needed more air so the iron filings would rust; instead I place hem in a sledge due to the larger surface area which has worked and I'm really happy with how the colour and texture has turned out.

 

16th May '16

I started marking up the two top pattern pieces using blue tailors chalk and a tracing wheel however, the marks didn't come through so I had to split the paper with a pin and push the chalk through which gave much clearer markings. I using masking tape to write any annotations to the pattern.

 

 

17th May '16

I started pinning all the pieces together which I found hard, especially on the two sides, to get the shape the same as the final toile. Once I'd pinned it all together I pressed the folds with hair straighteners which was easier than an iron. I then machine stitched all the seams together and hand sewed and parts that needed tacking. This time around I found it a lot quicker to sew the dress together because I'd already done it twice on my toiles.

 

 

I've made all the dissolvable fabric samples by pinning the plastic over the panels I wanted to fill and tracing over that shape. The first panel I did was at the front but once I'd sewn it together and pinned it on I decided it made the dress look too heavy and the dark brown and orange colours weren't right. I made some more panels using more mushroom and muted brown threads mixed with velvet I'd dyed yellow. I decided on only four panels which I'd sew into the folds to make them look more subtle.

 

 

26th may '16

I made my own bias binding with the rusted cotton which I cut on the bias and pinned and ironed each piece. I found this to be a long process because I had so many raw edges to do and it was also really hard to sew together that many layers of fabric which made my sewing machine get jammed. I' not really happy with how the bias binding turned out because I don't think it's that neat and some of the fabric hasn't got caught in the stitch.

 

 

4th June '16

I made the strap and decided to do it out of dissolvable fabric with rusted cotton underneath so it could support the weight of the dress. With it being in a more obvious place I think it brings out the other dissolvable fabric panels.

 

 

6th June '16

I did final finishes such as tacking any loose pieces and snipping threads as well as wiping off the blue chalk marks. The final thing I need to do tomorrow is press all the folds ready for the cat walk!

 

So I thought I'd write something a little different today, for those of you who don't want to read about what I'm doing at college all the time, and share with you my 'new in' clothing pieces.

The first thing on my list was summer tops after having a  panic the other day when I realised I was going on holiday in a week and still only owned two tops suitable for hot weather! H&M was such a godsend in the this department and I managed to get all three tops here for under £30!

Like the grey top I though this would still also be wearable when I return to cold, rainy England and really versatile to pair with anything and dress up or down.

This is the final top I picked up and maybe the most summery with the crochet open back which I thought would look really good paired with a cute bralette underneath. Although I didn't go for the most summery prints or colours it means I'll defiantly be getting wear out of these back in England.

I bought these trousers as a little extra as they weren't on the list but when I saw them I had to have them! I've been looking for this style of trousers for ages but being quite tall a lot of them look too cropped on me. However, when I tried these ones on they were a perfect length even with the rolled cuff and for £8 from Primark you can't really go wrong! I probably won't be taking these on holiday but can't wait to get back and style them.

The last thing on my list was a summer dress and after looking everywhere for one I found this gem in Urban Outfitters on sale for £15. Although I originally had something more flowy and colourful in mind this is a lot more my style and I was drawn to it straight away. It's so simple but can easily be styled more casually with converse and a denim jacket for the day or with heels and a leather jacket at night it's also perfect for holiday!

I hope you enjoyed this style of post,

Polly X