Industry Awareness

For the industry awareness project, I decided to look at a Fashion Buyer, as this is a career that interests me if i somehow do not go into the design world of fashion. I have a bit of business background and would love a job that demands me to buy clothes for a company or store. The idea of forecasting trends that everyone will follow is exciting. I learnt that a fashion buyer can be a very demanding job and that they can sometimes travel the world in order to meet with suppliers or visit shows to see what is in the latest collections.

I interviewed a friend of the family, Kimberley Madej who has worked with fashion buyers before for Bloomingdales as well as Saks, despite the fact she is a cosmetics manager  I asked her to answer the questions in place of the people she has worked for and received the responses i expected. However, I was a bit surprised to find that she did not travel as globally as I would have thought. It was because she works for the department store Saks in Washington DC so it meant she travelled more around the USA rather than the world, due to it being an American Department store.

Looking into this career has really broadened my idea of what I want in a career and that there is more to the fashion industry than just the design market.

Evaluation

I have found this project very challenging in many ways but, I feel I have learnt a lot especially in matching up tartans. One issue I overcame was the layering of the collar and the cape with the neckline and facing - instead I topstitched the collar on top of the jacket along the collar neckline, which made no difference if the cape had been sewn into the neckline, if anything it added in more volume.

I feel I have learnt a lot over this project and that I have gained considerable knowledge in tailoring. Even though the technicians and tutrs helped a lot, I feel I have been a lot more independent in this project, than last year.

BA4: Reflective Journal

Week 8

Technical File

I started the week putting together my technical file that included past technical work I had done in the past year and few months and also toile samples and toile diary for this project:

As mentioned before, it also includes my in depth research into the different types of men's collars, jackets and trousers, as well as notes on handstitching and how to make a jett pocket (from last year).

I thought that I would put in all the toile patterns adapted so that someone can see how I progressed through the development of the final pattern and how it changed so slightly at each stage. It also includes the whole process of how my toile development went and the obstacles I had to come, especially the fitting of the collar and cape into the neckline.

Presentation Boards

I then spent the rest of the week making up my presentation boards which included the final collection and the technicals, as well as a inspiration and target market board and an overall process board:

I decided to call the final collection "Modern Heritage" as I belive my collection refers to traditional British tailoring stemming from the late 19th century as well as being quite related to tday's fashion with the use of contrasting directing tartan and the use of a black trim to frame the final garment.

I tried to keep the presentation quite simple, lining one side of every board with both the tartans I used throughout the project. Also, I thought that the collection would be most suited for Vivienne Westwood seeing as she features her own tartan (McLaren) throughout her collections and her target market for men is what I strived to aim for - mature men who are not afraid to wear wacky styles and know what they want.

Final Garment

I then spent the rest of the week making the final garment by piecing all the parts together as done before with the previous toiles:

The only difference being in making the final thing is that instead of the collar being sandwiched between the facing and collar, there was no way it would have worked with the lining construction of the cape. Therefore, I stitched on the cape with a neat top stitch hiding the seam in amongst the seam where the collar meets the facing.

Technical Dossier Touch Ups

I then finished my technical dossier including the garment specification sheet, the garment lay plan and cutting instructions as well as the summary of the whole toiling process.

BA4: Reflective Journal

Week 7

This was the week when I started to make the real thing, I was very nervous as the pattern cutting involved matching up all the tartan pieces with careful placement as the tartans had to match up.

After careful placement with pins I achieved correctly cut pattern pieces with both tartans. The cape was the hardest, because before on the checked toile the dart at the back was slightly off with the running checks. Therefore, Laura suggested that I cut away the dart and only use the pattern piece as a semi circle. Then to layout the fabric on the bias, draw out one half by lining points of the flaps with corners of the sqaures and flip pattern and do the same thing with the other side - making sure that the back would meet up wen sewn together.The lining was a lot easier as it is one colour but, I still measured it when cutting it on the grain and on the bias for the cape lining.

So after all the pattern pieces were cut out, I got on working with producing the final collection taking certain elements from my inital designs and drawing out the technicals from them. I took the traditional elements from my initial designs, as well as my initial theme of Sherlock Holmes such as; the waistcoat, traditional British tailoring, as well as combining the military influence of Dr Watson with the military panel fastenings in one of the designs. I cleaned them up and added colour using Photoshop to add a more professional look - also I am better skilled at Photoshop!!!!

I then put all the fabrics i was using in the final garment into my sketchbook as well as fabircs I sourced when in London. For instance, I got two types of harris tweed just to see what they are and how they feel. I also looked at alternative lining material, but decided on the two toned blue-green lining as it reflected well with the Campbell of Loudoun tartan. The buttons were always going to be black to match with the bias binding, but I decided on the basketweave leather bound button as I thought the weave on the button fitted in with the crossing of the tartan. I also put in my idea of chain and leather but, have decided to get rid of this idea as it would make the final garment and collection too busy.

Technical Dossier Samples

After updating my sketchbook with the images shown above as a sort of documentated record of the progress made through toiling and the making of my final garment, I got to work on my samples. The technical dossier comprises of a lot of samples, to show the reader exactly what is needed to make it.

I included the fabric samples again, but in the technical dossier and then showed the ones that were meant to be fused either for facing or reinforcement of the jacket. For both tartans I used the knitted black fusing and then canvas fusing for the collar so it would stand up on its own, but yet sill able to roll down for alternative looks. All the seams on my garment were just going to be pressed open seams as they were all hidden by the lining and the stitch tension stayed at 2.5cm for the whole garment.

I then went on to create samples for the design aesthetics of the final garment - the bias binding was quite simple as it was just a strip of fabric 6cm in length with 1cm seam allowance on each side. Therefore leaving a 2cm visible binding on each side when folded over the edge.

I did another bias binding sample but, with buttons to show the placement on the bias binding, with the buttonhole's length and how I plan on stitching the buttonhole from the binding into the facing - to add a little quirk to the style of tailoring.

Finally, the most difficult samples of all (and probably what I found the hardest when making the garment) the jett pocket. It was only difficult because of all the different tartans involved and how careful you must be to make sure the pocket facing lines with the pocket bag and where the jett pocket will appear on the main tartan. Fortunately, it turned out exactly as I wanted.