BA4 Reflective Journal

2nd Week of Project

This week was more on the technical side of the project.

I started of the week looking into the anatomy of a normal suit jacket:

and the measurement manual for a man's profile, so I would have a better idea of the proportions of a man when it cam to designing and pattern cutting.

Also, Roger (our technician) went through the basics of a suit like the types of tailoring; whether it be bespoke or for the high street, further look into the anatomy of a normal suit jacket, the components needed to make a suit (front panels, back panels, side panels, canvasing and interfusing for reinforcement and shape, welt pocket parts, jett pocket parts, ticket pocket parts, top collar, under collar, top sleeve and under sleeve), the types of hand stitching available to make the suit better fitted to your design idea and what fabrics to sue (wool, silk - extensive use of fusing and canvasing, etc.).

I felt that this introduction into the suit gave me a better idea on how I was going to design this suit like how I would need to include a few more layers of canvasing and fusing into the suit shape and fit as I am using dress tartan - it is slightly softer and flimsier than the wool tartan.

Later on that week

I wrote notes on the type of pockets available in tailoring, such as welt pocket and cash pocket, in case I was to include them in the making of my suit jacket. I also wrote notes on the types of hand stitching available for bespoke tailoring to help me decide which would help in the structure of my jacket and also aid in the look of it - i.e. a running top stitch along the lapels or even a stab stitch around the pockets

To make my life even easier when designing I researched the different ways collars can be made for men's tailoring, the sleeve types used, the trouser styles and the classic suit jacket designs:

All this information was from the Metric Pattern Cutting for Menswear.

Technical

For the technical this week, Roger taught us to make an accurate jett pocket and ticket pocket:

 

The way the jett pocket was made was the same as the way a ticket pocket is inserted, the only difference was that the ticket pocket had slightly smaller panels.

I learnt a lot from this technical as, it is one of those things you learn and can never forget. Also, even though it may look complicated to make it, it was rather easy thinking back on it now. Because I know now how to make these pockets, I plan on including two jett pockets in my final design, so I can include inserts of the Campbell of Loudoun tartan as the pocket lining and flaps, to add a contrasting pattern.

BA4 Reflective Journal

1st Week of BA4 Project

This week was all about research and starting my sketchbook - basically getting a good head start on the project!

First off, I looked deeper into the history of my families' clans - Clan Stewart and Clan Campbell of Loudoun. Sadly, it was not much help in giving me fashion context, due to it being just general history, however, it did help me to discover the traditional Stewart tartan:



which everyone is aware of as it is the most common one today. Because of its popularity, I decided I would make the suit out of this tartan and have this tartan as design aesthetics:

Later on that week, I looked into modern designers such as Rag and Bone, known for their heritage style, more specifically at their A/W 2011 collection:



Rag and bone used tartan in different textures and with different colours to bring the tartan out more, plus the accessories used in the catwalk were items like bowler hats and cravats - in reference to Sherlock period dress, making me realise that combining tartan with this period of dress will work.



With Jean Charles de Castelbajac's A/W 2011 womenswear, even though it was womenswear I still found design elements that ca be included in menswear. Such as, the red trim outlining the white jacket gave me the idea to include leather as a possible trim to frame the tartan jacket and give the whole design a modern look. Also, the stand collar feature above also gave me the idea to include a stand collar as part of the final design, as this will give the overall final garment a more relaxed and casual appearance.

Margeret Howell was more a research into modern tailoring - featured was tailoring in reference to military relating to what Dr Watson (Jude Law) wore in the film. The images above gave me the idea to make the coat leaner and longer in shape and silhouette.


For Etro's A/W 2008 menswear collection, the use of extravagant silk scarfs and ties made me realise that my idea of clashing patterns sometimes works and that I could use a silk scarf as an accessory in the final garment.

Unlike Etro's past collections, their S/S 2012 collection, the style was less formal and more casual fitted with the unbuttoned shirts and rolled up sleeves - a completely different style from what we are used to from these designers. It inspired me to create my jacket in a way that can be both adapted to smart occasions and casual settings by including the option of a stand up collar and to make the fit of the jacket rather loose so that sleeves can be rolled up and the jacket worn comfortably.

Later on that week

I looked further into how the characters dressed in the film adaption of Sherlock Holmes:


Rachel McAdams character (Irene Adler) dresses like any other woman that day - elegantly in bustle dresses made of the finest silks, exquisitely made. But what makes her character different from the woman of her time, is that she dresses in colours that may have been perceived as being too extravagant (bright pinks) and that she will go as far to dress as a man to solve a case (something women never did then).

Dr Watson is a military man so his look was very crisp tailoring, very formal. He wore the classic fashion of the time - double breasted long coats, lounge suits, bowler hats, etc. The complete opposite of Holmes in fashion, yet somehow the same...

Holmes still dressed somewhat in his period of fashion, but not without an eccentric look and style. Seen wearing frock coats (that were going out of style at the time) paired with silk patterned scarfs and contrasting waistcoats adds to his erratic personality.

I took elements such as the frock coats, the idea of pairing my suit jacket with contrasting patterned silk scarves and waistcoats, but also adding some kind of military influence as well, to really reflect the film's costumes.

BA4 - Reflective Journal

Hello, everyone, long time no blogging. Sorry got distracted a lot!!!!

Anyways for my new project, i thought I would complete my reflective journal as normal in a little book, but halfway through I decided I wanted to venture into the blogging world instead. So the first few (or more passages) are actually from my book....Enjoy!

Summer Initial Inspiration

My initial inspiration came when I took my family holiday to Scotland back in August. Whilst walking up the royal mile, we went into the Royal Mile Edinburgh Weaving and Textile Mill. Once walking in, i knew my project was going to be about tartan and highland dress....

 

What led me to look into Sherlock Holmes dress

 

What perceived me as strange is that men who would wear highland dress; wore kilts while being commando - this brought me on to the strange revelation of including revealing elements to my designs

Not just the tartan poncho/cape it was this plain anorak with the overflap/cape top part to the coat - which made me think how it might be interesting to incorporate the Sherlock Holmes detective coat made completely of Tartan!

Then these jackets made me think more on including some sort of military influence in my research as well

Campbell of Loudoun Tartan - this is my father's clan tartan and is very rare to find these days as they stopped producing this tartan as it was not very popular 

On the way home, I started doing sketches such as:






As you can see, I used a lot of the tartan in my designing as that is the main component of the theme and will be for the final design. I was looking for an almost dramatic look in reference to my earlier idea of using Sherlock Holmes period dress as the shape and silhouette.

I was thinking of reflecting more from the costumes of the latest film adaption, starring Rachel McAdams, Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr. This is because I think Jenny Beavan (the costume designer) has made the costumes almost modern in the way they are styled but still historically correct to the time of dress.

Once home, I looked from some of my most recent vogues, to find inspiration in the tailoring aspect of my design, making me ask myself questions and writing things like:

"What length do I want...."

If I want the jacket to be in all of tartan, will a simple silhouette be the best fit......"

"Research more into couture tailoring....Dior, Chanel, Balenciaga...."

"Look more into men's traditional tailoring.....androgyny"

"suit all in tartan....in contrasting directions"

"double breasted or single breasted..."

"To make final design into an ulster coat...."

:design aesthetics in different places - buttons down the shoulder and sleeve or using another tartan for pocket linings, lining for top collar and lining for bottom of jacket..."

"Revealing parts of dress in reference to kilts in highland dress...."

"Colours - bold colours such as classic stewart clan red and a deep green  for the Campbell of Loudoun tartan inserts..."

"Stand collar..."

"buttoned panels across shoulder and chest area  - modern interpretation of ulster coat..."

"different texture on lapels - leather panelling on lapels and idea of leather trim to frame jacket...."

"use of different fastenings....toggles, epaulettes...."

"altered shape to suit jacket - curved lapels, A-line shape, shorter sleeves..."

By the end of including all these different images into my research file, I realised I wanted to keep the tailoring very traditional - i.e. design the suit for menswear - who the suit was originally made for!!!!!

Therefore, this started me on my deep research into menswear and the history behind the tartans!!!!!