Thursday 29 December 2011

Online Design Portfolio

My online design portfolio has had a spruce up! It now features small parts of my current project called 'Space Dementia'. Please take a look at https://bucks.digication.com/katelynch



Extract 2 from Dissertation - Basso and Brooke Digital Prints






The most famous design company reknowned for using digital print technologies in their work is Basso and Brooke. Bruno Basso, originally from Brazil and Christopher Brooke from the UK have been dubbed the 'pioneers of the digital print process in fashion'1 and earned the prestigious Fashion Fringe Award in 2004 for their 100% digitally printed collection. They have also been awarded the Best New Designer Award at the Elle Style Awards in 2006 and the final piece of their Autumn/Winter 2005 collection is featured in a permanent exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.2
Most, if not all, of their print designs are digitally printed, using a range of computerized techniques using an array of filters and effects to create their photographic, kaleidoscope and geometric prints.
Basso and Brookes most recent collection Spring/Summer 2012 had a Siberian theme and induced some beautiful and interesting prints. Palm leaves and tropical florals were introduced in many different colours and scales, integrated with images of water, seabirds, fish scales, feathers, different material textures, gorgeous geometrics filled with gradients and the face of a cat. The use of assymetry and placement prints brought the whole design together when constructed into beautiful, constructed garments.
A press release by Steve Slocombe said of the collection: ''Super-sharpe-end technology and technique: check. Luscious, joyous, riotous colour: check. Sumptuous, elegant tailoring:check. Ultra-modern yet classic wearability: check.”3
1'Basso and Brooke – About', webpage from the website of Basso and Brooke, <http://www.bassoandbrooke.com/about/>, accessed 29 December 2011
2'SHOWstudio – Contributor – Basso and Brooke', webpage from the website of SHOWstudio,com, <http://showstudio.com/contributor/basso_and_brooke> accessed 29 December 2011
3'Basso and Brooke – Press Release & Credits', webpage from the website of Basso and Brooke, <http://www.bassoandbrooke.com/collections/spring-summer-2012/press-release-credits/> accessed 29 December 2011

Wednesday 28 December 2011

Geometric Fashion Illustration



These are a few of my own fashion illustrations in my third year sketch book. My concept title is Space Dementia. The colours used in my illustrations are the colours used throughout my designs.

Extract 1 from Dissertation: Issey Miyake

One of the most famous fashion designers known to have experimented with innovative knit technology is Issey Miyake. Born in 1938 in Hiroshima, Japan, Miyake's fashion career started up when he established his own design studio in 1970 and begun to show his fashion lines at the Paris Collections in 1973.1

Since then, he has wowed the fashion industry with his experimental and innovative collections, winning himself over 14 awards including the Japan Art Prize by Shincho Bungei Shinkou-kai in 2000 and the 22nd Kyoto Prize in the Arts and Philsophy category in 2006.2
In the early nineties, textile engineer Dai Fujiwara joined the Miyake Design Studio and in 1998 he launched the A-POC project with Issey Miyake.3
A-POC, an acronym of 'a piece of cloth', is the independent line in which Issey Miyake and Dai Fujiwara introduced new knit technology into the fashion industry. The collection name refers to both the label and the technological process behind it. After years of research, the designers found that connecting an old German knitting machine to a computer would create the results they desired.
They continue this approach today by combining traditional industrial knitting machines with the vary latest computer software available. 4 These machines are programmed to knit continuous tubes of fabric with both the shape and the pattern of the garment at the same time. The process is literally a case of watching thread going into the machine and viewing it re-emerging as a piece of clothing.
The beauty of this design is that the customer can create and customise the garments however they see fit and be a part of the final step of the design of their garment. If the garment coming out of the machine is a top, the customer can decide whether they want long sleeves, short sleeves, high neckline, low neckline.. the list is endless.
In her article 'Seamless' for 'Wired' magazine, Jessie Scanlon describes the process:
“That process breaks one of the fundamental laws of fashion physics: cut and sew. Normally, clothes are made by weaving thread or yarn into fabric, which is then snipped and stitched to create, say, a dress. The A-POC method requires no sewing. Thread goes into the loom, the dress comes out. Moreover, the material can be snipped anywhere without unravelling, a feature that allows for complete customisation. A pair of scissors and a flirtatious spirit can turn a turtleneck into a plunging V-neck.”5









1Infomat: Issey Miyake Fashion Designer, webpage from the website of Infomat.com, <http://www.infomat.com/whoswho/isseymiyake.html> accessed 26 December 2011
2ISSEY MIYAKE Official Site – Selected Awards – webpage from the website of Issey Miyake.com, <http://mds.isseymiyake.com/im/en/awards/> accessed 26 December 2011
3Inspire/Speaker|Design Indaba – Dai Fujiwara, webpage from the website of Design Indaba.com, <http://www.designindaba.com/speaker/dai-fujiwara>, accessed 26 December 2011
4S. E. Braddock Clarke, M. O'Mahony, Techno Textiles, Thames and Hudson, United Kingdom, 1998, p125
5J. Scanlon, 'Seamless – Issey Miyake', article dated Issue 12.04, April 2004, webpage from the website of Wired.com, <http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.04/miyake.html> accessed 26 December 2011