Final Design Evaluation

After completing my original narrative design, I had thought of many more creative ideas, in which I didn't include. My original summery design to suit Jean Paul's narrative story reminded me slightly of beachwear, and so from this I decided to create a design that would suit womenswear beachwear, for Spring/Summer 2014 - still suiting to Jean Paul's narrative story.

When I think of Indian womenswear, I think of the gorgeous gold jewellery that Indian women wear. When I think of that typical sailor look, I instantly think of blue and white stripes. Therefore, I decided to combine the two in my design. I think I went for a kind of 'cop out' with this, however I think that the simplicity of it works perfectly. I didn't want the design to be too overcrowded with embellished Indian patterns, as I was scared it would drown the sailor twist within. Going for a simple blue and white striped bikini would have been fairly lifeless, and so I dazzled this up with an Indian style sarong, in the colours of the common sailor stripes. Then I have hemmed the outfit with small gold aluminium plates, to give it that feel of the gorgeous Indian culture. As body jewellery is not only popular for Indian women, it was also becoming very popular in sales at the end of last summer, and so I have included a gold body chain, of the same material as the hemming jewels. I love the dramatic effect this has on the outfit - I feel it creates a great balance between the two themes in the narrative story that it is based upon.

Evaluation

Analysing the Vivienne Westwood dress from her 'Red Collection', came naturally to me. I found the task of being able to recognise the designer, and the era in which the garment was influenced by, fairly easy. Noticing the different aspects of the design such as the, boning, drape across the bust, and the halter neck straps helped it to become very obvious that the dress was to enhance an hourglass figure.

Taking the time to choose my items from the V&A museum came from instinct of what I found eye catching, suited to my personal taste. It might also have party been psychological, based on having similarities with things that I have researched or analysed before. The first item that I chose was the Turkish tiling, which is also my favourite of the three. This is due to the gorgeous colours that consists in the piece, and also that repeat patterns really interest me recently. I have studied repeat patterns in my two previous design projects in a separate unit, and created garments based party on this. This reason might also relate to why I chose this item. I'm happy with my decision on the Turkish tile, and the typical late 60s women's suit, how ever I feel that I let myself down on the lack of knowledge for my third item.

Researching into; narrative, abstract and conceptual styles of fashion designs, has been extremely beneficial to me in this unit. I have thoroughly enjoyed learning about the three separate methods of designing. Researching at least two designers for each method allowed me to explore more collections within this area, and the ideas that they consist of. This wider range of research has been a great influence for my designs. I found that the narrative approach most definitely allowed me to create to most successful ideas, in comparison to the others, which also resulted me to create the most successful design out of the three. I think that this is down to the fact that with a story, one will have more of insight - more of an inspiration. The list of adjectives helped me to receive a clearer image, allowing a lot more creativity.  I chose to base my narrative design on Jean Paul Gaultier's collection, based on the story of a sailor, experiencing Indian culture. I am pleased with my outcome from this, and I definitely find this method the easiest to work with. After experimenting with narrative designs, I feel that is definitely something that I will use when designing my own collections, to allow me to create the most inspiring ideas.