lyndsaycainesurfacedesign: Shape in Fashion

For my current brief I am looking at the idea of shape and proportion. I have decided to concentrate on how things can be made up of shape, looking especially at how it is found in anatomy, flowers, church's and cathedrals. I am looking at it in almost a graphical sense as I am simplifying the images I am looking at by drawing them as geometric shapes. I have begun by sketching images of symmetrical flowers and patterns that I have found in churches as simple shapes. To add some detail to the sketches I have also added some of the patterns that were in the churches into the flower drawings so that they are made up of the church pattens, also becoming a way of combining the two ideas. Some ideas for these sketches to progress further are to put them into screens and screen print them onto fabrics using different techniques to see which work the best.

After looking at lots of images of shape and the proportion of the subjects I am looking at I have now begun to look at how I can transform these shapes and patterns into an art forms, which has lead me to look at fashion. I have found lots of fashion garments that include different shapes in some way. All of the designers collections I have discovered have displayed shape in completely different ways which I think is really interesting and has given me plenty of ideas to experiment with. I would like to play about in the print room with materials and see what I can do with my sketchbook designs. I would also like to experiment with materials in a different kind of way than just printing onto of them by using tactile fabrics like lace and netting and see how I can turn the shapes into fashion pieces. Furthermore I would like to make shape into fabrics by adding holes and rips and cuts into them, making them seem quite grungy. This will make these experiments playful and I think it could give my experiments a bit of an edge adding more detail than them just being shape patterns.

Although it is early stages of this project I am thinking ahead of suggestions of my final outcomes and I have two ideas. One of my ideas is to print my designs onto stationary products e.g. notebooks, files, storage boxes and maybe some wooden products like wooden boxes, chairs etc. Another idea is to push the material side of it and play about with making shapes out of materials that I have found in my primary research, eventually making them into garments. Also I could print some of my geometric pattern designs onto garments like T-Shirts and skirts and other clothes making a collection out of my final designs. I realise that I have two quite different final outcome ideas but would like to experiment with the both of them seeing which works the best helping me to decide on a final idea.

Below are some of the examples of fashion collections I have been looking at.