Author Archives: Caitlin Hinshelwood

Hilma af Klint: Painting the Unseen at The Serpentine

Posted on by

3 March – 15 May 2016

DOP-hilma_af_klint-5

Serpentine Galleries presents an exhibition of Swedish painter Hilma af Klint (1862–1944), who is now regarded as a pioneer of abstract art. While her paintings were not seen publicly until 1986, her work from the early 20th century pre-dates the first purely abstract paintings by Wassily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian and Kazimir Malevich.

This Serpentine exhibition focuses primarily on af Klint’s body of work,The Paintings for the Temple, which dates from 1906–15. The sequential nature of her work is highlighted by the inclusion in the exhibition of numerous paintings from key series, some never-before exhibited in the UK.

To read more go here

Fashion & Sustainability Forum at WSA this Thursday 10th March

Posted on by

FINAL_sustainibility_Poster_Page_1

10.00 Delia Crowe – Introduction to the forum

10.15 Linda Mackie – ‘Sustainable Studying’

Considerations of Sustainable and Ethical practice within students’ work, across the full scope of the topic, and seeing Ethical practice as a core element, not an added benefit. Designing resourcefully requires skill, innovation and above all a strong understanding of the cycle, the implications of this in the development of their designs will be explored.

10.45 Mei Hui Liu – ‘Working in a Sustainable Fashion’

Questions about sustainability when working in the industry. Including:

>>> How did sustainable fashion brands come to be included as part of London Fashion Week in past years?

>>> How is work different for a sustainable fashion designer?

>>> Does being sustainable affect the size of your market?

>>> What advantages and disadvantages are there to being a sustainable brand?

11.30 Melanie Plank – ‘The Consumer Lifecycle’

With the increasing influence of lifecycle analysis in our understanding of the environmental impact of a garment, the consumer experience is the next frontier for sustainability. How denim brands are using clever marketing campaigns and innovative business practices to win consumers over to the cause, and change consumer behavior will be examined.

12.15 Clio Padovani – ‘Sustainability in the Community’

Teixidors is a socially sustainable cooperative. This presentation will look at why they were formed, their USP, and how they have carved out a devoted following, of consumers and in their community. Their sustainability is in creating a product that is made by marginalized communities and sustains the community through work and integration. W: teixidors.com

12.45 Alison Jane Reid interviewing Lucy Tammam

Journalist Alison Jane, will be in conversation with Made in Britain, sustainable couturier, Lucy Tammam, of Atelier Tammam London, about her journey from fashion undergraduate to ethical fashion trailblazer, making luxury fashion more sustainable, her journey, her challenges, her successes and her inspirations.

13.30 Lunch and networking – Westside Building, downstairs foyer.

14.15 Charty Durrant – The Truth about Sustainability

Sustainability in fashion is a huge and important issue, but one that all too often gets side-tracked by small details and individual agendas. This talk will outline the many large problems faced by those attempting to bring sustainability into the world of fashion, addressing some serious and potentially shocking issues. By tackling them head on, however, the hope is to bring hope and inspiration for the possibilities of a more sustainable future.

15.00 Kate Hills – ‘An insight into truly British brands and the importance of a Made in Britain label’

British-made brands are having a renaissance and now more and more fashion labels are choosing to manufacture in the UK. Find out why this is, and what the many benefits are to a brand of choosing to manufacture locally.

15.45 Mallory Giardino – ‘The Business Case for Sustainability in Fashion’ 

Fashion businesses can actually be more profitable by engaging with ethics and sustainability. This presentation will point out the financial opportunities that come with improving social and environmental standards, as well as three types of business models that are currently being used to achieve commercial success alongside positive impact.

16.30 Jonathan Faiers – ‘Fashion Thinking: Sustainable Systems of Thought’

The methodology of picking and choosing from the sweep of textile and dress history has become a common practice, and fragmented histories have been fundamental to a variety of design practices and sociocultural readings of fashion and textiles. Walter Benjamin’s figure of the rag-picker, which provided him with a model for literary montage, can be usefully employed to consider the relationship between fashion and sustainability and seems to inspire much contemporary fashion and textile design with its assemblages of styles and references from different eras and cultures. This presentation will draw upon Benjamin, alongside other thinkers from Nietzsche to Bourriaud, to explore the sustainability of Fashion Thinking itself and how this is translated practically into fashion design.

17.15 Caryn Franklin – ‘Fashion and Emotional Sustainability’

In the early 80s, fashion editor of i-D Magazine, Caryn Franklin experienced clothing and fashion culture as a liberating space and a tool to investigate personal identity and celebration of uniqueness. The high-street, with its multiple-choice, value-shopping experience or the concept of brand building did not exist. And neither did the Internet. So while the democratisation of both retailing and the publishing and broadcasting sectors is seen as progress, the proliferation of the fashion normative body: tall, thin, white and young together with a speeding up of trends and product life begs the question of who benefits from such progress. Has the status of the individual shrunk while the power of the brand has expanded? Can new generation creatives become part of the solution not the problem by successfully bringing in their own values for emotionally sustainable practice and what will that look like?

10.00 Delia Crowe – Conclusion to the forum

18.00 – 20.00 Drinks reception & networking Westside Building, downstairs foyer

18.30 – 20.00 Film showing ‘The True Cost’ Westside Lecture Theatre

 

Melissa Ougham wins Wallpaper Prize from Colefax and Fowler

Posted on by

Last week Sarah Macgregor, Design Director from Colefax and Fowler visited the exhibtion of wallpaper designed by Printed Textiles students and created in their second year. Melissa Ougham’s space inspired wallpaper caught Sarah Macgregor’s eye for it’s bold style and movement. Melissa won ÂŁ200 and a selection of books. Congratulations!

Melissa Ougham Wallpaper

 

Knitwear Designer Position at Christian Wijnants

Posted on by

Christian Wijnants is an Antwerp-based designer who graduated from the Royal Academy of Art fashion department in 2000 and started his label in 2003. The womenswear collection is known for it’s luxurious knitwear and translation into textural prints.

As a knitwear designer you will be working closely with the designer and product developer. You will be in charge of the development of knits and prints from concept to production.

Your job responsibilities include:
• Creating mood boards, color stories, yarn selection and collection plans.
• Shape research, moulage and technical drawings
• Attend fittings and follow up.
• Creating prints by hand and by computer
• Launching styles at producers and subsequent planning and follow up
• Assist with show styling in Paris
• Oversee special projects and collaborations

Skills & Experience
– You have a bachelor degree in textile and or fashion design and at least 3 years of experience in a similar job and sufficient technical background.
– Knowledge of InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator
– Strong communication skills in English, written and spoken. Understanding of Dutch is an advantage
– You are immune to stress, flexible, and have a pleasant attitude
– A drivers license B is a plus

Salary Start €2,000 (£1,570) a month

Location of vacancy Antwerp, Belgium

Position type Full Time

Closing date March 11, 2016

For more details and to apply go here

Woven Textiles alumni Hannah Auerbach involved in new Tibor Reich Exhibition at the Whitworth

Posted on by

A major retrospective at the Whitworth, Manchester opens 29th January – August 2016 of the pioneering post-war textile designer Tibor Reich, who brought modernity into British textiles.

tumblr_mxjm03qjDl1sgnibbo1_r12_1280

In 2015 Tibor Reich’s Grandson, Sam Reich, began the huge task of reviving his Grandfathers company, Tibor Ltd. WSA and RCA alumni Hannah Auerbach has been working as head of woven textiles exploring and resurrecting Tibor’s vast archive of designs. You can read more about her experience and process in an interview on The Weave Shed.

The exhibition follows Reich’s complex and multifaceted career as a designer that spanned over four decades. A wide range of his designs, sketchbooks and artworks will be on display.

TIBORREICH-458x321

Images and text copyright: Tibor Ltd.

Printed Textiles student Megan Ferris wins Filthy Weather Scarf Competition

Posted on by

Megan Ferris, currently in her second year of studying Printed Textile Design has won a scarf competion with company Filthy Weather. Her ‘Welcome to Wonderland’ design will be produced as a limited edition silk scarf as well as receiving ÂŁ400 as part of her prize.

MEGAN FERRIS 2

Megan’s scarf design was inspired by the work of Hannah Hoch, the Tim Burton film and other artists such as Polly Morgan, Tim Walker and Ralph Steadman. The scarf focuses on the key characters from Alice in Wonderland, surrounded by famous quotes from the book and strange clocks. Colours were inspired by Salvador Dali’s illustrations using the contrast of bright and washed out shades. Elements of Megan’s own dreams also inspired some of the images in her design. The scarf celebrates the 150th anniversary of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland which takes place this year.

Congratulations Megan!

 

 

Textile Designer Job at Stephen Walters

Posted on by

Stephen Walters are silk weavers designing and producing fabric for international luxury brands. We have built our reputation as design leaders working exclusively with fashion houses across the world. We are recruiting for the following position to join our highly regarded design team:

Textile Designer to work within our creative design team producing CAD representations of our jacquard designs.

The design work is extremely varied and covers a broad range of fabrics from men’s neckwear to contemporary womenswear and furnishings.

We are looking for a designer with good artistic ability and drawing skills, a sensitivity to colour, a diversity of styles and attention to detail. An understanding of CAD systems would be beneficial but not essential, as full training will be given to the successful applicant. Our design team is currently made up of trained designers from a variety of disciplines such as print, surface pattern and weave. We would like to hear from anyone who is qualified in similar areas.

Hours of work: 8am to 5pm Monday to Friday (40 hours)
Location: Sudbury, Suffolk
Salary: Depending on experience

Closing date for applications 26.02.16

Please email your CV with a covering letter to Katherine Winterton via the form here.

Betty Woodman: Theatre of the Domestic at the ICA

Posted on by

3 Feb 2016 – 10 Apr 2016

WEBWallpaper 9_detail

The first UK solo presentation of works by Betty Woodman (born 1930), one of the most important contemporary artists working with ceramics today. The exhibition focuses on work Woodman has created in the last ten years, including a number of major new mixed media pieces.

Betty Woodman began making work in 1950 with clay as her chosen medium, and throughout her practice has constantly explored new directions and introduced new techniques and media. Woodman’s conceptual boldness and her ambitious experimentation—in which she combines such unlikely materials as lacquer paint on earthenware and terra sigillata, a slip glaze often used on ancient ceramics, on paper—have generated a unique series of innovations. Significantly, the ways in which she combines ceramics and painting in her three-dimensional works resonates with younger generations of artists.

All her work relates to her ceramics, their decorative design, imagery and unusual use of various media, and can be seen as a way of exploring her painterly sensibility. For many years she has focused on the vase, which over time has become her most salient subject. For Woodman, the vase can be a vessel, a human body, and animal figure, a metaphor, or an art-historical reference. Painting, particularly in recent years, plays a key role in the work of Betty Woodman. Her later works are large, colourful drawings and paintings on handmade paper or canvas that combine graphite, ink and lacquer with terra sigillata and wax. Her work alludes to and blends numerous sources, including Minoan and Egyptian art, Greek and Etruscan sculpture, Tang Dynasty works, majolica and Sèvres porcelain, Italian Baroque architecture, and the paintings of Bonnard, Picasso and Matisse.

https://www.ica.org.uk

Paid 6 Month Fashion and Textiles Design Internship at Derek Rose

Posted on by
Paid Fashion and Textiles Design Internship
Derek Rose are a luxury brand based on Baker Street, London specialising in nightwear, underwear and loungewear. All of our textiles are designed in-house including repeat print, jacquards and yarn dyed stripes and checks. This is an exciting opportunity for a Textiles graduate looking to gain industry experience.
You will be a part of a small team working directly with the internal designers contributing to the development of the collections and supporting the general running of the design office.

This internship is full time and will last six months to start 26th February 2016.
The ideal candidate:

  • Fashion/Textiles (BA) hons degree.
  • Interest and knowledge of designing prints and yarn dyed stripes and checks.
  • Strong commercial awareness.
  • Interest in textile design for both men’s and womenswear.
  • Must be proficient in Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator).
  • An excellent understanding of working in a fashion environment and of the design process.
  • Be proactive and able to work independently on your own initiative.

Duties to include:

  • Assisting the designers to design print, jacquards and yarn dyed stripes and checks.
  • Creating technical design sheets.
  • Using Adobe Creative Suite to bring concepts to design.
  • Assisting with administrative tasks including archiving fabrics, filing, answering calls, maintaining showroom, updating design boards and other day to day tasks.
  • Researching new trends, creating mood boards and colour research.

If this sounds like you, we would like to hear from you. To apply send us a copy of your PDF portfolio and CV.

For more details and to apply go here