Walid al Damirji, Creative Director of Fashion Label By Walid will be in conversation with Woven Textiles Designer Kirsty McDougall of Dashing Tweeds and Rare Thread about the relationship between Fashion and Textiles and future trends this Thursday between 5 – 6pm in LTA – not to be missed.
Both companies take student interns regularly and will be able to answer questions you may have about internships.
See you on Thursday at 5pm in LTA!
We are very lucky to have worked on a live project with Sophie Steller and her trend driven Knitwear Studio for second year knit & weave’s first project this semester, leading to four work placements for two knit & weave students respectively in her studio in Twickenham, London.
A little bit about Sophie Steller and her company:
‘Our London based studio is home to a team of highly talented designers who have worked on projects for clients such as SPINEXPO, Novetex Spinners, TJ Maxx, AEO, GAP, Polo Ralph Lauren, Gant, A&F, Primark Stores, Marks & Spencer, H&M and Aroma Home.
We provide a wide range of knitwear related design services including:
We worked to an exciting brief set by Sophie, asking the students to approach their work in a more trend driven way. She asked the students to:
‘Develop your ability to research in a relevant, objective, and analytical way to be able to communicate your ideas with one strong, clear message.
The role of a designer is to find ways to creatively problem-solve. As a designer, whether you are designing your own collection, or working for a client you need to create desirability and suitability of your design to a consumer of some kind, and therefore whether you set the brief or the client does, you need to find the solution of creating something that someone else wants to consume.
The students were asked to:
‘Collect a range of 30-40 research images (these can be your own drawings or photographs, collage or a combination of all) of your own that observe and explore the following:
* Shapes * Textures * Colours * Atmosphere & mood * Touch & surface *
Be able to answer the following:
Why did you choose your subject and what did you found interesting and inspiring about it?
Once you went there what did you find out and observe?
Through your visual observations what did you find you liked about it and what ideas did it give to develop further?
What key elements have you identified as being important to inspire you?
From your observational research develop the following:
The students then presented their final fabrics, presentation boards, and a Powerpoint presentation at the end of the six week project to Sophie Steller, and to tutors in their subject areas, Jane Landau for Woven textiles, and Sarah Elwick, & Lisa Burn-Hunter for Knitwear. The work was generally of a very high standard overall, and Sophie was very impressed with the work produced by the students. She will select her four students for internships in due course.
Well done to all involved. A great start to level two!
The C&E Lecture this Thursday 24th November will be given by industry speakers James Theseus Buck and Luke Brooks. Since graduating from the MA Fashion Design Course at CSM they have work on collaborative projects and styling under the name Rottingdean Bazaar.
The talk will be 5-6pm in Lecture Theatre A. Make sure you don’t miss it!
Two Knitwear students, Zoe Lyne and Jessye Boulton won prize’s at the Campaign for Wool Student Hand Knit Competiton held at Artworkers Guild Hall in London during Wool Week.
The students responded to a competition brief created by Marie Wallin. Students were asked to design a series of fashion garments hand-knitted in 100% wool, or wool-rich, [more than 51% real wool] that displayed sculptural form using cabling and 3D knitting techniques in a palette which celebrated the colours of a British Autumn. Students were encouraged to incorporate other handcraft techniques such as crochet, macramé, tatting and felting. The brief asked for an exploration of scale as a means to create drama and complexity.
Sixteen final entries were judged during Wool Week by Marie Wallin, Bridgette Kelly of The Campaign for Wool Ltd, Wendy Barker ofKingston University and Polly Leonard, Founder and Editor of Selvedge Magazine who awarded a special prize to her overall preferred entry.
The second prize of £300 was awarded to Jessye Boulton from Winchester School of Art, another first-year undergraduate student. “Jessye’s design was a wonderful blend of multi-coloured yarns knitted into a collection bullion knots, creating a dramatic and eye-catching, almost carpet-like in its structure and very impressive as a garment.”
Using the colours of Autumn as her starting point Jessye created a highly textured garment using Spring stitch to mimic the natural complexity of the forest floor and to celebrate the quality of the pure wool yarns she used. Jessye secured yarn sponsorship from Cornish Organic Wool and LoveKnitting.com which enabled her to create a dense and luscious final piece.
A special award of a 3-year subscription to Selvedge Magazine was given to Zoe Lyne of Winchester School of Art. Polly Leonard, the editor of Selvedge Magazine was instantly drawn to this “dramatic design of a mass of crochet tubes worked into a very imaginative wearable neckpiece or collar.”
Zoe was inspired by the notion of an organic shape engulfing the wearer for her design. Imagining knitwear as an extension of the body Zoe constructed the garment to obscure the face with a series of sculptural tube-like forms that form the collar.
The garment was hand-knitted in natural undyed British and Merino wool specifically to subtly draw attention to the natural irregularities in the yarn. Constructing the sculptural collar in Dartmoor lambswool, supplied by Lily Warne Wool, was a nod to Zoe’s Devon heritage.
Congratulations to Jessye and Zoe!
This Thursday in LTA, the milliner Noel Stewart will be giving a talk about his practice. 5pm – not to be missed!
Noel Stewart is a London based milliner with international status. Taking inspiration from contemporary art and architecture he continually modernises millinery to creates a fresh and elegant approach to how we dress the head. Noels’ collections combine luxury materials and traditional craftsmanship with contemporary innovation.
Since establishing his label Noel has designed hats for leading fashion designers including Roland Mouret, Diesel, Roksanda, Erdem, Hussein Chalayan, Richard Nicoll, Jaeger, Marc by Marc Jacobs, Holly Fulton, Sibling, Viktor & Rolf, Ryan Lo, Gareth Pugh, and JW Anderson. His continuing work with such designers reflects the relevance of his role in contemporary fashion.
Off the catwalk Noel Stewart has acquired a loyal fan-base. His hats have been worn by Keira Knightly, Lady Gaga, Florence Welch, Kylie Minogue and Beth Ditto.
13 October 2016 – 5 February 2017
Potent, provocative and sometimes shocking, the word vulgar conjures up strong images, ideas and feelings in us all. The Vulgar is the first exhibition to explore the inherently challenging but utterly compelling territory of taste in fashion, from the renaissance through to contemporary design. Examining the constantly evolving notion of vulgarity in fashion whilst revelling in its excesses, you are invited to think again about exactly what makes something vulgar and why it is such a sensitive and contested term.
Drawn from major public and private collections worldwide, The Vulgar showcases over 120 stunning objects, ranging from historical costumes to couture and ready-to-wear looks, with contributions from leading contemporary designers such as Walter van Beirendonck, Chloé, Christian Dior, Pam Hogg, Charles James, Christian Lacroix, Lanvin, Moschino, Miuccia Prada, Agent Provocateur, Elsa Schiaparelli, Philip Treacy, UNDERCOVER, Viktor & Rolf, Louis Vuitton and Vivienne Westwood.
http://www.barbican.org.uk/artgallery/event-detail.asp?id=18736
Antonioni’s cult classic ‘Blow-Up’ will be shown at this week’s Film Club.
Wednesday 20th October 2016
4pm – 6pm
Lecture Theatre B
Don’t miss it!
Blow-Up (1966) is writer/director Michelangelo Antonioni’s view of the world of mod fashion, and an engaging, provocative murder mystery that examines the existential nature of reality interpreted through photography (also painting and pantomime). It was set in mid-60s London, a locale fairly unfamiliar to the director, although well known at the time for its trends including the Beatles, stick-thin fashion model Twiggy, and the mod styles at Carnaby Street. This was Antonioni’s first film in English, and it quickly became one of the most important films of its decade, and it was his first international box-office success. It was also a milestone in liberalized attitudes toward film nudity and expressions of sexuality (reportedly the first British film to display full-frontal nudity).
Exploring an unparalleled period in American art, this long-awaited exhibition reveals the full breadth of a movement that will forever be associated with the boundless creative energy of 1950s New York.
Often monumental in scale, their works are at times intense, spontaneous and deeply expressive. At others they are more contemplative, presenting large fields of colour that border on the sublime. These radical creations redefined the nature of painting, and were intended not simply to be admired from a distance but as two-way encounters between artist and viewer.
It was a watershed moment in the evolution of 20th-century art, yet, remarkably, there has been no major survey of the movement since 1959.
This autumn we bring together some of the most celebrated art of the past century, offering the chance to experience the powerful collective impact of Pollock, Rothko, Still, de Kooning, Newman, Kline, Smith, Guston and Gorky as their works dominate our galleries with their scale and vitality.
We also acknowledge the lesser-known figures who contributed to the development of the movement. Finally, we include photography and sculpture to complete an ambitious re-evaluation of the phenomenon that saw New York take over from Paris as the capital of the art world.
For more details go to https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibition/abstract-expressionism
Clyfford Still, PH-950, 1950.
Designer Bethany Williams will be talking about the social and environmental influences on her work next Thursday at 5pm LTA – not to be missed.
Graduate knitwear designer Victoria Jones has been showcased as part of Not Just A Label’s ‘Black Sheep’ feature. NJAL selects designers they feel are “especially innovative, pioneering and striking in their work.”
Her final womenswear collection Psychedelic Furs is focused around the question of ‘What is bad taste?’ Directed around 1970s playful interiors, the seventies is often described as the decade taste forgot. Victoria plays on the idea of ugliness and how individuals perceive it. William Eggleston, Larry Sultan and Stephen Shore are among the American photographers she took inspiration from as well as old home interior design books by Terrance Conrad.
From the imagery she has drawn on colour, texture and pattern and directed them into knits, using mohair and furry yarn to create interesting knitwear evocative of shag pile rugs and contrasting checks. Dying her own yarn and fabric has enabled her to create a vibrant contemporary colour palette that is balanced across the collection.
Read more here