Evaluation

As a young designer I have been invited to take part in an exhibition,

this is a valuable experience for me to showcase my work and design
expertise and individuality both within the local community and the
wider press. This opportunity will allow me to develop my own personal
design outcome building on my own interest, ideas and concepts
developed over my time here at NewVic.
I began my assignment by looking into my findings about how
advertisement and social media affects females. The extensive way in
which media has an impact on an individuals self esteem is
discriminatory, leading females to go to extreme lengths to achieve
what they anticipate to be the perfect look; leading to issues such as
eating disorders and depression.
This raised ideas of a corrupt society with corrupt views making me
reflect on many other conflicts occurring around the world. Alexander
McQueens collection fascinated me, as to how a story was narrated
and reflected through details on garments. The story behind my
project, the Greek mythology Pandoras box, narrates Pandora
opening a box she was told not to, unleashing all evil in to the world.
When Pandora reopened this, believing the damage was done, hope
was set free. As I wanted to add a modern twist to this plot I focused on
a real life situation where a Palestinian woman plants flowers in used
grenade shells. The situational irony made me wonder about how
something bad can emerge into something good.
Through this project I want to be able to express that not everything is
perfect in this world and there is a lot of chaos occurring, however
there are certain things in life that shine through and have a whole new
perspective thats full of hope, ambition and good morals which drives
people further in life. I also wanted to focus on the appreciation of
women and how they are not the typical stereotype that is shown
through media, they are independent, strong willed and empowering.
The fashion industry plays a big part in everyones lives, what you wear
is a form of expressionism; its a statement that speaks for you and
delivers basic information about the wearer as current mood, personal
opinion, social class, taste or occupation. Humans feel an urge to be
unique, show their character and give a good first impression, which is
always given by appearance. I believe that with a good concept I will
successfully be able to narrate a story from garment designs and
surface prints.
Before starting the project I made a brief time scale plan outlining the
task I had to carry out per week to make sure I would be able to meet
my deadline and have enough time for research, experimentation and
making my final piece. I found that this helped with keeping on track of
everything and gave me enough time to thoughtfully plan out my final
piece after doing lots of experimentations. I went on quiet a few gallery
trips at the beginning of my project and a couple in the duration of my

project, this consisted of the Saatchi Gallery: Champagne Life, which

was related to my theme (feminism), Tate Modern, Tate Britain, William
Morris Gallery, Monet: Painting the Modern Garden and Victoria Miro.
I researched and resourced relevant sources through borrowing
artist/designer and technique books from the college library as well as
using Pinterest and other websites to gain influences and knowledge on
artist, designers, colour ways, trends etc. I also visited Oxford Circus to
do a shop report at Liberty, Topshop and Bershka this assisted with
finding out current trends, colour ways and what kind of silhouette I
wanted for my garment. I then created a Pinterest mood board
showing what my influences and ideas were toward my final piece.
Whenever I found an artist or designer I would do an experimental
interpretation of their work in my style and add it to the collection I
would later select swatches from for my final.
I have developed my ideas through artist I have found and through
experimentation such as Batik, Screen Print, Tie Dye/Shibori/Dip dye
Techniques, bleaching and Digital Print/Transfer Ink heat press. One of
the problems I had was when I was preparing my fabric with plants to
be sprayed with bleach outside, the weather conditions were terrible
and my work kept flying away. I solved this by preparing my fabric with
the plants inside the building, on top of the paper to protect it from
getting dirty and the bleach getting on the ground as well as taping it
down so it wouldnt fly away.
An example of where I had my work reviewed was when I had a oneto- one with my textiles teacher where we laid out all my experiments
and discussed the next step and how I could improve my work. She told
me to add a bit of colour to my screen-prints on white fabric by tie
dying them, as the white was overpowering against all my other
experiments and that this way it would help bring all of them together.
She also told me that I had to stick to a colour way as the colours on
my fabric samples were all over the place, I solved this problem later
by making a Pinterest mood board that visually shows a colour scheme
I could stick to.
A new technique that I learnt was Batik, I found it really interesting and
challenging as to how you have to work quickly with the wax, it wasnt
easy! I also found that when I painted it with brusho inks, the colours
were to bright for my colour scheme. Another new technique I
experimented with was bleaching fabric in a variety of ways like; tie
dying, dip dying, painting my screen print with bleach, spraying bleach
etc. I absolutely loved the way they turned out and personally think its
an awesome way to distress fabric.
Overall looking back at my project proposal I feel as though I have
achieved my goals by creating lots of surface designs alongside three
garments with a variety of techniques. I can see how my work has
developed through experimenting continuously and how I have gained
a range of skills trying different techniques, rather than sticking to
digital prints and basic screen prints. I am very pleased with my

outcomes, the three statement pieces are sophisticated yet simple, can
either be dressed for a classy or casual event, and is aimed at girls who
are around the age of sixteen and above. The two slip dresses
resemble the distressed look I was hoping to achieve along side the
colour scheme. Furthermore the A-line organza dress successfully
introduces floral patterns within my collection to show how hope can
emerge within this world of corruption.