Class #3 27/07/09

The topic for this week was Process Vs Material

The concept of the fashion designers process is fairly well documented. Get inspired, sketch like mad, create a sample, make the garment...
So to go back to the start and think about starting a new process that is completely different to what you're used to is really a new concept for ME. There was an interesting discussion in class about what we are taught in our course and how there is really only (for better or worse) one process that is taught and encouraged. That of the fashion designer (above). So to start thinking about new processes that could be explored is exiting and at the same time scary.

In class we had to think about the processes that were explained to us. It was really confusing to get on to this new way of thinking but I did get onto it eventually...I think.

Our last exercise was to work in groups and create a new system.

The images below show us working in the group. This was the system we came up with.
1. Choose a card from the Oblique Strategies box and let it inform how you apply the pieces (scraps of fabric, any materials you can find) onto the fabric.
2. Attach random pieces of material/fabric onto the fabric with your eyes closed.
(We found knotting the pieces worked best)
3. Take down from the wall and then 'wear' the garment in any way.


The system, 27/07/09


This was a really simplistic way of describing the process. After we discussed how the process would change each time you did it.

-The materials that you use will completely change the end result.
-The card you choose will inform how you interact with the piece of fabric.
-As you are blindfolded when you attach the pieces the outcome will be random.



The product, 27/07/09

Last week’s discussion of fashion vs. clothing comes into this idea of process. To start with you have to define what a garment is, in order to produce something. I went with something as simple as something that highlights and/or conceals the body.
So technically, what we created fitted into that definition. In order to refine the end result, you need to carefully choose your starting point. I don't think my definition is perfect so that's why the results aren't working..

Also if anyone out there is reading this blog I would love to know if there are any other design blogs written by students in relation to their semesters work. I've had a quick search and there doesn't seem to be many by fashion design students, mostly architecture...

Till next time...

Btw this is Brian Eno talking about his Oblique Stratagies cards we were using in class.


The Oblique Strategies evolved from me being in a number of working situations when the panic of the situation – particularly in studios – tended to make me quickly forget that there were others ways of working and that there were tangential ways of attacking problems that were in many senses more interesting than the direct head-on approach. If you’re in a panic, you tend to take the head-on approach because it seems to be the one that’s going to yield the best results Of course, that often isn’t the case – it’s just the most obvious and – apparently – reliable method. The function of the Oblique Strategies was, initially, to serve as a series of prompts which said, “Don’t forget that you could adopt *this* attitude,” or “Don’t forget you could adopt *that* attitude.”

Brian Eno