It was a beautiful day, the sun was out and beaming down but sadly in the design centre it was sweating! I don't think it was very equipped was the hotter weather and everyone in the show, including myself looked melted.
I did however, find some interesting pieces, especially in the Loughborough University who’s stall was positioned at the entrance -which I feel was a good selling point.
The first piece I looked at was made by Emma Stovin-a 3D textile designer at the university, which I found really interesting and something that I hadn’t seen before in textiles.
I believe it was made from pieces of mirror and dyed colour yarn, threaded through some of the mirror parts.
Emma Stovin-textiler.tumblr.com
There was also another piece that caught my eye, which I found to be quite striking and even might help me with presentation of my final piece next year. I sadly have not picked up any information other than the work was presented at Loughborough University.
Of course, I don’t know but I feel it could have been influenced by the Pattern Magic Books as the design is similar to an accordion sample from the book. But what I really liked was the presentation of the piece and the background, which even though simple, was really effective.
I love the design and the volume in this piece.
At the same stand was another piece which I found inspiring towards
what I plan to do this coming year. I was lucky enough to speak to the designer
and ask what was used in the making of it. This piece was made by a Luke Harrison-a multi media
textile designer, and I found it fabulous! It was heavily constructed with
wool which was embroided and printed on, and was constructed using quilted
fabric and cardboard to keep its ridged structure. While speaking to him he
explained his passion for costume and this was where he was aiming to plan his career.
I think it’s an amazing piece and found it one of the only designs to truly
capture my imagination.
Luke Harrison.
There were other pieces I took interest in and was able to
take pictures of. I noticed myself drawn to plastic looking materials such as
Perspex which I found quite fascinating.
I saw this Perspex piece made by a Georgina Connor-textile
designer, which I found quite jewellery like.
Another Perspex design was made by Owen Knowles, which I liked the thought of this piece as an
over garment to fit over a simple white dress-to make it very striking. I also
liked that different types of Perspex had been used and the circular side
panels wear beaten by hand-which made it all that bit more personal.
I
was also entriged by another couple of designers which seemed to have very similar
theme in both their collections.
Lauren Moore and Laura Chestney have both used Persex as an accessory applied
on the top of garments and also made into accessories of their own such as face
masks and bags.
With
Laura Chestney, I was amazed
by her bags-they looked futuristic, using neon coloured Perspex and designed
quite unusual. Lauren Moore also created bags, but had a harder element to
them using leather and studs.
Even
though they had both used similar materials, it was possible to see the two different
personalities behind them.
Laura Chestney- laurachestney.wordpress.com
There was one other garment that I found to stand out-I
found it fun, which I believe is something that should be part of fashion.
Elizabeth Bostrom-textiles print and fashion designer was
showcasing a garment based upon hair! Yep! The whole collection had been
inspired on hair; the prints used were different variations of hair and on the
garment shown on the mannequin-had a shoulder piece made from beautifully
coloured wigs! The shoulder pieces are detachable-but I found them fascinating
and the colours in the hair were remarkable, I didn’t realize there could potentially
be that many colours and I especially liked the dip-dyed hair. I thought it was
reminiscent of another hair inspired garment (coat I believe) but I found it
really quirky and different.
