BFTA

First Round Work

The BFTA (British Fur Trade Association) runs a design competition every year and I was one of this years finalists. firstly you submit a body of work, including client board, colour board, designs, specs etc. I chose my final design to be a sweater with knot and embellishment, with a natural color tone with my client being Anna Piaggi. 

Being one of 8 finalists I attended a workshop in London. Which showed us hundreds of fur techniques: knitting weaving, quilting... we also got shown how to use a fur machine, met a furrier and got lots of information on the fur industry. We also got a one on one tutorial about our work with Creative Director of Saga Furs and a Designer From Hockley's. this was very beneficial, we then got 2weeks to go and develop our work and resubmit. 

Second Round Work

Since the BFTA workshop I have took all the different technique’s into consideration and developed my designs. I have done a few samples:  sewing the fur on the machine, hand sewing panels together and the knitted technique by weaving the fur and cashmere through mesh.

I have linked these samples to my previous designs by keeping the embellished grid idea. However I have pushed it to the next level by having it tartan inspired. I want my designs to sharp, chic and desirable. I want it to be driven by my Scottish roots, in so doing having the tartan which is a Scottish tradition, Mackintosh coats to inspire the shape of my designs which is based in Cumbernauld and in my samples I have used cashmere from Johnstons of Elgin as I think it complements the fur making it even more sensual.

In my final designs I want to use origin assured fox or mink combined with a cashmere lining and embellishment. For the backing of my embellishment I can sew a panel of cashmere on or weave it through the mesh to keep consistency with the knitted fur. For my colour scheme I want to use different tones of turquoise, white and black. I would like to use a silver fox or a sapphire cross mink and dye it turquoise so it preserves the dark guard hairs to get a nice tonal effect. 

Ashley J