Georgia Hardinge for River Island

Georgia Hardinge is a designer I have ben following the past few season, and I think her stuff is amazing and very innovative. Her work is often very 3 dimensional, created with folds, pleats and creative pattern cutting.

So what a coincidence she has a just launched a collection in collaboration with River Islands Fashion Forum. I had to rush down to River Island in Oxford Street to grab myself a piece or two…so I did. And I am over the moon… the print is incredible. Very striking in black and white, architectural print, which looks to be created by fabric manipulation, form Georgia’s signature folds. I got myself the chiffon maxi dress and a cute wee shirt, which buttons up the back, just can wait to wear them both now. 

Ashley J

Dior at Harrods

This past week I attended the Dior Exhibition at Harrods…It was AMAZING!!! As soon as I walked into the exhibit, it was so exciting a full wall of mini windows filled with dollhouse size furniture and Dior perfume…

J'adore Dress

The exhibit had everything to offer, couture dresses which took 900 man-hours to make, the famous J’adore dress from the advert and a phone box filled with the scent of Miss Dior.

I was only there for an hour so was running around like a maddie trying to take everything in, including getting a wee picture taken on the Dior Red Carpet! Which was set alongside the red carpet dress worn by recent celebrities along with ones worn by histories greats such as Princess Diana and the TINY dress worn by Audrey Hepburn.

Dress worn By Audrey Hepburn

Me on the Red Carpet 

But the Highlight of the Exhibition for me was the collection of the toiles from Dior. This was a little insight to the behind the scenes into Dior’s Sewing rooms, the Toiles were all made from a muslin, exquisitely made for a toile…showing where the atelier had made amendments, adding fabric here and there, taking darts out, tacking where the pleats are going to lie. And you don’t realise how much detail each garment has until you see it all stripped back with no pattern, embellishment etc. Truly amazing!!

Toile Exhibit

  

I came out of the exhibition feeling sincerely inspired…maybe one day I can be as good as that.

Here are some inspirational Quotes from the man him self to keep you wandering...

"Elegance is an ensemble where the invisible is as important as the visible"

"May Every heart slumbers a dream and the couturier knows it: every woman is a princess"

Ashley J

Moving away from Wool...

In this collaborative design project it has been decided to produce a more reasonably priced range of clothing based on the eveningwear of designer Ashley Isham. Isham is experimental in his use of colour and his fabric choice; he often uses a lot of embellishment and is best known for his signature draping and strong tailoring (Ashley Isham, n.d.). Ashley Isham was chosen in order to develop my skills by exploring different fabric types - in this case jersey.  I been fortunate enough to spend two seasons on a placement with him.  His work seems to dovetail with my work in that the garments are structured but also explore drapery in evening wear, and look into corsetry and specialist fabric finishes.

For the purposes of this assignment a selection of strapless evening gowns will be produced by studying Isham’s design ‘handwriting’ . His “classic” draped jersey dresses, which have many layers of interlinings including a padded corset for support, will be focused upon. An attempt will be made, by following Ashley Isham’s design ethos of stylishness, flamboyance with a core of elegance, all contained in the beautiful feminine silhouette, to create an ever-elegant evening gown with affordability that would sit in Isham’s Diffusion Line: “AI by Ashley Isham”.

In order to achieve the affordability of the garments the patterns will be created on Gerber, which will then be graded according to his size range. An order and a marker will then be made to get the optimum fabric usage. The dresses will still be made to a high standard, with the same finishes and inter-linings Isham would use, but a cheaper fabric might be used and a substitution for the embellishment such as an embroidered fabric may be made.

It will be appealing to his target ‘AI by Ashley Isham’ market to design two draped evening gowns because they are classic yet contemporary. Ashley Isham’s core clientele and loyal customers are mainly in South East Asia (Petrova, 2011) and in the Middle East (AI by Ashley Isham, n.d.). Many of his clientele attend lavish balls, appreciate design and want to stand out from the crowd. These gowns are targeted at modern women who are “all at once inappropriately enticing and yet unbearably unapproachable and Isham's designs evoke, rather, scream this unhindered sensuality” (London Fashion Week spring/summer 2013 live, 2012). Although it is intended that the garments will sit in Isham’s diffusion line, it will still be sitting in the upper mid market ranging in price from £200-£350, a market which has been less affected by the recession.

Furthermore, to keep faithful to Isham’s design ethos, I chose to create two evening gowns, based on Isham’s “classic” draped dress. The intention is to keep the finish of the garments to a very high standard, by still incorporating a cupped corset on the inner of the dress and by using quality fabrics as well as specialist fabric finishes such as the 4 thread over-locker and a pin hem. The corset is a fundamental design detail on this type of dress since if it didn’t have an inner corset the dress wouldn’t work. The corset is what gives this type of garment its structure as well as showing off the feminine body. I have done a lot of experimentation within the corset, creating my own pattern under the direction of Hagger (2004, p.74-79) looking at the fit, the type of fabric she will use and whether it be fused, canvassed or neither. 

Final Outcomes. 

  

The current designer has taken frequent inspiration from Isham including fabric choice, the silhouette of the garments and the interlinings; as well as looking at the quality and finish of these garments. The chosen fabrics for the main bodies of the dresses are a silk/viscose jersey and a polyester crepe-de-chine: two very different fabrics, however still in keeping with Isham’s original fabric choice: silk, jersey and satin, which would have been too expensive for the projected garments. Nonetheless, they both have beautiful drape to them and will create a very elegant appearance, while still feeling luxurious to the touch. In order for me to come up with my own twist on these evening gowns I have chosen a muted colour scheme made up of mossy greens and muddy creams. The intention is to create a more sophisticated London look, with the flair of Ashley Isham, by incorporating the suggested embellishment/embroidery contrast fabrics that are such a feature of his designs.

Colour Scheme

There has been much consideration regarding the process behind the pattern cutting to get the best fit possible.  This was achieved by creating the fundamental patterns on Gerber, while simultaneously having alongside the actual draping on the stand, so as to create the gathering featurette around the bust; then digitizing these patterns and smoothing off the lines on the program, thus creating an accurate sample pattern. Besides carrying out multiple fit sessions the designer has paid a lot of attention to detail, by re-toiling on multiple occasions to get the perfect fit that a strapless garment ought to have.

Ashley J

Shop Until you Drop!!

The time has come, I have just opened up a wee shop on Etsy.

So if you like what you have seen on this blog, of my collection and other pieces please click here. And knock your self out...treat yourself! 

Ashley J

Woollen Coat

The main focus of this design project is to create a look which is very functional, comfortable and traditionally inspired. By mainly looking at the British craftsmanship movement, I want to try and replicate the quality and expertise they put into the products they manufacture. The colour scheme and seaming detail was taken from the outdoor exhibition at the Natural History Museum “Wild Planet” juxtaposed with 19^th century riding wear. By using these ideas it was obvious to my design aesthetic to focus on women’s structured wear. In this case making an outerwear coat essentially derived from the classic trench coat with a modern twist, accompanied by a pair of wool trousers. Through using the fundamentally British fabric of wool, this garment is aimed at wealthy fashion-conscious women due to its quality and desirability.

Using the exhibition and combining it with 19^th century riding wear, let me gain a vision for a strong silhouette. Creating a timeless hourglass silhouette derived from the Victorian era. I researched in depth the history of riding wear, by mainly focusing on the 19^th Century and women riding side-saddle. It was only at the turn of the 20th century  women started wearing jodhpurs. Their riding coats were not boned but still followed the fashions of that time, as many women would be corseted. However their lower half would be hidden in metres of material to emulate the look of a bustle. My silhouette is inspired by the classic riding costume, incorporating the tailoring, panelling and clever pattern cutting they used.

Both concepts have a significant history and have originated from the notion of nature and functionality. This leads me on to the relevance of the British craftsmanship movement to my concept. Many of the British brands and mills that are still afloat have been passed down by generations of families for centuries and come with a great deal of history. This is a crucial point to be made when buying into a British brand, you don’t only get a quality made garment but you get a piece of that history and the comfort in knowing where it has been produced. And what is Britain best known for, textile manufacture in wools, tweeds and cashmere. These fabrics were used for the 19^th C riding habits, as they are all natural fabrics that enable the body to breath. In particular tweeds would have been very useful in riding habits as they are very light absorbent which help the rider camouflage into the background while hunting.

British-made remains a discipline and a very constricted one, as it is very difficult to find manufactures and fabric stockists that completely make their product in Britain. Therefore it is limiting in many ways- target market as well as the fabric choice- both reflect in the price. It is a dying force of skilled labourers with an average age of about 50 (Santi, 2011). If we are to Re-vamp the whole made in Britain and bring manufacturing back to our own soil; as stated by Mary Portas we have around a 10 year window in which this can be done, as the skill of making clothes has missed a few generations (Nodder, 2012), we need these very valuable women to teach a new generation.

Furthermore, Only 15% of Barbour sales are made in Britain (Santi, 2011) and they market themselves as a British Brand (see figure 4). This does not seem a lot, however realising just how hard it is to create a “Made in Britain” product, sacrifices have to be made. Companies such as Haeden & Quarmby have had to make a lot of compromises (Knowles, 2012), by moving all they’re manufacturing overseas, as it was just not feasible to manufacture in the UK. We are however slowly seeing more clothing being made in Britain, even Topshop now have a Made in Britain Range (Topshop, 2012).  

In conclusion, trying to channel these ideas into one look has been challenging and there have been a lot of compromises to be had. As stated by the telegraph “Britain can be quite limiting”(Luu, 2012). However, by following the discipline of the British craftsmanship I have created a successful functional coat and a pair of comfortable trousers. And by not using British fabric this time, there has been a lot of attention to detail on the finish of the garment and the quality of which it has been made. 

Ashley J