Thumbelina Photoshoot

 My final illustration for my Thumbelina costume.

The prints I designed and used.

The butterflies used link to the butterflies in the story of Thumbelina, the swirling leaves and flowers link to the plant Thumbelina grew from and the nature throughout the story and finally the feathers used in the patterns link to the bird Thumbelina became friends with. I used a printing method for one of the butterflies to get a rounded symmetrical shape, I used machine embroidery and hand embroidery for the other patterns to get a more free flowing shape to link with the nature of the story.

 

 

 

The shape of the costume links to the opening of a flower, representing the tulip from which Thumbelina came. The floating skirt links to the childhood audience and theme of the story and the delicacy of the embroidery on the pattern ties the natural element of the whole piece together.

 

I definitely think my design links to the theme as the shape of the garment and the patterns all have elements of the story within them.

I believe this project has developed my textile skills brilliantly. I have become confident with machine embroidery and hand embroidery and really enjoy the result it creates, I have also become more confident with printing techniques such as cholograph and lino print. I believe that I could do this throughout my future and confidently create many designs using these techniques. From a fashion point of view I have learnt how to create a new skirt and a large petal bodice.

 

I worked with Chelsea for this project, at first she seemed hard working. She helped me to decide on a target audience and then after this things started to go down hill. She seemed to concentrate more on just the magazine she was creating rather than the photo shoot we were supposed to be doing together. We booked a date and admittedly I had to change this a few times due to college trips and deadlines, however, I changed it well before the week of the shoot so we had plenty of time to sort details out. We communicated via email and inbox on facebook, these conversations consisted mostly of target audience and photo shoot times, once these things were set communication decreased until it was the simple C-"are you okay with the photo shoot on the 5th" M-"yes, the studio is booked for this date". This same conversation happened four times until the day of the shoot.

On the actual shoot itself Chelsea was quite good apart from constantly mumbling under her breath and hardly speaking to me or the model until a teacher came in the room. Despite this we actually got some really good photos and at my request she got some close up of my embroidery. I was rather excited at the end of the shoot and Chelsea promised to have my images edited and sent to me by the following Monday. The Monday came and went, I inboxed her and she said she was working on it, on the Wednesday I went up to see her and she had "forgotten" her memory card. After Christmas I went to find her as it had been a whole month since the shoot, she looked through three different memory cards and couldn't find the images. I was quite annoyed as we had to arrange an emergency shoot for that week and the deadline for assessment was the next week. Luckily she found the images and I got them from her a few days later with only 3 badly edited. The original photos were fine so I decided to use them as I didn't have time to wait for her to edit them or to do them myself. In the end Chelsea turned out to be okay, she took some pretty good images yet she was bad at editing and awful with deadlines.

Hans Christian Andersen and Fashion Research

Hans Christian Andersen was a Danish storyteller born in 1805. He was the son of a poor shoemaker however, after many struggles, he became known as a poet. Today he is best know for his fairy tales, he believed the secret to his success was that he wrote the stories as if he were telling them to a child. Each time a story is told it changes a little to suit its teller and its audience. This is because everyone has a different idea which part of the story is most interesting, that's why the stories aren't exactly as Andersen wrote them over a hundred and fifty years ago.

Andersen was the writer of the well known stories Thumbelina, The Little Mermaid, The Princess and the Pea, The Ugly Duckling and more. One of my favourites is Thumbelina as I love all the creatures she meets and the adventures she has.

In Andersen's story there isn't much of a reference to the clothes that his characters wear. This is what led me to research into 19th century clothing to inspire my costume for Thumbelina. I also took inspiration from the flowers and animals in the story and contemporary costume.

The fashion of the 19th century is known for its corsets, bonnets, top hats, bustles and petticoats. Women’s fashion during the Victorian period was largely dominated by full skirts, which gradually moved to the back of the silhouette. In the 1820's and 30's the waistline returned to it's natural position forcing the bodice into a tighter fit and skirts a fuller bell shape. Short puffed sleeves were generally saved for evening and long sleeves for the day. In the 1860's the skirt was very full and worn over a steel crinoline, a boned corset was worn over a chemise and large shawls were sometimes worn instead of a cloak. In the 1870's - 80's styles were introduced that revealed the natural silhouette. A popular style was the `princess line' dress, which was made without a waist seam to reveal the figure. Skirts fitted tightly and required streamlined all-in-one underwear combinations. Corsets became longer and were more rigidly boned. Sleeves were tight. After 1887 the bustle went out of fashion.

 

 

In the last few years of the 19th century the skirt was floor length with a slight train. The waist remained small and a corset which either laced up or fastened with clips was generally worn. A small pad was worn at the back of the waist to support the skirt. In the 1890s the top of the sleeves were sometimes puffed into an enormous shape which required lightweight stiffening or padding. The neckline for day wear was very high featuring a stand-up collar in a lightweight fabric which was boned or wired around the edge to hold it up under the chin. Women adopted a simple and rather masculine-looking shirt, jacket and skirt for day wear. Towards the end of the 19th century the rate at which the fashion silhouette changed quickened. This was due to paper patterns being sold in magazines and a demand for a constant flow of new styles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 During the 1820s hair styles became very elaborate with raised top knots and the crowns of bonnets or hats were designed to accommodate them. By the middle of the century, by contrast, hairstyles had become smooth with a central parting finished with ringlets on either side of the face and a small bun at the back or simply swept back from the face to a chignon (a mass of hair arranged on a pad at the back of the head and held in place with a net or snood). Bonnets and hats continued to be worn until the 1860s when small, elegant styles appeared which simply perched on top of the head. Even smaller hats appeared in the 1870s when hairstyles rose in the form of elaborate chignons. In the 1880s and 1890s hairstyles remained `up' but did not retain the heights or bulk of the 1870s styles. Small hats decorated with birds and feathers and artificial flowers were fashionable. In the 1880's hair was curled on top and taken into a bun at the back. Often a ringlet was brought forward over the shoulder as a finishing touch.

 

Contemporary generally means modern or of a certain time. So contemporary fashion or costume design is defined by a certain time. It would be inspired by art and other factors from a certain time and contemporary fashion from a decade ago would be different from contemporary fashion a century ago.

 

 

 

Digital Prints

To make my work look more professional I tried creating my prints digitally. I took the image of my current prints and tried to recreate them on illustrator. These are the results.

The original, hand drawn print is on the left and the digital is on the right. I really do not like the digital version and much prefer the hand drawn as it is easier to get flowing lines and curves.

The original print is at the top and the digital is below it. Again the had drawn print is much better as the digital is too angular and straight. The swirling lines and rounded leaves give a much better effect.

The original print is again at the top and the digital is below, the third is a test of the different ways the print can be repeated. This print has turned out the best out of all the digital prints however I still much prefer the hand drawn one. This is just a personal preference of mine and I would pretty much always prefer the hand drawn type for swirling patterns. If the pattern was more angular then I may consider the digital.

Weekly Diary

3rd November 2014

This week I made samples from my rough designs. I used a small mannequin and wrapped the fabric around to sample a few designs to see what they would look like.

I sampled five of these designs.

This design would work better on a larger scale. I would use interfacing to keep the petals sticking up and out. I would also add more petals and they would look better with different colours and patterns

This design worked really well but again would look better on a larger scale.

I tested out the skirt on this design and I really liked the effect that it gave however it would work better on a real person as it would mould to the body shape instead of the wood of the mannequin.

This design didn't work as well as the petals on the skirt didn't stick out like I wanted them to. I would need to use interfacing to make this work.

I really liked the effect of this design and the way that the skirt is asymmetrical.

I tested out one of these designs by draping on a large mannequin.

This skirt looks good however I think I may have to use a pattern to get a more structured skirt. Also I would use another fabric for the skirt so I can use machine embroidery on it.

 

 



What Is Needed To Acheive The Grade

Target Audience:

• Research into audience
• Designs that link
• Target audience questionnaire

Collaboration:

• Meetings with partner recorded on blog
• Emails with partner recorded on blog
• Notes made in meetings recorded on blog

Professional presentation:

• Photo shoot
• Digital illustrations
• Outcome - garment

Printing Companies

Printing own design onto products:

• Asda
• QPR - Oldham
• Red Bubble

T-shirt printers:

• Spread Shirt
• Workwear Express
• C2O - Clothes2Order

Short run fabric print - no minimum:

• Spoonflower
• RASmart

How Am I Going To Build External Links?

To make external links I am going to make my own website to show my work, this will act as my portfolio. I am also going to try and find costume competitions to enter and I am going to enter Noise Festival competition. There is also a magazine called Vintage Life, I am going to write an article about my work and send it off and hopefully it will get published. Another thing that I am going to do is some work experience at The Royal Exchange Theatre costume department. I have already emailed the owner and I have set it up for the summer holidays.