One Thousand Last Words

So I was going to try and attack the final installment of my virtual journal in a few different blog posts, but sitting down to write it sends me off into a zillions different tangents and I think of so many things to say, and my fingers don’t move nearly fast enough to get every thought down before it morphs into another one. So I’m going to write all of my final thoughts and try to organise it more clearly for readers (so it might actually make sense) under one super blog and subheadings.

So make a cup of tea or grab a bottle of wine, sit down and enjoy my thoughts, feelings and desires on life, love, fashion, food and all things (semi) sustainable.

(mini blog 1) Final thoughts about this project and sustainability
This project has been a really lovely way to ease into the semester- a project with no boundaries, no limitations and no guidelines. But in some ways that’s how it has also been frustrating, its really hard to know if you have done enough work to satisfy the criteria or if you are on the right track or if you have completely missed the sustainability mark altogether and are just waffling on about going to the markets and wearing vintage clothes. But I guess that’s also a refreshing thing about this unit, is that it did get us all to question what sustainability means to us as individuals and how we want to change/ help/ destruct/ contribute to the cause.

One frustrating aspect about this project and its ‘sustainable’ impact is the fact that we still had to submit ‘good copies’ of our patterns. I’m not a neat pattern maker by anyone standards and even my ‘neat’ patterns are somewhat substandard- however I managed to make both of my jackets from the one pattern and they turned out perfectly; so why do I have to recut these patterns again? Why do I have to waste more paper? I’m not making them to be mass-produced, and I can understand them the way that they are (and I’m probably the only person who’ll ever use this pattern), so why should I waste another 2m of paper and re-cut them? I put this argument forward to my tutor and he said that I should be a politician. So see below for the images of my not-so-sustainable-re-cutting-of-my-patterns and the wastage that they caused.

recutting of my not-so-neat-but-perfect-pattern

create some waste

Another thing that has also been a hindrance is the fact that our blogs have not been read throughout the duration of the project, so it seems difficult to grasp that they will be read from the beginning to end, which means when the time comes to assess our work, it is hard to say whether our ideas or journey will be fully understood or comprehended.

Also the final thought about using scraps donated from designers; in theory its a really lovely idea to think that you create a garment out of something that someone would otherwise throw away, but the reality of it is that its seriously limits you to size of production of the garment.

scraps ahoy!

In reality though, as all of the scarps vary in shapes and sizes, fabrics with out without stretch, silk, cotton, linen and rayon, it was a real challenge to get pieces big enough for the pattern pieces to be cut out of. So to compensate for this, a lot of my patterns had to be adjusted and cut into panels to ensure that there would be enough fabric. And also; the scraps that I haven’t use are now sitting in a green bag next to my sewing box, still waiting for their 2nd chance at life. I will endeavor to keep and use these; the fabric scraps are so soft they would be great for stuffing (I think I feel a few patchwork silk cushions coming along).

I have really loved this unit, in particular the freedom that we have had with it, and in turn this has taught me that I work a lot better without creative borders. I really struggle to find inspiration ‘inside the box’. I’m a Sagittarian and we hate feeling boxed in or inhabited by parameters. I said in my previous post that I really struggle to get inspired by research, instead I’m inspired by people, things, places and objects around me and that have a direct or indirect affect on me as an individual.

(mini blog 2) (You Got) Razzle Dazzled!
One night whilst sitting on the couch blogging, I had the TV on for some background noise, and a documentary came on called it was about the ‘Razzle Dazzle’ camouflage used by ships in WWII.

(see 'Razzle Dazzle' post a few below)

At the time I was gobsmacked with its jazziness and its inappropriate but appropriate use- a battle ship camouflaged with dazzle paint? Brilliant! (I love the whole idea of dressing up for the everyday- why not wear a ball gown to the supermarket, or multi-coloured sequin leggings running or a windmill headband to school?)

a windmill headband brightens any day

I didn’t really think anymore about the long lasting impression that it would leave on me until our tutor commented on it after reading my blog post about it. I looked over it again and become obsessed with it. Everything about it; the theory, the timing and its actual use fascinates me. I wish that I had been hit by this wave of inspiration earlier on in the project, as it would have been such an exciting avenue to explore and push the boundaries of. I experimented a little with the black and white fabric scraps that I had been given and this was the result- the ‘Razzle Dazzle’ dress.

Razzle Dazzle

Dazzle Razzle

the dress was constructed using the scraps donated to me by designers cut up and sewn together in stripes to create the pattern… how ever due to the different weights and different grains of fabrics, a lot of the seams bubble and warp.. however the idea was there and I am very keen to try it again using black and white of the same fabric. I am also quite glad in a way that I have only just started to ride this wave of discovery with the ‘Razzle Dazzle’ glamouflage as it is something that I would really love to explore further and deeper for my final collection… sustainable inspiration!

(mini blog two) The ‘Bowerbird’ Jackets and how to wear them
The jackets are based on the ‘Bowerbird’, they idea of collecting and consuming in a sustainable vain. Bowerbirds collecting rubbish, tokens, threads, bottle caps, fabric scraps, paper and anything else in shades of blue and pink to decorate their nest in an attempt to attract a mate.

a bowerbird and his adorned nest

This instantly intrigued me because, in some sense, is this not what human do; adorn themselves in garments of a particular colour/type/shape to attract a partner? Not necessarily a ‘sexual’ partner, but its common knowledge that different types of dress attract different types of people; what sort of people would be attracted to the way that you dress? Do you sometimes try and challenge this? I know that I do, sometimes I go out wearing something that’s not entirely me, but doesn’t scream my personal style, and I find it so fascinating the different people that look at you.

I used to have a horrible job working in a store that sold men’s business shirts and cuff links in the CBD and I had to wear black and high heels and red lipstick; I would walk to work every shift, and that walk is the same walk that I would do to university every morning, and its crazy the polar opposite types of people that would look at me when I was a) walking to work wearing in a ‘power’ outfit (mostly middle aged men in suits and woman giving me bad looks and no youth of today turning a head) and b) walking to uni wearing my usually 7 different patterns and shoes covered in glitter (mostly little girls, youth of today, teens from all walks of life and some handsome men my age). It’s this aspect of fashion and the psychology behind it that fascinates me the most. Underneath I am one person, however put me in two different outfits and I attract very different sort of people.

For this reason, my jackets are 7 different jackets in one. They can be quite extroverted or transformed by removing the shoulder pads, or the cape to be quite a conservative conventional jacket.

They were designed as individual pieces but aspects of them can be interchanged, exchanged, thus creating several different jackets out of two.  Dress them up, dress then down, add them to a dress but wear them. They are designed and made to last. Made from 100% 2nd fabrics, these jackets already have a story to tell and are waiting to have yours embedded within their seams.

The following is a mini shoot of the different ways to wear the jacket/s.
To me this is how they are sustainable. They are build to last, build to hold onto secrets and stories and sagas that happen whilst you are wearing them, build to keep these to themselves and built to be handed down to your daughter, or granddaughter for them to have the untold stories on their shoulders, and for them to leave their own mark.

Bowerbird reversable jacket with shoulder pads attached (look1)

beautiful hannah!

Bowerbird reversable jacket with no shoulder pads (more conservative look) (look 2)

Bowerbird reversable jacket- reverse floral side exposed with tweed facing detail (look 3)

Bowerbird Cape Jacket without the cape attached (look 1)

pink floral lining in Bowerbird Cape Jacket

Bowerbird Cape Jacket with Cape attached as a collar (look 2)

Bowerbird Cape Jacket with Cape as a Bussle (look3)

Cape as Bussle side view

the Cape going solo (look 4)

Combination of both jackets: should pads from Reversable Bowerbird Jacket attached to Bowerbird Cape Jacket as a cravat (look 5)

(mini blog 3) Final thoughts on Sustainability
Sustainability is about the choices we all make on a daily basis: how we select, wear, care for and connect with the items that satisfy our needs of collecting and consuming. To me, being sustainable is about making a conscious effort to live in a way that is harmonious to the environment and our surroundings. I try to be sustainable in all aspects of my life; I walk and cycle everywhere, and if I have to travel long distance, I go by train. I cook dinner every night and go to the markets on a Saturday morning to buy my produce for the week and I mainly wear second hand and vintage clothing. But in saying that, there are aspects of my life and my habits are not sustainable, and I’m making a conscious effort to adapt and change these to a more ‘green’ way of thinking and more long-term way of living.

the green goddess on wheels!

(mini blog 4) Me as a Designer(saur)
This project has been has been a really insightful one for me, not only as a designer, but also as a person. I’ve had a really interesting year, one in which my whole world as I knew it was turned upside down and I was left to discover who I was on my own again.

This is the most inspired and creative I have felt with a studio project since the 2nd project (shirt project) in my first semester. I don’t know why but I think last year I really struggled to distinguish myself as an individual; I was unsure of myself, my values, my styles and I was wrapped up in a relationship that didn’t harness or encourage my creativity. As a designer I was unsure of my influences, my design style, my sense of creativity and just generally lacked inspiration and enthusiasm.

However, in the last 5 months, I have been spending time rediscovering, relearning and being reinspired by myself and it’s really exciting. I have also been fortunate enough to be in the company of really creative, driven, motivated and inspiring people, and people who encourage me, criticise me and also are genuinely really interested in what I do.

My attendance rate at school is nowhere near 100%, well at business school anyway… I really endeavour to attend all of my classes, but in the end, if I don’t, no one really notices, and I think that’s the biggest difference about coming to fashion school- if you don’t show, people know. I guess it comes from our class being so small, and quite close. It’s really nice to go through a course and feel like you have a family- a big family yes, but a family. I have loved going to studio this semester; its been my home away from home- my sanctuary almost. Because if I wasn’t at the studio, I would be at home, alone and probably going a bit crazy lady! But at the studio you are surrounded by friends and people who are on the same wave level, people who when you meet Thursday morning before class for a coffee and all greet each other with ‘oh wow, we all look really good today’ and not feel shallow or materialistic or vain- just welcome; and it makes me smile. I’m so happy and feel so fortunate to be a part of that creative mindset, and I think that this happiness and belonging has played a massive part in my inspiration and creation levels this semester.

So on a final note- a pictorial representation of me as a ‘designer’- it was done by a friend after reading my blog, listening to me dribble about fashion, seeing me scribble 100 different sustainable ideas,  and drinking tea on the balcony quite a few mornings….

Maxijazz as a Designersaur by Duble E

Until next time…. stay Razzle Dazzled!

local+global=widsom

Local Wisdom is a unique fashion project recording the clothes-based ingenuity of our communities. It is a philosophy that good ideas happen everywhere and often involve creative acts with the things we have around us, like our clothes. These creative actions and ideas are rarely acknowledged and never make it onto catwalks or business agendas, yet we think they have potential to help solve some of the problems we face as a global community.

The Local Wisdom Project gathered some of these actions and ideas at two locations in the UK in the summer of 2009. This website documents some of the ‘local wisdom’ to emerge. Local Wisdom was co-ordinated by Dr Kate Fletcher, Reader in Sustainable Fashion at London College of Fashion and author of Sustainable Fashion and Textiles: Design Journeys.

The Local Wisdom project seeks to recognize and honour sustainability activities in fashion that exist at the level of the user. Many of these acts challenge contemporary fashion norms and typically need little money or materials to make them happen, instead they tap into an abundance of experience, ingenuity and freethinking. Here an individual’s interests meet with those of society and nature and create conditions for a more satisfying use of resources. This project captures and celebrates some of this ‘local wisdom’, giving it a platform to flourish and inspire.

The Local Wisdom process involved setting up a fashion shoot and then putting out an open call to the public to participate. Two provincial UK towns were selected: Bollington (Cheshire) and Totnes (Devon). The shoot was publicized in local press, news agents’ windows, community notice boards and within established local textile networks. Volunteers were asked to bring along something that:
- are shared between people
- have never been washed – and aren’t leather!
- have the character of a particular place in them
- link you with the natural world
- catch your attention each time you wear them
- tell the story of how they’ve been used
- are made up of separate pieces that can be interchanged
- make you feel part of a community (but not a uniform)
-are enjoying a third, fourth or fifth life
Each volunteer gave oral testimony about their piece and was photographed.

The images and stories document micro-scale social innovation in fashion. They give expression to differences in power relations, ways of behaving, material status and emotional connection and give us small, specific working prototypes of grassroots change.

"My mum made this shawl to keep me warm because I get really really cold and I always wear about a million layers. So she took it upon herself to make it for me and I think she really enjoyed making it and telling me about the different colours graduating through it. And then she just did it for me and gave it me and now she checks up to see if I’ve been wearing it. And I do… as soon as it gets cold I have it downstairs in the living room so from autumn through to the end of the spring every evening I have a duvet over my legs and this wrapped around me and it’s so unbelievably warm. I don’t wear it out at all – it’s totally home comfort. But because she made it and it just feels like she’s with me... a little bit of love and comfort… and so to have this from my Mum is just gorgeous."

The site is really lovely, and has several examples of individuals who bought along their items and shared their story. I think it’s a brilliant idea, and something that I would really like to get involved in, or start the same initiative in Brisbane. This whole projects mimics my philosophy as a designer, a collector and lover of clothing- that every item has a story, a meaning and some sort of value regardless of it’s actual material worth. It’s worth making yourself a pot of tea, opening up the web-page and getting lost in the stories and memories of peoples items- from girlfriends sharing their wedding dresses to a man making a jacket out of bits of old clothing donated to him by his friends.. awwww. I had a a few tears in my eyes by the end of them all, and them went up, went through my wardrobe and smiled at all the good times, memories and untold stories embedded in their seams.

For more information; check out their website: http://www.localwisdom.info/

a week at a time

Last time I posted something relevant to my ‘garments’ specifically, I was pondering about what else to make and how to incorporate the mountains of tiny silk scraps that I had been given. I wanted to make another jacket, but wondered how I could make it different.

To refresh:
The first jacket has three looks in one; you can wear it a) with the blue tweed with lace shoulder pads on the outside and floral inside, b) you could remove the shoulder pads for a more subtle, masculine look, and c) you could wear the floral outside and blue tweed on the inside for a more girlie look.

bowerbird jacket número uno

For jacket number two I started playing around with different styles and shapes and designs. I really liked the idea of doing a ‘tales’ style jacket… I love all this regal and Victorian and think tales are basically one of the loveliest classic designs ever. I did a few mock ups and really wasn’t happy with the way that they were sitting or the overall silhouette of the jacket. So I stopped and had a think about the original idea I had at the beginning of the unit- the longevity and sustainability of a classic jacket molded with the theory of adornment and collection of a bowerbird- to produce a garment. I found a cape at a charity shop for 50cents and i really love the shape of it, it was just a simple circle, bound and trimmed with lace- apricot in lovely and beautiful in all is 50cent simplicity. Here are a few shots of my experimentation with the cape and the different jacket shapes…

I started cutting and twisting and stitching, creating shape, patterns and different objects out of the silk. George Wu said that he keeps the big scraps of silk to make bows and other attachments for his dresses, so I did a little bit of research into shapes, textures and things that could inspire me…

this is so lovely!

twyn time!

As you can probably guess, I decided to make flowers; they’re beautiful, you can press them and keep them forever, they are from the environment and they fit with my whole bowerbird theme. In keeping to this, I kept the colour scheme of the new jacket to hues and tones of blues and pinks.

Ok. so a little bit of information about me as a maker. I’m not the most patient person in the world. I love sewing behind a machine, I find it really relaxing and calming, however I do not love hand sewing. It gives goomus. big time. So after sewing the following flowers (see images below) for several hours in the studio, I hit a wall and had to excuse myself from class to go running before i attempted to sew a flower to my face. But I finished the initial sewing of the flowers together. All that was left to do was sew them onto the cape…..

Friday was my only day off during the week (no work, no classes at school) however I could not escape the hand sewing that needed to be done that day. So after going running, drinking about 8 cups of tea, cleaning my room, dropping a friend at the airport and doing basically anything to avoid sitting down to hand-sew-my-life-away.

the task that lay ahead....

But eventually I set up camp on my balcony with my trusty lap top, a newly downloaded film and a six pack of beer.

a girl of many talents

and slowly but surely, the day turned into night…..

day for night

By this point I had a) lost about 3 layers of skin off my fingers b) drank 6 beers, c) watched 1 film, listened to 2 podcasts and
d) started to go slightly insane. I showered, put on some glitter and a LBD and thought that I’d go out, but the last few flowers kept me indoors and insane. I finally finished at about 11pm and crawled into bed with raw fingers, a slight headache and a new found respect for anyone that enjoys hand sewing.

the shape of things to come

perhaps this is what our rainforests will look like in the future

and this our maps??

 

got a pair hot air balloon lying around? need a new cocktail dress??

inspiration of the like

ive been pretty lazy with updating my blog this week- mainly because I haven’t had the time to sit and upload images, week 4/5 is crunch time at business school so I’ve had to spend the majority of my time with my head in a textbook rather than at machine! But the following are a few images of garments by Viktor and Rolf that I found in my brief procrastination spurts that I really love.

great colours

full colour dress

I really love this dress, I’m not sure what it is about it, maybe its the colours? They are nice and bright and summery and earthy. I really like earthy colours. It gave me an idea for a dress, I could make something in a similar vain with the scarps of silk that have been donated to me by designers..

fun!

fun! (in black)

i want to be her. or just in that outfit.

great collar! and eye shadow colour.. I know what I’m wearing next time someone asks me out on a date….

To tie this post back into Sustainability, whilst reading Nylon magazine on my lunch break at work, I stumbled upon an article entitled ‘lean and green’ (I was instantly ecstatic as I thought someone had written an article about me!) but then I read on… The article is about Brooklyn based designers Eviana Hartman and Samantha Pleet of label Bodkin- a line that uses all sustainable materials including organic cotton, wool, artisanal dyes made from blueberries and boiled carob (yum!) and many materials that you might find the worms munching on in the recycle bin. The garments also feature buttons made from old car tyres, weaved fabric from ground-up second hand garments and utilizes coat linings spun from plastic bottles. But don’t let the make-up of the garments fool your aesthetic into thinking they’ll be your typically ‘earthy’ attire. Urban states that the clothing is actually the ‘opposite of earthy’.  “I’ve sought to make pieces that are urban and urbane- some are quite futuristic” she remarks.

Hartman recently won the Ecco Domani Sustainable Design Award and her cozy, colour-blocked tunics and marbled catsuits are turning up everywhere, from Sewdish pop sensation Lykke Li to Fiery Furnaces indi-rock chanteuse Eleanor Friedberger. In these tough times, the labels got the zeitgeist behind it: its green enough for conscientious shoppers, but stylish enough for the true fashion connoisseur. Bodkin, I think I’m a little bit, a little bit, a little bit in love with you…..
(check out more at http://www.bodkinbrooklyn.com/(accessed 10/08/09))

Also, please excuse the lack of uploading of my progressive works since last week. I spent 9 hours hand sewing on Friday and have only just regained feeling in my fingers and the ability to look/think/write about this project. Also I studied business for 6hours today, so am feeling slightly like I have had all the creativity zapped out of me. I’m sleeping with a glitter-drip into my arm tonight, so will post one with jazztastic updates of my work to date, the cape that caused me to lose 3 layers of skin from my fingers and also answer some lingering questions about the sustainability factor of my garments and the ‘who’s who’ of me as a designer.

Stay tuned (and sleep tight)
xxx

Razzle Dazzle!

Whilst sitting on the couch last night sewing flowers out of silk scraps (stay tunned will inform you of ‘why’ in another blog later today) I was watching ‘James May’s 20th Century’, in which he looked at how how warfare drives ingenuity. I was hooked, not only by the RAF’s latest supersonic jet (when I was eight, post G.I. Jane I was ready to shave my head and join the army, so supersonic planes have ever since made me go weak at the knees) but also by some called ‘Razzle Dazzle Camouflage’. Razzle what?! Dazzle who?! Thats sounds too jazzy to be true! But it is.

During World War I, the British and Americans faced a serious threat from German U-boats, which were sinking allied shipping at a dangerous rate. All attempts to camouflage ships at sea had failed, as the appearance of the sea and sky are always changing. Any color scheme that was concealing in one situation was conspicuous in others. A British artist and naval officer, Norman Wilkinson, promoted a new camouflage scheme that was derived from the artistic fashions of the time, particularly cubism. Instead of trying to conceal the ship, it simply broke up its lines and made it more difficult for the U-boat captain to determine the ship’s course. The British called this camouflage scheme “Dazzle Painting.” The Americans called it “Razzle Dazzle.”

razzle dazzle in action

another varitation of the painting

U-boats did not aim their torpedos directly at a ship to sink it. Because the target was moving, it was necessary to aim ahead of its path in order for the torpedo to arrive in the correct spot at the same time as the ship. If the torpedo is too early or too late, it will miss. The primary goal of dazzle painting was to confuse the U-boat commander who was trying to observe the course and speed of his target. And they had the added bonus of being on board a ship with a jazz factor off the rector scale!

a razzle dazzle caneo

Some call it camouflage, I call it ‘Glamouflage’

where to from here?

Ok, so I’ve made a reversible jacket out of recycled fabrics; some tweed from a scarp bin, an old floral bed-sheet and a lace tissue box covering- but I keep asking myself, how is this garment sustainable? How has its creation benefited a) the wearer/owner and b) the environment?

And what else am I going to make? I’ve been inundated with scraps from designers and what I am going to do with them? Am I being counter-sustainable in collecting them if I don’t end up using them? I want to make another jacket but am stuck as to how I can make it different, but still use the same pattern (keeping with the theme of being sustainable and all)….. hmmmmm off to the studio to play, think, make and do…

summer in july

So I am sitting here writing this feeling like I have just come in from a 10km in the middle of summer. What have I been doing you ask? Cycling to school in skinny jeans. A feat which both exhausted me and caused me to overheat. Practical cycling outfits and me are yet to be introduced (who said a floor length floral dress and vintage high heels weren’t made for cycling!) But hey,  I look good right?, and at least I’m NOT on the free bus.  Apart from the inappropriate mid-winter sweating ,  frizzy helmet hair, and near-death experiences due to my dress becoming tangled in my wheels, I love cycling because  it a) gets me between campuses faster than walking and b) I’m not using public transport, and hence doing my little bit for maintaining a more sustainable existence.

Last night whilst procrastinating business study (I too have the pleasure of doing a double degree in Fashion Design and Business, and find it hard to focus for an entire chapter on strategic management at 8pm with a glass of wine in hand) I was looking through some photos of my trip back to Europe at the beginning of the year and stumbled across a few images of people and their personal style that inspired me.

The first few images are of a man (who I believe is my long lost grandfather or very old version of my future husband) who I discovered dancing around the bottom of the Nottingham Castle- who was wearing the most amazing jacket. I think I fell in love with him (but forgot to ask if he had any sons!)

my long lost grandfather

deep in conversation about the construction and inspiration of his jacket

Our conversation lead to him telling me the story behind almost every bit of fabric on his jacket; it was hand sewn (by the jazz-cat himself, taught by his darling wife), the scraps were from a variety of sources and ears; some were from his daughters baby clothes, blankets and bed spreads, others were from old curtains, trousers, his wifes skirts. A few pieces were donated from friends and family members and other pieces were from his grand children’s old clothes- generations of stories, memories and emotions embedded deep into the heart of the jacket. He said he always wears this jacket when he’s performing as it makes him feel like his whole family is there, smiling, clapping and singing along with him.

a walking multi-coloured human bowerbird!

detail of jazz-jacket

And the next is a man who I bumped into at Gatwick airport on my way to Berlin. My flight was delayed because of the heavy snow outside, but this gentlemen and I bonded over our love for clashing patterns, bright colours, and head-turning-attire. We chatted for hours about the how boring the way the majority of the population dress, when asked about the purpose of his outfit today he said that he dresses like this everyday, that life is too short to dress in plain clothes. Like me, he doesn’t believe in dress codes, conforming or dressing for ‘occasions’. He believes your clothing should be an outward reflection of what you are feeling. Amen to that.

jazzzzzman!

tissue+tweed=terrific

When it comes to making and designing, I find it really hard to sit at a blank sheet of paper and draw, I get inspired by events, by people and by how I want a garment to make the wearer feel. When designing clothing, I envisage how the wearer will feel when they put the garment on, where they will wear it to, who are they trying to impress, or attract attention from, or perhaps who are they hiding from? I love the way that clothing evokes feeling. How it creates emotion and how it has the ability to store memories.

how would you feel wearing this?? jazztastic?

photo by Megan Cullen (www.megancullenphoto.com)

photo by Megan Cullen (www.megancullenphoto.com)

photo by Megan Cullen (www.megancullenphoto.com)

As a designer, I think its important that the clothing that you design is a reflection of who you are as a person; a kaleidoscopic fusion of your unique style, things that you wish you could be, items that have shaped you and little secret details that only you know the meaning behind. I love garments with attention to detail, especially with a heavy hand in the craft department. And the clothing that I make reflects this. If you make a garment that is in some sense I refection of a tiny bit of who you are, I feel that this helps to increase the sustainability of the garment, because there is love, feeling, passion and emotion behind it. It is an object with a motive and a story, not just a disposable piece of clothing that may look good but has no soul.

This is why for this project I have chosen to make (or I’ll endeavour to make) garments that not only reflect who I am as a designer and a person, but also produce items that other people would like to wear, keep and pass on to their children for generations to come (like my mother did to me). This, for me, is one of the true essences of sustainability in clothing; quality and love; and the quintessence in which I try to produce it.

Tuesday in the studio was no the productive day I was hoping for, not that it wasn’t productive, it was just one of those days where nothing fit properly, it was either too big, to small or too ugly! So I left the studio, went running, cleared my head and had a good nights sleep. I woke up feeling refreshed and during an 8am business lecture found inspiration (its brilliant how a powerpoint filled with statistics can instantly flood your creative dessert!). That afternoon I met with fashion designer George Wu at his studio where he kindly donated to me kilos of scraps of silk, linen, cotton, velvet and lace (thanks George!) I left his studio looking like Santa and headed back home to begin the sorting process.

(please excuse the rubbish quality of my photos, my camera has taken a vacation with brian so I’ve been using my phone/computer)

Scraps from George Wu

Whilst separating the scraps into colour piles, I was reminded of the humble Bowerbird and the colours that they predominately collect; pink and blue. They collect these objects and decorate their home in order to attract a mate; funny how they collect pink and blue, and in western cultures pink and blue symbolises ‘boy or girl’. Why then if a Bowerbird collects blue objects is he not seen to be trying to attract a male? And it made me wonder- what is so different about the female birds that are attracted to blue or pink? Is one more masculine? More bossy? Doesn’t talk as much? In the same vain that some girls refuse to wear pink, and some boys relish it? (But I won’t start on my fascination with the psychology behind fashion and adornment, because you’ll have to duck out to the shops and buy a bottle of wine so you can keep reading as I can waffle for hours about my obsession with the way that garments can change the way you feel, act and influence what you can achieve- I’ll save it for my final collection, so stay tuned!)

linen and silk and velvet oh my!

Looking at the sorted piles of coloured scraps, and the bag of fabrics, floral bed sheets, lace tissue box covers, and knitted bits, I instantly recognised that two colours dominated the collection, pink and blue (promise!) perhaps the Bowerbird is trying to tell me something! So, for the purpose of this project and my inspiration of the Bowerbird, my garments will be in hues and tones of pink and blue.

colour scheme ala bowerbird

Thursday morning, I packed the scraps back into the Santa sack, hoped on my sleigh (well bright green bike) and headed to deliver my presents to the studio. I went into class with an exact idea of what I wanted to achieve- a regal/medieval inspired jacket using 2nd hand blue tweed, an old floral bed sheet and the lace tissue box cover (all which I found at my local charity shop last week; fabric was fill-a-bag for $3, so blue tweed=50cents, bed sheet=$1.50, lace tissue box cover=$1). If I get an idea into my head of what I want to achieve in a day, I won’t stop until I have achieved it- I’m very determined in that way. I like to be able to have something to show for a days work, and I work a lot better if there is a final, achievable goal- sustainable time management perhaps? So 6 hours, 1 coffee, left over stir-fry, an apple and a mandarin later, my $3 jacket was finished!

bowerbird jacket outside and in

And I love it. In fact, I’m wearing it now while I write this on the train home, and whether it’s the fact that I’m wearing a blue tweed jacket with pink lace tissue box shoulder pads in Caboolture or not- it’s turning a heads…perfect!

the jacket in action

x x x

ability

Today I was swallowed up by the idea of having to ‘make’ a garment for this unit, when the real objective is to CREATE a piece out of nothing, or junk, or something that is, or was. So after not as so much of a successful day in the studio, I went running to clear my head, gather my thoughts and rekindle my inspiration.

This evening I spent the time focusing on materials that I found in my room; playing, pondering, bending and tying; the final goal was to create something out of nothing and, it was a success (even with the absence of wine)!

During the craft time that was my evening, I realised that everything is created out of something, and something out of nothing. And this is the key thing that I should remember back in the studio on Thursday, to let go of my temptation to ‘make’ and just ‘create’

xxx