Connected

Wow, can you see the connection between the shape of the ...READY SEWED JACKET? Just had an amazing Foto-Shooting, and after that I found this new young designer in the net. Markus Lupfer nis the head of design for the label Armand Basi One. The dress on the right picture was showed by the spanish laben in the fall 2008 collection on the London fashion show. The whole collection was georgeous, it was a bouncy essay in exaggerated volume and color. Overblown trapezes; dresses with bunchy, standout gatherings above the waist; and A-line jackets with giant flounces seemed almost deliberately awkward and doll-like.
The delicate color combinations (orange, magenta, peacock blue, green, and pink) were luscious and the materials couture standard. Exactly what such extravagant cloques, failles and matelassés are doing at this label is puzzling, though.

Fairy day

No second zipper!

A big change on the finaljacket I´ve forgot: I don´t want the Zipper in the hood anymore. Before I sketched a designsolution for the jacket with an zipper in the middle of hood- to open them and wear the hood when it´s off the head like a cape on shoulders and back. So I want to show the coloured lining of the jacket. But last time I try on a model how prototype II fits- I recognized that the closed hood coul´d be weared like a cape, so a zipper in the hood is not neccessary for the final jacket. I like the new hood- the whole jacket looks more finished and well-combined without a second zipper. The pocets are well, they work and lookin´good. I made them into an dart in the sidefront, a vertical one on each side.

Next Wall Overcome...

...the last adjustment on my jacket: made a rounder shape for the hood. For that big operation today I´m well prepared: before I had draped the new shape on the head of a model- so that the new shape includes some folds on each side and a velt on top. Now it looks like a mix from some kind of bauhaus- architecture and a phantasy- protector-shield. When I finish today also the placement of the jetpockets, which I want to ad in the jacket..well, than I can start with the original Garment in the amazing woolfabric in salt´n pepper- optic. So excited!

easy easing?

Wow- there are a lot of things, I want to cange on the cacoil-prototyp. Especially the shape of the hood need a workover, and the seam with the easing on the bottom of the jacket. Its at the moment not in the following line from the jacket- the seam looks more like a shift in direction, because it goes away from the body of the person who wear the Fernforest-Jacket. But with a bit of draping I can develop a new pattern for the seam, lets start:

hourglass-glasshouse

The main focus for the topic of our jacketproject is to add a function on a tailored jacket, or use a specific functionallity as an inspiration for design. The design of the fairyforest jacket is somewhere between it- cause the jacket includes a kind of protection as a function- which influences the design essentially. The front of jacket should be covered from a shield- but not made from metal- made from satin - so the function was translated into a decorative mesage on the jacket.
But first, I´ll have to think about the shape and structure of the jacket, I want to create a sillouhette with a hourglass-shape, a lot of voluminous fabric on hip and shoulders- but not in countertrade with the mobility and usefulness.
The first calico- prototyp goes the right way to find the final shape. Theres lot of work on the shoulder shape and especially the hood, but the easing on the seam has a nice appearance.

Let´s go, what ingredients we need...?

The last weeks we only learned the basics in Jacket tailoring- now we´ll starts with the design. I need a topic to inspires me. Well. It´s hard, when everything is possible.
...
I know that I want to realise something with strong, heavy shining colours, but on an subtile way. And I want to be inspired from the Australian landscape. Last weekend I leave Melbourne for a short day-trip in the Mountains. I´d like the silence, the dark and fresh mood in the forests, and I get fascinated from the tall ferns, they´re grown everywhere in the forest. The structure, the sillouette from this plant- georgeous. Like them- choose them. Topic for my jacket: FAIRYFOREST/ URBANFOREST

Solutions for sleeves

Next we´ll pay attention to: the sleeves.

The difference between the one-piece sleeve and a two-pieced sleeve is not so evident- that it really could dominate the imression of a jacket. An other comparisation; usually one-piece sleeve and the raglan-sleeve. A raglan has not a really defined armhole, it starts mostly direct at the collar and goes in a diagonal way down under the arm into the sideseam. The raglan looks more sporty than the standard-sleeve. Think it depends on the softer defined shape of the shoulder in an raglanjacket. And the person wears a raglanshirt has more space to move the arms. The standardsleeve looks with the defined shoulders more edgy and serious than a raglan. I don´t want to make a sporty looking jacket, but the raglan is very intresting for my, because I´d like to try an experimental design in my prototype jacket. The raglan allows a huge variety in design!

The variety of variants....

The look from a garment base on several things, the shape, the fabric...and last but not least the special funktions, a garment may have. Very famous: to storage the private, little items, people carrys the whole day around with. So the garmenrt hust have: pockets. So many options for the design of the final jacket! It depends of, what look the jacket should present.
not easy decision.

The world of inspiration in just one Pocket!

Need some inspiration for variants from the jet-pocket or the welt-pocket- depents on my own favourite... Think I ´ll find a lot of matching points in the architecture- what you think?

The Pocket will be filled...

An essential item of a jacket was the topic in the last lecture- the pocket. There are so many variations possible- and all of tem will make an diversity look on the garment. Two kinds of pocket I learned today. On the one hand I add a jet pocket on my testgarment. On the other I´d sewed a welt- pocket. I was impressed again, from which small differences a whole look of a jacked depends of.
The big, wide macho-pocket
the edgy, exact cutted serious-pocket
the asymetric, crooked creative pocket
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..
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Now at the stage: the shawl-collar

At first view there is just the small, inconsiderable cut who make the big difference between the notched-collar and the shawl-collar! But the interpretation from some observers could be very variable about. Though, mostly the conservative, traditional public seen in the notched- collar a masculine attitude, in the shawl-collar more the touch of the female side. Of course, I think it is a consequence of the edgy, unadjusted impression, which fits more with the masculine standard. A smooth, shoft shape how we can see it in a shawl-collar will be allocated from conservatives to a female impression.
With this aknowledge, a intresting variation between some old habits of public is possible- when traditional designparts change the gender and tees will become blurred...

Launching the first steps

The first steps to the new jacket goes on with an experimental project for special collars. I sew a notched collar jacket and a variation form of it, to show myself the opportunities of variations. All theese small differences were so important for the overall impession.
If the collar cut sits more on the shoulder or in front of the suit
The wide of the collar
If it is edgy or softened...

Sit back and watch what´s growing!

The textile skin of humans has always a mission and a special function. It should be warming and -please- adorne us, too. But isn´t it too easy- to summarise the function of garements in theese few words- isn´t there more to it?
Whenever people dress themselves with a textile skin- and however they do it- they put on a message as well. A soundless message- but it´s constantly arround them.
"One cannot not communicate."-how Paul Watzlawick wrote in his book "The Pragmatics of Human Communication". People above, below, and all around in public life pay attention to the words other people speak or choose not to speak. They are also paying attention to the clothes someone wears, the haircut people choose or the way they combine all theese small components to an overall picture. They note your attitude and the resonance or dissonance your attitude has relative to your words and actions.The Garement people wear is an importent component of the soundless communication, indeed.
During the following weeks this blog will take an intensive view on the development process of a garment piece. This piece should include two functions; the soundless message to the public and, as well, a technical function solved without a sad agreement at the expense of design.

Experience it live and in colorfull pictures while the project evolves!