Fabric Design.

Below are the beginning designs of my prints. I have used the children's drawings and created them in Illustrator. The repeat patterns were designed by just moving the images around until I created a pattern which worked. I am happy with the majority of the prints. 

After seeking feedback I am now going to collaborate with a graphic designer to work on colourways, scale and communication of the prints. This is a way to improve the designs and create something that will flow with my concept of creating fun sophisticated menswear.

London Men's Fahion Week

London Men's Fashion Week has produced exciting menswear pieces in 2012. Below are a selection which I have found inspiring and whom are doing great things for menswear. Digitally printed fabrics are a trend as well as contrasting colours and materials.

Digital Fabric Printing

I am looking at digital fabric printing for my collection in stage 6. I have searched around online and sourced feedback from people whom have sourced digitally printed fabrics and the two companies below are what seem to be the most affordable and viable for my collection. I found also that ANU school of arts also print digitally on fabrics which could be an option I explore further as it could be useful being located in Canberra.

DFP were my first initial source as they do student prices and I already have access to their fabric samples here at school. However, they only print onto synthetic fabrics. There is one option the canvas, which could work well for my collection.

I then came across Spoonflower after speaking with Cohen from Zoo Advertising. They are located in America but they are at least half the price of anyone I found here in Australia. Cohen has informed me that they are very professional and their turnaround is very fast. The great thing about Spoonflower is that they print onto a wide variety of natural fabrics. Also if you design your own print you automatically get a 10% discount. I think this option will work well for me this semester. Although it is a risk ordering fabrics from overseas I believe that if I get my designs to them in the next few weeks they will be here in time for me when I start on my final garments. 

I also think it would be a good idea to also work with both companies to compare them both and work with both natural and synthetic fabrics.

Child's Own Studio

Inspiration Stage 6

I will be continuing on from stage 5 using the same inspiration from the children's drawings. However, I will be taking a different approach taking on the feedback that I received at panel. I searched WGSN and gathered a bunch of pictures that I thought were interesting and which could be of inspiration to me. As you can see there is a lot of colour blocking and random mismatched shapes and objects.

LONDON COLLECTIONS: Mens Fashion

Menswear in London has been going from strength to strength over the past few years and it is long overdue for the city to get a dedicated menswear weekend. Previously tacked on almost as an after thought to the Women's schedule and crammed into one single day, this season saw the three day-long London Collections eEn Lmake its debut. London has been long seen as a hot bed of talent, consistently producing forward-thinking pioneers. In the past these talents have had to eventually leave the city in order to further their career trajectory. The launch of LCM now allows them both the freedom and the profile to build their brand from the city they are based in, hopefully keeping them here and in turn placing London menswear on the same platform as Paris or Milan...