Chimerical Conundra - The Graduate Collection 2011

Chimerical Conundra means a wildly fanciful puzzle, the process of making has been like unravelling a knotted thread. This collection was made utilising the negative spaces created from commercial pattern cutting. Pieced by pieced together to create simple workable shapes. I designed this collection to challenge the current fashion system and to educate consumers and designers about the wastefulness of this system. The way forward is to consume less for longer, to buy quality clothes that become precious items and to transcend trends towards more sustainable wardrobe choices.

“ Creative pattern cutting is not all about mathematics and measurement... it is about space and body, balance and movement.” (Julian Roberts)

This collection was made under the umbrella of RISK design, It’s ultimate goal is to educate alongside a sharing and knowledgeable community of design practitioners this can create change. Sustainability and ethical choices are the basis for these products. It is integral to the environmental choices we make in all aspects of our lives. Designers leading the way by teaching consumers about ethical practice and the choices therein. A long term solution in revolutionising the fashion system.

Fabrics used in this collection are Silk, 100% Lycra, and Wool sourced from New Zealand and Australia. The fabric was sourced from two local businesses Adventure Outfitters and St Clair Designs, thus it has previously been through the commercial pattern cutting process. I utilised the offcuts by building larger geometric shapes, incorporating neck and armholes into seams and an integrated system for tying. Inspired to return to a more traditional way of dress. The outer garments are One Size Fits Most and are transformable to be made the wearers own.

Peace.

Knitted Dinosaur Hood - Full Colour

Knitted Dino Hood

Reversible Rectangle Top 100% Silk, Lycra Onesie

Starfish Garment 100% Silk, Lycra Bodysuit, Knitted Dino Hood.

100% silk top, Lycra Onesie

100% Silk Dress, Lycra Bodysuit.

100% Silk Top, Full Circle Skirt, Lycra Onesie, Knitted Dino Scarf

THANK YOU: Adventure Outfitters & St Clair Designs for their contribution of fabrics. Glenys Clements, Christine Hardisty & Colleen Kelly for their knitting skills.

 IMAGES: BODY: Georgie D - Ali McD Agency, FACE: Leila George, PIX: Teryn Harris.

experiment 10 + experiment 5 = awesum!!!!!!!

starfish pants!!!

Experiment 5 cut and pasted into starfish shaped pant/cape/woteva!!!!(experiment 10) wear it your own way type garment!!! I am working with a tie system so it can be worn gathered or not as well. It is a One Size Fits Most garment!!!! I am definitely beginning to see my garments in a contemporary dance situation. That would be awesum to see!!!
Although their down fall is that it takes time to lace the ties through the outer leg seams, and waist/wherever. But this gives the wearer the chance to know the garment and wear it in their own way, thus creating a relationship. excellent!!! Also made from rubbish!!!!!!
                                                                                                                                         

one hour zerowaste t-shirt !!!

zerowaste t-shirt 1

zerowaste t-shirt 2

dynamics of a simple zerowaste t-shirt

me n my new t-shirt

zerowaste t-shirt made in an hour, very simple idea, take a rectangle fold it in half sew some shoulders, side seams and a tunnel at the bottom for a tie, which had been cut off the fabric earlier to bring it down to the right size. Then hem the left over holes as arm and neck holes. I made the blue one ages ago and its one of my favourite shirts. It has small gathers in one side seam and both shoulder seams. It is cotton so is excellent in summer, the orange one however is some retro polyester and it doesn't wear well in hot weather or dancing extreme times. must remember that!!!!

cut + paste!!!!

the luxury of cut and paste. such a great way to transmogrophy some type of garment, experiment 2 has been changed and cut and sewn and cut and pasted back into so many options. it has evolved and changed my thinking, let me see the colours together and experiment with sewing techniques. it has been an integral part in my process of design and thought. to be able to cut shape and paste into onto within without through over under around anywhere, to shape and change to experiment and work in a 3D world. a working garment!!! a transmogrophier of body, shape, cut + paste!!

experiment 2 front

experiment 2.1 front

experiment 2.2 front

experiment 2.2.1 front

experiment 2.2.1 back

 

experiment 6 - exciting places!!!

working flat to start.

back

front

working towards making a one size fits all garment I started off by working flat to make a base to grow off, over time i've realised that needing a stable base to work from is the key, so for this garment I decided to start by working flat and getting some more defined direction into the garment by creating a shape by adjoining 2 of the same pieces but leaving a hole in the middle for the neck, as this is a draped garment and does not need to be fitted it was alot easier to work, once the flat sections were sewn together I then draped it over the mannequin and played around with making arm holes and a waist closure. originally intending to make this into a dress I actually stopped here and decided it would be more appropriate as a top and very simply closed the seams to create sleeves/armholes and added a tie to the front bottom which then can be tied up at different lengths, this then corresponds to my thinking in making a garment that would fit more than one size.   

this garment changed my direction into a much more exciting and happier one, I am now looking forward to the end of this challenge as I can see things growing from this point into something much simpler and more amazing than I had envisioned at the start.

experiment 5 - onesie

front of onesie

back of onesie

ah the onesie, such an awesum piece of clothing, basically just draped piece onto piece, making a very loose fitting crotch and one long leg, very unfinished at this stage but moving into the area i'm feeling more comfortable with colourwise. At the start I had been trying to avoid using black, But after reassesing my fabrics I realised I would have to use black as there was alot of this in stock. This also started from the last experiment and through this I found myself more excited about what was going on and where my garments were heading, I was enjoying the colours watermelon, teal, blue and red mixed with black, this lead me onto design a knitted hood to go with the garments which is now in production thanks to my wonderful hand knitters = Christine Hardisty, Glenys Clements and Colleen Kelly. 


But yet again I needed to move onto the next piece as I had two seperate things going on and there was a need to get atleast 3 pieces together that were cohesive and build on those.

experiment 4 - some type of pant.

front

back

So moving onto some type of pant, and I do mean some type of pant literally hahaha. You'll understand what I mean when there's a clearer picture. Mostly using drape, knowing that there is a waist fit and everything can hang from there, creating tunnels - actually building them onto the outside of the garment, which you can see on the front right hand side(the pink bit). At this point I am trying to bring things together into a more cohesive perspective and I have tried to bring colours from the wool jacket into the pant. I didn't go much further than this at this point as I was aware of timing constraints and wanted to move on as I was starting to get an idea of where I wanted to go. 
I was also starting to get more of an idea of the total ridiculousity of some of my garments, they were continuously cracking me up and I couldn't stop laughing at them, they seemed so weird and out of place, which was an original intention. I had from the start intended to make something colourful, sculptural and textural. I had also just managed to get a smocking machine which I wanted to use to bring in some more texture, at the start I just smocked a few different pieces of fabric and tested out sewing them into seams, its very time consuming having to tie off the ends of the thread. So I incorporated a few pieces into these coulottes, I had to cut some out as it was to much and it looked wrong, so this began my editing phase, deciding to use smocking but it needed to be subtle, maybe underneath things/tunnels to help lift the draped pieces up. 


So I got to this point and moved onto the next piece.

experiment 3 - woolen jacket/vest

start of hood - wool

adjoining body of garment

back body pieced, fused and sewn.

front body pieced, fused and sewn.

Moving on from experiment 2 knowing that I needed stable points to work from ie. shoulder point and waist fitting. I started work on another piece I knew I wanted to incorporate different garment types to show that this process is relevant to more than one type of garment. So this woolen hood was started first by the hood part and then by moulding the body (draping on the form) onto the hood and around the front to create armholes and a front opening - this needed to be double breasted to enable the weight of the hood to be held up and for it not to pull backwards. So this has involved flat work - the hood and then draping around the form - the body, these pieces were then fused and sewn together. 



I got to this point knowing it needs finishing, liking the outcome but decided to move on to the next piece, as I needed to get more done and ideas out of my head. I also didn't know what final direction I was going in and wanted to move on so I could hopefully start heading towards a more cohesive idea.

waste what????? all about processes!!!!!!

3 bags of fabric collected from St Clair Design.

What are we wasting? by the bags I've collected from 2 places in Dunedin a lot!!!!  I originaly wanted to collect waste from the fashion school, but there just isn't enough. So in realising I wasn't collecting enough fabric I decided to approach local designers and factories, I also realised that I needed enough of the same fabric to make something cohesive and as its a collection of pieces they needed to do this. So I approached many places in Dunedin, a few already had waste initiatives in place, handing pieces off to others for reuse in textile art, to community groups, schools and artists. Others using the waste exchange www.wasteexchange.co.nz. Only one place had no initiatives in place except for giving them to people who come in and ask. which is definitely a good way of getting rid of it but what happens when no one wants it???

back - jersey knit 1

Front - jersey knit 1

So it's been my goal to show people how useful that fabric actually is. I've collected fabric from St Clair Designs and Adventure Outfitters. Let's start with St Clair Design, They have very colourful fabric which is great and a lot of different types such as drills, lycra's, wools, knits, chiffon, silk and linings. the fabric I was most excited about was the jersey knits, these were great to work with as a first experiment as I realised that working this way would be easier without having to deal with closures as most seams wouldn't be straight or aligned properly.and I was right, I really like the as yet unfinished outcome, it made me want to do more. I continued on with other fabrics that I had from St Clair Designs and tacked together at least 6 garments. I then realised I wasn't going to have enough of the same fabrics to make a 3 piece collection that was as cohesive as I wanted it to be, as I would need to gather more of these fabrics to fulfill that,  St Clair designs doesn't have a big output at this stage of the year, I have managed to collect only 4 bags from them but have asked for exclusiveness for the next few months to continue collecting and collating fabrics for next semesters project.

However the opportunity arose for me to collect 2 bags from Adventure Outfitters, they are a CMT business mostly specialising in uniforms, they do have a small range of their own as well. They also outsource to smaller designers here in Dunedin. I was fortunate to get a bag of merino and as they CMT they do more lays when cutting so I found the same pieces many times over, this was very exciting as I knew this could be more profitable for me in having enough material to create a cohesive collection. The colour pallette was also very good black, grey, red, purple, blue. These all work well together.  I have worked on 4 pieces consistently a hoody, 2 tops and a dress. I didn't know they were going to end up as these at the start I just went with where I thought the pieces should go, made decisions about seams and gathers. I will talk more about these pieces in a later post.

The process starts with collecting and collating the fabric into different types, it took me 3 1/2 hours to sort through the first three bags from St Clair Design, but then only 1/2 hour for the one bag from Adventure Outfitters, as this was only filled with 5-7 different types of fabric. In hindsight I probably should have weighed the bags and been more technical about the amount of waste I was collecting and eventually using. But hey I'm not a numbers girl so it really didn't matter. It's more about what can be done with that fabric.  How it can still be utilised to make garments. I have found that this is definitely possible. It is one way of using the waste fabrics, instead of having to pattern make the waste out, it can be used for embellishments or to make more clothes.
So after sorting the fabric, it is layed out on the floor so you can see the different shapes and sizes of pieces(negative spaces from cutting), draping around the form starts from there. It is about placement and sewing with the right tensions to create nice pieces. sometimes you make a mistake and have to cut a piece off, but that's fine as it's experimenting with what can be done and how different shapes can be made to fit together. This is done by gathering and pleating in to create ease and fit. It is a fairly simple process when working with knit fabric. I have alot more experimentation to undertake working with woven fabrics, this will be the next challenge.

Before!

vest

After!!!!!

skirt

What you have and are as a being should always be honest to self and earth alike!!!!!!

Peace

Senorita Awesumo