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Evaluation

The Rebel Tartan project has been a very collaborative and inspirational project. By being put into a team with students from multiple backgrounds (print, weave, embroidery and knit), I have learnt a better method of collaboratively working to everyone’s strengths but also new presentation skills, such as carding up my samples and bookbinding.

During the beginning of the project, we decided on the concept of prostitution in Manchester very easily since it is a place closely linked with all of us, however once we started taking inspiration from organ trafficking research, I felt that our work became a bit individual and isolated.

We resolved this problem by combining the colours found the organ trafficking imagery with the colour scheme we developed from our group street walk of where the prostitutes in Manchester work, to create a cohesive colour palette. 

Sampling has been a vital part of our project and I think that all of the work that has been produced works really well with the group’s concept. I tried to collaborate my print designs with the other members of the group so they could work on top of them; Natalie and Hannah both used my block print designs as inspiration for their weave and knit designs and Iona used some for embroidery samples. I am happy with the work they created from my prints; however, I did not receive many samples back from my team for me to keep or to work on top of. This would be something I would like to do in future group projects, to make a more collaborative outcome.

With the Easter holiday being in the middle of this project, as a group we found it difficult to work together during this time, which started to affect our work because we were quite isolated from each other. However, we overcame this problem by meeting up once we were back in university and managed to get back into group work quite easily. 

As a group, we have had difficulty with attendance from all members of the team not turning up to workshops or coming back to sessions later on after a break. This has been a weakness within our project that I would like to change in future group work, by ensuring the importance of full attendance to lessons and workshops.

Some members of our group did not completely see eye – to – eye during our project, this resulted in arguments that put a strain on our group, especially with Hannah and I who were not involved. With this, if it happens again in future projects, I will empathises the fact that work should be kept separately and personal issues cannot get involved with the project. 

Towards the end of the project, our group continued to work collaboratively to ensure everything was complete for the exhibition.

Natalie and Iona made the 12-look line up with the technical flats; I added colour to the collection with Photoshop and drew back into the designs. Hannah carded and made the sample books for the show. Natalie, Iona, Hannah and I all worked on the group file. James, Hannah and I create the PDF File and James book bounded it together. We all helped one another with the exhibition preparation, which showed good teamwork and allowed us to be ready on time. 

To conclude, our Rebel Tartan project was successful in collaboratively creating a large body of work with influences from each other’s style of design. Our sampling has been very well reviewed and links well with the rebel tartan by Liberation Kilt. It has helped me with my presentation skills that I will take forward into my third year of university; and although there has been some debate in our group, we have all realised the importance of the project work rather than personal arguments.

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Exhibition

As a group we all completed our work for the exhibition on time and presented in an easy to read, professional format

We received positive feedback from students and teacher, with the only comment of improvement being to include annotation and fabric swatches to our PDF folder.

Overall I believe that our final exhibition presentation was a success and resembled the hard work that we put into making the work.

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For our groups final line up, Natalie and Iona collected all of our design work and collaged them together in different variations to make the best outcome, After we made the final decision on the line up, I collaborated with the girls to add colour and use Photoshop, creating more texture to the designs. We then drew back into them.

Although I wish more of my print work was added into the collection, we all agreed on the 12 looks being predominantly weave and knit samples, relating better to the Liberation Co. / Rebel Tartan weaving work. 

The final looks have related well to all of our groups themes; layering, organ and construction.

The outcome for our collection is a strong combination of all of our designs and I think has worked well for us as a group and individually.

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In response to our drape workshop, I drew some designs combining the generic garments and stand work together. Each group member has done this in their own individual style and we will work together to combine our designs and create a final 12 look line up.

I personally like my own line up as a starting point to see how well all of our group's samples work together. The colours and contrasts of techniques create a strong outcome which represent our samples well.

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As a group, Natalie, Iona, Hannah and I worked on a stand to create interesting garment shapes with draping. We decided to drape in relation to three of our main themes within our project, layering, organs and construction. We all found that by doing this task it enabled us to create more experimental garment drawings and a cohesive group design to work towards; by combining the large silhouette shapes with generic garments. I believe that this workshop was one of our most influential challenges to our designing process and is a shame that some group members didn't attend our session.

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Portfolio Workshop

As part of our hand in, as a group we have to create a group file showing all of our work from this project.

During the workshop, we all stuck up our individual work and analysed which pages best showed our themes.

This task was really successful in which it helped us become more critical of our own work, making us select the best pages to put forward into our group file.

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Collages of my generic drawings onto the body, creating some interesting garment designs to take forward with my group.

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Within our research into clothing and range building for this project, as a group we looked into what prostitutes wear while they're working; we did this by looking into the mug shots of arrested prostitutes from Manchester and observing the garments that they were wearing at the time.

The majority of clothing were generic, casual pieces made for warmth and comfort; in relation to this I drew up some of the garments that we researched into. I will collage these and share with my group as part of our design process.

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Samples in relation to my car research

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Unit X

For my role in the group project, I have decided to looking to ways that the prostitutes travel around Manchester and how they would find work. With this information, I began researching into car interiors, looking into the contrasts of fabrics and the methods used to make the cars visually appealing i.e. contouring with different colours.

Looking into the tyre tracks and pattern will inspire me for my print designs, as the block prints would match well with the Rebel Tartan theme and the grid work we looked into as a group in the print workshop.

The stitch work on car seat will help influence embroidery samples, to create extra texture to my print work and elevate the quality.

The damage cars that I researched into, relate well with the work of Natalie and Iona, who have been researching into Organ Trafficking, with the stitches and scaring aspect to the project.

Finally, the padded car seats has allowed us to look into relating garments, such as the puffer coat; giving us some sampling ideas to take further in our making process.

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During my trip to Paris, I started researching into professional finishes and fastening ideas by looking in detail at current fashion garments and beautiful combinations of materials.

By observing well known fashion designer's work, it has helped me find inventive ways to finish off a garment in a higher quality, creating a more luxurious samples for the Unit X Project.

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Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris

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Masion Margiela Exhibition - Palais Galliera

The Martin Margiela allowed me to start thinking more expressively about the designs I am going to draw over the Easter break. His inspirational garments show multiple fabric combinations with unusual materials.

The way the outfits were styled together was also done in a very creative way, i.e. knitwear alongside a light, silk garment.

This will influence me to draw my designs in a more experimental way and to think about unique clothing combinations, creating a more imaginative collection.

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Range Building Workshop As a group, we analysed a collection to find the recurring prints, finishes, fastenings and silhouette to help us with our own designs and collection. This workshop has helped us realise that we need to start gathering generic garments as a group and refine our own technical details to take forward into our project.

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Generic garment drawing workshop

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Rebel Tartan - Print workshop

Looking at some of our primary research images, each member of our group created some interesting collages that can be translated into beautiful print, knit or embroidery samples to take further in our project. I really enjoyed doing this workshop because it allowed me to express collaging skills using new and interesting materials in different ways. This workshop also helped my group finalise our colour scheme.

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Unit X - Rebel Tartan Inspired by Liberation Kilt Co. designs to create awareness for human trafficking (Blue Heart), our Unit X project is about prostitution found in the city of Manchester, England. Being a woman and coming from Manchester, I have a very strong connection to this issue and feel a very strong need to raise awareness for the vulnerable women in the city, in these unfortunate circumstances they find themselves in. To do this, my group will research into different aspects of this form of human trafficking and make creative samples in response to this problem. I will begin do this by looking into local charities that already do amazing work to try and help this cause, such as MASH and Barnabus.