Jonathan Saunders.......Birds, Fall 2009

I recently had a look at Jonathan Saunders Fall 2009 collection which was quite obviously based on birds........

Some of the designs are okay, but i find they not very exciting..... all most dull, not that i should really say that.

i think the colours could have been more vibrant and the designs certainly better, because i do like the colours on the birds but just think they aren't vibrant enough on the garments and the designs aren't interesting enough and don't look very high end fashion...... more like cheap high street shop.

I also came across this which i found quite interesting so i'm going to keep checking his website to see when it has come back online after construction to see what he's got to offer.....

“In two weeks we are launching his first transactional website,” he said to Vogue. “The internet is great for young designers, because they have a way to get their business going and bring in some money with almost no overheads. We trade really well on Net-A-Porter, but Natalie Massenet actually really encourages young designers to set up their own platform too. She doesn’t see it as competition - it just raises awareness of the brand.”

Quotation from Jonathan Saunders talking to vogue

Fashion art and culture project

My first project was fashion art and culture and we had to make a 3 - D poster to advertise an exhibition of our choosing.

I love combining old and new, so I decided to make an exhibition on exactly that. Based on contemporary fashion some that has been influenced by the 1920s and other just contemporary designs, and lastly vintage 1920s clothing.

I thought this would be an extremely interesting exhibition showing old and new, because thats what I love when shopping, going to vintage fairs and knowing that every garment, every piece of jewellery has a piece of history behind it, other people have loved wearing them and now they pass that onto someone else.

Whilst making my 3 D object my main objective was, once I had decided on the theme modernism and the 1920s and combining the two, was to make it a contrasting piece of old and new.

I decided that I would use photographs that I had discovered whilst doing my research that I really felt reflected the theme of 1920s.

I was conscious of the idea that it had to look visually interesting from all angles so I concentrated on this whilst choosing the way to present my photographs. I decided to print onto thin plastic sheets, as it would be interesting from all angles and then make different kinds of frames to go around each image to make it have more impact.

The piece had to be visually exciting but explain what the exhibition was showing. So I decided to do a very minimalistic contemporary painting on canvas, which is very eye catching as it stands out of place with the other items. To the back of this I then attached another 1920s era photograph to show that within one piece of work there will be an involvement from contemporary themes and also the 1920s.

I combined a lot of different things in my wind chime object, as I wanted there to be plenty of things to look at, and from each angle something else would be spotted.

I combined different styles of fonts, different ways of printing photography’s, either on plastic sheets or onto fabric, different styles of framing my images, different fabrics to show the contrast between the old and the new and how they could be combined but still look effective and I felt this eventually looked visually exciting.

This is my final design for my exhibition, I am quite pleased with the final design and think it is very interesting to look at and also reflects the contrast between old and new with a contemporary painting and old photographs.

Why i love Autumn.........

These are a few photographs i have taken whilst it was Autumn, before all the leaves fell off the tress.

I think these colours are really inspirational i could combine these colours and possibly the textures in with one of my designs.

Inspiration photographs that i could combine with my fashion design

My recycled shirt design inspired by Tord Boontje & layer and tear

Tord Boontje

Was born in Enschede, Netherlands in 1968. He studied industrial design at the academy in Einhoved and followed with a master course at the royal college of art, London. Studio Tord Boontje was founded in 1996.

He explores aspects from nature, rich coloration visual layering to create highly detailed objects. He lived and worked in London until 1995, and has since lived and worked in Bourg-argental France. In 2006, here the studio Tord Boontje design was founded.

Question: one of your most visible- and admired - projects has been the been the blossom chandelier you created for Swarovski. What was the inspiration for Blossom and how did you develop it?

Answer: "I was asked by Swarovski to reinterpret the chandelier using their existing components. for me there was an immediate attraction to the material with its glitter and colours. i lik crystal when it is used densely with an internal light, because it be

comes very magical, like the ice palace of the fairy queen. by using LED we were able to place the light source directly next to the crystals and the best of all they could be programm

ed to flash on and off in sequence - all adding to the magic. the form of the blossom branch came from a romantic idea. It is a place where crystals belongs."

Quotation from Tord Boontje , design museum website, the link for it is.. http://designmuseum.org

Alot of Tord Boontje work has a simular style, with the laser cut leaves and flowers but this piece is different, with

the interesting silhouette.

What great chairs, i think the shape is really interesting and with the pattern added on, i think its a great design.

This piece i feel is a very attractive piece, it doesn't look out of place within the wood and really emphasises the fact of nature.

I also like the fact that it is suspended just above the ground rather than having legs on it, i wonder why he has done it, if maybe he is trying to recreate a swing in the wood, or if he thought it would look more successful and interesting if he did hang it.

"For the last four years i have worked with Alexander McQueen as a product designer. Fashion is a great inspiration for me - i love the experimentation and the speed with which the ideas are tested. "

Quotation from Tord Boontje , design museum website, the link for it is.. http://designmuseum.org

I found this quotation very interesting as i didn't know that Boontje had a link with fashion and had an interest in it. I felt slightly intrigued to research the work and see what had developed from this.

This one is called Glittering Winterdreams by Alexander McQueen and Tord Boontje

they both created this crystal tree from thousands of Swarovski crystals mounted on polished steel. Both Design- icons repeatedly experiment with Sawarovski crystal.

"Page after page of stunning photography, sketches, and conceptual renderings chart Boontje's evolution as an artist..." "Visually extensive" "Typical of Rizzoli offerings, the book itself is a work of art..."

Quotation from Readymade Magazine

I think this quotation describes the book very well, it is an exciting and inspiring book to have a look through showing what a good artists Boontje actually is.

I was slightly struggling to decide what to do with the back of the garment, so i went for a quick walk to have a think of what to do to maybe get some inspirations. i thought this would be a good idea to study nature and try and get inspiration from it as Tord Boontje bases the majori

ty of his work on nature.

With all the bad weather recently the river was extremly high, and running very fast so much so it had pulled trees down and was carrying debree down the river, i took a few photographs of it but it was hard to catch the image that i wanted with the water moving so quickly, and how windy it was.

When i was stood taking the photographs it inspired me on how to do the back of the dress, by doing small like gathers and catching them i was able to recreate what i saw that night, with the water cutting, bending, twisting and tearing over each other.

Here are a few photographs that i took of the water, they are not extremely clear and slightly out of focus because of the high winds, but in the photographs you are able to see where i got my inspiration from.

I wanted to use as much of the shirts as possible, I decided to use two shirts the same so I had plenty of fabric for the main body and use a different colour for other parts. I got my inspiration for the colour theme from some photographs I took where it was really dark of some trees, the flash made the sky appear a grey/blue but everything else stayed black but because I used the flash it had picked out certain bits and lightened them so it almost looked like strips so I decided to use that photograph for my colour inspiration, and to select shirts based on that.

I wanted the pockets to be a big part of the design so I decided to use the cuff of one of the shirts for each pocket and the arms and make gathered pockets, which emphasised the layered look. I also off set the pockets to mirror the asymmetric style of the top of the garment.

I looked into floral designs which Boontje bases his designs on and then tried different methods of transferring those onto fabric whether it was spray paint, fabric paint, folding fabric, sewing, embroidery, or using transfer paper. I decided in the end to use transfer paper as I felt it worked the best and looked the most elegant and intricate.

From flowers I looked into dead flowers as they had a different quality and texture about them, then I looked into all natural elements such as trees and forests, and trees with all there leaves off. But I still felt like the floral design was the best for what I intended on using it for. I used the cuff which now became the pocket to print my design onto in a black to really stand out against the grey shirt.