Undercover

As you know I just started this new pattern cutting job at COS. I am currently the pattern cutter for 4 departments: Childrenswear, lingerie, accessories and ladies classic.

My cousin recently informed me about "Undercover: The Evolution of Underwear" exhibit at The Fashion and Textiles Museum. I decided since I am now doing lingerie it would be nice to see how it has evolved over the years in a design and pattern cutting perspective. So my friend Theresa and I headed off to do some research and learn about our knickers.

The exhibit was short and sweet it covered how underwear started off as a health garment and has now transformed into a fashion 'must have' item. It featured designs from La Perla, M&S, Wonderbra, Elle McPhearson and Dior. Theresa and I discovered that Wonderbra is a Canadian company, hooray for Canada paving the way for well fitted lingerie. The exhibit was very informative for me as I got to practice using my bra terminology like: balconette, push up bra etc. Furthermore, they deconstructed a bra at the very end of the exhibit and wrote a detailed description of the name of each part of the bra and how it is sewn up.

My favorite pieces in the exhibit were the bodysuits, and a cage undergarment. I also loved all of the pieces that involved mesh, lace and fringe. I don't know why but my lovely photoshop document has turned all green and grainy when I put it into blogger.. sigh... one day I will master this whole blogging thing.

Beyonce's new video

My new found love for Textiles

Last Thursday I swung by Gareth's studio on my way home from work to drop off a jacket for one of Gareth's assistants to fix for my bf (I was far too lazy to do it myself and I don't have a sewing machine, which is a whole other blog post).

Anyway it turns out Gareth was out of town and the gang were on a mission to get some inspiration with Gareth's invite to Chameleon '09, Loughborough Uni's BA degree show. I, of course tagged along cause well I miss the gang and there was free drinks, lovely textiles and who could turn down an inspiration mission?

As soon as we arrived we grabbed a glass of Rose and made the rounds. It seemed like the area that grabbed our attention was the multimedia textiles. I think mainly because it combines many mediums which create more texture and structure than printed textiles.

The first person that caught our eye was Charlotte Smith. Her textiles were black, shiny and either pyramids or triangles. They screamed being inspired by Gareth Pugh. Turns out one of her peers did recommend she look at Gareth's stuff for inspiration and she interpreted it very well into textiles. These pictures don't do her work justice, we were not allowed to take pictures so these are shots from the exhibit website http://www.chameleon09.co.uk/.

The next person that caught my eye was Hannah Gilbert. She somehow managed to knit what looked like giant chains. This baffled my mind as I can barely knit one, purl two or whatever is it to make a scarf, let alone figure out how to knit yarn to look chains.

Lastly, Heather Turnbull impressed with her use of leather and triangular shapes. Her inspiration was from science fiction films and the vision of the future from the 1920's. Futuristic designs are always a treat for the eye as were her textiles. I can just picture them on the shoulder of a jacket or the hips of a dress.

It was very inspiring to see how each student took normal, two dimensional fabrics and molded them into these amazing new textiles. It has motivated me to look into how to mold leather, cast resin and experiment with my own textiles for my mini collection. Yes, the mini collection is still in the mix, just on the back burner till I get used to the new job, make some monies and well get some sketches done.