Pocket Samples

Here are samples of pockets I have created as practice for creating my jacket and trousers. The pockets I will be using are bellow pockets for the jacket and inserted pockets for the trousers.

I found making the pockets quite tricky but when they were completed I was really pleased with how they looked.



Patch Pocket

 

 

Bellow Pocket

 

Bellow Pocket



Welt Pocket



Welt Pocket Lining



Side Seam Pocket



Side Seam Pocket



Inserted Pocket




Inserted Pocket

Garment Specification

The last thing I had to do for my garment was to create a garment specification which included the technical drawings and any relevant information needed for taking it into construction. Below are my garment specifications for my jacket and trousers along with a description and fabric and trim information.

Final Design!

Finally I had the last meeting with Chris to get his opinion and feedback on the final line up. I found what he had to say very helpful. He told me to remove some of the pockets which were unnecessary and to concentrate on what would actually be needed and used on the jacket. This was helpful as I found that in the long run I would of made things harder for myself adding things on to the jacket that would have been time consuming where as I can now concentrate more on the smaller details that I have. Chris had also told me to add, on the shoulders, attachments that would act as handles, similar to those on the jackets of car racers when they are pulled out of the car after each race. I thought this was a good idea so I added it to final design.

My Final Design...

 

 

 

After taking into consideration everything, I created my final design and I am happy with the overall outcome. I added the shoulder handles as Chris said and also the lapels on the arms as seen on the jacket in the film ‘Drive’. This was a good source of inspiration and I decided to use this technique as it would give the wearer of the jacket ease and I like the idea of having two different layers. The pocket on the side above the waist has been added because when driving, it is much easier to reach a pocket on the side by the waist rather than the hip. The elbow patches were added to prevent any rubbing against the car window whilst driving.

For the pants, I have basic insert pockets at the top but at the lower end below the knee I have a bellow pocket on each leg. I have done this so that the pockets are easily accessible when sitting down in a car.

The Line Up and Technical Drawings

After taking into consideration all my previous designs and what had been said in the buyers meeting, I then had to produce a line-up of my final ideas consisting of 5-10 designs. Below is my final line up which I will be presenting to Chris for him to give me more feedback so I can produce my final design.

I created my final line up by using illustrator where I used a male model template to draw around and then used the paint brush tool to design my garments. I then used the same tool to fill in the garment with colour and used the opacity to create the shadow effects.

The images below are the concept boards for each of my designs on the final line up along with their technical drawings consisting of the front, back and side view of the jacket and the front and back view of the pants. I have also added the top stitching to the technical drawings and where any zips would be added.

I have also added some images of other garments that have similar concepts as the ones I have designed. I have done this so that the client who I am producing the designs for can get a good image of how it would look.

Overall, I am really pleased with how my technical drawings have turned out. I feel I have made progress since the last assignment where I had to create technical drawings and hopefully my skills will get better. I think to make my technical drawings better and more professional I will add colour and ensure again I have added all the correct markings.

 

Concept Boards

Below are the concept boards which I have created to help with my design. The first board I have gathered older looking images that inspire me for car racing. Older images inspired me as i liked the shapes they used to use in the older cars such as the speed dials and clocks.  

 

The second concept board I created was more recent images that inspired me from car racing.

 

 

The third concept board was a mix of images mainly of the actual cars that inspired me towards my designs. This board is the colour story which is red, black and grey. I have chosen these colours as they are the main colours that are used in car racing such as in Formula One racing, the main colour is red.

Bag Prototype

 

 As well as designing a two piece men’s outfit, I also have to design a man’s bag but I also had to think about my sport I had chosen which is car racing to make sure the bag was suitable.

I decided to design a bowler bag as when I was researching car racing bags they were mainly big and simple designs.

I took into consideration what the owner of the bag would carry round if they were using the bag and driving and thought they would have things such as driving gloves, a coat, an iPad, phone, phone charger, wallet and sunglasses. Therefore, the bag had to be reasonable big to fit everything inside.

I also added a pocket to the front of the bag with quilting. I done this because I assumed the driver of the car would place things that they would want easily accessible in the pocket such as a phone or sunglasses so then I also thought these types of items are valuable and fragile which is why I incorporated the quilting to give this type of items protection.  

I have chosen to use two smaller handles rather than larger ones as the smaller the handles the easier the bag is to control. For example, I know from personal experience when getting out of my car and pulling out my bag that when I have long straps, they have a tendency to wrap around the handbrake, so I thought smaller straps would be a lot more appropriate. To attach the handles to the bag I am going to use D rings as they let the handles move easily and I am using a zip to close the bag.

Below are images from the prototype that I designed of the bag.

 

I found making the prototype quite difficult to put together as the card was too stiff and wouldn’t go exactly how I wanted. It was a good idea to design the prototype first, as after it was completed I decided to change the side panels, so instead of having one big piece, I have changed them into separated pieces which can be seen on my accessory specification sheet below. This change also made the pattern piece simpler and hopefully will help the construction of the bag to look better. However, if I was to do this process again of creating a prototype for a bag, I would prefer to use a fabric such as calico as it is much easier to work with than card.

 

Buyers Meeting

As part of our brief for ‘Made in Britain’ we had to meet with one of the students on the buyer’s course. To do this I had to take my concept boards and design 6-8 sketches that were slightly adapted from each other to present to the buyer where I would get feedback in relation to current trends and what would be the best designs. They were also taking ideas from what we had designed for their own project.

 

The feedback that I was given was to incorporate a back slit to give ease when wearing the jacket.

I found the buyers meeting really helpful as it was good practice for real life scenarios for working in the industry. Next time, I would like to add full colour to my designs to get the correct image of how it would look. Although I had taken my colour concept board, it wasn’t clear how the garment would look.

 

Below are the designs I had created for the meeting.

 

A/W 14/15 Men's Catwalk

This year was a good year for Men’s fashion week especially as sportswear was one of the main influences throughout collections which meant it linked in with the assignment brief, where I also have to input sportswear. In my previous blog post I have researched different designers but I have used WGSN to help research what is on current trend this season to help inspire me with my own design.

Autumn/Winter 2014/2015 began with London Collections: Men and according to chairman and editor of Men’s magazine GQ Dylan Jones it was. “the best season ever”. (http://www.stylus.com/frgpgv) while the three day London event is still competing with big designers that get shown in Florence, it is slowly becoming more of a success.  

So, this season on the catwalk revealed colours of blue, white, saffron and red.  The blue featured many different shades while the white was more of a soft finish mostly used in knitwear. Saffron yellow was a forceful colour used in a lot of the outerwear garments, as well as red which also stood out combining with white and black, again mainly used in the outerwear garments.


Lou Dalton

 

Xander Zhou

 

Hardy Amies

 

Hardy Amies

 

 

Christopher Raeburn

Topman

 

 

Xander Zhou

I particularly liked the white colour which is making an appearance in this season collections; it is new with a fresh look. I think the most suitable colour relation with my own design for British Racing Company is the red which reminds me of the formula 1 racing.

Two pocket jackets were a trend throughout collections which interested me as I plan to add different pockets to my own design. Designers such as Topman, Agi & Sam, Richard Nicol and Matthew Miller all had use of the two pocket trend.


Agi & Sam

 

 

Topman

 

 

 Matthew Miller

Richard Nicol

 

Different style coats including biker coats, oversized jackets and parkas walked on the catwalk. They all caught my eye when browsing through catwalk images because I was interested in their shape. For my own design, it is important what shape/silhouette I am using for my particular choice of sport which is car racing.

Dior (Parka)

Topman (Biker)

 

Christopher Kane (Oversized)

 

Leather trims and details are a common trend throughout seasons and seem to make an appearance in the recent A/W season.  

Hermes

 

 

 James Long

 

 

I would like to incorporate leather trims to my own design as it creates a smart finish and looks well presented.

 

 

Other things I particular liked this season was the use of high collars…

 Emporio Armani

 

Tweed made a comeback!  A classic, British fabric great for tailoring, as well as looking good for casual attire.

Part of my assignment brief for ‘Made in Britain’ is to design garments for the British Racing Company using natural fabrics. Tweed fabric would be perfect as it also relates to British heritage.

 

 Hackett

E.Tautz

 

Layering construction in a garment was also shown in some collections such as, The Kooples, Sopopular and Samsoe and Samsoe. The layering aspect gives the illusion of colour or different fabric blocking.

 So Popular

 

For my own design, I have researched films feature cars or car racing. One of them I came across was called ‘Drive’ which features actor Ryan Gosling wearing a jacket which has the use of layering round the arm hole. I will defiantly be using this technique when designing my jacket; it is a really good idea for movement and looks good.