Anna Douglas

Attended the Anna Douglas lecture about collaboration.

Collaboration-  work with combination - this is the meaning in the dictionary.

Anna Douglas- collaboration- means awareness of working together.

Working together is about the ability to communicate, problem-solving, brainstorming ideas, be generous with others and not keep all good ideas to oneself. Some people need to learn how to work together and for others it comes easily. It is putting one's ego aside, which is not easy for some people as they always want to be in charge. So, it is important to respect other's ideas, other ways of working and  having  the desire to work together. Once everybody knows what they're doing, breakdown the task into modules and then the individuals can work on their own.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
The lecture was about how artist's showing their work, need to work with other professionals to set up and record their work. In any gallery exhibition how many people would it take to set the exhibition up? The artist with his work, the manager of the gallery, decorator to paint the gallery the colour required for the exhibition and the person who is actually going to hang the exhibits on the wall or place them onto the stands and that's only the start! Think of all the people working behind the scenes of an art gallery and without these people the art gallery could not function.
I think Anna Douglas's lecture was interesting in the fact that working together is not always an easy option. I think anyone who is thinking of working together as a group and takes note of the above ideas, I think it would help them to work in a group successfully. Many thanks to to Anna Douglas for the lecture.

Pattern Cutting Zero Waste.

  This lecture was about developing patterns and losing the 15/20% of cutting waste of the fashion industry as this waste goes into landfill sites. Designers are looking at ways to reuse the waste, creating new garments or using the scraps as a form of embellishment.
Designers are now looking at the historical patterns/styles where they would wrap the fabric round the body using a geometric shape. By using geometric block patterns this reduces seams and the amount of sewing causing the fabric to drape on the body.
These are a few designers who are using this technique.
Holly McQuillan. She uses several patterns drawn into a piece of fabric.
Julia Lumsden.  A student of Holly McQuillan above. She designs menswear and I quote  "through the pattern comes the design" and uses the scraps of fabric as a form of embellishment.
David Telfer. He uses minimal seam cutting so there's less seams to sew and again block cutting.
Joe O'Neill. He is a high Street designer who also is into zero waste, again uses block cutting.
Most of the designers are now looking at zero waste when designing fashion and their idea's behind this is, pattern shapes, fabric manipulation, wraparound, so the excess fabric drapes elegantly and the geometric shape fits beautifully on the figure.
Pattern versus design, the pattern shape dictates the design of the garment but in this process it is often the fabric that dictates the design ! The difficulties are, what hangs well, compromising is the key,  fabric manipulation and evaluating the pattern at each stage.
I listened to this lecture with great interest, because in the past I have made my own clothes, so I know about manipulating fabric and design but I feel that even using these block patterns you are driven by the fabric you use. Using a different fabric like linen you would still have waste by having to cut the fabric into a shape and not into blocks. By cutting the linen into blocks you would still have to shape the blocks as the linen would not drape! I'm not sure that this idea really works because you would have to use flowing soft fabric and the amount of fabric that actually goes into the making of the garment to make it drape is more than the fabric you would lose by cutting it into shape! So my final conclusion is, initially you would have less waste in landfills but looking at it long term when the garment comes to the end of it's life, you would end up with more fabric in the landfill because you used more fabric in the first place !!

Sally Denton

Sally Denton's lecture was understanding trend and forecasting. Why trends are so important and she says the future has happened,  just it's not distributed very well !!
She also talked about the three stages of trend.
Marco 3 to 5 years plus is thinking differently.
Transitional is 1 to 2 years fashion/fabrics.
Micro trend six months and to be avoided as much as possible as this is the lines that end up in the cheap discount stores.
We looked at the start of trends. First trendsetter is designers. The early adopter is brands. The trend follower is high Street. The lagger is discount stores.TK Maxx has changed the face of discount shops offering quality designer clothes at prices one can afford. Top Shop became a brand in its own right.
As much as I found the lecture enlightening, I felt it was aimed at younger students who will become the designers the of the future, working in companies where they need to understand trends.
It is most certainly worth looking at Sally Denton's website The TrendBoutique to learn more about
her and her company.

Chara Lewis

Chara Lewis's lecture was interesting because she uses light and shadows to produce most of her work. In the Trespassing images she explains she usees other spaces to make her own space and to take the real and imaginary and mix them together. I found this quite fascinating because I do know, how important it is to be original.
 I also thought the idea of going into museum stores and producing artwork to go in the gallery and again using light and shadows to produce images that look gloomy in the Museum storage rooms.

 Image taken in Museum storage room.

 I have to say I loved The Messenger that was installed in Tatton Park to 2012. Unfortunately I never saw installation but still think the image is beautiful on-screen and in pictures.

The Messenger in Tatham Park 2012

 The next image that caught my eye was To Suspend the Breath that was exhibited at Yorkshire sculpture Park 2008. The image is a heart-shaped pair of lungs that inhale and exhale illuminating the bronchioles and alveoli. I've seen the picture of this installation but I've never seen it actually seen it working much to my disappointment.

 To Suspend the Breath 2008


Chara Lewis  is part of a group called Brass Art which also have a website which is well worse perusing.