stacie: What that old thing?!

Back in September we were set a fast paced project entitled 'What that old thing?' based around deconstructing fashion.

A local Plymouth children's charity, Jeremiah's Journey, kindly donated each of us an old, very unfashionable ballgown for us to rip our teeth into, take apart and reconstruct it into a contemporary experimental evening dress! Very exciting. Our dresses were then to be showcased at JJ's 'Frock to Rock' charity event on December 1st and auctioned off to raise money for this well deserved organisation.

Put into groups, we were then set a brief to design a capsule collection based around our picked theme. To my own personal horror I was required to design a dress inspired by the theme..... GRAFFITI. A theme in which would seem Exciting! Fun! and Awesome! to many.... but to me, it struck terror.

COLOUR! That's all I could think about.... that was my challenge. Now that's not to say I'm not a fan of colour in general..... but when it comes to designing, I must admit my comfort zone lies within neutrals, soft tones and monochrome. Not the BRIGHT LOUD VIBRANT CRAZY colours you typically find spray painted in the underground tunnels.

So yes, I was presented with what seemed like a hike up the mountain Everest... it was a big challenge. But it was a challenge I was going to conquer.

A selection images used to inspired my work. I was mainly interested in the textures created by the dried paint and the surfaces in which the graffiti was sprayed.

Which lead to experimenting with ruching paper

Final print designed used in garment

Even though we were working individually, when brought together our groups work collated really well as a collection!

A trip to the V&A museum took me on an unexpected route to explore 'Grunge'. Being a Hole fan back in the day, I turned to Courtney Love for inspiration to develop my mood, attitude and silhouette