Make it work moment !

Back in Chennai and finally got started with my samples and print developments . Not quite at the pace I want or should be working in at this point, but at least it's a start. My concept is to use the embroidery styles and techniques that I saw in Bikaner  and use it in my designs with a modern twist .

MY MIND MAP 

TREND FORECAST -  before finalizing on my inspiration I took a look at the trend forecast for spring-summer 14. And my inspiration , with it's colours , detailing , print and style ideas is bang on trend. 

MORE TREND RESEARCH - source www.wgsn.com

DETAILING IDEAS INSPIRED FROM THEIR CLOTHING 

APPLIQUE PATTERNS USED AS EMBROIDERY ON LEATHER ( Rajasthan has a lot of camel leather products, but since it is not viable for me to work with camel leather , I chose a thinner leather  to make my embroidery samples on . These could be used on yokes and cuffs . or even on bags 

NOTICE THE CAMEL THAT IS EMBROIDERED ON A CUSHION COVER  , I TRIED  PATCHING THIS  SYMBOL  ON  A COTTON FABRIC USING LEATHER TRIMS 

GEOMETRIC CAMEL SYMBOL - could be used on T- shirts

TIE - DYE SAMPLES I HAD SOURCED FROM MY TRIP TO RAJASTHAN   - I  will be trying these tying  techniques on knits and Georgette . These patterns are very unique and all hand crafted by the master mind himself - Mohammad Iqbal Ji  

SIGNED AND EMBROIDERED SIGNATURE OF IQBAL JI -  all the fabrics that I will be getting dyed and embroidered  for my collection by the craftsman in bikaner , will be signed by the craftsmen themselves to give credit to them and also add a personal touch to the collection

THE KIDDOS - since a major part of my  collection is inspired by the people  I met  , I tried to develop prints  with their faces and then embroider them to give a funky modern twist. I chose 3 images, but not all of them seem to be working out . I dont like this sample

UNCLE JI  T-SHIRTS -This is one of my favorite samples. I chose this picture because  his mush ,spectacles and eyebrows are soo interesting , I decided to print his face on a t shirt and then embroider his specs and eyebrows etc , and then appliqued a turban on his head..   

VIMALA -  okay ! this was a complete fail ! i tried to print it on a sheer fabric ... but the iron on sticker  did not completely peel off , so my sample still has paper stuck on the fabric.  Plus this image is too literal and when I tried embroidering her eyebrows and her bindhi and earrings she looked very scary . which is completely opposite to what she actually looks like. Vimala was one of the  most beautiful women I met there . and had this innocence in her eyes that I wanted to capture in the print. 

This is just some of the work I could do in the last one week. It's not a lot , as compared to how much I should have done by now but I'm sure I'll get there. Confession time ! I might seem like I'm super confident about my collection and not at all concerned about the time frame  ...but  the truth is,  I did have a random breakdown during my mentoring session this week. YES! it was embarrassing ! in my defence I was already 2 weeks behind with my work and when you see everyone else around you with fat process books and getting their final range approved , it hits you ! pretty badly !  but after a quick pep talk from my mentor , I was fine and back to work with a lot more focus . time to pull up my socks and make it work !

This is just the first of the many many more breakdowns yet to come , but it goes to show how much our final  collection means to each one of us. The name Skinny 'drama queen' sounds more apt now , doesn't it ?  :D  

okay! I'm off to vizag for ' KINGFISHER ULTRA VIZAG FASHION WEEK ' . The rush of adrenaline that you get while working backstage is exactly what I need right now! Will be back with more updates on my collection after the 5th :) 

xoxo 

-skinnydramaqueen 

Euphoria

It's been a while since my last blog entry . I haven't been able to work on my process much because I spent the last one and a half weeks in bed being sick. Skinny people tend to fall sick more often because they have a poor immune system and don't eat any food  or so I've heard . Well , I think it has nothing to do with being skinny , I eat food , might not always be the right food at the right time but skinny people do eat. I guess it's all a part and parcel of  living away from home and having to take care of yourself . The upside of falling sick was that I got to come home for a week ! I got to sleep on my own bed , got pampered with home food and had my family take care of everything else for me. It's nice not having to think about what  to cook or where to order your next meal from  . Sometimes you wonder if that one packet of Maggi is still left because you're drained out of energy to cook edible food, just so you can shove that tablet down your throat. Thank god for family !

Being on bed rest might have it's perks , but not when your a design student working on your final collection .  Yes, I was physically resting, but mentally I might have lost my mind. I spent most of my nights staying up just pondering about every little detail about the collection. . What's my collection going to look like ? What colours will I use ? What mood best suits my inspiration ? Will they like my collection ? What if I am lagging behind ? How much have my classmates done ? What am I going to wear on the day of the show ? Is it going to match the rest of my collection ?  It's a never ending story! First, you think... and then you re-think .. and then you over think every single detail in your life . I think it's a virgo thing. The obsessive need to have everything planned and organised before you even start. Because in reality I have only 2 pages in my process book and no work done . Everything is already planned and finalized in my head  it just has to be penned down . so that's my new focus - to spend the next few days turning all the ideas into 2D and 3D samples .

This is what I do at 3 AM

More ideas and doodles 

One of the things that I did work on , was my mood board. I decided to go with "euphoria" as my mood for the collection  because the whole experience was nothing less than euphoric . It didn't make sense for me to copy paste images from google that express this emotion. So I decided to use real pictures of the people that we worked with and spent our time with in Rajasthan . These pictures were all captured in the moment .The people in my mood board are the reason why I am so hell bent upon this inspiration . 

The colours in my mood board are based on my visual references and also coincide with the  S/S -14  colour forecast. it's a mix of vibrant colours like  fuschia , blood red , parrot green with mustard and brown or beige neutrals. This is only a rough draft and still needs to be worked on  

My mood board 

  Euphoria.- 'a feeling or a state of intense excitement and happiness'. This is how I felt throughout my journey   in Rajasthan 

pages from the past

Remember when I said  " I am all geared up to start off with my final collection " ? Well.... I might have over estimated my enthusiasm because i still haven't kicked into my work mode. It's been exactly  a week since I've come back to Chennai and  my holiday mood is still on, but that didn't seem to stop me from helping out with a college fashion show! I don't know if it's the fear of having to start my "FINAL" collection or just pure laziness. Either ways I am in for trouble if I don't get cracking on it right now. 

I've spent the last couple of days digging through fabrics, trims, photos, old blog posts , our craft documentations and everything else that I had collected from my Rajasthan trip . This was one of the main reasons behind taking up this inspiration. Everything is based on primary research and I don't need to spend time finding visual references from Google that are based on other people's likes and dislikes about Rajasthan . It gives me the confidence to back my designs up a 100 percent because the design process is based on my own observations.  .

                     PAGES FROM MY JOURNAL DURING MY VISIT TO RAJASTHAN 

The draw back with my inspiration is that it is so diverse that I can easily think of a  hundred different ways to take it forward. So many colours and visuals that at times it leaves me going back and forth and makes it harder to take a stance on even the tiniest of decisions. So I finally short listed a few visual references that I felt had the most potential for me to work with , such as ; images of the architecture , the clothing styles and some very interesting use of colour and patterns found in their crafts. 

ARCHITECTURE IN FORTS - CAN DEVELOP INTO PRINTS, STYLE LINES OR DETAILING 

I LOVED HOW THEY LAYER THEIR CLOTHES AND USE  COLOUR BLOCKS . THE PATCH WORK FOUND ON THE LITTLE BOY'S  SHIRT IS VERY STYLISH . I PLAN ON TAKING IDEAS FOR DETAILING( CONTRAST BINDINGS , PIPING ,THE CONCEPT OF LAYERING ) AND SILHOUETTES FROM THEIR CLOTHING 

I FOUND THAT THE CAMEL EMBROIDERED ON THE FABRIC WAS VERY DIFFERENT , AND I LOVE THAT THEIR PATTERNS ARE SO GEOMETRIC  AND THE COLOUR COMBINATIONS ARE VERY UNIQUE

By next week I will be a lot more clear on how I plan on using these images and translating them into design ideas and print developments . Hopefully in time for my mentoring session on Wednesday. 

A perfect start to the new year !

The time has finally come , to put the last 3 and a half years of  my learning to test. It's the final semester and after a long and much needed winter's break I am all geared up to start working on my final collection . A perfect start to the new year !

Last year I had the opportunity to be a part of an exchange program to Pearl academy Delhi where we worked on a craft documentation module for a period of 8 weeks. I was put in a group with three other exchange students ;Katherine Steele and Sorcha Meredith from Hariot watt university and Christina Tiran from LCF . We were sent to intern at Rangsutra , an NGO in Bikaner, Rajasthan .

At Rangsutra , we were asked to document four crafts ; embroidery, reverse applique, tie-dye and engineered weaving.  We spent 6 weeks in Bikaner documenting these crafts and traveling to villages in and around to talk to the craftsmen and learn as much as we could about their lives and the stories behind their mastered craft skill . Most weekends we took off to explore  near by cities like Udaipur and Jaisalmer . It was indeed an over whelming experience for each one of us . We came from different countries , different cultures and had completely different lifestyles but those 6 weeks in the desert , miles away from our homes and families got the four of us closer together and soon we had formed our own little family .

      our new found family - Sorch ,Kat, Christina and me with Aunty outside our bikaner home

My trip to Bikaner was beyond inspiring . It wasn't just the craft or the colours of  Rajasthan that inspired me,  it was more the amazing people that I met and the stories that they had to tell.  I felt like they had taught me so much and that it is only fair that I give back to the craftsmen  a little of what i took from them. At this point I was certain that I wanted my final collection to revolve around my experience here in Rajasthan.
Here I am, a year later, still extremely passionate about my inspiration and hoping to take it forward in the best way possible. It scares me that I might not be able to do justice to the amazing journey that not only taught me so much but also helped me grow as a person . But one can only try everything in their power to work hard and do their best.

Now it's time to get back to the grind and start with my process book ! looking forward to another sleepless night of mind mapping :D!

xoxo
- skinny drama queen <3