Abstract Into Garments

For fashion and textiles, the overall aim is to produce a wearable garment based upon some of our initial designs. So, how would we go about doing that?

The first step was to lay shapes onto a model, which would then be the inspiration for the shape of the final garment. These shapes were derived from previous work in the sketchbook; I simply traced sections that I wanted and then combined them onto the body.

Initially, I was leaning more toward a rounded, flowy silhouette, taking advantage of the blobs from the Rorschach designs. During the experimentation process of overlaying the shapes and switching them about, I tried a couple of angular designs, and found that I really liked how dramatic it looked.

For the majority of my ideas, you can tell that I was making an effort to arrange the shapes in a way that'd modestly cover the body. I was trying to make sure that certain areas wouldn't be exposed in the design. However, I did a little arrangement to try to break out of this, and I found the design really inspiring, even though it did only consist of a few basic shapes, and only cover the top half of the body.

I then took a fresh bit of tracing paper and began to refine that design into something that looked less like random shapes, and more like a garment. It took two attempts, one initial one to roughly block out my thoughts, and then the second one was to develop it and clean it up a bit. I've included both designs in my sketchbook because if I'd left out the first "sketch", you wouldn't be able to see the general development.

Thinking about it structurally, I wasn't certain whether it'd remain as a one piece garment, or whether I'd have to break it down a bit. Since it's quite form fitting, it'd make sense to have it as a corset. Obviously, I'd have to simplify it a bit during the construction, as certain areas (particularly the bottom edge) are a little complicated, especially for a beginner when it comes to making clothes.