George At Asda

My latest placement was with George at Asda. Based on Carnaby Street this placement was surprisingly design focussed and trend driven. I was mainly given research duties for this placement but I did manage to do a few designs for the over 40's (something which is actually pretty challenging) and also some stripe designs for basic work shirts.

These designs are all for Moda, the over 40's range. Detailing is limited to necklines by customer preference and also price. The one strap dress is for core designs and will be manufactured in four colours. The difficulty with working for a company like George is that everything is limited by costing. With basic Tshirts costing just £6, there is very little you can do with the design. It is, however, a real learning curve and forces you to be creative within very strict confines.

Below are twelve of my stripe designs. I was given four colours to work with and just played around with different widths and textures n Illustrator so there were a huge variation to choose from.

The Supply Chain

My latest post ( yes it has been a while! ) is about my newest and recently completed placement with X - Co, a small supply company to retailers such as Dorothy Perkins, Topshop, ASOS, Jane Norman and a few more. I really enjoyed working for Harry, the head designer, and learnt a HUGE amount about designing for commercial purposes as well as how a small business operates.

I have included some of my designs completed here.

These first designs are for a range being designed for Tammy Girl. Their target age range is 8 - 16 and I personally feel a lot of their garments are a little bit tarty. I tried to tone down the sex appeal with my designs but maintain a real sense of trend-led fashion.

The next group of designs are for Jane Norman. The basis of the designs are very Balmain. Very panelled, body-con and sexy. Zips are a huge feature on a lot of catwalks this season so I wanted to include a lot of these too. All of the below designs will be in various shades of Bengaline (a very stretchy woven fabric) which Jane Norman are synonymous with and have metallic top stitching detailing.

The next designs are for a French company called Xanaka. Their clothes are very River Island, H&M and Bershka. So quite young and funky with unusual detailing and trend influenced garments. Xanaka were looking for garments to expand their A/W 09 collection, specifically jackets and trousers so I did a bit of high street research and did designs for this.

The rest of these designs are just for X-Co to produce as samples. Harry will look at them once they come back from China and decide whether he thinks they are suitable for sending to companies. At the moment they are sending a lot through Dorothy Perkins, Pimkie, Mim, Xanaka and Topshop so any of these designs could end up at places like these.

All work and images subject to copyright (me and X - Company)

Living The Dream : My First Garment!

Wahoo! This dress came back from the supplier today - it's my print! I don't think I have been that excited for a while! Although there are some amendments to the garment shape, and possibly the fabric that will take the print, this is basically what the finished dress will look like. I'm so proud - my first retail garment!

Front

Dress has little layers along the skirt along with a waist tie

Back

Small buttons run down the centre back

This next dress also came back today and includes my lipstick print. Again, the garment needs a few small tweaks, I believe the waistband is too low and the neckline too high. This front view shows a front zip detailing, red jersey contrast banding and an open back. Skirt part also features pockets in the side seams.

These following images are of my fair-isle knitwear samples. These I am most proud of so far, I feel. I love the squirrels and acorns, the red birds and the kissing deer. All nestled up nicely with snowflakes and Christmas trees!

The images above and below show close ups of my samples. I really love the detailed snowflakes. I believe these designs are going on a number of knitwear pieces - I want a scarf! Luckily these samples are not wool either (I have an allergy) so I am hoping that the finished garments won't be either!

Full view of all elements

This next image is some freelance work I completed for ASOS after my placement. This is a vintage rose intarsia knitwear design. The sides include big open sleeves for a very boxy look. The black around the edges will be a thick black rib to contrast with the main design. I am quite pleased with this as I think it has successfully kept it's vintage appeal, however I am still no too convinced by the background, I feel it dominates too much.

These images are hand-drawn rope illustrations which are going to be used as a print for an oversized Tshirt dress. I haven't completed much hand drawing recently so I was incredibly pleased with how these have tuned out. It has inspired me to do a few more hand drawn designs, for my own portfolio.

A close up to show the detailing, next to and image of the whole garment with placement print. I love how oversized this print is. This is a smaller version too, my initial idea had a tassel on it that was about twice the size of the ones here.

Just as a quick note I would like to point out that I did not design these garment shapes. They were designed by the skilled hands of Christine Fallon, a Womenswear Designer. My designs are the prints and patterns - just thought you should know!

All work and images subject to copyright (Me and ASOS.com)

As Seen On Screen : ASOS.com Work Experience

In August 2008 i received an email from a senior designer at ASOS.com asking me to come for an interview as their head designer had spotted and liked my collection at graduate fashion week, EXCITING! This then led on the me completing a placement with them in December 2008, where I was basically a junior designer for a month, and I absolutely loved it. 

When you think of the design team at big fashion companies like this, you generally expect there to be a highly competitive, stressful and slightly bitchy atmosphere but this could not have been further from the truth. The guys at ASOS are some of the loveliest and most welcoming people I have ever met, and I will miss them so much!

In this blog entry I have displayed some of my work I completed for ASOS, which will appear on the site sometime next year, anytime from March onwards, so keep your eyes peeled!

A clubs and spades print I designed, which is being used on a 50's style dress

A spot print also being used on a 50's style dress

A lipstick print being used on a cute cap sleeve dress with ruffles.

All of these prints are Adobe Illustrator vectors. These three prints were completed in my first week of placement and are part of their 2009 trends.

The following images are hand-drawn embroidery designs for a tunic top. The top image is the raw repeat (not yet formed around the garment shapes e.g neckline) to be manipulated to fit a slash neckline, tapering out towards the shoulders. And yes, it took me bloody ages.

The next image is a border embroidery designed to go as an empire line detail on the same tunic top. 

The image below is the placement of the embroidery. I had to manipulate the elements to fit around the neckline, tapering downwards on the centrefront and getting narrower on the shoulder. The colours are a contrasting deep raspberry and a limey citronella.

This is a drawing of the final garment by Bruno, the Jerseywear designer. It shows the complete scale and repeat of the embroidery, this is what the suppliers will work from to create the design in reality, with reference to the exact detailing of my design.

This image of a deer is an intarsia knit design for an oversized jumper. This is the finished version which will be made into the knitwear. The same applies to the wolf. The finished jumper is going to be black with the big character intarsia in greyscale as shown. 

I am really pleased with how the fur has turned out on the wolf design, below. He looks very warm and fluffy! This will also end up on an oversize black jumper-dress.

This image gives a rough idea of the finished appearance of the deer. The wolf will be a similar size on a similar jumper.

The images below are some fairisle knit designs for cardigans and jumpers. I love the Mr and Mrs Deer kissing. I also designed some squirrels and acorns in fairisle style but did not get PSD copies, only hard copies.

I love Christmas Jumpers!

All work and images subject to copyright (me and ASOS.com)