Urban Outfitters

I went to Urban Outfitters on Market street to take a look at the space...

Locating

I am very much looking forward to this new project and following a brief to subit towards comperttitons. I have choose to do Bradford textiles & Urban outfitters from the compertition briefs I have read.I think bradford textiles will be really good for me as i have specialised in knit and think that i could work towards the brief well throughout the project. I am defiantly  am more looking more forward to urban outfitter as i feel that I can take more risks and my outcome can be more quirky as I think that’s what the shop is looking for, although I have been to see the exhibition space its its very long and narrow rectangular box sections.

The briefs for the two are:

Urban Outfitters

We are looking for all creatives at MMU Art School to submit work to be shown on our

exhibition space in store.

The space is outside the womens fitting room situated on the first floor and have had a

range of work including wallpaper design, photography and illustration.

We are keen as a store to build a community within the city and collaborate with MMU to

give you the opportunity to experience organising a exhibition in a professional context,

presenting your work to a larger audience and help students to develop their external

practice before graduating.

The work will need to be wall mounted and approved by the visual team. There is no

budget to help towards the cost of the work but we will be able to provide a preview in

store if desired by the artist.

The work will be up for at least 6 weeks at a time.

Bradford Textiles

FABRICS MADE FROM WOOL:

AW1 THE WOOLMARK COMPANY AWARD:

- A woven or knitted fabric for apparel, including accessories, or a fabric for interiors that best demonstrates the beauty and unique benefits of luxurious natural fibres. The fabric must have a wool content of at least 60%.

AWARDS: 1st Prize - One week placement in the Richard Nicoll studio with £600 to cover expenses during that time/ £250 2nd Prize / £150 3rd Prize.

Placement to take place at a time suitable for both Richard Nicoll and winning student, to be agreed upon by both parties. For more information on Richard Nicoll please visit

For information about wool, please have a look at the brochure “Be inspired by Merino Wool” on the Society’s website www.bradfordtextilesociety.org.uk.

Wool yarn for this Section can be purchased from Knoll Yarns - www.knollyarns.com - from The Yarn Store – www.theyarnstore.co.uk - and from Ullmann International – www.ullmann.co.uk.

B1 BRITISH WOOL MARKETING BOARD AWARD:

- A fabric of any construction for fashion, including accessories, or for interiors, made from British wool, and which enhances the intrinsic qualities of natural British wool. May contain up to 20% of other fibres.

- The fabric must be made from British wool yarn which will be supplied by the British Wool Marketing Board, and which you may dye if desired. For details of the yarns available, please contact Richard Poole, email richardpoole@britishwool.org.uk.

AWARDS: £400 1st Prize / £250 2nd Prize / £150 3rd Prize

FASHION GARMENT TEXTILE:

F1 ASSOCIATION OF FASHION & TEXTILE COURSES

AWARD:

- A fashion fabric, which may include a combination of processes, including embroidery, designed for a specific outfit or garment collection.

- Fashion illustration of proposed garments should be included.

AWARDS: £250 1st Prize / £150 2nd Prize / £100 3rd Prize

“THE UNEXPECTED”:

U1 CLOTHWORKERS’ FOUNDATION AWARD

- A material construction for either a fashion or interiors product, created by non-conventional means.

- The submission should be a sample of mixed media (“nontextile”) materials and could include non-wovens. An end use should be illustrated and a photo of the finished product can be included, but a complete product is not required.

AWARDS: £400 1st Prize / £250 2nd Prize / £150 3rd Prize

Evaluation

After the group watched the four wearing it videos we chose to look at community couture. The reason behind this decision was that this video was the one that all group members were most interested in. We therefore felt that it was most likely to sustain our interest and be the source of inspiration as the project progressed. We wanted to look at how fashion could look in the future.
Our initial idea centred on how in the future, people may not be able to afford clothes and how the economic downfall could create a trendless world. In this scenario, people may be forced to make new clothes out of old. Alongside the group project each member had an individual research project; mine being the make do and mend era of the Second World War. On reflection I consider that this was a good choice, because there were strands from both projects that I could link together.
For the community couture project we decided that we wanted to engage with the community. So we asked the people of Manchester to donate clothes. To promote this idea, we each made a poster and then placed clothes bins around the university campus. We were really surprised at how well the idea was received, as when we went to collect them, the clothes bins were all full. To look at the range of clothes that we had collected in greater detail, we needed a large space to work. This is when we went to Hotspur House and set up washing lines so that we could peg out the clothes; comparing and contrasting the items. We then each chose several items to start sampling with.
With the clothes that I selected for sampling I thought about how I could incorporate the two themes together of community couture and make do and mend. I therefore used odds and ends from around the house to combine the two. During the sampling period group member swopped with one another and worked on somebody else’s piece. This was really interesting as it enabled us to learn from each other and we got to know more about different techniques. It was also fascinating to see how the work from two people who had different perspectives linked together to make one complete piece.
My experimentation with samples led me to make decisions about my final piece. This was a recycled bin liner with a donated skirt on top. I made the skirt and top into a dress and embellished the bin liner into the dress using the embellishing machine. I really liked the results as it gave a leather look effect. I then created a ruffle around the sweetheart neckline and the bottom to give the dress more of a couture look. This was the dress that I displayed in the final exhibition with the rest of the groups final pieces at Hotspur House. We decided to do the exhibition in order to film it as part of our end footage that is to be shown at MOSI. The night went really well and it was good to see that although we all had very different ideas collectively we created something that came together as one whole piece. We all invited friends and other people from the course; the feedback was great.
The final part of the project was a video of our journey. We found it hard to choose what to include as we were limited to 5 mins. As a group we put together a story board selecting the key elements. We looked at photographs, samples and video footage that we had gathered throughout the project.
Reflecting on this project has been a good personal learning experience. I have learned that I like to work as part of a group and that the collaboration is inspiring and working with others and bouncing ideas around can lead to some really creative end pieces. Having other people to work with has enabled my motivation to be maintained and I have put more effort into this project than earlier work and this is
perhaps because I have had a commitment to the group and haven’t want to let other group members down. It also really helped that I had a genuine interest in the subject matter and I was able to link the individual and group pieces together.

Final group piece video

Final group pieces

Alexs - Final piece 

Jessica's - Final piece 

April's - Final piece 

Laura's - Final piece 

David's - Final piece 

Beth's - Final piece 

These images show the rest of my groups final outcome, we have all used in some way the donated clothing and i think its really interesting to see how different all our pieces are differant but yet i feel they  looked great in the exhibition all combined together!

Comments

At our final exhibition we had a comments board so that our guests could say what they liked about the event.

Storyboard planning

For our final piece we are presenting a five minute video. As a group we have so many pictures and footage of things we have done through out the unit that we needed to narrow everything down and plan how we are going to fit it all into one five minute clips and so as a group we planned a storyboard. We choose the things that we felt were most important and showed how we worked through out the project as a group.

Hotspur house Final exhibition

We decided to do the exhibition in order to film it as part of our end footage that is to be shown at MOSI. This i where i presented my bing bag dress.The night went really well and it was good to see that although we all had very different ideas collectively we created something that came together as one whole piece. We all invited friends and other people from the course; the feedback was great.

G4

So for Unit X we got put into groups, and along with 6 others we made wearing it group 4. I feel this was a great idea although maybe would have been better earlier in the year as a way of getting to know people on the course. As a group i think we have worked really well together communicating well and meeting up frequently. We shared ideas and helped each other out with individual projects as well as combining personal projects to create a final group exhibition.

Exhibition Invite

As part of our final piece we have decided a a group to hold an exhibition at hotspur house to film for our final piece we wanted to get the rest of the textiles in practice involved and so Alex created this Facebook event invite to make people involved and aware.

Rags to Riches..

This is my final outcome I've have tried to combine both my own personal project into the group project. I  used a donated corset top and skirt from our campaign clothing collection i attached the two together to make a dress and then embellished a black bin liner into the material. I used a black bin liner as my research on make do ad mend era showed that women in those days would try make use of anything and so thats where my initial idea came form to combine the two. I also used the black bin liner to make ruffled edges at the top and bottom of the dress. I think that this has worked really well and the embellishment of the bin liner into the fabric gives a kind of leather effect. 

Jennifer Collier

Jennifer Collier is one of my favourite artists and i often find i can relate her with my work. I feel in this project there is a strong link with the things she makes and the make do and mend era as they were all for using anything and everything to create something from and Jennifer's works shows exactly how this can be done. She uses an array of used paper products from letters to postcards, i find her work fascinating love how recreates things, the images above are two of my favourite pieces. The postcard dress is one of her most well known works and i love the collaboration of different colour, sizes and ages its such an interesting piece and just shows how you really can use anything to as inspiration for a new product.

Sample development

As i have been looking at make do and mend era and they use up anything and everything to make something, i decided to combine one of the pieces of donated clothing with a bin bag. In the pictures i am using the embellishing machine so the bing bag is now attached to the old skirt. I really love the effect it has reminds me bait of leather. I think this is a great way of brining my personal project together with my group one. I think i will carry on with this technique and using bin bags to create a garment for my final piece.

This image shows be working with my sample on the embellishing machine.

Sample development

Here i have used a shirt that was donated to knit with, I cut the shirt into small strips and then knitted into it using large needles to give a chunky effect. I think its worked really well and would like to experiment knitting with other materials. 

Swap & Sample

I have cut the bottom off a dress and left the top in tact i have then cut the bottom half into strips and knitted with it also doing a stop stitch. I love the effect it has given to the pattern it looks very dis jointed. I would like to experiment and further develop knitting with the donated clothes.

Sample development

These images again just show some of my experimentations on the mannequins, i don't particularly like the look of this considering i was really excited as too how using the tin cake cases would look used on the body as a structural piece, but i think if i maybe had more time to develop and experiment i could have  done a lot more with them by using illustrations to show where they would go and a use of more than one material. 

Sample development

I decided to do some experimenting on the mannequin combining once again the two project ideas of reusing clothes and and odd products than can be reused. I initially intended on knitting a dress from used clothing but as i had already experimented with knitting i decided to see how macramé would work so i cut a donated t-shirt into strips and knotted it together with string the hooked on shower curtain rings. I like the idea of combining used clothes and products to links the two projects together but i don't see this as going any further and would like to experiment with more things to see what works best.

Working directly on to the mannequins during a group meeting at hotspur house.

Whitworth gallery

These are two of my favourite pieces from my recent visit to the Whitworth art Gallery.

                                                

Abdoulaye Konate Bosnie, Angola, Rwanda

Ordinary/Extraordinary

CV

Contact information

Name:       Rebecca Stonehouse
Address:    

Phone:       

Email:        x-becca-stonehouse-x@hotmail.co.uk

I am currently studying a degree in textiles at Manchester Metropolitan University I have a great love for the subject and I am very hard working, I love working as a team and sharing each other’s ideas. I am a creative and enthusiastic designer and i have strong focus towards fashion especially knit wear. 

Education

English Martyrs School & sixth form College 2003-2008

Hartlepool sixth form 2008-2009

Cleveland college of Art and Design 2009-20011

Manchester Metropolitan University 2011-present

Work Experience

Avon - Representative 2007-2009

Tavistock restaurant - waitress 2010-2011

As part of my role for both these jobs I spent a lot of time communicating with the customer and from this I have gained maturity and customer service skills I feel these experiences will help me in future jobs.

Interests and activities

I have a great love for fashion and designing my own clothes as well as making them myself. I love unique and vintage and spend a lot of my spare time going to vintage fairs. As well as this one of my favorite things to do is listen to music discover new bands and going to see them live in festivals.


References:
Kate Egan
Programme Leader - Textiles in Practice (BA hons)
Manchester Metropolitan University

Make do & mend - thoughts

I feel that choosing to research the make do and mend era was a brilliant idea it couldn't have fit in better to work on along side the community couture group project. I can relate to each of the projects and feel both have very strong links with each other. The question i am asking Is that what lives going to be like in 2025? it really makes you think, it wouldn't surprise me if people in the 21st century started looking back at to how people reused things during World War 2. With the economic downfall we are having today people will start having to go back in time and learning to make the most out of everything.

Swap & Sample

As a group we decided it would be a good idea to swap samples with each other. The above pictures show Davids sample he has created it using denim from old jeans then using the laser cutter cut circles and worked over on a sewing machine using the pin tuck foot. It was a beautiful sample and i was struggling to come up with an idea of my own to work back into it as i didnt want to change it to much. So as you can see in the below photos i used a similar coloured fabric to the cut out circles and embellished into them. I like the effect that the material gives a nice shine against the denim.