The Washington Post

Image taken from here

I'm in the Washington Post! I'm definitely way too over excited about this.

Carie Lemack came to Sue Wong to find a dress for the Oscars. She was nominated for Best Documentary (Short Subject) for the film 'Killing in the Name', directed by Jed Rothstein, co-produced by Carie Lemack.

I think it looks really interesting.

Sorry, not very designer related.

Tomorrow Never Comes

I apologise for the lack of my blog in the last 9 months or so. Its been terrible I know.

I blame it on end of year exams firstly, then being crazy busy over summer, and then with my whole year in Industry malarky. But mostly its because I'm terribly lazy and have no real need to continue it - there is no teacher telling me that I have to or no job application as yet.

Throughout these 9 months, I kept telling myself that I have to write my blog this weekend, or I will definitely write something tomorrow. But in the words of Ronan Keating and by more reputable people, tomorrow never comes. and it literally never did, until yesterday, when I decided to finally actually write something.

I thought I would give you a summary of my life over the past time. I plan to come back and add a proper blog about each of the following - as I have missed a whole load of interesting things, websites, videos, art, photography, all stored up in my brain...that I need to show. I will wait for another 'tomorrow' and a cold and wet day to upload everything...and tell you my stories and share my findings.

Back to a summary:

July: I spent pretty much the whole of July designing and making costumes for a play for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. It was called When In Rome and was produced by a best friend of mine, Ella Jones. It was extremely funny, well written and directed, Rob Thorman, and as I heard, an incredible success!

August - December: I spent 5 months in Paris! (I did it! I actually ended up living there. My dream came true). It was incredible - I really loved it. I was interning for Première Vision - a massive international textile faire, and at the same time learning some french.

Image taken from here

January - I flew out to Los Angeles (where I am currently residing) and am now interning for Sue Wong, a high end fashion designer.

Image taken from here

Its all been very crazy, and I've learnt loads and met amazing people, and seen lots of incredible things. I will have to update you properly! This really doesn't excuse 9 months of silence...but I managed to find an urge within me to blog, and this shouldn't be ignored.

Speak soon,

xoxo

10 final designs

These are my 10 final designs related to my Knitted Underground Project. I was inspired by the London Underground and so through colour and various techniques created 10 samples related to my theme. I was really intrigued by the use of the over knitting technique and found it a really successful way to demonstrate vertical lines amongst my horizontal stripes. I also developed a technique that creates diagonal shapes within a knitted structure.

This is an example of how my samples would be used on a knitted jumper or cardigan. I love the way it turned out and really feel that the colours work so well together.

Bon Bon

It was my best friend Yentyl's 21st yesterday, so some of my friends and I made her a wallhanging. She is originally from Trinidad but has lived in London since she was 7, but is now off to Paris for a year (and potentially for a lot longer).

Due to her frenchyness (she has a french boyfriend) we chose a french and london theme - so obviously red, white and blue... we also wrote 'postcards' from us all addressed to random Parisian places, and stuck cute pictures of eiffel towers and frenchy things. There was also some remnants from our gap year obviously - some scrap materials from Northen Thailand, and some Indian beads, as well as 'polaroids' of us. Anyway, it came together really nicely, (although took me a wee while to sew).

A London Dress

I saw this dress in a shop window in Carnaby Street. It reminded me of my project on tube maps, so I photographed it in order to share it with the world (anyone on here).

I love the way that the dress is actually constructed using a London map - obviously unwearable but such a fun and interesting idea. The shop was selling artwork rather than clothes or dresses, but I think there should be a real dress made like this.

The Knitted Underground

Embarrassingly, when given the topic on journeys, I became extremely interested and intrigued by the whole idea of tube maps and how they have developed over the years. I turned into a massive 'anorak' (I think they're sometimes known as) and researched back to the beginnings of the first ever tube map (1908).


And this is todays map, that most of you will recognise - the distinctive yellow bottle shape:

Well anyway, I was very interested by this, and particularly loved the colours of the 1908 designs, and the randomness and incongruous way the lines met each other and dispersed.

I found that even physically on the tubes, there is such a linear perspective. Everything seemed to have or show a linear structure – from the actual tube train, to the wires, stairway and patterns on the walls. Structured lines became a definite theme within my work.

I decided to use the first ever map as my source of colour choice. I like the colours as they’re more muted and a softer tone to the ones used in today’s maps. Picking out the 9 different colours also gave me a clear starting point.

Once I had my colour choice, I needed a direction and to build on my ideas. I found that looking into Bauhaus gave me a good starting point. I thought that the colours they used are as striking as my choice in colour, and they use a lot of very linear and structured designs. I particularly liked Annie Alber's design, as the stripes are very clear, and it almost resembles a train track.

When trying to transfer my ideas into knit, I created hand knits which I felt could quite clearly show a transition from messy and incongruous to really structured and formed, similar to the transition from the old map to the new.

These were my first few knits, and they were a kind of practice to see what I wanted to do with the colours. I found that the stripes represented all the linear structures that I had been working on and could include the 9 different colours from my inspiration. However, within my work I wanted to also somehow create diagonal and vertical lines rather than just horizontal, almost to replicate a tube map on the knit. This is something that I am still working on.

When finding ideas for where my knitted designs would lead me, I found Sonia Rykiel really inspirational in terms of knitted stripes and her use of colour. She gave me a clearer direction in terms of what to try out, and inspired me to design for a garment.

Having seen Missoni's exhibition at the Estorik collection in London, Missoni's designs really inspired me in terms of brightly knitted stripes.

In terms of experimenting more with knitted structures I found this quite an interesting technique to use, as it creates quite bold formed lines, yet has a feeling of disorder and disarray. Its clarity and rigidity is somehow similar to the modern tube maps. I then tried out various other techniques in order to try and get a vertical line, amongst the horizontal stripes.

I then tried out various other techniques in order to try and get a vertical line, amongst the horizontal stripes. This is just using needles out of action, yet it creates quite a nice bend or twist in the fabric.

This was my most recent attempt. I have used a variety of techniques within this sample, and feel that a combination of techniques could be successful. I kept the thread on as it reminded me of the wires from the tube.

Although I'm still developing my designs, as part of my course we have to issue a piece for the annual Bradford Textile Competition. This was my final sample for this competition:

And it's end use:
I am still developing my designs, as I need 10 final pieces for this project. I will post them up once they're all completed.

3D

While I'm on the topic of a hi-tech computer age, I just went to see Alice in Wonderland. I thought it was fantastic, I really did. The 3G was incredible, and the mix of real life and animation was so well done. Also the costumes and makeup were extraordinary. I would love to be able to create costumes so rich and stunning as these. I will definitely google the costume designer - Colleen Atwood.

Heres a trailer - but see it in 3D!

I also saw Avatar, at the IMAX, which in terms of computer design was beautiful, and the 3D worked so well. It was immensely enjoyable, although very cheesey, and a joy to watch. Will there be any such thing as 2D films in 5 years time? Will going to see a 2D film in 25 years time, be like seeing a black and white film now? Also, what will happen when these films turn into DVDs? Will they come with 3D glasses? This will be interesting!

Fascination.