Co-oproduct...

This is one of our final pieces for the Co-oproduct section of the project.  It is a kimono style cropped top made from woven strips of maps trapped in between two layers of interfacing.  It is fastened using safety pins as Amish ladies fasten their garments with pins.  We also styled it with a necklace made out of ring pulls.

This is he second of our final pieces; and Amish inspired piece made from plaited newspaper. 

Fabrics...

•All soft fabrics ideal for summer

•Lightweight, whilst mixing organza/see through with thicker satins and silks.

Detailing...

Detail ideas taken from ring pulls and air vents.

Conservative Pleats taken from Golden Palace, Thailand and a photograph of a simple air vent.  These details can be interpreted in many different ways and used for pockets, neck pieces, cuffs, shoulder additions and could also be used for texturing a garment.

•Contrasting stitch details taken from accent colours in colour palette.

•Metal accessories to bring in urban influence

•Simple fastenings, mostly buttons, hook and eyes and poppers, avoiding zips.

Styling...

These drawings show how the silhouettes would be styled.  The idea is to mix fit with flare to make simple shapes more interesting and to mix revealing shapes with conservative ones to show the urban and Amish influence.

Silhouettes...

These are our silhouette images inspired by Amish clothing and simple architecture.
Cropped styles

Cropped sleeves, and tops

Collars must be loose and opened. 

Higher necks

Longer sleeves, not  ¾ and not capped.  Sleeves are baggier, funnel shaped   tops are loose fitting. ,

Capes are a major shape,  however they are  short, the hem finishes before hitting the waist.  And also covers only ¾  of the arm

Some capes to have cut outs around the body and can be more fitting than usual. 

•M split shape skirt, flattering , ideal for s/s 

•Shorter skirts contrast with the amish views, urban influence 

•Tighter  fitting skirts. baggier ones need to have good draping.

•High waisted in all of them,  Pinnifores  worn  high therefore, waistline is naturally high. Also keeps in time with the modest approach, no low rise.

•No tight fitted trousers,  they are kept  baggy and loose, for easy wear, Lengths of trousers vary, a shorter Capri Pant and then ankle rise pants

These are images to show the inspiration for our silhouettes.

Final Colour Palette...

This our final colour palette along with the names that we have given each colour.  We have used one of our silhouette designs, based on the Amish, as a way to present our colours. 

Co-oproduct samples

As part of our project with Co-oproduct, we have all made samples from everyday household waste items.  These are our favourite ones as a group and those that we thought we could develop further into our concept:

Map Sample
We really liked this weaved map sample held together by interlining made by Gemma.  This would be a really easy thing to reproduce as maps would be an easy thing to get hold of in large quantities.  It also lends itself really well to pattern cutting and making it into a garment.  We also thought that it could represent the fact that Amish communities wouldn't use sat navs or Google maps and would have to use traditional maps to get to new places.  The fact that this map is a map of a city brings our ideas about the urban environment into the fabric.

Sweet Wrapper Samples
We liked the shape created by Yvonne using these Lindor sweet wrappers.  They are really nice delicate samples and we thought that they could be used for fringing a garment or for detail.  Also, the red parts of them fitted with our colour palette.

Ring Pull Sample
We really liked this ring pull sample made by Rachel as layering all of the ring pulls created a really great effect.  The ring pulls could represent the urban environment as I doubt that they would be something used by the Amish and other similar cultures. They make great fabric and could also be sewn on to things individually as well as how they have been done here.

Plastic Bottle Pieces
These small plastic pieces made by Morta from an Evian water bottle are really effective.  Heating them up changes the properties and a harder plastic is created.  These look good on top of Gemma's sample and they could be stitched on to create nice details.

Newspaper Sample
We all loved this newspaper piece made by Yvonne.  It is woven and plaited together to create a really sturdy intricate sample with a lot of possibilities.  We thought that it could possible be used as a head or shoulder piece.  The head piece would represent the bonnets worn by the Amish.  It is also very similar to the straw hats worn by the men.

Colour Palette

These are the colours that we have decided to use for our trend. We all picked out 3 colours each that we liked as we thought that 12 would be the right amount of colours to have.  We then picked 4 main colours that would be very prominent in our trend.  The other colours may just be accent colours or used for stitching depending on what would be appropriate.  

We now need to name all of the colours.

How We Created Our Colour Palette...

These are the images that we collected individually to decide on our colour palette.  

• Yvonne - the Andy Warhol image of Marilyn Monroe that is very striking and easy to pick colours from.  
• Gemma - the beautiful microscope photographs of food  from an article that she found which gave us a wide range of colours. 
• Morta - the Rene Magritte image of The Lovers, which contains some really nice colours that would work really well with our concept.
• Emily - the Salvador Dali Swan painting with the really nice oranges and blues.
• Rachel - the textured Michael Porter painting providing the palette with some nice pastel colours.

Yvonne then took our images and used the mosaic tool on Photoshop to split them up into colour charts.  We then used these to pick out our favourite colours and the ones that we think would work well together.

Silhouette Images...

These are the images that help to sum up our silhouette ideas for our trend.  The sculpture (Emily), key (Yvonne) and scissors (Morta) were some of the images that we collected individually as part of our ingredients task.  After we decided on our concept we then found some images of Amish women and their simple approach to dressing.  All of these images represent simplicity and that is the idea we want to show.  We have decided to contrast these with detailed accessories and extra pieces to bring in the idea of the city and the complicated urban life.

Inspiration...

These are the personal images collected by some of the members in our group that sparked our interest and helped us to decide our concept.  These images include: New York (Emily), The Transporter Bridge in Middlesbrough (Rachel) and Gemma's own photograph of her farming with her family in Thailand (Gemma).  
We liked the contrast of the urban and built up images with the toned down more simple life of Gemma's family in Thailand.  This led us on to thinking about all of the problems that people in the West have such as paying bills, the stress of work and family life etc. and how different it must be to live in an LEDC country.  How happy these people seem to be.  The people that we may feel sorry for or laugh at for not being as developed as us, but they're so laid back and we doubt that they have even heard of a 'mid life crisis'.
We also started to think about communities such as the Amish and their stripped back, very simple way of life in contrast with the hustle and bustle of New York.  We decided that we would research further into this idea for our trend.  The bridge images also symbolise the idea of 'bridging the gap' between these two cultures.