Visited Salts Mill today to see the Cloth & Memory exhibition….. I wasn’t disappointed. There was so many great exhibits and the venue (top floor) in Salts Mill was excellent, being the old spinning room which housed over sixteen thousand cap spindles for spinning yarn from Alpaca fleece.
Collaboration of my film with Lee Maycox and Mark Rigby, both fine art tutors who want to further develop their skills of film making. My part in this collaboration has been to direct the film which has been a new experience for me. The filming was shot at the photo shoot in Christies Bistro. I wanted a completely natural feel for the shoot so we set up an afternoon tea and the models chatted whilst drinking tea and the atmosphere was very relaxed as the venue was open to the general public. The lighting was also very good as it was such a sunny day, lots of sunshine streaming in through the stained glass windows which created stunning background shots and colour. Mark experimented with focus and depth of field as I wanted out of focus shots to create blurred vision as memories are often blurred when recalling past times. Lee shot some imagery through a glass of water as I wanted to gain some sort of reflection and movement into the shoot and also focus on the surroundings of the location more so than the garments as we were all creating a memory of the day, right there in the building.
Lee and Mark completed all the editing using Adobe Premier Pro and I was able to discuss certain shots and guide the process to my preferences using some of the frames at the beginning and reversing the same frames at the end. The music I wanted was something from the past but I also wanted something a bit different. I managed to find a free download on the internet by Murky Stansfield who had remixed an Ella Fitzgerald song ‘Someone to watch over me’ I love Ella Fitzgerald’s voice and feel this song is very poignant as I wanted to reflect my own memories of my Father and sort of feel he is watching over me all of the time. It has the right tempo for what I wanted in the film and Mark and Lee were able to match some of the shots in time with the tune. I will have to desensitise myself from the lyrics as it makes me cry! Something I am worried about doing during the presentation. The film has turned out better than I could have dreamed of, being one of the highlights of my MA as it is amazing and has captured all my feelings, thoughts and hard work from the past year that are all mixed together with the memories I hold of my family and friends. It has been a good experience to go through the processes of making a film and has made me think a little bit differently about presenting my work.
Having closely followed the Campaign for wool and worked with wool fabric this past academic year, I have found a deep love unearthed…. wool has so many fantastic qualities and is extremely versatile, it is warm, cool, natural, soft, water repellent, slow to burn, hard wearing to name a few! But what I have enjoyed most, is stitching onto it, manipulating, pressing and handling whilst constructing the garments. I will definitely be using wool from now on for future designs.
Traditional British names such as Burberry, Vivienne Westwood, Dunhill, Paul Smith and Barbour, have consistently used wool in their collections.
“As a fashion designer I’ve had a very close relationship with wool. Wool is incredibly versatile. What I delighted in was how it had been used for all the uniforms for the British Empire. I treat it as a joke now, and parody it if I ever refer to it. Every kind of cloth was woven for a purpose, to be useful in certain situations where a uniform was necessary, for example hunting foxes, going to the North Pole, opening Parliament, going to school. I have used wool a lot in my designs.” Vivienne Westwood http://eandt.theiet.org/magazine/2012/12/wonder-of-wool.cfm
“I succeeded in re-introducing into fashion the idea of knitwear, the English twinset,” Westwood toldBritish Vogue. “Wool is one of the world’s great natural fibres, famous for its versatility and comfort-warm in winter, cool in summer.” http://www.vogue.co.uk/person/vivienne-westwood
links to interesting news, facts and all you need to know about wool below:
http://www.campaignforwool.org/
http://www.britishwool.org.uk/
http://www.vogue.co.uk/spy/celebrity-photos/2011/09/08/wool-modern
Amazing discovery in Norway, surely a testament to the durability of wool!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2408825/Melting-ice-reveals-1-700-year-old-woolly-jumper–experts-say-come.html
Ali loves to wear layers and loosely cut designs. She is very creative with how she dresses and I wanted to reflect this in her dress. Originally I designed and drafted a pattern for a fitted dress, we discussed necklines, length and shape beforehand but I wasn’t happy with the toil and decided to alter the silhouette of the dress. I re-cut the pattern into an A-line and altered the shoulder line so it became closer to the neck to give more cutaway around the arm, almost in a halter style. I was able to play around with the pattern piece on the marbled fabric for the over lay piece and gave Ali the choice of where the pattern piece would be cut on the marbled fabric. Ali chose a section of the fabric that I viewed as a mistake…. it was the final marbled piece of fabric where I was running out of marbling ink and involved a section on the fabric that wasn’t covered with ink as thoroughly as I would have liked. Ali also loves buttons so I wanted to make a feature on the neckline with some vintage buttons in a variety of colours. I took this through to the back buttoning of the dress and mixed the colour, size and style of the buttons. I am very pleased with the result of the garment and feel Ali suits the style much more than a fitted style and also the solid red wool really works well with Ali’s colouring.
Tina was very instrumental in the design of her dress. She wanted the silk fabric rather than the wool and had prescriptive ideas of what she wanted from the design. The length of the dress was a lot longer than I wanted, Tina will only wear long, calf length dresses rather than the knee length I would have designed for this particular cut. I had problems with the lay up of the pattern as the silk fabric wasn’t as wide as the wool so I had to put in a back waist seam to enable all the pieces to fit on the fabric. The dress has flared panels and this made it difficult to lay up onto the fabric, although the pattern didn’t need matching and I could dovetail the lay which made it possible to cut all pattern pieces out.
New label for M&S Best of British range
I visited John Gledhill in Delph where they spin, dye and weave wool in their factories, John was able to take me around the two factories which are situated in two different areas of Saddleworth. The spinning and dying is carried out at Pingle Mill. His father founded the business on the 29th April 1936 when he bought Pingle mill which was in a derelict state. The weaving and finishing takes place at Mallalieus Mill.
Textile manufacturing has been carried out at Pingle Mill since 1777. Over the past 70 years the company has expanded the factory and is constantly updating its machinery. During this period the capacity of the plant has been increased whilst maintaining its versatility, allowing the production of a varied selection of woollen yarns.
John and his brother, invested further into the business in 2000 by installing a dyeing plant which has recently had the addition of pressurised yarn dying pots. In 2005 they equipped the testing lab to ensure the correct specifications are maintained throughout production. John is still expanding the business and is currently aiming to spend a further 100,000 on new machinery to enable this to happen. He is also looking to take on apprentices to train up in the colour match process to ensure this area of expertise is passed on when his key staff retire.
They currently make yarn for Marks and Spencer for their new range called ‘Best of British’ Their clothing will include a label that states the fabric is woven in England. What has astounded me was the fact his business has grown through the decline of our textile industry, this is purely because he refused to take any of his business overseas. He produces the finest spun wool for customers across Europe from sourcing the wool to dying and finishing.
My whistle stop tour of the factories enabled me to have first hand experience and amazing insight of the many processes from the wool’s natural state to finished yarn and cloth. I only wished I had found it sooner as I am all for buying British and feel bitterly disappointed in purchasing wool that I have no idea where it was woven or which country it was sourced. I bought my wool from Whaleys of Bradford and couldn’t gain information on the source, after much discussion with the sales team. I will be contacting John for wool fabric in the future for further collections.
I have a venue and date for the photo shoot. The venue is going to be Christies Bistro, The Old Quadrangle, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, which is situated in the Manchester Museum building. The bistro has areas which have floor to ceiling bookshelves with old leather bound books. The date is Thursday 18th July from 10.30 onward in one of the booths that the manager has reserved for our photo shoot. I have a friend who is a professional photographer http://www.kennybrownphotography.co.uk and also two colleagues who i am collaborating with to produce a film of my work. I want very natural imagery to capture the day so we are going to shoot whilst having afternoon tea to create an old English feel, full of tradition. The building is magnificent and full of character with stone columns, high ceilings and interesting architrave around the windows. It also has a spiral stairwell which can also be used.
I attended a tutor day at Huddersfield for the new textile course on June 21st. It was a chance to meet other tutors from FE Colleges and view the graduate show as well as try out and see the latest technology the University have to offer.
The day began with tea and biscuits whist Helen chatted to us about the developments of the new course. We were introduced to an ‘Inkling’ which was a pen that digitised our drawings. I was amazed at how easy it was to use and the potential of this piece of equipment is vast. It would be fantastic for all our college students, especially fashion and graphics and it also made it very easy to transfer into adobe illustrator. We produced sketches using the show as inspiration, then uploaded the drawings into illustrator and played around with them, adding colour and manipulating areas etc. Our drawing was then printed onto perspex and etched out on the laser cutter. I thoroughly enjoyed the day and we were able to take home our samples we had created throughout the day. It also gave us all chance to ask questions and view the sketchbooks of the students which I found very informative and it gave me a greater understanding of what projects and direction the degree program offers, which is useful and helpful to pass onto the tutors who couldn’t attend and also the students at my workplace. A very worthwhile day spent at Huddersfield University.
http://www.headen-quarmby.co.uk/
I am very excited by the possibilities of this and can see a huge growth potential, this has come just at the right time. After feeling undervalued at work with the restructure of the department, I decided to study for my MA in Fashion Design. I feel this has helped enormously, keeping me focused, giving me something to aim for and has also helped with some self realisation which have made me rethink the skills I posses are valuable and worthy.
http://www.just-style.com/comment/onshoring-a-new-dawn-or-a-false-hope_id116020.aspx
http://www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/uploads/Resources/Other_Reports/UK_textiles.pdf
Update…. after countless meetings we have now purchased a building that is situated next to Headen & Quarmby’s warehouse. HQ own two buildings, a warehouse and the main building that is across the road from the warehouse where they operate from. The building that has been acquired is where Rochdale council were housed and was put into auction where David spent a nerve wracking day bidding for it. The building is two stories high so the training academy will be downstairs and all the design staff will house the upstairs offices. Eventually David will move the machinery into the warehouse and build a connecting walkway from the two buildings and sell the building across the road so the two sites will be next to each other. Building work has been going on in the last few weeks and they have removed a partitioning wall downstairs to open up the area, it is being painted and a new floor is being laid ready for the new machinery. I have been busy preparing the curriculum and have had extensive meetings about funding, awarding bodies and pre-employment recruitment to name a few. It is now all systems go and we hope to recruit in the next few weeks. There will be a four week pre-employment course of 20 learners who will have the opportunity to attend an interview with HQ and progress onto an apprenticeship or complete a ten week course to gain ABC level 1 Award and further this with another ten week course for ABC level 2 Award.
We have been brainstorming names for the academy and so far have come up with ‘OCHQ fashion academy’ which stands for Oldham College, Headen & Quarmby. We are currently having some logos developed on this name.
I have also entered a competition with Farrow & Ball and submitted some pictures for a chance to win 50 L of paint of my own colour that would be taken from the pictures submitted. The pictures were of dry stone walls and the paint colour would be called ‘Dry Stone’. My pictures have been selected down to 20 finalist from over 700 entries so I am very excited for the chance to win this competition which I would donate the paint to the academy. It would be perfect for the academy as we are all passionate about British made products and Farrow & Ball are a great British company with high quality paint.
http://www.farrow-ball.com/mycolour/content/fcp-content
Update: Didn’t win the paint competition but came fourth. I have contacted Farrow & Ball to enquire whether they would be interested in donating some paint for the academy. Hopefully they will! I am also meeting with Dulux next week as they have some paint we can use for 1.00 per litre, we can’t be choosy on the colour though.
I have been working with my sister who is employed as an art editor for a magazine, on a logo for the training academy. If all goes well we will be having this logo.
I have been busy…. tailoring garments for individuals is taking its time. My original thinking of making 4 outfits complete with jackets is bothering me. One, because of time issues and two because the wool is quite prickly to the touch, especially around the neck. The one meter piece of wool I originally sampled is so much softer on the skin than the twenty meters I received. This is causing problems for wearing as the Jacket collars will be next to the skin, around the neckline. I am fast running out of time to complete the collection too…. the fitting and patterns are taking much longer than anticipated as they are bespoke made for the wearers and as we are all working full time, the fitting sessions are having to be worked around busy schedules.
I have been pondering on not making the jackets which would alleviate the stress I’m feeling as the completion date gets nearer. Feelings of guilt then creep in to add to the stress as I feel I need to include the wool in something other than the skirts. A while back I was talking to a friend about these problems and she suggested making a wrap which had passed through my mind as it would be in keeping with the vintage feel of the garments. I have been pondering on this idea for a while and want to include some sort of stitching detail for decoration and to give the garment a contemporary feel. I have thought about the fox stoles that women would drape around their necks and have decided to go with the idea of a stole which would alleviate the problem of the prickly feel of the wool and I am going to try and make a wool fox head. I love this idea but I don’t want it to appear comical, although the idea is quite gimmicky. I think it will work if the fox is well made and small enough and I can achieve the right shape. I did think about a sheep head as I am using all wool fabrics but somehow I don’t think this would have the same impact and connection to what I am trying to achieve with looking to the past and would look too comical and maybe cheapen the garments, taking away the elegant elements I have achieved so far.
Update on developments so far have turned out well, as my collection has evolved to incorporate a different era for each wearer. This wasn’t a purposeful intention, it has come about after the discussions with the wearer. Tina’s dress has a 40’s feel about it, Michelle’s garments have a 50’s silhouette, Rose has a 60’s style dress and Ali is reminiscent of the 70’s. I consider the 70’s to be the cut off point for calling anything ‘retro’ or ‘vintage’. This is my own personal feelings as I really disliked the fashion in the 80’s and feel this is because I used to dress alternative and didn’t follow the fashion trends. My identity reflected the music I listened to at that time which was far removed from the fashion trends during the 80’s. I like the fact I have been able to incorporate the four eras into my collection as these eras mean the most to me in terms of memories. The 1940’s for my Grandmother who was a tailoress, 1950’s for my Mother growing up as a teenager and her memories of wearing clothes, 60’s when she was married to my Father and memories of their honeymoon. Also 60’s and 70’s for my childhood memories growing up.
beverleywhittaker 