Sports V Fashion

I went to the V&A exhibition, Fashion V Sport. It is based in London, It was quite disappointing as it was really small, and some of the garments were very strange. I think I was disappointed because I went and saw the couture exhibition a year or so before and I was expecting it to be as amazing as that.

I didn't really enjoy it that much the Fashion V Sport exhibition, The only garment that really stood out to me was the one below, Its very bright and eye catching, it had a lot of detail to it, bead work, boning, it was very fitted. I like the fact that the designer created a normal style dress/ballet outfit and put it on top of sportswear. It made the garment look really unusual and interesting.

I am enjoying this project, I have chosen to do sailing. I’ve chosen sailing as I have been doing it around 14 years. I have done lots of research into nautical and normal sailing wear.

As part of the project you have to choose a brand for your work, as Puma has already signed up with a sailing company I have chosen Reebok, as they don't have any sailing clothing. The approach I need to take is incorporating sailing wear as fashion wear, so that it could be worn for both. I have a good range of material samples, and I am currently looking into neoprene and breathable fabrics.

I got my fabric samples by emailing a lot of sailing companies and asking them to send samples onto me, it’s really good having some contacts in sailing, because I got a lot of free samples.

Starting My New Course

In December I started my new Course, but nothing was official as I had to catch up with the work the other students have done since September as I needed to pass certain credits.

I had to create a pattern folder, make a plain bodice with sleeves, and make a stripe blouse. I found this quite hard as I had to do it by myself. I also had to do those 100 drawings from the other course to get the right credits. This was a really stressful time for me, but a couple of students and the teachers from the FDA course were really nice and guided me.

So over Christmas I was working really hard to try and get everything done as I really wanted it to be official of me being on the FDA Course.

I handed in my work for FDA, which was a relief. I got a new brief which is another project based on sports Vs fashion, which seems really interesting.

I have been finding it quite hard fitting in to my new course as I don't know as much as the other students do, my teachers suggested for me to defer my year, but I am just going to try and stick with it as I feel I can do it.

This course is much better than the BA course for me. This is because FDA goes into a lot more detail, you do lots of making, samples. The good thing is that they give you lots of handouts so that you can remember how you made the pattern or sample, so you can always relate back to it.

My course

I was finding my course quite hard, and intense. In the first week or so they had already set us three deadlines, they were : an essay on 2 fashion images I think it had to be 3000 words, create a sample folder of seams, and a pattern cutting folder, do fifty designs make a toile and a dress.

The dress had to have sleeves, a collar, a pocket and a zip, which I didn’t mind because I love constructing garments, but the teachers didn’t give you much support on how to go about it.

The worst one for me and most people was to do 100 A3 drawings on one emotion (mine was envy) and one colour (green) using lots of media, as my weakness is drawing, I found this very hard and you didn't get very much support on it, which didn't help. Quite a few of the students thought it was quite intimidating setting us that many drawings for our first project.

I was finding university quite hard to settle down in, as I didn’t enjoy the house I was living in and I wasn’t enjoying the course, as it was mainly drawing and hardly any practical, which is what I enjoy the most. So I had a few options which were, just getting on with it but not being happy, dropping out of university or changing course.

I was considering dropping out of university but I found out there were career advisors who could give you support at the university, and they let me know about the FDA Fashion course – which I didn’t even know existed. I really liked the sound of the course, it sounded like just what I was looking for. So I met up with a few of the teachers and showed them my work I have created over the years, and they agreed to let me move on to their course.

The Start of University

In august 2008 I attended the AIB summer study course, this was part of me getting into AIB, but you can voluntarily go along to it. It is five days long, the course involves lots of different things such as, teaching you how to write essays and giving you confidence to talk in a large group. It was quite fun, because you got to stay in the halls and meet people from different courses, so it was very sociable. I met some amazing friends out of this.

Over the summer we had to write an essay, which you would get marked on and you would get feedback on how you got on to try and improve your skills. I wrote my essay on Vivienne Westwood, as she is a designer who inspires me.

The summer study course is free of charge, and you get a certificate at the end of it to say what you have achieved. This course made me more confident starting in September, as I already knew about 20 people already so I wasn’t as nervous starting university, a few of them were already on my course - BA Hons fashion studies. It was also nice to be able to mix with students on different courses. I really enjoyed my summer study week, as it made me get a feel of what university was going to be like.