Extraterrestrial

I have come to the most fun and anticipated part of college which is designing my own collection without making them come to life (sometimes you just want to create whatever the heck you want without considering how to actually produce the garment. And it's fun). 

This assignment is called Thematic Collection, and we were supposed to be as creative as we can and create our very own mini fashion collection with our own ideas, without being given a theme, which, you know, everyone was waiting for basically all these entire 3 terms of being in this school. For this assignment we were asked to make some sort of report and a sketchbook which has very minor difference. The only difference I know is in the sketchbook, the actual fabric and zippers are attached to the paper, also the rough sketches of the clothes, whereas in the report, everything is scanned and basically a flat and not bulky version of the sketchbook (and by the way not a little amount of money was spent to print 69 pages of art papers, let me tell you). 

I obviously know very little but I have always been fascinated with the galaxy and every matter that has anything to do with it, so I decided to make a collection based on that theme. We had to choose a fabric that matches the theme, at least one fabric treatment (techniques that are used for fabrics such as printing, beading, dyeing, weaving, or anything we want), color chart, etc. I took inspirations from a space suit hence the voluminous silhouette and the placement of the zippers. I also used different shades of orange which was inspired by the eclipse, and obviously I had to include a dark blue with beadings on top to resemble the night sky. 

I uploaded the whole report on my Behance if you'd like to take a look :-)

One more thing to add, I thought it would just be appropriate to include Logic's track as his album kinda match my collection's theme you know? I have been listening to Logic (I don't know what's up with me and rap music lately) and he is officially my spirit animal. Not only because of his music but also because of his way of speaking and basically just the way he sees things in life i guess? I dunno.. 

Anyway. Enjoy!

Da-Bomber Jacket

Finally finished sewing this bomber jacket after leaving it for weeks, or months? I can't even remember. So happy I got to use this pink fabric. Not really my color but I think I can pull it off?

The collar, cuff and bottom rib of a bomber jacket is supposed to be made of this stretchy ribbing material but because I had no idea where they're sold, I just used this leftover black fabric which I don't even know what it's called, and used it as the collar and the bottom ribbing and it worked out pretty well. The hem is not stretchy, I only gathered it so it would look as if it can strech but really, it can't. The cuffs, however, is stretchy and that is because I used socks. Yes, socks (brand new ones tho). I figured it was necessary for the cuff to be tight and stretchy because that what makes it a bomber jacket, so I had to find a way to make cuffs that look exactly like an actual bomber jacket. I searched on YouTube on how to make stretchy cuffs and I'm so gald I found it.

Neoprene Sweater Weather

This neoprene trend has been on the market for a long time now and 

I totally get the hype. Its super soft and fluffy texture, it creates the stiff, bulky, and voluminous construction that makes it very eye catching, plus it's super thick yet super stretchy (bonus point; it doesn't fray and has a very smooth edge when you cut it so you don't need to overlock it when you sew). 

Alexander Wang's neoprene sweater was everything and I took some inspirations from his collection with the nets and the neoprene combined. This sweater was neglected for awhile after I started cutting my neoprene cause I was busy with school. But now that holiday is here I figured I needed to make full use of my free time so I had to finish what had to be finished; which in this case my neoprene sweater. It was really quick to sew cause I came up with a really simple pattern and I didn't sew the hem and the end of the sleeves, nor did I had a ribbing on the neckline, because I really wanted that raw yet clean edges that neoprene has. I used a thick mint neoprene and a fabric that sort of resembles nets. 

Final Projects

I was gonna mention this in my previous post but there's too much already so decided to seperate it. So I just finished my second term of college and final project was taking way too much of my sleep (textile final project specifically). We had final projects for each subject but textile and sewing final project were the most exciting (but exhausting). We also had to compile our drawing assignments into a fashion journal and I will post it as soon as I receive it back from my lecturer.

For the textile final project we were supposed to design a minimum of 1x1 meters of fabric using a minimum of 2 techniques. We can choose beading, embroidery, knitting, dyeing, painting, or any other techniques. We were asked to design 3 fabrics and the lecturer chose one of them and we had to go back and forth to her and she was supposed to make a few changes and we had to sort of consult the materials and all that. 

So this is where I went wrong. I chose dyeing, knitting, and full embroidery on a huge ass fabric. Obviously I didn't know how long it would take for me to finish it, I was just designing it for the sake of finishing it (due to the very tight deadline). The theme for this project was "earthed", which means we had to create a design using the colors in the color chart that was given to us. 

One of the few pages of the color ranges

My moodboard; inspired by the ocean

The final result and I also included a 10x10cm technique swatch. I was losing so much sleep doing this project cause the techniques that I used were very tideous and look how much fabric I have to cover. But it was all worth it cause the lecturer chose a few designs from the students to display at the open house and I was one of them so I'm kinda happy about that. 

Next is just my final dress project that got me stressed out the first few days after I designed it. We had a whole day just to design a dress, and the requirement was that it had to have sleeves and a collar on our design, and the rest was really up to us. So we basically spent the whole day sketching and going back and forth to our lecturer to get approval from her, then we could start drafting the patterns. It was difficult for me to get her approval so I ended up designing something I wasn't even sure I was able to make. But long story short I figured it out.

I used linen, faux suede and a name of a fabric I can't remember that is supposed to be made for pants but I was too lazy to buy another fabric so I used it instead and it worked out just fine.

Way Too Many Feels. Way Too Much Emotion

Syke.. That was just a line from my new spirit animal Kiiara (sorry Blackbear). Anyway. The title has nothing to do with this content. Blogging now in the midst of probably the most hectic week of my life (I'm talking 2 hours of sleep on the weekend). As usual being consistent of posting is not one of my best skills therefore I always end up piling all these different moments/topics to compile into one post and guess what.. I'm about to do it right now. Hah.

1. Long story short I bought all these different kinds of fabrics and planning to make stuff out of them as usual but during school I was only able to make 2 and I still have about 4 kinds of fabric waiting. The initial fabric I was looking for to make the denim jacket was quilted fabric as a combination but I wasn't able to find it. But weeks after that I went to a different place and found it and SO excited and was planning to make another jacket out of it. 

Also bought mint neoprene to make a jumper (far left). Look at the hot pink quilted tho.  


2. Oh yeah. Went to Singapore for Laneway and didn't even post anything about it. Also didn't take a lot of pictures at all. You know you just somehow forgot you have my phone with you when you're having too much fun.

 First day in Singapore spent in Universal Studios

My baby Lauren

You prolly can't see too clearly but I swear it's The Internet and I swear we were on the second row there's just too much gap between the stage hahaha!

3. Oh yeah. Also became the top 10 finalists of Pop Up Market 2016 Fashion Design Competition. Saw the poster at my campus and immediately wanted to give it a try. In the midst of designing the outfit I was really hesitant to join with all these competitors, but I thought, you never know if you never try, so I decided to keep going. And by the time I finished sketching I had a slight hope that I wouldn't be chosen as the top 10 cause we were only given a week to produce the actual garment.

But just a few days later I got an email from Pop Up Market saying I was one of the top 10 finalists and I immediately panicked. It was a mixed feeling between happy and "oh snap gotta finish this in a week in the midst of doing college assignments". So that night I started drafting the pattern and making the pattern digitally for it to be printed on a fabric later on.

Inspired by a famous painter from Santa Fe, Pablita Velarde

Pattern for the printed fabric

Finished result. I took this picture a day before Pop Up Market was held. The next day I came again and saw my design being exhibited and I have never felt so proud of myself. I honestly didn't care if I didn't win, the most important thing was people could see my design. I wish I would've taken pictures of other designs but I didn't. Not sure why. But they were all very interesting.

4. Oh! I don't think I've posted any of my drawing but I'm about to right now. So in the first term of college we learned how to draw a person's face from a reference photo and I wasn't really pleased by my first try so during the holiday I decided to draw two slightly better versions. 

  Zooey Deschanel 

 Chloe Moretz

Oh and these three were assignments in my second term. I actually drew the female faces but they're all whack so I'm not gonna show them sorry not sorry :P

These two are my drawing assignment. I drew them manually using a pencil and a drawing pen and colored them digitally using Adobe Photoshop and I just put a random background

A new drawing I just finished. I wasn't satisfied with my digital illustration assignment so I made another one and I tried to make it look as realistic as possible and it's not too shabby I think..

5. SO happy that Spotify is finally available and I just want you to listen to this track. Thx

♥♥♥

I've been on my super Rookie Mag mode lately with all the pink and hearts and all.  So... last term break I decided to do something productive to sort of fill in the holidays, so I came up with an idea to make my first ever jacket. I intended to create a bomber jacket initially, but it turned out to be just your average denim jacket and I'm very pleased with the result. I was inspired to make something like this when I saw a picture of a bomber jacket on Tumblr.

It seems like these are the only pair of shoes I have but I promise they're not hahaha! They just happen to match really nicely with every outfit I put together

A closer look into the details

Sketches & Stuff - updated!

This is the most recent sketch I did. I've witnessed a lot of magazines and websites and blogs and whatever along those lines associated with fashion with heaps of sportswear and I'm starting to get really into it. Not just any kinds of sportswear, but the more creatively developed / constructed sportswear which turns them into something a little bit (okay, maybe a lot) more interesting instead of the in-your-face "I'm going to the gym" or "I'm out for a jog" type of sportswear, know what I'm saying? So yeah, loads of designer brands nowadays create ranges of sportswear, and sports brand themselves have taken the art of sportswear to a whole new level. And so I've taken a lot of inspirations from a lot of sports brands and also Stella McCartney created a sports collection for Adidas which I'd taken many inspirations from. Also, not only the designs that matter, the selections of the fabrics are what makes sportswear so damn expensive though. They have to put much more consideration as opposed to making any other types of clothes. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------

A few years ago my brother bought this book with eye illusion pictures, basically pictures that mess with your mind, makes your head turn upside down in complete awe. At least that's how I felt about that book. One day I was looking through some inspirations to create another fashion sketch and this bright idea came across my mind and I suddenly recalled of that particular book my brother owned. I searched everywhere but I couldn't find it, so I browsed through the internet to find picture examples which you can see on the right side of the paper. I drew all three of them myself, then applying the patters on each outfits on different parts of the outfits. I knew I was going to make this mini collection black & white, but I figured they definitely needed a pop of color, and I thought orange would be the perfect choice, since I wanted these outfits to stand out, and they individually have unique patterns on their own, so yeah, orange enhances the monochromatic emptiness of black & white, I wanna say.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

I decided to take it to the next level with this one. This is a little complicated than my previous sketches, but just a little bit. Patience is required. So I wanted to make something that's a little different to what I usually have in my mind, and so the idea of sketching outfits inspired by various animal skeletons and a little bit of human too. And I also wanted human veins to take part on this mini collection to add a little bit of color. In terms of the skeleton-drawing, I even searched through the encyclopedia to see the actual pictures of human and animal skeletons so that I would be able to draw the exact same form of skeletons. As usual things don't always go according to plan, so the skeletons don't look exactly like the real ones. But I honestly don't mind cause I tried my best. And there's no really need an explaining to do, the picture above is pretty self-explanatory to what each part of skeletons corresponds to which pictures of skeletons that I printed out and put beside each "outfits". 

--------------------------------------------------------------------

This was actually a project I did for school. I was supposed to find four customers and let them demand whatever kind of outfits they'd like me to make and I'd get profits for it. This was my first piece and it belongs my friend Alya. I actually just finished my 2nd which I began making since I would say a little bit over a month ago when I'm supposed to finish all four by the end of November. Oh and look at the month, it's December! 
Side note; I really enjoyed making this one because I personally like the style of it and the fabric is uber friendly to be sewn, and yes the quality of fabrics can greatly affect my mood of sewing and also the final results. Believe me.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

This is my second piece that I was talking about. This is basically just a simple tenun dress for a friend of mine at my french course. And yes it's looking a little big on me because her size is bigger than me but still I had to wear this dress for the sake of taking a picture. Ha.

I got the fabric from her so I can't tell you where to get them. Also I didn't even make the pattern for the skirt. I literally just straight up cut the fabric on a rectangular shape (after measuring the waist) and sew it so that it forms into a dress and boom; you don't even know it's that simple. Aaaaand I turned out to really like this dress because of the color and also because it's big on me since I love wearing clothes that are more on the loose side? Baggy? However you wanna call it. Too bad I can't keep this dress for myself. Sigh.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

This last one is my final project of the semester. We were asked to design and make a night gown/dress. The design is entirely up to us, so I decided to make a simple black dress with a little twist to it ya know? I designed this dress a few months ago, I actually have a sketch of this on my "sketches" post a few months back. 
The see-through lace vertical line is inspired by Elie Saab. I never witnessed a dress with a cut like that in the front so I decided to make it myself. The stretched lace I used for the front and the back is the same, however I used a different kind of lace for the skirt with bigger motives. I'm satisfied with this dress because it turned out to be exactly like how I had imagined it.

Sketches

These first three sets of designs happened when I came to a realisation that I was the laziest person on earth so I decided to get a little more productive, you know??

Also, sorry for the bad quality pictures, took these from my instagram.

This first one was a very spontaneous sketch. Like literally, I drew some figures with my pencil and just by using a black permanent marker, I drew whatever I wanted without any inspiration. Whatever was in my mind I made it come to life, basically? After seeing the results, I'd say this has no particular theme but a design expansion of classic black dresses. And also, did some terrible shading there as you can see. For the skin I always use copic markers.

I wanted to be able to design many types of clothes based on different themes, and this futuristic theme I'm only using black, grey, and gold just for little bit pop of color to make them look somewhat "futuristic-y". As you can see I drew the most fabulous shoes in this particular theme (not). And also, these outfits are not 100% my vision, I had to look up for inspirations on the internet. I did the colors of these outfits using pencil color, drawing pen, and a black permanent marker. Also outlined them using a drawing pen.

There is no particular inspiration for these sketches, I wanted to make a set of sketches that's delicate in style and rigid in form, you know? Kinda hard to explain, but probably something like origami. I made these sketches also very spontaneously, I just drew what I had in mind at that time, because I wanted to see how far I could sort of dig my capability to sketch without a particular inspiration. I've done monochromatic designs before, so I was thinking that I should make this one colorful this time. And instead of boring colors on each outfits, I decided to make my own patterns inspired by nature, since origamis are most likely in a form of animals or plants, I felt like they sort of compliment each other? 

Oh and just a little secret which you can probably already tell, I was too lazy to draw outfit no.4's shoes, which explains why I tried to somewhat cover the feet using the pattern design samples. 

Colored all of the outfits using water color aside from the skin which is always colored with my copic marker and the sketch outlines using a drawing pen.

PS more to be updated soooon!

Roseate

After quite succeeded in making my previous outfit, I decided to make another one. And this time I made a two-piece using the same fabric. This outfit was inspired by Nikicio's Femme Resort 2013 Collection (just, different fabrics of course). There isn't really anything much to say, all I can say is that I finished this outfit in a brief 7 days.

Thanks to @LesianaMegy for being my model :) shoes by H&M