Market research:

Over the next couple of days I am going to do some market research. I will ask my peers and other teenage girls their opinion's on fashion. I will ask a series of closed questions followed by an open question. From this I will hope to gain an understanding of what clothing is desired. This will then help me in my next stage which will be ideas and planning. 

Materials:

I will probably use a sewing machine for a few items of clothing that I make. I can easily re-watch and watch more ‘YouTube’ videos on how to make clothing but I need to look into the types of materials that I can use.  However, at this stage it is hard as I do not know exactly what items of clothing I am going to make and what colours I will be using.  So, just to get an idea I have been looking at the John Lewis fabric section.  The prices range from £3.50 a metre to £49 a metre. The lower end materials are plain, dull colours and they seem to be unpopular. Whereas the more expensive fabrics are intricate and beautiful. There are floral designs and stripes which would go very well with the summer 2011 trends. 

I know that I will need a lot of wool if I am to make a jumper. At some point this week I will go to a knitting and sewing shop in North Finchley to research prices and buy a pattern to show me precisely how to go about making a jumper.  Once I have looked at the pattern I will be able to see if it will be possible to make. Also in the shop i will look at the material sold and compare it to what is sold in John Lewis.

Kate Moss's clothing range

To get a better idea of what my clothing range will consist of and to be inspired further I have decided to research a past clothing range that has been successful. Kate Moss started a clothing range in 2007 her clothing was sold by Top Shop. She designed a collaboration of work which was unique and distinctly clothing that she wore. The clothing was sold at £15-£150 so is fairly affordable to women who the clothing is targeted at.  In Kate Moss’s clothing range evening dresses, jackets, dressy tops and casual clothing were sold. The wide range of clothing meant that there was something for most women. Here are some pictures of her clothing that she designed:

Further research into summer 2011 trends:

From reading Teen Vogue’s Summer time edition I have found out more about specifically teenage girl fashion. Some of the information I found further backed up my previous research whilst other facts were new.  I found out that jumpsuits both long and short legged are in and so are leather satchels. These items that are advertised in the magazine are by Marc Jacobs.  Also this summer shirts and blouses are in.  The ones being sold at the moment are generally plain, light colours and look refreshing so are ideal for wearing on a hot summer’s day.

The stripe trend is also apparent in Teen vogue. Kate moss is seen to be wearing a long sleeved striped top. Also Arizona Muse is wearing a navy blue striped jacket lined in fur. When celebrities wear certain things it spurs the public to follow, especially if the media highlights their outfits in complementary ways.  The surfer trend is also seen in the magazine. There is a model wearing a body suit with the top half down and a floral pattern bikini on.

A few other things that are considered trends for teenage girls to wear this summer are: tie dye clothing, fringe on clothing or bags, long draping dresses and tops that have baggy sleeves, cool tropical prints, wedges, jelly roll flip flops and brightly coloured clothing.  

The thing that inspired me most in Teen Vogue was the mention of chunky, quirky knits being in this summer. Here are some pictures of them being sold:

Crochet:

Today I taught myself to crochet using a step to step guide that was in my crochet book. It confused me quite a bit at the start but now I can vaguely do it. I still need lots of practice and I prefer knitting by far.  I may crochet a bag which will fit nicely into my summer clothing range. First I will have to nail crocheting but for now I know that it is a possibility.      

Potential clothing techniques I could use:

I was going through my cupboard when I found a crochet kit tucked at the back. I must have been given when I was younger but never used it.  I have looked through it and it looks quite achievable.  Some of the things to make look a bit ridiculous and I’m not quite sure how it will fit into my clothing range. For example, there is a hat which looks very odd in the picture and if i were to make it I am pretty sure it will look even worse. So I’ll steer away from making the odd looking hat! Tomorrow I am going on a long train journey so ill follow the steps for crocheting and come to the conclusion whether it will be a good idea to crochet any of my items in the clothing range.

I have been carrying on practicing the knitting and it is getting slightly better.  The only thing is I can only knit a long straight piece of material. So next time I visit my grandma I will ask her what types of clothing I could make and if she could teach me how to make something more adventurous.  Possibly I could make an oversized jumper which follows the festival trend for this summer.

I am researching into ideas about sewing machines a couple of my Mum’s friends have them so I should be able to use one at some point in the summer. So I could make a summer dress or skirt.

Victoria and Albert museum

Today I visited the Victoria and Albert museum. I saw the Yohji Yamamoto exhibition. He was born in 1943 in Tokyo and won two awards after studying in Japan which enabled him to travel to Europe. His mother was a seamstress and Yamamoto worked with her for a few years. He then went on to set up his first women's ready to wear label Y's. Yohi Yamamoto's work is unusual, unique and exquisite. From what I saw, his dresses were extremely complicated with ruffles and intricate designs.  Lots of Yamato's clothing is oversized and it looks slightly unfinished. His clothing is mostly black and he deals with ideas of gender.

Although, I found looking at Yamamoto’s clothing and videos of his catwalks interesting, I am not sure if it will inspire my own clothing range. He uses fabrics that are not normally used for making clothing. For example he uses felt. I am not experienced enough to use the same fabrics that Yamamoto uses as I am not sure it had the mass market appeal.  It has opened my eyes to all the endless possibilities I have for my clothing range. In the exhibition some of his origional sketches were shown so this may help me later on to start off my own ideas. This was the way Yamato went about planing and collateing his thoughts and ideas. I will now need to decide how many items i will make and what they will be.

Time line amendments:

I was originally going to finish my research by the 16/06/2011 but this has not happened. One of the reasons for this is because I went to Italy for a week which slowed down my research in London. However, I did find some valuable and useful information about fashion in Italy which will help me to make my clothing range. The main reason why I have not completed my research is because I did not realise or take in to consideration while making my timeline how much time I would need to carry out a sufficient amount of research. I still have quite a few things to be looking in to, so I have re- done my timetable:  

Tasks	Start Date	Duration (days)	End date
Research	28/05/2011	36	2/07/2011
Away for D.O. E expedition	3/07/2011	5	7/07/2011
Ideas and planning	8/07/2011	10	17/07/2011
Design clothing	18/07/2011	7	24/07/2011
On holiday	25/07/2011	17	10/08/2011
Buy equipment needed	11/08/2011	5	14/08/2011
On holiday	15/08/2011	8	22/08/2011
Make items	23/08/2011	44	5/10/2011
evaluate	6/10/2011	26	31/10/2011
prepare for presentation	01/11/2011	18	18/11/2011
Further evaluation	19/11/2011	12	30/11/2011
Get ready to submit complete project	1/12/2011	9	09/12/2011

Knitting ...

This afternoon I went to a sewing shop bought some wool and knitting needles and then went on to see my grandma and she taught me to knit. I still can not cast on but I can vaguely do a line of knitting. I need a lot more practice! Never the less my grandma was very proud and said with a bit more work I could make a scarf. So I could potentially knit one of the items in my clothing range.

The Italian market

I stayed in a place called Servigliano in Italy for a week. While I was there I visited various places from which I gained an insight into the fashion in Italy. However, I only stayed in a small area within Italy and cannot make an assumption regarding the whole of Italy's fashion market from this. So I will have to look on the internet and in Italian magazines. I focused on women’s fashion.

In Servigliano there was a market on Monday morning. From looking around the stalls I saw lots of dresses being sold. There were strapless, small, striped dresses being sold for 10 Euros. This stripe trend is running through both Italy and England. Also on another stall long maxi dresses were being sold. There were a range of coloured maxis selling for around 15 Euros. Floral leggings were also being sold in the market - they were similar to the ones sold in H&M at the moment.

While in Italy, I visited a school and saw what types of clothing the teenagers were wearing. The girls wore a t-shirt, jeans, trainers and a big rucksack. There were very few who wore something different, and only a couple of students wore leggings.  While I was wearing a skirt for the summer, they were wearing clothing suited for colder weather.

When I went out to dinner and night time attractions, the women were dressed in a very sophisticated way. Most wore very high heels or wedges with either a smart dress or white jeans and a nice top.

I visited Italian boutique clothing shops which were cheaper than London shops which sold little dresses and vest tops. Some of the things sold could not be bought in London. For example there was a white vest top with the back laced.  However there were a few shops which were starting to copy the trends that are seen in H&M and other chain stores found in London.

Although I thought the clothing would be different due to the weather differences, this was not the case.  In Italy, the locals do not seem to dress down for the heat. So while the English go for short sleeves etc, the Italians still wear jackets and blazers – just like everyone in London.  I think there were less differences in clothing and more similarities in both Italy and London. Globalisation is causing the world to shrink and fashion in different countries is becoming similar and much less unique.

Italy

Tomorrow I am going out to Italy for a week. While I am there I will carry on looking in fashion magazines but will also look at the fashion out there. I will compare prices of clothing and the styles. I presume that due to the climate difference the fashion here and there will vary. For example, there may not be any jackets being sold on the market in Italy but there are light trendy coats here. However there may be similar trends and designs that appear in both markets and are universally fashionable in both European countries. So I will look out for those similarities.  

Knitting research

I visited the residential home this afternoon where my grandmother lives to discuss knitting with the residents. They were shocked I could not knit as when they were young it was what every body did. They told me about casting off and fair isle knitting. However, apparently it would take me a while to be able to get the hang of knitting and a long time until I could make any clothing items. I would need to start off with an easy pattern and large knitting needles around size 9 as the small sizes would take forever to make anything. They explained a pattern to be an instruction book and a guide to how much wool would be needed. They were surprised to find out I did not even know the terminology they were using. I have a lot to learn. Next time I visit my grandmother will teach me how to knit she is a very skilled at knitting and will hopefully remember all the techniques involved.

How to go about making clothing.

I have been looking at youtube videos that demonstrate various methods of making clothes here are some:

This one is for summer dress making:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsSZTHyCLyU

This one is for a blouse:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO9m2YQ1UNQ

Ruffled skirt:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2ntDIHHz6E

I can use these demonstrations as an outline for making my clothing range although I am aiming to make something original so will try to make different designs. Most methods I have seen involve sewing machines.