Archive project

So my last project at Kingston was the Archive project- something the third and second years have also done. We had to pick one garment from the archive room ( a wardrobe full of garments from  different eras, going way back to the Victorian times ). The point of the project was to pick something you liked and researched it , before coming up with a concept and designing your very own, new and different take on the original piece. I picked out a dress (which you can just about see the sleeve of in the first image ) which only had a tag with '1940' written on it. This was my starting point.

My idea came from the government restrictions at that time, what people were not allowed to have,  black markets, shortenings of fabric and food supplies, buying things and hiding them. In fact the thing that really inspired me was a quote from vogue in the 40s- ' This beige coat is perfect length and has pockets big enough to swallow make up without bulging'. To me that was what i was looking for, so my next step was to experiment!! I actually stuffed my crisp packets and wagon wheels lol underneath the calico to see what actually happens to fabric  when something is bulging underneath.

To be honest we didn't have much time really, six weeks is a long time, but to do the amount of work we did as a class, and manage to produce a final garment yourself was tough. I really struggled at the making part because honestly, i'm really not that good at it. We only had one pattern cutter, Fiona,  to help us and there was so many of us!! So really it was down to ourselves to master the pattern cutting (i swear it is like maths all over again what is going on). In the end i managed to make this brown coat in the last collage. Im laughing actually looking at it, its awful! I asked daisy to model it for me on the day of our crit, she was actually ironing her own garment so she was a bit like yep is this over now haha.

I was well aware that my piece wasn't made as well as others, i knew i lacked that sewing ability. The majority of my class know how to sew and sew really well!! Which is something i need to work on considering i'm doing a fashion degree. But I had an amazing tutor Will, (those marc jacobs little black phone cases) who always got me and my ideas which was very reassuring and once the assesment came, the fact that my coat wasn't even made properly  didn't matter, my idea and my drawing got me great feedback wooo! Cried so much with happiness into my wine that evening, it was a night to remember.