Presenting outcomes Pt.1
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Stop Think Act:
When planning for my first final outcome and evaluating on my work so far, it is apparent how the merging of fashion to my project of music has continually inspired me, at first through my video breif where I took direct reference from musician Loyle Carner's collaboration with street wear brand "Always do what you should do". What stood out to me directly was how clothing did not always have to result in cliche merchandise, but rather can serve as a means to express and promote a community who aligns with the values and work of a musician. The screen printing brief therefore emphasises this desire to merge fashion with music for it 's widened my understanding of how I can communicate visually, especially after learning the 2D shape style of drawing people for the brief. Thus with this commitment to what my first final outcome would be, I used the sewing brief to lay down the foundation of technical skills needed to create a handmade piece of clothing, that serves as the physical foundation of my embroidery and screen printing skills, as well as the ideological foundation of blending the world of music and fashion.
Linking briefs to my first final piece:
Sewing brief: This is brief will have the most evident influence on my first final piece, making use out of the knowledge and skills gained from constructing my shoulder bag. These techniques include:
Pattern making and designing
Sewing
Constructing
Hemming
How I will build upon this brief: There are several key techniques that I learnt whilst making the bag that I can either learn from or carry over into my final piece. What I feel was successful when making the bag was my ability to draft a pattern: whilst the shape of the bag was fairly simple, I learnt some key lessons, as I understood how factor in seam allowances and fabric distortion whilst making the bag. In doing so I feel confident in making several personal adjustments to the pattern of the shirt for my final piece, such as the designs themselves of minor details such as the front pocket. Another key skill acquired from this brief that will be used throughout my final piece is the actual sewing and construction of the garment. More specifically when making the bag, my ability to sew neatly and accurately was heavily strengthened, and more importantly, I gained more confidence in constructing complex designs, without fear of going wrong. Despite this, there are several lessons that I can learn from in this brief; for example taking more time on the style and appearance of the garments. Whilst I'm pleased as to how the bag turned out, I believe it is held back by some of it's appearance, with the contrast stitching having some stitches inaccurately sewn. Therefore I will make sure to be patient and take greater care in the overall appearance of my final piece.
Screen printing brief: This is brief will have the most evident influence on my first final piece, making use out of the knowledge and skills gained from constructing my shoulder bag. These techniques include:
2 tone designs takings influence from Cieslewicz
Screen printing
Embroidery
How I will build upon this brief: Once again, there are several key techniques that I learnt whilst screen printing that I can either learn from or carry over into my final piece. What I feel was successful when screen printing was learning how to create two tone designs that have a level of simplicity to make them possible to be screen printed, yet have enough detail to portray a clear subject: taking on influence from Cieslewicz. However, unlike my screen printing brief, I will only have one shot at creating a perfectly clean print, without the luxury of being able to choose the best prints, so will therefore have to practise my technique of screen printing further.
GOLF le FLEUR
GOLF le FLEUR
One of the most well executed examples of music meeting fashion is grammy winning musician Tyler Okonma (Tyler The Creator's) clothing brand GOLF le FLEUR. Everything is decidedly high-end—some of the clothes are handmade in Italy. It includes mohair sweaters with tortoiseshell buttons, silk button-downs with rounded collars and screen-printing on the back, pleated pants designed to hang a bit short at your ankles, and furry ushanka hats. Subtle touches like flower buttons and wavy pockets add to the high end quality that intrigues anyone into the world of Okonma. The collection includes his first fragrance, French Waltz: a "rose-musk made for everyone." Adding to the outside-of-clothes category are nail polish, sunglasses, moleskine notebooks—and a printed catalog, because why not? In addition to the impressive clothes and accessories, Tyler also designed the pop-up shop tucked away in the Malibu hills, visited by a rotating cast of famous friends, from Kanye West to Jay-Z to André 3000. The shop houses the entire collection, but much of it can also be purchased via the Golf le Fleur website. When mulling the launch of le Fleur, Okonma was encouraged by his creative friends Dev Hynes, Solange, and the late Virgil Abloh. Abloh, in particular, was instrumental in setting him up with artisans in places like Paris and Italy, who could bring his visions to life with the finesse they required. The line couldn’t exist without Abloh, according to Okonma.
Final piece 1 plan (statement of intent)
Final piece 1 plan (statement of intent)
To fully achieve my goal of making a final piece coherent to the theme of music, it is crucial to understand the link between my inspiration Golf le Fleur and music. Due to the brand being designed and founded by musician Tyler the Creator, his music plays a central role in the clothes designed. Firstly, the bright and vibrant colours act as a symbolic representation of anyone familiar to his music, with bright playful chords. Moreover for his 2021 album "Call me if you get lost", there were several "merchandise" clothing release under the sister brand GOLF WANG, the street wear alternative to Golf le Fleur. Take for example the varsity jacket as pictured on the left with the album name sewn into the jacket with the golf le fleur logo on the right. Crucially, whilst this jacket promotes the album, it stands alone as it's own piece of art. Someone walking past would not recognise it as merchandise, but rather a high end varsity jacket. It is this element of the jacket that I would like to recreate: whilst promoting a musician I would also like it to stand alone as it's own piece of art in itself, transcending the connotations of "merchandise".
The client
The client
Similar to the relationship between Tyler the creator's brand Golf le Fleur and his album releases/ status as a musician, my client would be musician Jay - Z, in which I will make a over shirt jacket that acts as merchandise yet functions by itself as a piece of art and fashion. Too often is merchandise associated with lazy design and cheap products, something Tyler the creator subverts through Golf le Fleur, standing for itself without the need for explicit marketing. What's more, Jay-Z himself is deeply rooted in the world of fashion, recently playing at the 2023 Louis Vuitton debut Pharell runway show. Part of this is why I chose him for my client, like Tyler he is not bound to the realm of being a musician, but rather has several creative pursuits that he is recognised in. The shirt itself will be apart of a collection supposedly released by Jay-Z that whilst acts as a piece of merchandise, yet achieves the high end and luxury feel, similar to Golf le Fleur.
The design
The design
The garment I've chosen to make is a heavyweight overshirt, taking influence from vintage mechanic shirts. Following the cream colour of my bag, I want the shirt to have a subtle natural look as its main body, therefore allowing the pink and black highlights to stand out further. My outer design will consist of a screen printed design of Jay-Z, using black ink over a pink dyed fabric. This pink fabric will be used throughout the shirt such as the collar and pocket. Like Golf le Fleur however, I want my shirt to have several details to add to the luxury and high quality aspect of my design, which will be seen through the inside of the shirt. My plan is to pattern the inside of the shirt with a sewed on design of Brooklyn Bridge, featured across the inside of the back panel. Afterall, Jay-Z is from Brooklyn, making his upbringing in Brooklyn a key aspect of his identity. Therefore, not only will the design itself hopefully look good as a hidden yet major detail, moreover it will add a story to the shirt that will emphasise the quality of the shirt. The colour combination of cream and black takes influence from Jay Z's most recent album "4:44", which is a simply a cream cover with black lettering over the top. However the pink takes influence from the pastel use of colours in the work of Golf le Fleur, thus an example of how I combined my client and influence in every aspect of the outcome.
Brooklyn Bridge first hand image, 2018
The process
Part 1 (The inner design):
First step was to cut out the inner back panel that my design would feauture on. I used two fabrics throughout the piece the first was a lighter cloth that had the style I wanted, and the second was used underneath to reinforce the shirt to make it heavy weight.
I dyed the lighter fabric pink using a fabric dye, and cut out the silhouette of the bridge. It was difficult to find the right perspective however I am pleased as to how it turned out. I then sewed into place.
Next I pinned a piece of tracing paper on top and began detailing the bridge with a pencil adding perspective and depth into the design, whilst maintaining a level of simplicity.
Once happy with design I began to sew over the tracing paper, following each line. This process was very difficult and took many hours to complete.
When the sewing was finally done, I had to carefully remove the tracing paper, leaving behind the design. However In doing so many stitches wripped or loosened, leaving me to take out entire lines of stitches to redo.
To add an extra level of detail, I began to embroid the suspension cable with a needle by hand, taking inspiration from the embroidery details of my screen printing brief.
Evaluating part 1
Overall I am very pleased with how the design came out, despite taking many hours of trial and error to complete. Whilst the stitches themselves aren't completely perfect, when looking at the bridge as a whole, I think it has been well executed, clearly portraying Brooklyn Bridge. Ultimately, this was the hardest part of making the entire shirt, due to the precise and fiddly attention necessary. If I were to do something like this again, I would prepare myself better for the amount of work needed to complete even a simple design, aware that the design wont be complete when ripping of the paper as in doing so many stitches will need fixing.
Part 2 (Outer design):
To begin my outer design, (screen print of Jay-Z), I first had to choose a photo to base my design off. I landed on this one as it made it possible to only base the design of his face leaving the body without it looking unnatural.
This was the final sketch of my screen print on newsprint, although it isn't clear on the photo, it would become a two tone design, taking great influence from the style of Cieslewicz in my previous screen printing brief.
At first, my plan was to screen print onto my pink fabric, and then place it onto the back of my shirt. However I soon became concerned on the fabric warping when drying, and ultimately changing the shape of the design, and obscuring it. Therefore I sewed the outline of the design immediately onto the back panel. therefore preventing it from being warped when drying.
When screen printing, it became very difficult to line up the design to the outline, especially when considering that I only had one attempt with no room for error. I therefore practised many times of pieces of card before moving over to the shirt.
Whilst the design came out in the correct position, due to my reluctance in applying full pressure in case it went wrong, I was left with a patchy design. Therefore I had to use a paint brush to outline and go over most of the design, making it clearer and neater.
The final step was embroidering "Jay-Z" into the design. I began by carefully sketching on the letters onto the back with pen. Next I used an embroidery hoop to tighten the shirt and make it easier to embroider.
Evaluating part 2
There are several successes to this print that I feel build upon the skills acquired in my screen printing brief, most notably the fact that I only had one attempt to print. Whilst the ink came through patchy in places, it was very much salvageable with a paint brush, and most importantly it aligned to the shape and did not leak along the edges. Moreover, this print was far more complex than the designs in my previous screen prints, with details such as the ear being incredibly hard to cut out, and the thin lines of the nose, managing not to snap. The embroidery too was also successful, as I made sure to take my time on it, keeping a consistent stitch, aware that once sewn to the other side of the back panel, I would not be able to fix it. However, I do believe the letters would be better off with a pink base like the face of Jay-Z, perhaps also bigger, in order to take up more of the shirt. The only improvement that I can build upon is ensuring next time I print, to press harder and not to be reluctant in the print. As a result of not doing this, I had to paint over the patchy spots, which whilst solving my problem, are sometimes noticable in bright light.
Part 3 (Constructing the shirt):
My first step was sewing the two back panels together to create one piece. Next I pleated that piece as seen above and aligned it with my yoke.
Once the yolk was sewn to the back panel, I had to connect it to the two front panels.
Here all 4 panels can be seen sewn together, a difficult process as I had to fit all 3 panels into the yoke on order to avoid any seams appearing on the front or back. I also sewed on a pink front pocket.
I took both interfacing pieces as soon above and zig zagged stitch them along the side to prevent fraying. I then sewed them onto the front panels with a 1/2" seam allowance.
Here you can see the beginnig of creating the collar. It consists of 3 different pieces, carefully sewn together in order to create one piece that sort of acts like a pocket.
Sewing the collar onto the neck was one of the most fiddly parts of creating the entire shirt, as I had to get a straight edge to match a curved neckline. Moreover the inner side had to be hand sewn in order to remove any seams from showing.
Here I sewed the front panels to the back panel, allowing the shirt to finally take shapes.I used a 1/2" seam allowance, yet left a 2 inch gap at the bottom as seen above in order to create a flexible bottom found on shirts.
I hemmed the entire shirt, removing all the rough edges. It was particularly hard to keep a clean consistent stitch as there was 10 layers of fabric built up at the bottom when folded over.
I sewed the sleave in half with a 1/2" seam allowance , make sure the edges were alligned. In the photo above you can seen how I used a curved edge and a striaght edge either side in order to create a natural fit to the shirt.
The last step was pinning the sleave to the sleave hole, taking care to make sure it all was alligned, prevent any fabric from snagging and ultimately creasing the final design.
Shirt poster advertisement:
This poster was created after the development of the shirt and features Jay Z wearing the shirt created.
Overall evaluation
Skill development: There are numerous skills in the shirt that reflect clear development of technical skills aquired throughout the project, the most notable of which being the sewing brief as it taught me the skills to draft patterns, sew, and construct, that provided the foundation of the merchandise. It was evident for me that is was necessary to create the shirt as well as decorate it as the focus of my influence golf le fleur is luxury clothing that extends outside the boundaries of merchandise that a screen print onto a blank tee would otherwise conform to. The screen printing brief however was fundamental in the actual design and thus music culture element of the outcome, for it taught me not only how to draw in a two tone design but most importantly apply the design onto fabric in a clean and high quality way. In this sense the shirt comes as the best way to present these skills in a coherent piece.
Quality of the piece: The very act of sewing contributed to the sense of craftsmanship and thus quality that was inspired by Golf le Fleur, for a screen print alone, whilst a good showcase of development and communication, would not be enough to achieve the very purpose of this outcome; creating a piece of commercial "merchandise" that strives for a high standard in its graphic design, without compromise to its physical quality. Thus at the very core of the outcome was the physical experience for the client, hence why I cut the shirt from multiple fabrics and sewed them together in order for it to be heavyweight, focusing beyond its online presentation and considering every aspect down to its weight. Once more, quality was the impetus behind the inner design, the most time consuming aspect of the shirt yet the only one that will not be see when worn. Yet it is the very futility in such a detail where its importance lies, for it suggests a sense of care that is often lacking behind modern merchandise in the music industry, the fact it will not be seen proves it is not a mere tool of advertisement to be worn.
Focus on the client: The focus on the client was crucial for whilst I wanted the shirt to be held up as more than merchandise, it was important the roots of the client were evident in the details, hence why I decided it was necessary to design the sewn Brooklyn Bridge into the inside of the shirt, adding a layer of detail that a client would expect from a luxury designer. However, on its own, the bridge would not constitute as enough to bring to light the client, thus the screen print of Jay Z on the back was the key to channeling the musician into the outcome. In hindsight, I would not however have chose to use Jay Z's face as the print, for whilst it came as a natural development of the screen printing brief of other musicians, it restricted me in not having a first hand image to reference the design.
Developed reasoning behind the piece: The idea of merchandise is a title that overshadows both graphic design itself but more specifically my theme of music too, a central aspect of the industry especially in the modern day, where physical media like vinyls is bought most often with the purpose of competing with artwork found on ones wall rather than online streaming itself. Throughout the project merchandise has permeated by design, most apparent in the screen printing brief and the mockup bags that resulted from it, as well as the sewing brief which sought to encompass an audience beyond a niche musician. Golf le Fleur therefore draws a perfect parallel and reference point with what I wanted to achieve from the outset of this project, as my goal was to focus on how graphic design in the music industry does not have to be disregarded as lazy and cheap.
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