Evaluation

Discovering an urban explorer online (these are people who find and explore derelict buildings), who was based in Preston, I was able to discover some new buildings that I have never seen before. Looking through his collection of photographs the brewery at Lancaster stood out to me and wasn’t out of my reach. From then I contacted him to find out its location and more about the building itself, he was very wary of telling me anything until I showed him some of my previous work, urban explorers like to keep their finds private. This is what started off my whole FMP project.

Initially in my proposal and samples I was working with cask ale logos and signs, but after trialling this for about a week I decided that it would be far more interesting to relate my work directly to the building. I had used stencil print of text from these beer mats to create typography pieces, then realised that the typography in the brewery could be used in a similar way.

In my first samples I used imagery of the outside of the building and stencil printed handmade stencils over the top, this was extremely time consuming and would not have worked on a larger scale. To resolve this I made a select few stencils and created a print screen full of text from my primary photographs. This meant that I could produce pieces quicker and experiment with my designs and layouts. I had then decided for certain that I wanted text to feature on my garment.

Originally I had wanted to design a coat that was loose fitting with no sleeves, but after altering a pattern and playing around with the fit, I realised this was not within my reach in the time scale provided. This decision meant that I had to think of something that would be manageable within the time period. My tutor and I searched through books to try and find a simple, unfitted garment. This decision didn’t come without complications either as it was a womens pattern that I had to fit to a male figure, this meant altering the armholes and overall fit, this took me longer than I anticipated. Producing a mock up, pinning pattern pieces together, I was able to adapt the pattern further to the two models I wanted to use. If I was to go back to this stage in my process I would have allowed myself more time so that the garments were a better fit, I believe that the armhole shape isn’t as successful as it could have been had I had more time.

Playing around with screen printing techniques and digitally printing, I decided that I wanted two garments, one of which to contain some imagery of the building and the other a solid typography piece. These would be both to preserve the history of the building and show what can be hidden behind an exterior. My aim was to record a time in history in the form of fashion, showing people something which had previously been hidden from people and unknown to even those who lived in Lancaster. Visiting the brewery three times I was able to get a feel for the building and the love and care that had once gone into maintaining it, it was the livelihood of its workers and it seems important to preserve this feeling.

Towards the end when I was printing the final pattern pieces for my garments, I don’t believe I allocated enough time as some days I was in from nine in the morning to eight at night printing, this is because I only had one copy of each screen, the screen had to be washed and dried before I could use it again. I didn’t take into consideration that there would only be one print table available and that I would only be able to work on one garment at a time. Whilst sewing up the garments I realised that the discharge print dress had actually shrunk whilst washing it and therefore I could not use the same measurements for the pleats in both garments, this added time as I had to work out each one separately.

The day came when my garments were finished and the photoshoot was imminent, I had previously booked the slot for the studio and knew the garments had to be finished for this time. Using props I tried out many different situations on each model and garment, all together I had around one hundred photographs to choose from, this was far better than having a select few as I had tried out different positioning, meaning I was able to choose the most successful. I am glad that I was able to take plenty of photographs otherwise I might not have ended up with the best I could get.

Installing my work for exhibition created a challenge in itself, I asked to be allocated a booth, then had to design how I wanted the screens laid out. Deciding on quite an open booth instead of it having three sides and being closed in, gave me more space to play around with the two garments. I initially thought that I wanted one garment on a mannequin and then one hung on a coat hanger, trying this out in the space provided it just wasn’t working right. This made me rethink the layout and deciding two mannequins would show off the garments better. If I had been able to access a male mannequin then this would have been ideal, having one garment on a female body and one on a male, but this was unavailable, so I made a compromise and had two female mannequins. It took around a week to decide on the final layout of my display, moving items around to find the most successful position, I am glad I had allowed time to do this, it seemed important that the garments should be laid out in the best possible way. I believe that my display shows a passion for the building, a personal feeling about the location and I am glad it shows this.

Having a critique with my peers and tutors allowed me to describe my work and why I had created it. They also came up with the same issues as me around the mannequins and that it would have been better displayed on a male and female body shape, however, they said that my photoshoot had displayed that the dress was intended for both sexes. They liked how I had included the props from my photoshoot in my display and that it had tied the photographs to the garments. It was exciting being able to explain my work and the concepts behind it.

During my sampling process and construction of the garments, there are many things which could have been improved, however, I believe my photoshoot and exhibition are very successful and that I allocated the correct amount of time for the finishing touches. My time management during the sampling stage was not as good as it should have been, I will vastly improve this on my next project.