Fluorescent Pastel Punch

For spring summer 2015 i have decided on the theme 'Fluorescent Pastel Punch'

This 24 Outfit collection takes inspiration from 1950 Hollywood theme that is fun and flirty. Mainly casual style outfits with an option to turn day to night. Using florals and unusual patterns with embellishments that are modern kitsch. This collection has a playful 1950’s American diner feel in the form of print and texture. Tongue in cheek humour turned on its head to allow a fashion concious female with an outlandish style to wear this collection as casual day wear relaxing in the sun, or even dressed up for a night out.

The colour concept has spring hues of candy pink and polka dot pastels. This adds the playful, summer at the beach statement.  Overal the pallete is a soft and gentle shade of colour. The muted subtle colour mixed with the gaudy kitsch addition of decorative details. Kitsch items in the home tend to have a slight acid plastic colour of yellow or green. In which the playful spring pastels mixed with the garish tints will add a diverse colour concept.

This collection forms a range of popular garments of the 50’s with a modern twist. Such as seperates, playsuits, crop tops and thin knit jumpers with added textural embellishments. Kitsch is a german word meaning ‘ of bad taste’ however adding a subtle hue of colour and having a garish representation on the sexy sillhouette of the 1950’s will allow kitsch to be appriciated in an ironic way.

Combining textural knits into the mix to allow wearer to keep warm during nights with a chilly breeze. Some fabrics will have two-tone or hollographic sheen to them, or even a plastic transparent vinyl. This adds a hint of vulgarity, yet used in small proportions will give a fashionable feel.

This collection is a bespoke collection for the average fashion concious female that enjoys all things LA, mostly a casual beach loungewear. The customer market is for females with a more diverse and eclectic taste in fashion, who enjoys making a statement, yet in a classier tasteful way. 

The ‘look’ of the collection is 1950’s American diner with the cheesy plastic feel. Domestic casual women of that era held pin curls in place with head skarfs, which became an opted style for casual days. The target level is high end, due to luxurious fabrics and intricate detailing within the collection. Although the kitsch feel is aimed to be of bad taste or cheap, this combination of garments will not be inexpensive.

Final technical flats.

Outerwear 1

Outerwear 2

Outerwear 3

Final Illustrations

Below is my final line up of the 3 puff parka style outerwear

Research collating on the trends for A/W

After collating all my research i came to these conclusions mixing the trends already on the hightstreet, along with the trends on WGSN and other fashion forcasting.

First High street Research- Primary Research in highstreet stores

 Firstly i looked at various coats in deferent shops, hughstreet and designer to get an overall basis of the AW season

i looked at various coats from high end (Karen Millen,Moncler, etc) to hightstreet (Next, Jack Wills etc)
to see similarities in the trends, then compared these to the upcoming trends on WGSN and other forecasting for AW2014/15

i then noticed similarities and collated the information , these will be on the next blog.

Sketchbook Designs and Samples

Below are some of my designs and fabric samples that link to the overall theme. Instead of looking as ragged and ripped this outerwear needed to protect from the weather, therefore i went for the relief after disasters which evolve into make shift houses and tend. This could bring in the Ripstop nylons and other tent fabrics that are also used in waterproof coats.

I wanted a large puff jacket as i found them on trend for A/W and also remind me of duvet wrapping or thermal blankets given to disaster victims.

Concept Theme - Outerwear

As a adjunct to the A/W 2014/15 collection ‘Dishevelled Evolution’ using research to develop 3 winter coats that are loosely based on the original collection. Although the original theme of dishevelled was based on ripping and decaying elements the theme has evolved.

Puffer style quilted coats were a key element within this series of outerwear, as the coat does not have reference to the laddered and torn from the main collection, but is more subtly introduced. Parka coats were also used within research in the form of many pockets and fish tail hems to help the overall aesthetic and usability of outerwear

After a disaster there is a relief effort, adding tents and make shift resources to the fragmented visual scene. This adds rip stop nylon and other weather-proof, cleaner cut fabrics to the collection.

Oversized was key in this collection due to the chunky knits from the previous design direction. In which a protective winter coat was needed and so inspiration came from thermal blankets wrapped round the individual during a crisis. This wrap over style mixed with quilted coats later resembled duvet wrapping.

Fragmented quilt was subtly used to add a dishevelled state back into the collection, also with hidden elements of cracked and weathering using print and pattern.