The Swelle Life

Designer Series, Knitwear: The Florence Swatches

 

Since we last caught up with Cynthia F, our knitwear designer and Central Saint Martins student who is the subject of the Designer Series, Knitwear (and creates the greatest illustrations for her work), she's been busy with lots of projects including making a cardigan as part of a group project (photos to come) and a fabulous field trip to Florence, Italy. The purpose was to attend Pitti Filati, the premier international trade show for the knitting industry where she had the opportunity to see the new yarns for the upcoming season. 

And there was a catch - a student project was to be completed as part of the Florence experience. They were asked to design a collection based on knit swatches developed from research made from inspirations taken from the city. No doubt they were in abundant supply. 

Cynthia was taken with the idea of the clothes hanging off the wall at the fair - the contrast of soft and hard - and drew inspiration from the decorative walls outside the Duomo which figured into the beading of her swatches. While there wasn't time to make a garment for this project, Cynthia created these gorgeous illustrations and 'coloured' them with scans of the swatches to show what the garments would look like if they were made. I would love to see these realised, the mixing of the different textures and colours with the beading embellishment is absolutely intriguing.

I'm thrilled to announce that Cynthia F will be contributing knitwear to Swelle Boutique (launching this month) - they will be one-off pieces that will surely be inspired, truly original and beautifully handcrafted. I cannot wait to see them myself!

Here are photos of the actual swatches and scenes from around Florence - that's Cynthia in the middle of the group photo wearing some amazing jacket:

 

Craig Lawrence A/W 2010 Film Presentation

As the title here suggests, Craig Lawrence presented his A/W 2010 collection in film at Somerset House during London fashion week. I had actually taken a video of it myself in the darkened room which was rather unsteady and had some guy's head that was in the way for about a minute, so I was glad to see an official version of the film on YouTube and spare you the amateur version. Not having seen any of the clothes in person it's tough to comment, but we can see that outrageous knitwear is still a love of Lawrence's as his 'pompom' girl would suggest (that's what that giant shrug made of metallic strips reminds me of) as is beautifully worked, intricately lush textures. All of his pieces are handknit and Cynthia F. of The Swelle Life's Designer Series, Knitwear had a hand in assisting with the collection. I'm hoping she can fill us in the materials used, there looks to be a complementary mix of all kinds of textures and fabrics.

(Email subscribers will need to click the the title of this post to view the videos directly from the blog.)

I was going to tell you more about Craig Lawrence but this interview from last summer with Lady Gaga will give you an idea about where his work comes from, and it's more entertaining:

Designer Series, Knitwear: Black and Blue

Last time in the Designers Series, Knitwear we saw Cynthia F's gorgeous Marie Antoinette-inspired lingerie that she knitted as her final project in her first year at Central Saint Martins. Just to be sure the students didn't forget how to knit over the summer (ha) they were given a project to work on, this one to explore the possibilities of hand knitting. 

Cynthia took her reference from a Cornelia Parker image and opted to play with embellishment. We can see that something is woven into the collar - it looks like little, protruding, coloured discs which construct a delightful texture. To create this, Cynthia crocheted the black yarn into a long chain and throughout worked in buttons so they became part of piece. She used this to knit the knitted part of the jacket which made quite a heavy piece. There's a bit of knitting in the shoes as well and Cynthia may explore other materials with her future footwear; she wasn't completely satisfied with the result. I like that the shoes echo the electric blue trim in the shoulders and cuffs of the jacket - it ties the top and bottom of the outfit together and pops against the charcoal background. It makes a great full-length photo.

Speaking of the photos, aren't they're incredible? It's amazing how the dank space between two old grey, pebble-dashed buildings can provide a setting so conducive to drama. The combination of the contrast of the bright and dark colours with the glow of overcast daylight within the diminishing perspective behind the model makes a stunning scene. As does the texture of the pebble-dashed walls, particularly beautiful in the last photo.

A successful, gorgeous collaboration from Cynthia, Sohui and Aiko.

Model: Sohui
Photographer: Aiko

Designer Series, Knitwear: Marie Antoinette Lingerie To Die For

And so our Designer Series for knitwear resumes! If you're new to the series, we're following the career of Cynthia F of the label CFST, a talented knitwear student at Central St. Martins who likes to draw upon art and architecture and is now in her second year. You can catch up on her first year projects here.

She's just started back to school but has been busy with some exciting things, namely helping backstage at Mark Fast at London fashion week as a dresser which she describes as "one of the best experiences ever!" No doubt! She's also been helping Craig Lawrence with his collection, the CSM grad who created that incredible show inspired by Christmas decorations.

Before she left for her much deserved summer break she was assigned a lingerie project, the point of which was to gain an understanding of how to create a pattern for knitwear and how to achieve different shaping without the use of fitting techniques such as darts, which can be used with woven fabric but of course aren't possible with knitwear.

The project only called for one garment and Cynthia chose the babydoll. But she felt that wasn't especially challenging and so decided to make two pairs of pants (one with adorable garters) and two pairs of socks to go with it. Her outfit was inspired by the film Marie Antoinette; the cake scene in the bath provided the colour palette. She created a pretty lace pattern on the babydoll and wanted to play around with embellishment, so she used beading and also did ribbon hand embroidery to make all of the roses. And then she taught herself to knit the socks! For presentation she has a big box to put it all in like a Christmas present and we eagerly await those photos!

Watch next week to see what Cynthia created over the summer - a gorgeous hand-knit and crocheted jacket with embellishments.

Model: Sohui
Photographer: Aiko

Designer Series, Knitwear: Totes and T-shirts

Our prolific knitwear student from Central Saint Martins, Cynthia  F. has been neck deep in yarn since we last saw her. She was paired with a Final Year CSM knitwear student, Frida Hulten - who will working at Mulberry when she graduates and - to assist up to and throughout the graduate show. Cynthia knitted a dress and half a jacket for her and hopefully we'll get to see photos of those pieces. Cynthia says the collection features lots of bubble shapes so I am all into that.

Then came two competitions. The first was to design a fashion illustration for the tote bags for London Fashion Weekend and Cynthia came up with what you see to the left. If you've been to London you'll surely recognise the 'Gherkin' building that makes up the hat (if you've been following along you know how she loves to take inspiration from architecture). Very cool.

The project for the other contest was to create a T-shirt using an existing one, and the garments were sold at a one-day exhibition to raise money for Oliver, a boy who was about to enroll into first year for Fashion Print but was stabbed in East London. He was left paralyzed from the neck down and will need treatment and medication for the rest of his life.

Cynthia wanted to stick to her knitwear background for this garment so she created a lush collar made of interwoven links of super-thick yarns of varying textures and shades:

Cynthia wasn't at the exhibition but was told her T-shirt was gone very early on and said it was "either sold already or they lost it, or it’s just somewhere lying around..." It think it was sold, Cynthia! (How modest.)

Next time we'll see the project she worked on with The Siblings designer Syd Bryan where she tried out some new techniques. And this one I cannot wait to see: a lingerie project for which she has to knit the lingerie. She's going against her usual style and going 'girly and sweet' to make a lingerie set that is Marie Antoinette inspired (she recently watched the film. If you have not seen it and love fashion it is a must-see for the costume alone). The set will consist of a babydoll, high waisted pants, suspenders (or garters) and stockings and will be photographed in a shoot.

Watch this space!

Want to catch up on the series? Click here.

Designer Series, Knitwear: Jersey Toiles

Our knitwear series designer Cynthia F was asked to create six toiles (our industrious girl made seven), using any reference points but focussing on creating a silhouette. One of the keywords was 'body-conscious' so she decided to play with that. Cynthia always draws upon great works of art for her designs and this time she used Santiago Calatrava’s architecture (he did the BCE Place Galleria in Toronto for friends back home) and created her looks using cotton jersey. And this time she even modelled some herself!

What's a toile? It's a mock-up garment using inexpensive fabric. It's the first step after creating a pattern for a garment which you can then fit onto a mannequin or model for sizing and alterations. You can also draw on it. As a knitwear designer, Cynthia could, for example, draw a cable pattern in the centre of her toile to see how it would look.

New to the Designer Series, Knitwear? Catch up here!

Our Cynthia F!

Designer Series, Knitwear: Pixelated Bananas at LFW

With the candy-coloured clothing, make-up to match and surreal accessories these images could be a study for a David LaChapelle photograph. Aren't they wonderful? The always fun and flamboyant British designer Emma Bell asked our Series star Cynthia F. to create two knitwear pieces for her A/W 2009 collection, as shown at London Fashion week in February. Based on Bell's overall vision Cynthia came up with the final design - a sky blue top and hot pink dress with a diagonal banana pattern. I especially love the big pixelated-looking ones on the dress.

Well done, Cyn!

If you live in the UK you'll recognise the models as twins Sam and Amanda from Big Brother 8.

Need to catch up on the Series? Click here

Let's hear from Cynthia's fans, I know you're out there - these Series posts are the most popular on this blog and we'd love to know what you think!

Photos: Megamegamega

Designer Series, Knitwear: Metamorphosis Knits in Action

A little while ago we saw Cynthia F's illustrations and final garments for her Metamorphosis knits project at Central Saint Martins, and the post generated some good discussion to which Cynthia responded with further insight into what drove her creative process. We were curious to see what the dresses looked like on a model and the photos are now here. Very cool, Cynthia! I bet that elasticated knit around the torso feels great. And they look fantastic styled with those leggings (Aiko's legs must be nine feet long!).

First time reading the Designer Series? You can catch up here

 

Designer Series, Knitwear: The White Project

Last time, we saw Central Saint Martins knitwear student Cynthia AKA CFST's intriguing Metamorphosis Knits, and now she's sharing the results of her White Project. For the theme she chose Traditional Borderline and began by exploring the traditional aspects of male and female clothing and how she might create menswear with female body shapes. This proved problematic so she looked elsewhere for inspiration and found it in the work of British sculptor Anthony Gormley (anyone from the north east of England and beyond will know his famous sculpture Angel of the North). Taking a cue from his rigid shapes and his process of wrapping as she saw outlined in a book, she decided to study restriction.

The materials were limited to cotton and felt and unsurprisingly, it took a substantial amount to complete her design - the shoulder panel required three metres of felt alone! (And yes, it's quite heavy.) It was all worth it, Cynthia scored the highest mark (and big points to her friend Aiko who modelled)!

Cynthia finger knitted the felt into the neckpiece:

Designer Series, Knitwear: Metamorphosis Knits

  

The second post in the Designer Series, Knitwear with Cynthia F. aka CFST, a knitwear student with the goods from Central Saint Martins, focusses on her Metamorphosis Knit project, which she worked on with Jess Quinton. Taking her cue from the Tracy Emin sketch My Abortion she produced a series of sketches and illustrations (don't you just love her illustrations?) that incorporate elements representing a pregnant woman's spine, which Cynthia views as the strongest and weakest part of her body - in the form of panels, as well as lump-like shapes. Her colour scheme comes from the black and white of an ultrasound, and the yellow from the umbilical cord as 'the sign of life'.

Cynthia has taken a controversial work (or at least a very uncomfortable one) in Emin's crudely drawn sketch, extracted themes and translated them into two conceptually driven garments that are wearable, feminine and fun:

Cynthia's first outfit is made with yellow jersey and black acrylic wool. The black strips that create the ruching are inspired by the human spine.

The second look is completely machine-knit. It's made with yellow acrylic wool and the pattern is black wool and white elastic for a tight fit around the torso.

Cynthia has a photo shoot soon so we'll get to see how these will look on a model. I'm very curious to see how the first one moves.

Here are the remaining illustrations for the project, they're too good not to show:

 

Watch for more posts in this series that bend and stretch your perceptions about knitwear, coming soon and ongoing. And let us know your thoughts on any of these designs or the series, we want to hear from you!

Update: See the comments section for discussion about the subject matter and a more indepth explanation from Cynthia (CFST)

Designer Series, Knitwear: Meet Cynthia F.

I am so excited to introduce a new addition to the Designer Series! Meet Cynthia F., a 20 year-old knitwear design student at Central Saint Martins in London (yes, that which gave us Alexander McQueen, John Galliano, Gareth Pugh, Stella McCartney and Christopher Kane. Oh, and M.I.A.). As I was describing in recent posts about knitwear, this growing fashion design discipline is redefining how we generally perceive knit garments, and the pushing toward new ideas will only gain momentum as new talent emerges.

All signs point to Cynthia being on this track - she's a brilliant illustrator, a conceptual thinker and is able to translate her ideas to her final creations. Oh, and she can knit, too!

Where did her pursuit of fashion begin? She came from Hong Kong to London a few years ago to find that others were impressed by her artistic abilities, so she decided to pursue them with this new-found encouragement. Making fairy dresses at age eight inspired her to learn to use a sewing machine and by 15 she was doing gothic lolita dresses - it was then she knew that fashion at CSM was her dream.

And the knitting? As a young teen Cynthia learned to knit and was thrilled to find out that knitwear was an actual path one could study, she loves that she can create the fabric as she goes along, as well as decorate it. And that she's learning something very technical which she can apply in the design process rounds it out perfectly.

Style and Influences? She's very fond of shapes - sculptural shapes that hang on the body in a complementary way is one of her criteria when designing. Favourite knitwear designers are Sandra Backlund, Louise Goldin and Liria Pristine.

And now?  In first year at CSM with her own knitwear label called CFST - the initials for her English and Chinese names. She's also been working with Ada Zanditon for the past two seasons - this season focusing on knitwear using organic and ethical materials, and also with Emma Bell, helping with three of her Intarsia pieces.

Let's get to the knits. For her Century Knit project (illustration above), Cynthia chose the 1940s. She was inspired by war time and wanted to created a helmet with knit. There's and also a neckpiece that was influenced by the fur collar pilots would wear:

There's lots more innovative knits coming from Cynthia F. so watch this space!

Designer Series, Fashion: Colour Sketches

Update: Clare has secured herself a placement which is required in the second year at Northumbria (congrats, Clare!). But she'll be updating us with projects she's working on, so we'll continue with Clare when she has something for us!

Last week in the Designer Series with fashion design student Clare Marshall (catch up here if you missed it), we saw Clare's sketches for the Boden project - a collection of feminine, forties-inspired mix and match pieces that had me asking excitedly "what colours? what fabrics?" at first glance. Now we can see the sketches with the colour ways and fabric choices that include a raspberry tweed, brown chunky wools, silk chiffon, silk cotton, wool meltons and wool marls. For the skinny pant Clare used a raw denim, and the coats are finished with gold buttons. This is like playing paper dolls in your mind figuring out all the possible combinations!

The cape and the dress have been produced, and we'll get to see those next week. The cape was done in a heavy brown wool, with a silk velvet trim for the bow and contrasting raspberry tweed for the pocket detail. (I can't wait to see this, I must try it on.) The dress was cut on the bias using the raspberry tweed with silk voile for the skirt. How gorgeous do these sound?

This image inspired Clare's colour story for the project, which could certainly influence my own wardrobe choices:

Check in next week to see the cape and the dress and to hear what's next for Clare...

Designer Series, Fashion: Meet Clare Marshall

On New Years day I introduced the Designer Series where we'll be following the progress of an artist jeweler and a fashion design student throughout their studies and beyond, to answer the question "What happens at school and how does one forge a career afterward?" Don't we all wonder what it's really like in the fiercely competitive world of design and how it all works behind the scenes? I'm extremely intrigued by these questions as I'm sure other design lovers are, especially those who are looking for a career in jewelry or fashion design.

And today we begin with fashion. I'm thrilled to introduce Clare Marshall, a 20 year-old second year fashion design student at Northumbria University in Newcastle, UK. Northumbria boasts an internationally renowned fashion design program and attracts and nurtures exciting, young talents who do us proud each year at Graduate Fashion Week in London. Clare designs womenswear with a woman's curves in mind, focussing on the waist and taking inspiration from the 1940s era. Mixing true Hollywood glamour with contemporary styling is what she loves to do - and what so many of us love to wear!

Clare shares with us how she came to study fashion:

I've always loved designing. It took me a few years to get into fashion, but I've always loved making things, ever since I was about six or seven. I'd always win the school competitions for drawing, so I decided to take art from there. I did graphics to start with but then realised it was clothes I loved designing, so I took textiles for my A Levels. (Ed. note: A Levels are high school credits in the UK educational system leading to university study. If only I'd had the chance to study textiles in high school!!)

Clare wants to build her own company upon graduating and hopes to learn what she needs during her placement year by working with a small company. She's happy to to receive feedback throughout this series and if you have any questions please ask away!

Let's get into the designs. To start, we've got Clare's hand drawn flat work for the Boden project. Boden is a UK company which sells clothes online and they've asked Northumbria Uni to get their 2nd year fashion design students involved in a design process which will culminate with a representative choosing three students' designs and offering them a work placement for a year. There is also a potential opportunity for the chosen two garments to be produced for the autumn season 2009. How motivating!

Here are Clare's sketches for her Boden collection, all hand drawn (I just adore them):

 

With all of this wonderful design and detail aren't we curious about the colours and fabrics Clare has chosen to bring them to life? That's next, so watch this space for the second post in Designer Series, Fashion coming soon (see the preview in the header image here). And please share your thoughts!