MAJOR PROJECT- REFLECTION

Okay guys..

For the final post I will say something about my work on my major project.
I will be completely honest about my experience even it is mostly negative.

Let's begin..

After I've got assigned this task I thought it wasn't a big deal. I thought that there will be only few steps and short process throughout the major project but I was completely wrong.
First of all, I am procrastinator and still don't know how to improve my time management.
I always think how I have enough time to finish everything and that I don't have to rush. When I saw that my friends started working on their projects from the early beginning it was funny for me because it didn't seem that serious. But after coming to the last week I realised that actually there wasn't enough time and that I shouldn't have leave everything for the last minute. That led me to the couple of nights with no sleep and lots of stress. I learned that once you fall behind, you will always fall behind. My plan for the next term is to put more effort already from the day one and use every possible minute in the class to finish my tasks.

Secondly, I would like to comment about my skills in digital softwares. My fashion collection is hand drawn and coloured by watercolours because I have lack of skills in Illustrator. I tried to use Illustrator only once before the major project and I failed. That's why I was afraid to even try to work on my project in this software. Even though my tutors offered me help few times I rejected because I thought I have everything under control. I thought it's going to be easy if I just scan my drawings and edit them a little bit in Photoshop. But it turned out that there is more behind that and it was too late when I found it out. I realised that I will have to use Illustrator a lot and that was a problem because I had to spend my last hours on practising with different tools. However, one good thing came out from this, and it is that now I gained basic skills in Illustrator and that I am willing to use it more in my further projects.

All in all, I finished my collection with all the elements needed and I successfully published it on my website. Although my last-minute project doesn't look that bad as I was afraid it is going to be, it could have looked much better if I started everything on time.

I learned my lesson and this term was kinda testing for me. I will use this break to think about it and to get prepared for next assignments, probably even more challenging than this one.

Final changes on website + Contact page

Hello!

After the tutorial with Zoe I realised that I should make few changes on my website before publishing.

First of all I changed my background because previous one wasn't related to fashion.

I added my logo to the left side and moved button with my initials to the right because majority of people are right-handed and it's easier for them to click the button on the right side.

I also changed the colour of Menu, because before was too boring for me when it was all blue.

To be honest, Contact page was the easiest for me to create because I just had to choose one of the boxes with email and message. I went to Add>Contact>Themed Contact Tools, and just changed the colour from orange to blue. I also added Google Maps with location of DMU Campus.

Here you can see how it looks like. For further information I linked my Blogger page and Google+ Account.

On the Home page I added gallery by going to Add>Gallery>Slider Galleries>Postcard slider.

I put few pictures of my previous drawings and sketches to showcase my continuation route which is Fashion Design. I will think about adding some more of them because I'm not sure if 5 of them is enough.

I think I won't change anything else about general design, maybe only size of the pictures and the alignment.

That's all from me for now.

RESEARCH- MATERIALS

Hey, I'm back again!

In this post I will talk about materials used in Indian clothes.

1.COTTON

Cotton material

Cotton salwar kameez

Indian women have been using cotton for salwar kameez and saree since ages. It makes clothes lightweight and it's easily washed. One important thing is that cotton keeps the bodies cool, as the general Indian climate is hot.

2. CREPE

Crepe material

Crepe saree

Crepe fabric is woven with silk fibres. It is mostly used for suits and bridal clothing.

3. GEORGETTE

Georgette saree

Georgette material

Georgette is made with a combination of nylon and polyester. It is loved by Indian women because of its softness, gracefulness and delicate look.

4. SILK

Silk material


Silk salwar kameez

Silk is one of the favourite materials among all in Indian clothing. It is used for many clothes as sarees, modern tops, salwar kameez and others. However, it requires more care than other fabrics.

5. CHIFFON

Chiffon material

Chiffon saree

Chiffon is made with a combination of silk and nylon. Because of its delicate feel, chiffon represents elegance in Indian clothes.  Although it's transparent, chiffon is really strong and durable material.


As I am making spring/summer collection I have to be careful on what materials to choose. It is warm period of year so I have to decide for something lightweight, thin and airy or transparent. Some of these materials are cotton, georgette and chiffon. Cotton is good for main parts of clothes as top and skirt or trousers, and georgette and chiffon are great for elegant details on saree. I think they will make good combination with lace.

Source 1

Source 2

RESEARCH-UPCOMING TRENDS

  

Hi friends!

As I'm making a fashion collection inspired by Indian clothes and modern style, I thought I should look first at upcoming trends in 2019 before I start designing any clothes.

I looked at famous magazines such as Vogue, Glamour and Harper's Bazaar who talked about upcoming trends so I can see in which direction my collection should go.

I'm not going to talk about all the trends I found out, just specific ones that I think would be suitable for my collection.

1. OVERSIZED HATS

Simone Rocha

          Rejina Pyo          Xiao Li  Yuhan       Wang/Fashion East 

Valentino

So the first trend I found is about oversized hats. First I ignored this trend because I had no idea how to relate hats with Indian fashion. But after a bit of thinking I thought maybe I can replace Indian turbans with something new, something different as hats. I think this can give a new refreshment to my collection and make it stand out.

2. LACE

Koché

Erdem

Victoria Beckham

I'm actually wondering if lace has ever been out of trend. Considering that lace has been already part of Indian dresses and suits, this trend will be perfect for my collection. Lace gives saree luxurious look and complements rich ornaments on fabric.

3. COLOURFUL SUITS

Sies Marjan

Escada

Natasha Zinko             Jasper Conran                       Roksanda

Next season will be really interesting with all these bright and neon colours. This trend will be suitable as well for Indian collection, seeing that Indian clothes are pretty much colourful and merrily. It's probably going to be hard for me to decide for colour palette, but I will try to pair together different colours and see how it's going to work. Also first two pictures above with long suits remind me of Indian kameez, which is long tunic worn with trousers.

4. VARIOUS PRINTS

Versace

Roberto Cavalli

Louis Vuitton

And for the last but not least trend I found various patterns from simple strokes to flowers. These designers paired 2 or more different prints but I think I will use maybe only one because collection will be pretty much colourful by itself.


I know it will be too much to include all these upcoming trends that I mentioned so I will try to have at least two or three inside of my collection as it is supposed to be Indian collection with contemporary twist.

Feedback and UX testing

Hi guys!

I want to share with you my feedback page I created today.

For this I used Google Drive>New>More>Google Form

I created few questions based on Zoe's feedback page.

After I finished my questions, I created a new page on my Wix website in Menus & Pages and then I linked feedback page in it.

I hope I will get some feedback from you guys after I publish my website so I can improve it before the assignment deadline.

Indian traditional clothes-research

Welcome back lovely people!

Today I would like to talk about the most popular clothing items worn in India.

SAREE
Probably the most known item is saree, a female garment which is usually long five to nine yards and wide two to four yards. It is wrapped around the waist, with one end draped over the shoulder or used over the head as a hood. It is usually made of very colourful and embroidered silk, cotton or synthetic fabric. 

Figure 1

Women wearing saris in Orchha, Madhya Pradesh state, India.

Although sarees had been used as an everyday day outfit, today they are reserved for special occasions and women choose something easier to wear such as salwar kameez.











Sources: Sari and '9 facts you might not know about the sari'

SALWAR KAMEEZ

Salwar kameez is a traditional outfit which contains pair of trousers (salwar) and long tunic (kameez). Sometimes it comes with scarf (dupatta) but not necessarily. Salwar trousers are long loose-fitting which look like pyjamas and are gathered at the ankles. Kameez top is a loose-fitting, knee-length tunic with long sleeves.

Figure 3

Figure 2

 Salwar kameez is worn by majority of women, especially girls and students, because it's affordable and comfortable. Today, there can be found modern varieties of this outfit, for example, combining kameez with Western-style jeans, pants and skirts.




Sources: Salwar kameez and Daily life and social customs

LOGO CREATION

Considering that I will make a fashion collection for my final project, I thought that it will be suitable if I create a logo as well..

So, here is my logo and process of creating it...

First I tried to do it in Photoshop, but it was a little bit complicated so I moved to Illustrator and it was much easier.

I started by creating a line and an arch and then a connected them together in one piece. For this I used Line Segment and Arch Tool. These tools are on 8th place on the left side.

Then, I wanted my lines to look thicker, so I changed Stroke size in Properties on the right. I changed it from 1pt to 60pt.

And at the end I added two lines which present letter 'V'. I arranged a position a little bit and that was it.

 Finished logo:

I wanted my logo to look really simple, so I decided to use only my initials which are 'D' and 'V'. I've put one letter over the other and 'V' is rotated 90 degrees. I used black colour for logo on white background. I am happy how it looks like because this my second time using Illustrator and it looks just like I wanted to be. Also, it took me only half an our to finish it. I will use it for my website and maybe I will put it on some designs.

FINAL PROJECT PLANNING

Hello dear friends!

Here is my plan for final project. I can't actually plan my work so far in the future but I think this is enough for now. I will add some more tasks soon.

I hope I will complete everything on time as I imagined.

See you soon!

Creating an 'About me' page on my website

Hi!

In this post I will give you details about how I edited my 'About me' page on website.

First I started by changing main line. I changed the design and colour of the box under the text.

Here, I managed columns; I reversed the sides of text and picture and also I narrowed them to be in the centre of the page. Then I started writing some personal information about myself.

When I finished my paragraphs, I changed the font to 'Avenir Light' and changed the size of the font so it could be easy to read.

At the end, I added my picture and this is how my 'About me' page look like.

I can admit that hardest part was to manage the alignment.

Website creation

Hello!

I will show you how I created my website. Firstly, I used wix.com, which has many free templates for different kind of websites to create.

I chose Online Store category and then I clicked on Fashion and Clothing templates.

This is the template that I chose and would be suitable for my final project.

First I started by changing the text. I used Poppins Semi Bold font. Then I changed button design and added some shadows and border line. Also I added moving background but I am not sure if I am going to keep it. Furthermore, I'm thinking about to create my own logo and put it instead of initial letters.

After this, I went on Menus and Pages and started deleting pages that I don't need.

I will have four pages; Home, About, Collection and Gallery.

As you can see on this picture, I decided to change the main colour totally. I didn't like how orange looked and also blue is my favourite colour so I picked baby blue.

Then I clicked Manage Columns and deleted all of them because I am not sure what will include my home page.

And this is how my final idea of website looks like. I will put some pictures related to my work and I will have to create About me page.