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Anna Mortimer 04/02/2019

A-Level Textiles

Component 1: Personal Investigation ‘Page and Petal’ 04/02/2019

I chose this project because I love the narrative and meaning behind
the theme and the history from it, the memory in the pages from the
botanists many years ago. There’s also a beauty to the beginning of
something especially the flower where scientists have devoted time
and effort to searching the landscapes for these beautiful creations of
nature and studying them to learn more about them. My project
started out with two main ideas, book pages and flowers, I liked them
both and the way they worked together but I needed to figure out a
way to link them. My research into books
and flowers led me to the discovery and
research of flowers by botanists. I used the
book pages to represent the findings and scribbles in journals from
botanists in the 18th century all the way to today. The flowers represent
their findings and research of different plants and species. I aim to create
beautiful pieces of work inspired by the artists I’ve studied and the
flowers and pages I’ve collected.

I took pictures of flowers as a


starting point to find a colour
palette and style to my work. I
studied the pictures to learn the characteristics of the flower
to replicate in my work. I found artists work to draw
inspiration from and develop my ideas in the beginning of my
project. I recorded this in my logbook pictured here. They
also helped me imagine work I could create in the future. I made samples to try out different
techniques and experiment on what I could do with my theme.

I chose the artist Betty Pepper to focus on as one of my artists as


she uses both the page and flower in her work to show age and
the effect of time. Her concept is how things are constantly
deteriorating and how everything has a history and narrative
behind it. She uses faded colours and material to create the aged
look to her pieces. Experimenting in 3D and 2D work she creates
unusual pieces by merging stitch and books. She experiments
with different materials and uses depth to make the piece more
interesting.

In her piece pictured here, I admire the way she has blended
the flower into the page and almost made it look like it
should be there. The loose threads add to the unfinished look
of the piece and adds a narrative by adding to the story
already on the page. The flower almost weaves through the
page as though it’s a part of the story. Pepper uses books as a
material to work with in many of her pieces. She enjoys using
materials, which have been carelessly discarded and show
sadness through their need to be rescued. Pepper uses

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stories, poems and memories to inspire her work. She loves re-using materials, especially textiles
because she feels as though they have lived a little and add their own story to the new narrative
with the signs of ageing and mistreatment. I love the way her work tells a narrative and I think her
use of re-used materials and books is really inspiring.

Georges Hobeika and Valentino also inspired my work as I used them as fashion
inspiration for my developments into fashion design as they both design beautiful
pieces that are both elegant and interesting. They also use flowers strongly in
their collections and it relates to my project theme and the photos I took.

Valentino Garavani is an Italian fashion designer


and founder of Valentino SpA brand and
company. He has made dresses for celebrities
for all sorts of formal events and has a signature
colour called ‘Valentino red’. I made an artist
mood board with a fashion design and sample
based on his style. In many of his designs he
creates clusters of flowers with embroidery on a
transparent black material, this look has inspired
me in my embroidery experimentation. His work
has made me think about how I want my
embroidery to stand out on my final piece and what material I
should use as a base.

Georges Hobeika is a Lebanese fashion designer of haute couture and ready-to-wear fashion. He
presents his collections every year in Paris Fashion Week. He focuses on romance, femininity and
elegance in his works of beauty. The way he creates flowers as though they are climbing up or falling
down the dress, as though the flowers are growing in and around the fabric. The level of detail in his
work has inspired me to try replicate the effect his embroidery has
on the outcome of the dress in my work. I will use my findings to try
incorporate Hobeika’s creations and techniques, along with my other
artist’s in my work. I have made a mood board based on his work
with a fashion design of my own and sample based on his
embroidery. I found his focus on elegance and beauty very inspiring
for my work, especially with the use of
embroidery and fabrics.

I have focused on dresses made of paper for my


next mood board. The purpose of this mood
board is to help me in my idea to merge my
creations inspired by Valentino and Hobeika and
fashion made of paper. I aim to be able to use
my findings from Valentino and Hobeika’s embroidery to create narrative with
Pepper’s use of books and creating a story. I used this moodboard to help me
figure out how to manipulate the paper and create a dress. My moodboard
consists of pictures of various artists work and my own fashion designs based
on the paper theme. I have also made a 3D flower and experimented with
paper in order to develop my idea of creating a floral, paper dress in the future.
I will manipulate the paper in various ways to create the effect of petals from a
flower for my future fashion designs.

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Throughout my sketchbook I have made many textile


samples relating to the artists or pictures I have
taken. This sample pictured here is on my Betty
Pepper artist page. She inspired me with her blending
of paper and fabric and so I experiemented with her
style to create something interesting. I made it by
cutting out the shape on book page paper and placing
a patterned floral fabric underneath, then with my
sewing machine I sewed along the page outline to
bind them together. I was successful in bonding the
materials together but I didn’t like the overall look of the piece, I couldn’t
create the narrative Pepper makes in her work and the seamless bond of
the materials. I found the style not to my liking but enjoyed sewing onto the built up paper; I
experiment more with this again.

My second sample attempt on my Betty Pepper Page was also unsuccesful. I


used stitch to bond the paper to the fabric again and
sewed on the fabrics to make a flower. I was inspired by
Pepper’s use of materials overlapping and decided to
stitch thread over the piece to make it more interesting.
I found my sample quite flat and uninspiring, in my next
pieces I aimed to focus more on the pictures I found and
also use more interesting colours. I didn’t use my
photos to the full advantage and so the flower looked
almost childish and unrealistic.

For my Georges Hobeika board I used just stitch to


create a piece inspired by his work with
embroidery. The colours and flowers were taken
from this picture of trailing flowers and I used a synesthetic grey fabric for
the base. I was inspired primarily by this dress from Hobeika’s Pre-Fall 2016
collection. I thought this sample was a success, I like the techniques I used
and the positioning of the flowers. I thought the colours could’ve been
better, the white and blue was good and reflected
the picture well but the stem and background could’ve worked better. In my
next samples I aimed to follow a colour palette more precisely from a photo
and use the photo’s to my advantage.

For my Valentino page I chose to use a style similar to Betty


Pepper’s while also getting inspiration from Valentino’s
designs. I used a photo I took at a garden centre for reference
and colour palette. I loved the interesting look of this flower, it
was unique. I stitched the flower onto netting and dissolvable
fabric and outlined it in black stitch. I then cut out the flower
and sewed it onto a book page. I was influenced by Pepper’s
use of book behind stitch when I did this. The single flower

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idea came from Valentino, specifically this look from his Pre-Fall 2015 collection. The way his flowers
are all singular inspired me with my sample.

For the paper inspired part of my sketchbook I made a


paper flower as my sample to see if I could create
something inspired by the paper fashion designs I found.
I made the flower by cutting up the petal shapes from
pink card glued to a book page. I used a cocktail stick to
glue the layers together and painted it lightly with pink
watercolour. I added green leaves at the base and
painted them as well. I was inspired by the paper dresses I found and wanted to
try make my own paper flower as a possibility for my final piece. I thought the
flower was successful, but I didn’t think it would suit the style I wanted for my final piece, because it
wasn’t elegant and beautiful enough. I continued my samples with more beauty and elegance in
mind.

My next piece was part of my experiment pages in my sketchbook, the


purpose of these pages are to figure out what style, colours and
techniques suit my project. I made
this group of flowers in a way similar
to my flower sample on my Valentino
artist page. The Valentino sample
was successful and so I tried to
replicate the black outline style I
used there. I made this using free-
hand machine embroidery on
dissolvable and sheer fabric. The theme of the page was roses and the
colour palette came from a picture of a pale pink rose I took. I do think it was successful, but it
wasn’t as good as the Valentino sample I made, I believe this was because of the flowers sewn or the
material used. In For my next samples I aimed to keep the beauty
theme and keep trying out different styles.

For my next sample on the rose themed page I


chose to use free-hand machine embroidery to
sew light pink strips as petals and shade them
with a darker pink colour, I added pink beads to
try add elegance. I was inspired by a Marchesa
gown from spring 2017, I loved the flowers
placed on the flowing fabric and tried to make
something that could work like that with the fabrics whilst still keeping the
beauty. I think the sample was a success, it was beautiful and elegant and it was a
different way to sew a flower design.

My next sample was based off a picture of a group of flowers. The aim for
this piece was to make something 3D, so to look more outstanding on a
garment. I was inspired by this Georges Hobeika dress from his fall 2016
Haute Couture collection. I made it by ironing a thin fabric to a page using
bondaweb. I then glued it to wire in the shape of the petal to make it hold
its shape. The middle part is made using stitch and slash, a technique I enjoy
but didn’t think suited my project. I liked the 3D effect of the flowers and

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aimed to create something similar. I do not believe my sample was a


success, it lacked the beauty and elegance I wanted throughout my
project.

On the same page I did another


sample, this included the same
style I did on my Valentino
sample and the rose sample. I
made it using dissolvable fabric
and netting this time. The base is
made of muslin dyed then adhered to old music sheets with
bondaweb. The colour palette was from a photo I took, the same as the 3D sample before. It was
inspired by a Georges Hobeika garment with beautiful embroidery. I think this sample was a success,
the style was inspired by Betty Pepper and Valentino. It fit my theme, but I felt it could have been
more elegant.

My next page was based on trailing flowers, I had a photo


from which I got my colour palette. This sample is based off
this photo of flowers. The style and
technique was a new one I tried out. I first
made the background by bonding a map
to dyed poly chiffon with bondaweb. I
sewed free-hand machine embroidery
over as leaves and used French knots with
pink embroidery thread as flowers. I think
the sample turned out well and I really liked the effect the machine embroidery
had on the paper and fabric. At this point in my project I realised the bondaweb
way was the best way to add paper into my final piece. I continue using the bondaweb and begin
experimenting with more embroidery styles.

My final experimental sample was inspired by trailing flowers


and Betty Pepper. I thought Pepper’s falling flowers piece was
beautiful and exactly the sort of beauty mixed with books I
wanted. I tried out the style myself by first making the
background using bondaweb with silk and music sheets. I then
machine embroidered black trailing vines and leaves. Using dyed
muslin I then made flowers
to sew to the background. I
thought my work was well
done and looked beautiful,
it reminded me of trailing
flowers you would find on a
princesses tower in the
forest. I decided to keep using the bondaweb backgrounds and
machine embroidery in my final piece designs.

My final pages in my sketchbook are my final piece designs, I used what I had experimented with to
draw my designs. I decided on making a garment very early on as it suited my project theme of
beauty, flowers and pages well. I drew the designs and painted them with watercolour and fine liner.
I made smaller samples to show my ideas better and show what I meant. Throughout my designs I

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used colour palettes from previous photos and photos from my photo
shoot page at the beginning of my sketchbook. In my first design I used
the bondaweb background with embroidery to make a corset style
bodice, I made panels for the pieces because the paper and fabric
background wouldn’t bend and mould to the mannequin. The skirt
represents the falling and trailing flowers I used in my last pages. In my
next design I used the same panel feature but on the skirt and used
sheer embroidery for the top part, similar to Valentino and Hobeika’s
work. The next design was my effort to
create a more 3D design, the top shoulder
part is similar to the falling flowers of the
first design. The belt is a photo of trailing
flowers and the skirt is similar to a paper
dress in my sketchbook that I liked. The next design also has a shoulder
part keeping with the 3D feature of the last one, this piece is based off a
picture of bright flowers pictured here. The skirt is bunched white poly
chiffon with embroidered flowers cut out, similar to the samples based
on Betty Pepper previously.

I chose to make the first design as my final piece, I


thought it was more elegant and beautiful than the
others and I loved the colours used. I made some
changes to the initial design, but the majority of the
style stayed. I made the bodice using dyed silk and cotton bonded together to give
the silk more hold. The panels were made with dyed silk and maps bonded with
embroidery of trailing flowers over the top. I used bondaweb to stick the panels to
the bodice piece. The skirt was made with silk and muslin cut out in the flower shape I made. A
green line of thread was sewn along the middle as the stem. The flowers were then sewed to a blue
underskirt of poly chiffon. The back was made by placing two panels either side of the bodice, panels
made of poly chiffon and music sheets. The panels attached to a gathering of poly chiffon on the
back as an added touch of elegance. One side of the dress had an invisible zip going from the top to
just above the end of the skirt.

I am pleased with the outcome of my final piece especially with how beautiful and elegant it looks
and with how well it fits the meaning of my project. My research and experiments carried out helped
me achieve the techniques I wanted to use. I think it has a story like Betty Pepper’s work and
portrays the message of beauty I wanted to get across. I have learnt a lot on garment making and
the affects that can be achieved using different fabrics. I have also improved my machine
embroidery skills a lot with this project and I believe it was successful and am very happy with the
outcome.

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Bibliography
• Betty Pepper’s Website http://www.bettypepper.co.uk/
• Betty Pepper’s collection on Made by Hand Website
https://madebyhandonline.com/collections/betty-pepper
• Georges Hobeika Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Hobeika
• Georges Hobeika Website https://georgeshobeika.com/
• Valentino Website https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentino_(fashion_designer)
• Vogue Collection Archives, Vogue UK Website https://www.valentino.com/en-gb

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