The idea of designing for DKNY seemed quite
straightforward at first. Yet through researching my initial ideas, I realized
that designing for a popular, commercial and highly throughout brand would be
harder than designing for myself. I wanted to take this college in unit x to
teach myself how to work more in industry as I feel my work can become too self
absorbed and unmarketable, whereas I would like to find the balance for my
final year of intricate design, yet wearable and practical clothing.
To begin the project, I began looking into
how I would invasion the DKNY man myself, where he would live, work, the
journey he would take to work, pets, hobbies and general interests. I created a
man who held interest in modern contemporary minimalist city design, who had an
eye for graphics and bold street art too. His job left him having to keep quite
a corporate feel and approach to his look, yet through the use of finishing’s,
fastenings, linings and colour, he could express his tastes discretely, yet stylishly.
When we came together as a group, I was
surprised to find out that we would have to work and three menswear and three
womenswear designers. Therefore we planned to separate ourselves into two
groups to begin with and then find elements off each to work with each other
cohesively. The group had a wide range of uses and characters, which has its
advantages and disadvantages. Having a diverse group meant that most areas
needed in the project where someone’s area of strength, yet I felt this made
the final result to come out a bit pieced together and less fluid. I also felt
that there were a few stronger characters in the group who found themselves
making executive decisions when we should of looked at the idea as a whole
choice. Despite this, I learn a lot from my fellow peers in the way the not
only design, but their style of presentation, layout, sampling and time
management. I also liked that in the end the group result did stem clearly from
the research and had obvious roots, plus the final line up wouldn’t of been
something I would of particularly designed on my own, which made me broaden my
tastes a little.
As a whole I have really enjoyed this
project as I took it literally and treated it like it was a real job in the
industry and I felt I got a good taste from the experience. Even though working
in a group was sometimes a struggle to get my point across, I did learn a lot
from others and about myself. It has helped me to question whether I want to continue
menswear next year or progress into a more tailored women’s approach, due to my
connection with the womenswear side of our project. Overall, I felt like it
took me out of my comfort zone of print and lead me to look as garment
construction more, which I felt like I needed to explore more in my own work.
