Product sketches

These are the coloured sketches I have made of the first ideas I have for my products. I have used the research I have collected to decide on the shapes and the materials are a combination of fabrics I hope to find second-hand, and fabrics I want to design and print. I have also included elements I hope to find on my trip to the beach, including shells, sea glass and driftwood.

Product ideas - shape trends

As well as having a shell/beachcombing theme, I also have to look at current themes to see what is in fashion. I looked at a website called WGSN using the college's subscription to find shape trends for bags, scarves and purses. For bag trends, I liked the small box style bags and a slouchy bag with long circular handles which would look good with an all over print.

 Whilst looking at scarf trends I found out about sweater scarves, these are meant to look like you have tied a jumper around your shoulders. Thinking about my theme, I am reminded of fishermen and their gansey jumpers. If I could find some second-hand aran jumpers I could easily manipulate the shape by sewing and picking up and re-knitting stitches.

Another new trend is apparently, the lariat. I think of this as more of a necklace, but it could be easy to incorporate elements of my theme. For example, the lariat itself could be made out of thick rope, the type used on boats, and the embellishments could be shells and pieces of driftwood. Here I have also researched fisherman's knots which I think would add a decorative element as well as keeping the embellishments in place.

That's my idea!

During my research, I came across the spring/summer 2012 collections for Chanel and Versace. I don't know how they managed to find out about my idea, but these fashion houses have produced collections based on shells and underwater images!

 Versace have used a number of beautiful prints featuring shells, sea-life and mermaids! They have also made use of shell shape as embellishments and jewellery as I saw in my initial research. I really like these prints and I'd like to do something similar as I think scarves would look really good in a full print and also a bag lined with a colourful print would be fun.

I love these Chanel bags. they are so inventive and really show what can be achieved with some experimentation. My favourite is the seaweed bag, I like the muted colours and the textures. Although I like these ideas, if I were to make something similar, I would want it to be a bit more practical that people would buy because they can see themselves using it as an everyday item.

Inspirational images

To start my project I gathered some photos and magazine cut outs of products that had a similar theme of shells and stuck them into my PPJ work book.

This page shows how initially I did a simple search for products featuring shells. It proves that it is a versatile theme that can be applied to clothes, accessories and home ware. I like the prints and the use of shells as embellishments and as a shape for 3D objects.

Although these photocopied images don't show my theme directly, to me they invoke the frills and ruffles of shells. I could use these fabric manipulation techniques in my own products to add some surface decoration without having to make a print or drawing.

I love the print image on this dress. It reminds me of a rock pool, and I think it would be quite easy to replicate using batik dyes and randomly dropping it onto fabric so that the colours bleed together. I also like the textures of the group of fabrics on the right. I could use a similar mix of chunky and fine fabrics to add some contrast and interest to my products.