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All Studio Related Research

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1G5Yt-2K8i1oYycOR5e0cf5A0WftGDZ0C-1MKbTJDDsE/edit 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1z1WKYdFjSUlHlapvQ8cAuZhcdJ-OZaxZCLd0Vh45mVQ/edit

https://docs.google.com/document/d/13GnoLsJQzci1fD2FvC9XXtQuKGBUvVUkKBLClgRyass/edit 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fMwr3I1u79vWzRCpZcoLxVOO0xdKtaVbqxqZAaoQHYE/edit 

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I was able to print off my ideas and carry out some of my concepts. Here are a few concepts I plan to create!

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For my studio display I wanted the idea of textile waste to really shine through. My idea was to have a wardrobe in the studio room and have clothes hang like so. I also wanted to have plastic bags and piled clothes to show the reality of what we do go our forgotten clothes. I’ve also drawn up other ideas and possible display options that include having a projector.

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Here are some of my stretches and brainstorming for my shirts. Some idea include, highlighting the mental health of men. The mental health of teenagers (the most common) depression, anxiety and insecurity.

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I began prototyping the style of my shirts and really got the chance to roughly fill out my ideas. Here’s some concepts that I came up with and have tested.

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Feedback

After receiving feedback from my peers, I found that my products could be a lot better. In terms of fabric use and design intention, I’ve now begun to draw up concepts of clothing I’m going to test with.

Here’s an example of some of my ideas I’m considering. I’m also looking into the transparency of materials, in doing this I really want to enforce the idea of “Share Our Secrets “. Finding new ways to portray that through my clothing is my current challenge. As always time is a challenge because I’m doing so much by hand.

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After receiving some feedback, I decided to expland my clothing and started experimenting on dress shirts. I wanted to highlight different mental health issues throughout my clothing. An example would be with the bottom left dress shirt, the shirt was originally all blue. I took off the original pocket and sewed on a white one, I plan to also print an imagine on the pocket. This shirt represents the feelings inside men and the black shirt that usually has a black pocket is now with the white I’m hoping to bring the issue into the light.

This is an example I created myself, an imagine I hope to screen print or draw onto this white pocket myself. The image stands for men needing help, my trade mark “sos “ is in the symbol the represents men.

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Product process

One thing I noticed from actually creating my product was that it’s very time consuming. I spent 3-4 hours sewing on shirt with the word “insomnia “. This was just trial and error, I do have photos of the shirt which I will post later. From what I can take from my experience with the shirt, is if I were to sew shirts by hand my product production would be very poor. From a business perspective it took me 3-4 hours to create a shirt minus cutting of the letters. Nz’s minimum wage is $17.70 that would cost me $70.80 to pay my worker and I’d only sell the shirt at $50-75 which either way I either lose a lot or gain very little. I have considered using a sewing machine however I have yet to get my hands on one. One other thing I found was that with the use of recycled clothing, some materials are harder to sew that others. In this case the fabric of the ‘S’ was too thin it didn’t really sit well when I was trying to sew it into place. This is something that would defindly set my company back on terms of produce.

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https://youtu.be/rLmt5lq5_cQ

Here’s an example what my personal interest that’s combine with fashion/clothing. I didn’t explain how I got from mental brand to recycled clothing, then to recycling plastic from the ocean into reuseable clothes. Well it started from me exploring other options from reusing clothes and just cutting them up and sewing them onto a new jumper. I searched more into reusing clothing and found that we only use 1% of the amount of clothes in New Zealand to recreate new clothes. I’m not sure yet as to why the percent is so low but this fact peaked my interest in creating sustainable clothing. My new interest is in finding a bio friendly solution to New Zealand’s textile waste system.

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https://youtu.be/pJBRqespiOA

Here’s a clip I found while scrolling through facebook. I found this helpful however it doesn’t really give me an idea on WHAT resources I’d need. Things like machinery, workers and the science behind recreating bottles into shoes.

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Textile waste

I’ve recently started searching more towards textile waste in NZ. One thing that I’ve found is that out of the $4 billion dollars of clothing New Zealanders go through in one year only 1% of that is recycled and re-engineered. Leaving us with only a few options either donating clothes or sending them to 3rd world countries and of course landfilling. From my entrepreneurship and innovation class I was taught the basic definition of the word entrepreneur. “Need, want or problem that needs to be solved.” The way I see this is, find a gap and fill it. I feel that if I could find a solution that can at least bump that 1% up to 3-5 I’d make a hinge difference.

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One thing I’ve learnt from my partner is to consider the costs of making more than one item. If an investor is interested in my brand it’s always good for me to have this knowledge. Being able to have an idea of time and costs will help me put into perspective how much money I’d need.

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Here are one of my shirt designs. I’m yet to sew the letters to the shirt because I’m still unsure how I want the letters sit. More designs will come.

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These are just a few materials I found laying around my house. From shirts, jackets, pants and scarfs. The first imagine is how I plan to stitch my the fabrics on to a jumper or shirt. This is just an example of what I plan to do and as for stitching and sewing, I have family who have sewing machines and also a needle and thread. My only down fall in producting is time, sewing and stitching it myself will take some time and I would have to find a more efficient way to produce merchandise. Compared to screen printing this method is a lot longer, however when it comes to selling my clothing the price would go up because it was hand made.

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From a business stand point I wouldn’t have to use much money, it’s cut costs by using old clothes I have at home and by purchasing materials from Op-shops.

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For the business side of things I looked into the product production. Being a student it’ll be hard to find the money to buy hoodies, shirts and other necessary apparel. I have friends who study at AUT in the Design labs, they have free access to screen printing. That is an option I have to print out my shirts using the Aut facilities however I want to steer away from mainstream fashion. Printing one word or image on a shirt and then selling it is not what I want to do. I really want my brand to speak for itself so I decided to find a different solution. Recycled clothing, personally I like to thrift shop. I often see clothes that is being sold for $1 or $3, not only this but having a large family we have so many clothes that we donate to stores like Red Cross, Salvation Army and many other Op-shops. I figured I could save money on buying fabrics and just reuse those to create something new. A great example of recycling textiles would be “ deconstruction fashion”.

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Design intention

This is the final logo that I have decided to go with. I also finalised my brand name, which is now “Share Our Secrets “, in abbreviation (SOS). I finally found the right word play with and I also constructed a logo to go with it. I tried to have a general knowledge aspect in my logo. Meaning, it’s obvious to some that that the abbreviation of ‘sos’ is used to signal for help or when in distress. With that idea in mind, I tried so forming my brand name to fit within it. E.g. “Save our Sins”, “Seek our Saviour”. It was by doing this, that I then reached the idea of “Share Our Secrets”. I feel like this is a direct message, my intention was to lift the stigma surround mental health and having this straight forward name and logo will help. Considering not everyone can look at logos or brands and see the design intention behind them.