Hi Everyone,
I hope you are all having a lovely day! Over the Christmas holidays and throughout some of January we were given our very first summative brief to work on! It was a chance for us to work as individuals and show what we could do when we were left to our own devices.
I was given the store AllSaints to focus on as well as an upcoming spring/summer 2020 trend and an outcome. For my trend I was allocated the crafted and embellished trend with the outcome lens. We had to work through each stage of the FCP creative process just like we had done during the times we did each stage as a group. The starting point for any task or project is the contexts stage. The contexts stage is all about research. We had to make sure we had covered primary and secondary research as well as researching into our trend, brand and outcome.
I really enjoy the contexts stage. Research may sound quite time consuming and boring but I love just putting my earphones in and cracking on. Browsing the web and adding to my workbook to show what I have done. It is actually really fun.
I started this stage by conducting my own research in the form of an interview. I asked people in my life like my friends and family certain questions about my trend and store and recorded their answers in my workbook. At this point I was still not sure how I would use this information but I knew it would be a good start to see what I could discover. From this, it became a common theme that males did not seem to own any clothing that was embellished, it seemed like a very female thing from the answers that I obtained. This started to get me thinking. There seems to be a bit of a gap with this trend and the kind of people that buy into it. Designers seem to be prioritising women slightly more when it comes to embellished garments. Perhaps this is because they know that men are not likely to wear pieces like this so selling it may not do well for their business. I started to think about how I could use this for my outcome. Possibly centring it around embellishment and males however this was only a starting idea as I was beginning my research. I also noticed that the age group 18-25 mostly had not heard of AllSaints before perhaps showing that the brand is aimed at young adults developing into maturity and then mature adults rather than younger age groups. This was something else I thought I could maybe play around with when I got to the outcome stage.
I then continued with some general research into my trend and documented my findings in my workbook in the form of mind maps. I researched brands who are adopting the crafted and embellished trend in 2020 and found a trench coat that was on the Burberry spring/summer 2020 catwalk. The trench coat was beautiful and was embellished with crystals elevating the classic trench coat we all know and love. I also found that YSL were doing a matching co-ord short suit that was embellished with sequins. I found some images and stuck them in my workbook to demonstrate what other brands will be doing with this trend. I have also included two more images in this post of embellished trench coats that Burberry do to demonstrate how brands are currently using the trend to their advantage.
After this, I went on to show how people I know and me personally have adopted this trend before. Both my year 11 and year 13 prom dresses had embellishment on them so I included some pictures of these in my workbook. I described and explained how some of my friends had worn the trend and why.
I then moved on to how different stores have adopted the trend and showed ways in which AllSaints themselves had already done it. I saw that a lot of the embellished clothing AllSaints did was black. I wasn't sure if this information would help me with my project but it definitely got me thinking. I showed how AllSaints sold the trend against other stores like Topshop and ASOS. I also conducted my own primary research in Kurt Geiger and photographed some embellished pieces they are doing for my workbook.
Next, I wanted to delve into the historical background of my trend. I wanted to see how embellished clothing was worn in the past. I saw that men actually were catered for in the past a bit more than they are today when it comes to embellishments. Embellishments were worn a lot in Tudor England with past Kings like Henry VIII wearing clothing like this as a symbol of wealth and the strength and power he had as the King. I put lots of photographs in my workbook of past Monarchs wearing embellishments and commented on it a little bit.
After this I moved on to researching about my brand AllSaints and what they stand for. I discovered that the married owners of the brand are Kait Bolongaro and Stuart Trevor. They both share a love of music and this is reflected in their clothing as it highlights rock n roll and moderness. The first ever store opened in London in 1997 and at this point they only sold menswear until they expanded to womenswear in 1998. They are widely known for their interior as the first store attracted many customers because the window was filled with vintage sewing machines. I did lots of research all about the brand and put this in my workbook along with pictures to aid the points I had written about.
Along with this I included some famous people who have adopted the trend such as Princess Diana, Beyoncé and Ferne McCann to show the different types of people who have bought into the trend.
I found it really fun and exciting doing a lot of work in my workbook. I enjoy doing it so it almost felt like I wasn't working at all. The contexts stage really helped to get me thinking about the combination I had been given and what I might do with it.
I really hope you all enjoyed this post as a bit of an insight in to what the contexts stage really is!
Niamh x
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