Here are my fashion illustraions for my final samples!!!

For my final samples I decided to weave in with wool by using punch cards. I designed my own patterns that were inspired by Welsh cloth and my colour pallet was decided by the natural colour of my own alpacas. I also designed a protoype website explaining the concept of my designs and how the customer can be part of the story. I also decided to create my own tags for the garments, explaining what alpaca their certain garment came from and that it was a 100% natural alpaca wool!Here are my final boards.

For the collection of garments using the alpaca wool I was very inspired by Missoni's autumn/winter 09/10 collection! I love the use of layering and the dynamic effect it has. Im also inspired by the way the knitting has been draped and how contemporary it remains even though its layer upon layer of knit.

For inspiration for my project I researched in to a few other companies that work with the same sort of concept and i found this website very interesting. http://www.thetoftalpacashop.co.uk/ They have their own heard of prize winning alpacas and then have local knitters creating the garments to sell online, with it all being highly environmentally friendly. The garments they produce are high quality extremely delicate and beautiful, and have a strong sense of emotion attached to them. The other appealing thing about them is that they offer family days out to visit the alpacas and also run hand knitting courses!

To work more towards the concept of the project I wanted to think of ways to show the customer the story behind the garment they were buying. I wish to involve them in the story and give them a chance to get to know the alpacas as I know them, by providing names, photos and information about them individually. To do this I did some research into similar companies with same concept as me and here are some I found quite interesting.

http://www.izzylane.com/

I found her collection inspiring as the garments she had produced were very traditional yet looked contemporary. I also thought the natural colour pallet worked well and that the background for the fashion shots made a great look book.

I've found the alpaca wool very difficult to knit on the domestic machines and so tried a few samples by hand knitting them. I've found this works very well and they give off a very natural look! I also believe that the hand knitting is working better towards the sustainability aspects of my project as it is going back to the belief of hand crafted garments with higher quality, meaning that people are a lot more likely to keep it if more effort has gone into the making of it. Another website that I find as a useful resource is http://www.makepiece.co.uk/. My most favourable aspect of this collection is how edgy it is. I love that they have been able to be more creative and experimental even though they are restricted with fibres and methods. I believe the colour pallet is also very strong as they have use lots of bright vibrant colours.Here are some examples of my own samples.

Over the past few weeks I've been experimenting with different knitting techniques to see what works best with the alpaca wool. I think the weaving-in technique works really well as it gives it a strong texture and also is an easier way to knit with the thickly spun alpaca wool.

This is one of my alpacas Carwyn and he lives at home with me on Bryngolau Farm. I have had his fleece spun locally and I intend on knitting with it for this project.

As I did more research I decided that the fiber I want to use is wool as it is associated with the history of Welsh costume and industry and it’s also very sustainable in terms of helping the environment. As I have alpacas at home I’ve decided to experiment with their wool. My concept is that using their wool is creating an emotional attachment as my family has farmed them and I want to propose that everything is to be made locally so that it has a sense of culture and also lowering the carbon footprint by it not being shipped around the world.

A spinning wheel from the national wool museum

Sustainability

For my current project I'm researching into the concept of sustainability in fashion and attempting to design a concept and a collection that will fulfill this brief. For inspiration for this project I visited the national wool museum in West Wales and looked into the history of welsh costume. I discovered that a lot of work went into creating these garments and that the whole community worked together from shearing the sheep to knitting the garments. I was very interested in the emotional and historical connections to the fabric and felt that including this in my project must make clothes more sustainable. People must be interested in holding onto something that has a story behind it or some kind of memory or emotion attached to it.