There once was a little girl who worked really hard to become someone successful in order to make herself proud. When she wanted to feel creative, she would draw. From Disney princesses to her dolls, you could see everything important to her on A4 paper. As she grew up, she realised she wanted more. She decided to be that creative person who other little kids would want to look up to. This meant the little girl had to leave her family behind and move to another country to make her dreams come true. 

Now that little girl, is not so little anymore. She is a second-year fashion design and marketing student, halfway through achieving her dream. Her, sorry my name is Rozhin, and this is my journey as a design student who has an opportunity to design for an industry collaboration, Georgia Hardinge.

“I did not know you could make a living out of fashion,” said Karl Lagerfeld, the late, great designer. “In my childhood, fashion was a retailer’s thing. It is difficult to describe how one imagines the world when you are 7, 8 or 10 years old. But I was convinced that it would work. That I’d be famous in the whole world.” I can relate to this very much. It has made me the person I am today. I chose to be in fashion because fashion is in me. From the moment I wake up in the morning, until midnight when I go to bed, fashion is what controls my life. “Fashion is what people wear,” said American Vogue fashion editor, Carrie Donovan. I say, “Fashion is people”.

All fashion design students have the same goal, which is to showcase their creation to the world and get recognized for their aesthetic and design. But the real question lies deeper inside: How can you be unique when everybody wants the same?

Different designers have different timelines. As a student you get to create in a timeline of 13 weeks, a moderately fair amount of time to learn and demonstrate your accomplishments. However, for a first timer, it might be pretty stressful to represent the best you can possibly do. Especially if it involves professionals from the actual industry (seriously, no joke). The first step for me was to learn everything about Georgia Hardinge as I am somehow designing for her. Her work is very sculptural, and it is usually inspired by architecture. The sharp looking pleats always stand out in her work. In her own words, she describes her aesthetic as “Architectural shapes and structures. I work on developing pleating techniques from paper sculptures. It’s three-dimensional clothing that is flattering and easy to wear.” Therefore, an important design element to include in my collection was Pleats. Lots and lots of them.

Inspiration

First comes inspiration. Inspiration and motivation are not the same thing, but they complete each other which means you can’t get inspired without being motivated. There is no magic trick to becoming inspired. Unless you ask for help from your Fairy Godmother. This isn’t that kind of fairy tale though. It’s a different one! There are tips and tricks, and a huge effort you need in order to extract inspiration. Karl Lagerfeld agrees. “When people say they wait for inspiration, I don’t believe in that. Inspiration is a nice word but as the French say , the appetite comes when you eat, and the ideas come when you work.” It is only then that you might get ElectronicFlashes. There are usually 5 steps that you need to consider for this to happen.

The first would be headspace. Do something you enjoy doing without thinking about anything else. For me it’s the piano. It helps me avoid having a nervous breakdown (yup, we all have them!). While doing that, I am unintentionally creating some room in my brain for some new thoughts.

Secondly, collect items you like. Could be music, photos, movies or items. Because inspiration is basically just reconnecting to stuff we’ve already experienced and combining it in new ways to make it our own and to create something new out of it. There is no inspiration without input. Storing that input somewhere with easy access is important as you need to go back and remind yourself what you got. I’ve got my sketchbook, my Instagram and my iPad.

Thirdly, look into places you wouldn’t normally look. The designer Paul Smith once said, “you can find inspiration in anything, and if you can’t – then look again.” Looking for fashion inspiration is always tricky. Since the project is a collaboration with Georgia, it is vital to look into what she got inspired by in the first place: architecture. Nevertheless, that doesn’t mean that I have to do the same as her.

Afterwards, surround yourself with people you like (or at least you enjoy talking to). Telling your ideas to someone who you trust is another step taken forward. You always benefit from the feedback they give and use it to craft your creation. Whether it’s positive or not.

And last but not least, Scamper, which is simply a brainstorming technique invented by Alex Osborn also known as the brainstorming godfather. He was an American author born in 1888 in New York. Scamper was originally developed to help generate new ideas for products or services. It stands for; substitute, combine, adapt, modify, put to other use, eliminate and reverse. Each word exactly represents the required action. No hard equation involved! For instance, in my case, the pleats can be combined with other design elements or it can be eliminated at all. Something which I certainly don’t want in my project. It’s a fun technique and definitely an effective one.

There it was. The idea came to me straight away. Staircases. It also linked me to artworks such as Rosette by Ivan Midzo, The Rose by Jay DeFeo, Anatolia by Marc Leuthold and Tony Cragg’s works. I wanted my work to represent elements including downward spirals, layers, various proportions and most importantly, the Fibonacci (without the mathematical numbers for sure).

I want to create something that all women would want to wear. My motto is ‘I want to make women feel powerful and confident in my designs’. Fashion is about telling a story. The story can be told using the shapes, colours and in fact, the designer’s essence. But being practical as well, it is also vital to know the target customer and, in this case, Georgia Hardinge’s.

They are strong women who want to be stylish anywhere at any time. Hardinge describes her customers as “fashion forward yet timeless”. So, there I was. Sketching every other day. Creating toiles on my mini mannequin while experimenting with different techniques that I learned from the tutor’s feedback. As Marc Jacobs said, “It is like a ping-pong sort of match, the ideas move around”. One day I admire something, the next day I don’t.

Creation

I started by creating an origami called the Navel shell by Tomoko Fuse and placed it in different areas of the mannequin. It definitely gave that affect that a spiral staircase has. Having that contrast in between pleats and the darkness within each layer is the key. As I was creating the bodice and capturing my every step, I came across a photo I took which resembled a sleeve from a particular angle. I thought why not make one sleeve out of stair-looking pleats which at the end, I managed to succeed. My spiral looking Bomber Jacket with a dress underneath! Yet to be made.

I still have 4 weeks to create my garment with my choice of fabric. Meanwhile, I have my toiles, patterns and my 10 weeks’ worth of hard work. At the moment, I have to be a sponge. I got to absorb as much as I can in order to complete what I have started in the best possible way. That’s what Marc Jacobs does. The pleated designs in Balmain spring 2019 couture sparked a joy inside me, especially the white pleated top that wraps around the body like some sort of butterfly wings. Another collection that helped me with my creation is the Sculptural Flowers collection by David Laport. Each outfit has a flower feature made by fabrics such as Organza and Tulle. The outfit with the corset top combined with the pleated organza is one of my favourites. The organza is sewn within the seams of the corset and it Looks like flower petals from distance. Breath-taking! It is all about expressing oneself.

It’s not always easy to be a designer. Working at home, ironing on a teeny tiny ironing board and being hunched up on the floor for hours may not be everyone’s cup of tea. While I was sculpting my bland looking cream calico, which is an unbleached cotton used in garment creation as an experimental fabric, into the dress form with my pins with bright-coloured tips, I am able to put all my ideas together. It was when I was doing all this I stumbled upon the perfect name for my collection: division. Not only because parts of the garments divide into sections by the pleating, but because the patterns that create it are divided in order to hold the pleats. Confusing? Yup, I get it too.

It has been a tough but wonderful journey. I am now starting to sew the garments in the final chosen fabrics, organza and satin crepe. I try to make every stitch as joyful an experience as every second passes because I am getting closer to reaching my goal.

My advice is when you get an idea…do it. And if you don’t you might want to try what Karl Lagerfeld did during the daytime to seek inspiration. Go take a bath. Try to find what works best for you. After all this is all about your own personal journey. I know I’m going some way to make the little girl I once was proud but I’ve still got some way to go.