UNIT X | JAMES LONG EVALUATION

Throughout Unit X, working on a live brief for James Long SS17 collection has been very different to anything I have done during uni. Choosing the fashion option I was worried I wouldn’t fit in, and wouldn’t be able to get the flow of the fashion way of working. Being put into a group of people I didn’t know, apart from Laura, scared me. But I was soon to find they were all nice and welcoming.

Having a mixture of textiles and fashion was strange to begin with, trying to pick up everybody’s specialisms and strengths. The fashion way of working was completely different to textiles, and it weren’t until the final few weeks that I started picking up exactly how they work. It seemed strange not having primary research and coming up with a whole concept to base the project on rather than just a word or point of interest as I was used to. I think being told this, would have helped me make a start much faster than I did. Also developing a muse was new to me, and the way the designs start much earlier than they would do in textiles. It has been a learning curve being part of the fashion brief; I have learnt a lot of new things during my time and picked up valuable knowledge to take through to my final year. As well as learning things about myself that I could only see when working with a group, such as the pace I was working at, and what I needed to personally improve on.

Working in a group has been a tough challenge, it has had it’s ups and downs. Group work would be something I wouldn’t necessarily like to do again, it was annoying having to rely on people and not being able to do everything myself. I expected the workshops to be teaching how to design, but we never got taught anything, so had to rely on the fashion students to do the designs and flats as we had no previous experience.

Presenting to Tom was a good experience to get feedback from somebody in the industry that knows what they are talking about; and can instantly pick up on anything that is not right or distracting from a group project. It was constructive criticism and enabled us to go away and work on and improve the project further.

Unit X has been a very strange end to my second year, it has taught me a lot. I feel I would have benefited more from a textiles based brief as the way of working confused me, and with it being group work, I felt like I had gave up and got really fed up with the project before the end. It was interesting working for a Live brief and it helped me explore some new knitting techniques to take into my final year, and helped me with designs which will be an important part of Level 6.