One of my most favourite parts within designing a collection is the fabrication. I could spend Days, even weeks just looking at different fabrics, textures, weights and contents. It fascinates me because you have to have a great eye not only choosing the appropriate fabric but also colour for the season and collection. You not only have to make the sketch come alive but you have to be able to tell a story, to make sure people understand and most importantly its flow.

For my mini men’s and womenswear collection “amore amore” alot of thought went into the fabrication. It’s a very important part depending on which way you work – whether you select your fabrics first then design, or vice versa.

For the women’s collection I wanted to focus more on accentuating feminine curves and mixing it up with a touch of androgyny such as masculine tailoring which is very evident in my ladies dress. It’s very two faced – in the sense that you look at it once and you say “wow she looks gorgeous, an absolutely stunning feminine piece – great shape”, but then you look at it again and you say to yourself “man I should step back – she’s in charge” – There’s a big boom of dominance in the female pieces ! Their trendy yet edgy !

Coming to fabrication – Feminine fabrics such as sheer silk organza’s and laces were a priority as well as mixing it up with a completely opposite  heavy, authoritative, and grunge yet expensive clean look, the fabrics that shouted that out were genuine leather and real fur. Driving from one wholesaler to another in Sydney, trying to find what it was that I Loved and wanted the most – I must say It took forever but the reward the journey brought was great ! There is a bit of quilting evident within my designs which I think is a very strong element of masculinity as well as leather slashing !

The men’s look was kept very basic in design but it is the busy fabrication that will give you that touch of luxury as well as making you stand out from the crowd. For the men’s pant piece I chose the classic 5 pocket styled jean and for fabrication it will be a very crazy random tie dyed red and burgundy denim. I’ll keep it quiet on the men’s look and just surprise you all when the time comes !

The colours I chose for the looks for the brie are very “amore amore”. Burgundy and deep reds with a splash of live reds and black. At the same time, you can’t allow yourself to get too crazy because it’s a RTW collection so people have to be able to wear it on a day to day basis.

It was good to have been designing for FW 12 – stepping away from last years summer themed briefs. I really do enjoy my course and for those of you who think it’s all fun and games and dress ups – its honestly not – I must say those who have turned around and said that to me really don’t understand ! – That shirt you’re wearing – yes even those designer pants ! It has taken someone through a very stressful yet enjoyable journey and has been successful enough to make it into stores and into your closet ! Appreciation for the industry, whether you like that designers style or not – I appreciate it … Do you ?

It’s been a very long journey for me this semester, considering my operation – I’ve had some time off from it all trying to recover ( which i might add – slow process much !!), I’m really looking forward to next week back – I’ll have three weeks to re-work my patterns – those that need to be fixed – then to be re sampled/toiled, and finally to produce the actual collection – EEEEKKK !!! the amount of pressure and stress – I’m sure you’ll hear from it on my blog !

Cannot wait to share the collection with you !

p.s Check out the beautiful Lace samples I got ! The first is a French Lace, followed by Guipure Lace which is the one I’ll be using as it goes well with the amore amore -  blood/veined theme. Bot

xxxx much love, Yours Truly

RHYversusWORLD