The During (part 2)

Fashion Enter LTD

On the last day of our London trip, my group had the incredible privilege to visit a fashion manufacturer called Fashion Enter LTD. This company is a social enterprise invested in producing fashion ethically and responsibly. Our tour guide took us through their facility and showed us their manufacturing and designing process. This company is very dedicated to producing clothing in a productive, but socially conscious, way.

I was unable to take pictures up in their design studio, but I really enjoyed seeing an actual manufacturer's process for designing garments. Their process looks a lot like mine (collect references, preliminary design ideas, mock up, mock up iterations, and final product) and I enjoyed seeing how this company creates their clothing patterns. Pattern construction is something I'm still learning a lot about, and it was interesting to see this process in action.

At first, I had a difficult time trying to find a way to connect this visit back to my project. After some reflection, I decided to focus in on what I was able to see of their design process. Fashion Enter LTD creates their pieces based on specifications from their clients and from inspiration found out it in the real world. The pieces they produce are unique to them, but if you know what you're looking at, you can trace the inspiration back to its roots. I plan to create something using a similar technique; I want the piece I create to subtly represent my university in a way that isn't obvious at first glance.

The pieces Fashion LTD are created based on data from their clients. These can be things like "shorter dresses are selling faster than longer ones" and "dusty pink sells better than baby blue". I was amazed at how fast Fashion Enter LTD is able to produce products meeting these demands, especially when you consider how fast trends change!

Clothing Reimagined Workshop at Cockpit Studios

After visiting Fashion Enter LTD, my group hopped on a train and headed south to Cockpit Studios. This studio hosts a wide arrange of artists, crafters, and makers who all specialize in making something unique. Our workshop was hosted by designer Ian Scott Kettle. When he isn't hosting workshops for people, Ian specializes in creating exquisite, bespoke mean's accessories. He passed around some beautifully crafted bowties and neckties while he told us a little about himself and the carful thought he puts into each piece is clear even to someone with no sewing experience. I had such a blast hearing about his experiences and participating in his very creative workshop!

Prior to going to Cockpit Studios, every person in my group was asked to bring in a clothing item to use in the workshop. Our instructor made it a requirement that the item had to be purchased in London, so my group and I visited several different charity shops looking for unique garments to use. At the workshop, Ian asked us to get into smaller groups and create an outfit using our pieces. He encouraged us to focus on using our pieces in nontraditional ways and what resulted was a lot of chaos and a lot of fun. At one point, we were asked to make our instructor a dynamic outfit using everybody's garments in one way or another. I think I can safely say that everyone in my group enjoyed looking at our pieces in a new way and got a lot out of our workshop.

My big takeaway from this workshop was actually something Ian told us while presenting a little bit about himself and the fashion industry "Fashion is whatever you need it to be," Isn't that a great outlook to have? You can participate in fashion as little or as much as you like and still be able to explore fashion as an art form. I also love his idea because it accepts that everybody is going to value fashion in a different way and that however you decided to utilize fashion is 100% okay.