A New Phoenix?: Modern Putting-Out in the Modena Knitwear Industry
Good Link.......interesting!!
Sunday 25 April 2010
Some Good.....Some Other
I am still working on the Knitting into fabric concept. Sometimes it feels like a really good idea, something challenging, something new...but at others I do wonder if these monstrosities will ever become something of interest let alone beauty.
I am working on doing the whole thing tone on tone.....using colour is distracting me from the process....I will give it another month (in my mind at least....) flogging dead horses is not on my agenda.
One thing to come out of this is just how hard it is to unlearn a way of working. I have mentioned before the tension that exists between the part of my brain that designs garments to sell...the part of me that kept me fed and with a roof over my head I suppose! And the designer that wanted.....still wants to test herself. This is hard part as without that dissatisfaction that drove me back, The sense of disappointment really in my own work whether it sold or not, I will have no finished MA project. And yet it is that part of the work I find it impossible to control or submit too...
So for now I continue, back to the stand and back to the books....looking for what the process will reveal and how I can use it.
As for the good.....really good I had an amazing visit to John Smedley. I have never seen such a complete operation and there was nothing abstract in the way the company functions. The in house testing was very interesting and exacting, I had never seen it used to that extent.....Also the dying the finishing plant. They had state of the art Whole Garment machines running next to old FF machines that required bar-loading.....skills that are rare these days. Again the point came up about designers are not technically enough minded also the old problem of Kitchen Sink Designing. The tension in a heritage brand must be quite difficult at times given designers always feel the pull of doing it because you can.....and yet sometimes you do need to hold back!! They even had one Technician/Knitter who was a woman which is still rare as hens teeth.
One thought to come out of this and also the New York interview is should Universities be offering a PGC in Knitwear Technology.....a kind of Pass-Plus for Knitwear designers. I think it is a seductive thought and in a world where industry link-ups are seen as key in generating external funding and Post Grad take-up I think it could be worth examining...
I am working on doing the whole thing tone on tone.....using colour is distracting me from the process....I will give it another month (in my mind at least....) flogging dead horses is not on my agenda.
One thing to come out of this is just how hard it is to unlearn a way of working. I have mentioned before the tension that exists between the part of my brain that designs garments to sell...the part of me that kept me fed and with a roof over my head I suppose! And the designer that wanted.....still wants to test herself. This is hard part as without that dissatisfaction that drove me back, The sense of disappointment really in my own work whether it sold or not, I will have no finished MA project. And yet it is that part of the work I find it impossible to control or submit too...
So for now I continue, back to the stand and back to the books....looking for what the process will reveal and how I can use it.
As for the good.....really good I had an amazing visit to John Smedley. I have never seen such a complete operation and there was nothing abstract in the way the company functions. The in house testing was very interesting and exacting, I had never seen it used to that extent.....Also the dying the finishing plant. They had state of the art Whole Garment machines running next to old FF machines that required bar-loading.....skills that are rare these days. Again the point came up about designers are not technically enough minded also the old problem of Kitchen Sink Designing. The tension in a heritage brand must be quite difficult at times given designers always feel the pull of doing it because you can.....and yet sometimes you do need to hold back!! They even had one Technician/Knitter who was a woman which is still rare as hens teeth.
One thought to come out of this and also the New York interview is should Universities be offering a PGC in Knitwear Technology.....a kind of Pass-Plus for Knitwear designers. I think it is a seductive thought and in a world where industry link-ups are seen as key in generating external funding and Post Grad take-up I think it could be worth examining...
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