A little window into my world

Sunday 7 March 2010

Out of the Water

So perhaps the name of my blog seems rather random as I haven't really spoken about water all that much. I haven't really spoken about much to be honest, but that is not the point. This will probably turn into a long babbly post but hopefully will make the blog name make more sense.

While at university I spent alot of time focused on my career path. There was nothing else I wanted to do apart from fashion show production, and the fire I had was literally scalding. I worked myself into the ground in order to do well and progress, making some ridiculous sacrifices along the way. To think about something 24/7 is to drive one mad. No matter what I was doing, how busy I was with life, there was this niggle in my brain constantly thinking about the future. It was purely by accident that I stumbled across my interest in sportswear and particularly swimwear.

For our final major project we were set 5 live briefs on which to base our collection. They really pushed us toward one in particular, but it could not have disinterested me more. Only one caught my eye and one made it seem like there was breathing room and opportunity in it. It was for a new swimwear company founded by Godfrey who originally invented the swimming goggle, which is a simple but effective design. By taking away rather then adding they came across the most effective design.

Sportswear and swimwear is something I had never really considered before, but the passion the company presented to us really fired me up, and I found the brief itself so inspiring. I kept my collection simple, but went for maximum impact with colour. While my designs were more fashion based I had to keep the company in mind while selecting for my collection. Not only this I had to consider my abilities while making. There were alot of techniques I had to get my head around, and so I found as with Godfrey's philosophy, less is more.

I based my research and collection around the concept, "It's not what you add, it's what you take away that counts". I looked at cut away shapes and designs. I used their logo/branding ideas and cut up the shapes to find interesting design solutions. I decided as a first collection, subtle branding would be important to establish the ethos and identity of the brand. I used bright summery colours to create impact. Sportswear is all about colour. As well as this I wanted to use very girlie colours mixed with a few 'anchor' colours in order to create sportswear that girls would want to wear. I didn't want it to look like a fruit salad but I also didn't want it to be bland. Blacks, greys and blues can only do much as to make you feel feminine while you work out.

Godfrey wanted their brand to be a high perform ace sports brand as well as feature lifestyle brand qualities. So I decided to do my designs under one sub-brand of Godfrey Girl with itself having three sub-brands. So I had Godfrey Girl with its three sub-brands; Godfrey Girl: Performance, Godfrey Girls: By the pool, and Godfrey Girl: Out of the water.

Each of these serve a different purpose to the overall brand. The performance range includes bespoke racing suits and training suits. This really is based on intelligence fabrics and streamline designs. The by the pool range is fashionable swimwear and sportswear for relaxing around the pool. Holiday designs feature heavily in this range. The out of the water range is more about fashionable, casual and girlie clothing. Its less about the sportswear but by being attached to the brand will give it an instant appeal as Godfrey is so well known in the swimming world. Sportswear, even for women is so masculine in design and so by taking a fashion stance on it, I really worked on making it appealing to female swimmers as well as a general female market.

When it came to making my collection I took elements from all of these ranges as I needed to be able to show Godfrey as much of my concept as possible as well as meet my own design criteria. The collection ended up being very simple, but effective, an idea that continued throughout all of my design work and branding. I decided to call my collection 'Out of the water' as it seemed to fit best and seem very current.

I collaborated with another student to produce branding and marketing ideas to present to the company. Overall they were very happy with the work that we produced. This project gave me a fresh idea about what I wanted to do next. While I still love fashion show production I have been developing my design aesthetic and want to explore my creative side more. I have designed two collections since my graduate one and taken to using 'Out of the water' as my brand name. It encapsulates all the avenues of my lifestyle, swimwear brand.

My designs have moved more towards a more high fashion aesthetic. Dirty lilac and dusky pinks and ashy greys were the basis of my dark romance winter 09/10 collection. The vintage feel it very prominent, and it is a visually beautiful collection. This season I am going for a another bright and fun colour scheme. Floral, travel, and European holiday themes are plaguing my collection. Its a fun and uplifting collection, with a very lively feel to it.

Out of the water is a brand that I am developing more and more. It isn't just a brand but a lifestyle. I decided to name this blog after my brand as behind a brand is alot of inspiration and creativity. By seeing the things I am up to and that interest and inspire me I think people are able to understand my collection's alot more. I hope that you will see some on the images on this blog reflected in my work once I start posting more images of it. For now I hope this blog makes a little more sense.

-Rhianna