So I’m taking this class… For personal improvement? Meditation? Transport-inflicted voluntary torture? Education? Broadening horizons? Possibly everything and nothing of the above. In short, I’ve been designing and making clothes (for dolls, for me, for friends) since I was able allowed to wield a needle or sit up at the sewing machine (a hand-cranked antique Singer, of course!). And I’ve been wanting to learn more about it for as long as I can remember. So, with various life changes happening, I checked the short course calendar of Central Saint Martins, and lo and behold, the Introduction to Fashion Design course was being given on the best day of the week!! Tuesday!! It’s the best because: a) It’s not eating up on your weekend b) It doesn’t conflict with Orange Wednesdays c) It’s not on a Thursday-is-the-new-Friday and d) It’s not on is-it-Monday-already? So, Tuesday. Perfect. I signed up.
Having become £380 poorer (that’s £38 per session), I am now religiously attending lectures. I have to admit that the first three seemed like a near-complete waste of time for me. We spent most of it either making stuff up about random postcards, or doing research in the library. Research involved finding heavy tomes to lug to the photocopier, and then fail to copy. I took pictures with my iPhone. At least I had something!!
Lecture 4, however, started to become interesting. We actually DID something. We took our primary research (architectural for me, mostly) and applied it to the body. In short: we sketched stuff. The 4 aspects of design being Shape, Texture, Colour and Detail, it was interesting to transpose ideas to the body while focusing on that holy … quadrant. And then taking those ideas and filling in silhouettes. That was the most fun, as the same blank inner space of a shape was filled in with different garments by each person! For me, drawing is my meditation, so the 2.5hrs of the class passed by in a blissful blur. And I wanted to share the results, because I rather like them













































