Inspiration Everywhere. Look Up, Look Down, Keep Your Eyes Open And SEE What’s Around. Love The Layered

Dramatic giant knitting by FAD student now studying Fashion at Westminster university. Charlotte Langdon. Hand knitted merino tops realised as  a full length coat. On to right the use of wire tubing stitched to bodysuit as anew garment. Beautifully styled photo shoot, simplicity and drama and a ‘less is more’ attitude is the key to success here.

Plastic fantastic! Crazy, melted, recycled plastics embellished to eye-popping brilliance by FAD student. Love ‘em!

Congratulations Jessie Goad!

Jessie’s fashion collection explored the theme of ‘journeys’ and focused on favourite places, memories attached and evoked by walking in the locality. Maps were of particular interest and her digital prints were applied to garment construction to great effect.

We were fortunate to invite fashion graduate, Clancy Dawson, into college to run masterclasses with the Textiles students with a particular emphasis on quality finish when making garments. Clancy studied at Glasgow School of Art and has worked on Saville Row as a trouser tailor so her skills were invaluable. Jessie worked closely with Clancy and repurposed an original 1980′s trouser pattern and made it her own, cut from her bespoke fabric these were really successful and unique.

Jessie plans to continue developing her own brand and selling her fashion online. We wish her all the very best with her business plan.

Macrame madness. A2 exam outcome. Photos with technical support from Dave Merritt. Thanks x

Fifty Bees #4 exhibition at Frome’s wonderful Black Swan gallery. 

This is my response to the habitat and lifestyle of the Lobe Spurred furrow bee.

I enjoy using found and repurposed materials in my own arts practice, so this is created entirely from fabric washed up the beach at Charmouth and fishing line, horsehair and natural fibres to stitch with. This bee was virtually extinct in the 1980′s but then made a dramatic come back, to now becoming a species with no risk to its population. My quest to discover the reasoning behind this encouraged a journey of discovery and research to try and understand its story.

I travelled around to visit habitats of known sightings, scrubland, agricultural sites, beach cliff locations but did not find my bee. I did discover though,  that the prevalence of Oilseed Rape planted on a mass scale across the UK in the 80′s had a detrimental impact on many indigenous insect species particularly bees. The nicotinoid pesticides used in agriculture was the culprit but fortunately for the lobe spurred furrow bee, it thrived on the blooms of rape and where others perished it increased in number.

My piece uses loopy stitching and intense surface coverage to signify the bees activity. The yellow plant dyed colour references the rape blooms and the undulating surface is linked to the patch of land investigated on site.

Welcome to Textiles @ Strode This is a new blog for 2015 to chat about all things: textiles/fashion/costume/fabric/design/pattern/print/art etc that we do at college.

Developing abstracted compositions, cropping and enlarging to explore sections for repetition and textile designs for garments. The loose, expressive marks and gestural brushwork retain the spontaneity of the original line and translate an urban, edgy print as a theme of unisex wear.

END OF YEAR SHOWCASE -Class of 2020

Congratulations to Ellen Kinder, A level fashion designer, styling her final project based around a contemporary collection, heavily inspired by the ethos of Punk. DIY fashion, repurposing denim and strong Basquiat influences, with the experimental use of text and symbols. Ellen developed her own bespoke printed fabrics to make up into boiler-suits and garments as part of her collection.

Rock & Roll! We wish Ellen all the best for her degree in Fashion at London MET.

Excellent models and expert technical guidance with alumni Catherine Hyde in charge of photography. @catherinehydephotography 

This is what we call creative collaboration.

Lockdown can be a time for CREATIVE isolation and I am really enjoying being at home with access to a table and sunlight to play and experiment with monotone mark making.

FAD Textiles Workshop rotation 2. Getting into those shadow drawings agin with a new group. Striking silhouettes prepped and ready to take forward into print next week.