Scarf #5

This scarf is my favourite from the collection, even though I haven't dip dyed a single section of it! 

INSPIRATION

The main inspiration for this piece came from these two photographs. The dancing light reflected from the windows of one of the University buildings was intriguing to me. I upped the volume on the colours of the photographs and came up with a very bold brown, gold, grey, and undyed wool stripe warp design. 

Using a striped warp is very unlike my usual style of working, but I wanted to take a bit of a risk and try something different to add a bit of diversity to my work. 

Development

Above is an image of an earlier warp design from a different photograph that I adapted my colour palette to. Below is one of the first sample designs I created using Photoshop. The squares in the drawing reminded me of the brocade technique, so I took a leap of faith and tried this using a wool base cloth with silk accents and silk brocade. 

I managed to perfectly calculate the weights of the wool and silk together, neither feels too light or heavy compared to the other and both sit very well side by side. The brocade is beautiful as an accent of colour in contrast to the wool cloth. There are elements of reflection and shine expressed using the brocade, especially in the gorgeous golden colour that I managed to dye. Needless to say I am very VERY happy with this piece. 

The traditional looking check-like design of this scarf reminded me of traditional school scarf designs. The idea of using scarf design as an identity like the way schools used to was quite interesting to me and resonated with ideas I had at the very start of the year, the beginning of the Practice Unit. An example of a current traditional looking check scarf is this one by Fred Perry from A/W 13:

In terms of potential client for this piece I definitely see it as a Menswear Accessory, however I feel there could be a unisex quality with the luxurious silk brocade. The context for this Fred Perry scarf is not where I see my own work progressing towards as this is a mass produced item created in factory conditions. I am including it in my blog purely for aesthetics and target audience. The males that would be purchasing a scarf like this are the type of customer I would believe would be attracted to my product.

I have begun to realise that I firstly design the scarf, and later decide who would be the target client/buyer as I am open to designing both for Men and Women.