Happy Sunday Everyone! I'm writing this up on a Saturday evening and I cannot tell you how warm it is! I love Summer but I cannot stand humid heat! Put me on a beach with this weather and I'll be fine. But in a stuffy room with a fan blowing out hot air ... No thanks! Anyway, today I am going to feature The Gateway College Foundation Show. It was only a few years ago that I was setting up my boards for the show when I was taking the course and since then I have been back every year! This is the first year that I have written up a post about the show but I am sure this will become a little Prim and Propa tradition! I've took lots of pictures for you guys so that you're able to see the amount of talent that's featured in the shows. There was a certain display that caught my eye so I've included a special little section along with a few Q and A's towards the end of the post. There were a few bits and bobs that stood out for me and I've taken pictures for you guys to see how amazing everything was too ... there's also some pictures of an old sketchbook of mine! #CanYouSpotPrim!
One of the main rooms at the show is the Foundation Art and Design room. I only spent a year in that room but I've made memories and friends for a lifetime. There were three displays that really intrigued me. One of those was Connected by Natasha Solanki. After the show I reached out to her to see if she would like to do a little Q and A for me and she very graciously said yes! Natasha's display was one of my favourite and I was quite drawn to it. I love how clean her work was but had a slight edge at the same time. I am obsessed with Alexander McQueens work as you all should know! And his work was very much an oxymoron, although Natasha's work was not directly inspired by his work I could see a lot of oxymoron's in her work also. Something that really caught my eye was the impressive knitted pieces she had created, I hadn't seen any knitted work in the last few shows and I always love when someone thinks outside the box and tries something different. Along with the knit Natasha used a lot of different fabrics which I found really interesting. There was rope, suede, padlocks and so much more. A few pieces that stood out for me was the clutch bag, duffle bag and the trousers! I know how hard trousers can be to make so I was really impressed! Anyway as I said the lovely Natasha answered a few questions for me and has also sent me some pictures from a fashion shoot she had done! And once again can I say how impressed I am, having executed fashion shoots myself I look for certain aspects in a fashion image and I can honestly say that they are really very good!
Tell us a little bit about yourself.
So I'm Natasha, but everyone calls me Tash/a (which I much prefer). I'm 19 years old and am currently on my summer break before I go on to study Fashion Design and Technology at Manchester Metropolitan University in September. Aside from loving fashion, beauty and shopping etc. I love having a good time with my friends, cooking, baking and travelling; I'm also quite and adrenaline junkie!
What do you love about Fashion Design?
The thing I love about fashion is how open to interpretation it is - how there are no rules or boundaries; the way a designer could dress one way and design something that is completely not within their personal style or comfort zone. The way fashion can give individuals a sense of being, a heightened confidence or the feeling that they are part of a collective. My personal style is quite minimalist\grunge and I definitely favour dark colours and band tees over anything colourful or patterned, If it's black, suede or velvet there's a 99% chance I'd wear it.
Tell us a little bit about your journey through the project.
When designing, I do go in the direction of my personal style, unless I have a set brief, which was the case with this project. The collection is called 'Connected' and it was inspired by my trip to Venice in February. The process of designing this collection started with me sorting through all the photos I had taken to see which once I was most inspired by. I already knew that I wanted to keep the collection simplistic with near to no embellishment or textile techniques. With that in mind, I found I was most inspired by the beautiful canals, love locks and quite oddly, some fisherman rope; this ended up becoming my main inspiration. I came up with the concept of using knitting and macrame knotting techniques because of their likeness to the rope (wool structure is similar to rope, and knotting techniques have been used on ropes for many years). It took me a long time, making many samples for me to figure out which wool to use and what size needle but I eventually found that to get the look I wanted I needed 15mm needles and a lot of (very expensive) merino wool. I also decided to marble my own fabric to add some interest and to link back to the water from the canals. This was a technique I had wanted to try for a while and would recommend anyone to try as it was so easy and you get brilliant results! As the marbling technique gives a unique look every time, I did have to make lots of samples before I figured out how to get the pattern I wanted. Also, throughout my collection, mainly on the jewellery and bags I made to compliment the garments, there are mini padlocks which serve as a reminder of the love locks that inspired me.
What/Who inspired your work?
As this collection was part of my Final Major Project for my Art Foundation Diploma, I had an accompanying research sketchbook where I looked into various designers and techniques. The designers that inspired me most were Robert Rodriguez for the marbling, Matthew Williamson for the macrame knotting and Nanna Van Blaaderen for the knitwear.
Would you do anything differently?
I am so proud of my final collection and because of how it turned out how I wanted it to be I don't actually think I would do anything differently if I was to go this process again.
Did you come across any obstacles? If so how did you move past these?
The main obstacle I had with this collection was cutting the patterns for some of my garment; I could not find a commercial pattern for every garment I needed to make, so I had to draft the patterns up myself which was quite a challenge, albeit a welcome one, as I've had no formal training in pattern cutting yet. This same problem occurred when I was making my knitwear as I had no knitting patterns to follow.
Where do you see yourself in five years time?
In five years time, I hope to have graduated with a First Class Honours and be in a job that I not only enjoy but is relevant to my degree. At this point, I do not know if I want my future job to be in the design side of fashion as I've found really enjoy the technical side of pattern drafting and cutting and I also really enjoy the CAD element of fashion.
How can my readers get in touch with you?
You can get in touch with me via E-Mail (natasha@solanki.f9.co.uk), Facebook (Tasha Solanki), Twitter (tashasolanki) and Instagram (tashasolanki). I also have a Tumblr account that you can message me on, (www.mon-o-chrom-a-tic.tumblr.com) it is a feed of images that inspire me.
Hope you guys have enjoyed this post, I had an absolutely lovely time at the show and I love the fact that I am able to tell you guys about my experience! I want to say a massive thank you to Natasha for being so lovely and helpful. Her work is beautiful and I am so glad I have been able to share her work with you guys. Please show Natasha some love by visiting some of her social networking sites she has highlighted in the Q and A. I haven't done a feature post before but I honestly have had so much fun! I'm sure there'll be another one of these next year!
