Florinel’s Day

 
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Day 30 - Florinel’s day 

Florinel Frătică is the photographer who inspired the blouse design on day 2 of 30days / 30designs. Marina has been following him for over a year on social media and today we had the honour of him documenting the last day of our 30days / 30designs project.

This was incredibly important to us, as his photography was one of the first images on our mood board and helped inspire the tone of this project. It seems right that an image, that aided the projects development became part of the projects end, drawing a full circle around 30days / 30designs.

The day began with Florinel’s arrival. It was a pleasure to meet him personally as Marina had only followed his work from afar. He brought a relaxing but excited atmosphere with him today, as Florinel had never seen the backend of design. He has often photographed fashion but never been part of its creation.  

So, today he saw the whole process, experienced it as a whole and even participated in making todays design. We left the whole documentation process of today up to him. We wanted him to put his signature on the day and not to effect his creative process, but allow it to run parallel to ours.

Day 30’s design was also inspired by out mood board. We moved around images and created new combinations to facilitate the design process. The aim was to take old inspiration and create something new with it. The blouse today is made out of white fabric, there is a focus on soft lines and folds. We wanted to play with elegance and sex.

This design is about playing with femininity in a daring way, being draped in fabric in one place and exposed in another. There is also a slight play with cuff lengths to create intriguing, subtle detailing in today's blouse. Knowing this was our finial design was hard, there was the constant feeling in the back of everyone's mind - is this the one we want to end on?

It was amazing to have Florinel document our final day, when we saw the final images we were amazed at how he had captured the day and the design process. As I mentioned before it was important and felt right to end 30days / 30designs with a similar inspiration to how it began. Even though the inspiration was similar Marina as a designer was in a completely different mental space, this project had open her mind.

30days / 30designs developed as project during this month, the rules changing alongside our priorities. On key change was focusing less on the quality of the finial blouse design and more on creating the time to allow for ideas.

Marina feels that 30days / 30designs showed her that creativity is all around her and that she just touched it with this project. 30days / 30designs was a huge personal experience for Marina as well, she truly realised the depth of the support system around her and the importance of having a strong team.

Marina also discovered a lot about herself and what its like to create with different moods, what it’s like to create when you have nothing and what its like to create is such an intense time with people all around you. But, in each design of this project Marina can see new details, silhouettes and shapes that she want to take further as a designer in her future collections. 

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The Marina Schwan label had been opened and freed by 30days / 30designs. The label no longer defines the designs, but the designs now define the label.

“I am glad I did this project, as it makes me feel like I am on the right path. As an artist and as a designer, I believe you should break the rules every day! Try new techniques, crafts and styles to break down comfort zones. You have to break everything down to build it up stronger - If have a routine you are in a comfort zone and it needs to be broken, to grow as a designer and also as a person” - Marina Schawn

 

Day 29

 
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Todays design what completely inspired by the Marina Schwan Logo.

So, today it seems relevant to share the story behind the Marina Schwan logo. The original logo was the image of an origami swan with crisp lines and blatant folds. But Marina felt something was wrong, there was no gentle elegance to this design. Soon she began to play with the logo design and soften it to create the abstract origami swan inspired design, we have today. This logo like the Marina Schwan brand it's the play between gentle and strong, masculine and feminine.

Day 29’s is design is a simplistic white blouse. But today's design is heightened by exquisite handcraft. Today the design team used 3 shades of white to create 3 different sizes of the Marina Schwan logo. Each piece of white fabric is the outline of the logo and they are individually layered on top of each other to create a floral feather like effect.

These individual handmade pieces were sewn onto the blouse, to create a whole new texture and heighten the appearance of the design. Each of these logo layers were complex elements of handicraft. This technique was inspired by day 27, as the design team enjoyed executing this piece and the handmade quality that went into it.

Towards the end of this project it was important for Marina to further push herself as a designer and push her creativity. Today's blouse is an example of that as the design is taking the Marina Schwan logo, a key part of the brand and turning it into something new. Day 29 was the first day Marina was happy to work in shades white. To create a 3D logo that played soft shadows dancing across the pure white blouse, on which they were placed on.

 

Day 28

 

Some days are just harder than others and today was a struggle, 30days / 30designs was on a low.

Marina felt the project coming to a close and it brought on a mixture of thoughts and feelings. It came to her attention that although the project was ending, creativity is limitless, exponential and will always be present - But how was it going to influence today?

This thought left Marina stuck, she had no strong inspiration for today, just a few dark images that had caught her attention on the mood board. These images somewhat matched dark sombre mood of today.

Day 28’s design has no direct inspiration, not even a sketch! Marina and the design team just decided to work a see what the could create out of nothing. I guess some could say nothing inspired today, just the drive to create.

Today’s blouse is soft and elegant, it plays with a closed traditional front with an elongated 70’s style, closed collar. The simplistic front is balanced out with volume in the sleeves, creating a layered ruffled texture when rolled up.

The most striking feature in this blouse, is when the wearer turns around to reveal a completely bare open back. Day 28’s blouse is the second blouse in this project with a strong focus on the back. Marina wanted to focus on balancing soft skin and feminine curves with hard masculine lines. This is why today's design has a straight line across the back, parallel to the shoulder line as it balances out the vulnerability and softness of an open back. This blouse is for a woman how dares to be different and isn't afraid to show some skin.

Marina and the design team wanted this blouse to be elegant but strong and to reflect the elegance and strength of the label.

Today was a hard day. But the team created something beautiful out of nothing, this blouse grew over the day. It developed and changed in a natural way to reflect the strength and femininity of the Marina Schwan Label.

 

Day 27

 

Day 27 was inspired by the book Salt Pans by Edward Burtynsky.

This book is a collection of photography by Burtynsky, when he travelled through India to visit salt workers. These images consist of muted colours and rectangular shapes, emerging on dark grey landscape. Marina fell in love with this book as soon as she saw it and brought it straight away during our bookshop trip last week.

These shapes and odd patchwork effects were a clear inspiration for today, alongside functionality. The team were discussing a functional blouse before picking up Salt Pans and soon the two ideas melded together and turned into the key inspiration for today's blouse.

Day 27’s design is an oversized blouse with a low shoulder line, large voluminous sleeves and a collar with a clean cut angler 70’s style. The blouse’s silhouette is about oversized ease, but still elegant in the fabric choice and the fine detailing.

The standout feature of today's design is pockets. These pockets are all over the blouse in different shapes and sizes. They are created by pastel fabrics layers on top of each other, to mirror the effect and visuals of Salt Pans. Today you can clearly see the inspiration in the blouse’s design and the design team were excited to execute this piece

Also today was the first day of 30days / 30designs where the team played with colours. The design team used soft pastels to reflect the inspirations colour palette. The team found the use of colour refreshing. As during 30days / 30designs all the blouses have been made out of the same 3 colours, so a change was welcome.

Another fact about today is, that it was one of the few days the design team ended up working extremely late! This is because this piece required a lot of handcraft and sewing to create the intricate pockets. However, the design team were swept up in the strong inspiration and really enjoyed a change in colours and the handcraft element of today.

 

Day 26

 

Inspiration forms in peculiar ways.

Lina, who is part of Marina’s design team, is currently staying at Marina’s flat, therefore they spend 24 hours a day together. Somehow with no planned coordination they often find themselves wearing similar colours, silhouettes and styles. They are living, dressing and working on the same wavelength and this is what inspired today.

Day 26’s piece is two blouses that come together to make one. Mirroring Lina and Marina’s matching dressing style, these blouses are similar but not the same. Today´s blouse is technically two pieces that are joined by a long sleeve. These pieces are made to be simple apart and complex together. They are elegant and ethereal, simple complication is key to this blouse. Although joined by one sleeve and being separate pieces, the idea behind today´s design is to take one blouse and drape it over the other, to form one design.

Today was an easy design day. We were inspired by the similarities of two people living and working together in such an intense time. The design team truly shows respect and passion in 30days / 30designs. It is them who bring the inspiration and ideas to life, so today´s blouse is great to have a piece that represents the teamwork and respect shown in 30days / 30designs.

 

Day 25

 

After yesterday's negativity the team decided to start the day with a long healthy breakfast and a trip to some art galleries.

We were not necessarily looking to get inspired by the galleries, but looking for a change of scenery and routine. Visiting the different galleries gave us a sense of different cultures, colours and shapes. These all enriched our minds and started a deep new thinking process.

After returning to the atelier Marina and Lina started discussing design ideas. As always the question we ask everyday came up - what would we like to design today? This is a straightforward question, but today it got the team thinking about all the designs they have created up until now.

Reminiscing about the project and designs, brought up funny memories. One in particular inspired today and never fails to brighten the design team’s mood. After a long day, Lina was helping Marina to sew a piece. Lina was pinning the sleeves on the blouse, but something was wrong, it did not fit? This was odd as the other sleeve fit the design perfectly, so what had gone wrong? After a long second had passed Marina pointed out that Lina was pinning the sleeve to the neckline. This made the design team crack up in hysterics, it was such an obvious but simply made mistake! This story massively inspired the day, the designs are always nearly perfect but mistakes are made.

“Almost perfect” was the key inspiration for today, it blended well with the abstract art the team had seen earlier. Today's design is inspired by the mistakes made in 30days / 30designs. The blouse is made of plain white fabric, but the key detail is that it is made out of 13 different sleeves. These are all sleeves we have used in this project and that we recreated to form a blouse. The silhouette of this piece is interesting and changes depended on the wearer. You could tie the sleeves up or down to create new shapes and movement. Day 25’s blouse is an interesting bold piece, inspired by the heart of this project.

In day 25’s design the sleeves are all different lengths, have different cuffs, plackets and volumes. Today was about taking these pieces and playing with them to create a blouse. This was exceptionally fun. The team got to play with different placements, different styling and got to enjoy creating something with a totally new concept. Almost perfect and Lina’s story made for great inspiration today, it brought the mood of the project up. Everyone enjoyed the day and the design process.

 

Day 24

 

Today we realised that 30days / 30designs has weird coincidence, somewhat like a “curse”.

During this project we have noticed that the days with a 4 in them, have been by far the most challenging. Day 4 was the first day we struggled with 30days / 30designs. While day 14 was the first day we felt the physical toll of this project.

To aid todays process, the design team created a collage and worked from there to get inspired. But day 24 was riddled with a negative feeling and a lack of strong direct inspiration. Today Marina created a sketch and started to cut the patterns with the design team, but a certain frustration hung in the air. There was no energy to this design, no strong inspiration. Just a design for the sake of designing, and this did not sit well with Marina.

The process was long and arduous, there was no love in this design and the stress of today weighed on everyone. However, we did all power through today and day 24’s blouse is complete, but it definitely is not our proudest piece.

One of the hardest parts of today came with taking the final picture of the design. Marina looked upon day 24’s blouse and felt disappointed, she could barely look at it let alone take a photo. At this point I would like to mention we accepted at the beginning of this project that every design might not be perfect. 30days / 30designs is about inspiration and what it takes to design and try find creativity each day.

Today was hard, there is no hiding that! But still we created a 24th design and got through the day, with the confidence tomorrow will be better and that this project is something to be proud of as a whole body of work.

 

Day 23

 

Picture a woman standing waist deep in a dark rippling ocean, there is movement all around her. Waves break against her body and feminine curves creating a soft slick texture, and a beautiful natural scene.

This image is what inspired the design for day 23. The design is about water, more specifically waves and what they look like wrapped around a women’s figure. Day 22 was one of the first days we finished on time leaving the design team a long evening and a good night's sleep. The rest provided the design team clarity. They felt refuelled and inspired waking up today, this rest allowed for passion and emotion in the design today.

Day 23’s blouse is made up of soft lines and white fabric to represent the purity of water. We played with destroying parts of the white fabrics texture, to mimic the breaking of waves. When a wave breaks, it collapses in on itself generating a frothy white hem, that runs down the length of the wave, creating a break in the waters colour and texture.

Today we created a blouse, with a pure-white simplistic front, followed by powerful details and movement in the back. The back of this design represents the power behind water and the physical appearance of rolling waves. The detailing is based on the imagery of a woman standing with her back facing the ocean, and waves breaking against her. Creating a texture on the flip-side, but smooth flowing lines wrapping around her front. Day 23’s blouse is a balance of soft gentle movement, mixed with the potential to be powerful and unpredictable.

We were all encapsulated by this image today and it inspired everyone. Today was a great day for the team to picture both the inspiration and the design, meaning that the design process was engaging and fulfilling.

 

Day 22

 

Minimalism.

Minimalism was an art movement that occurred post WWII in western society. It was adapted into fashion under the pretence less is more. This does not mean less fabric, it means simplicity. Minimalism in fashion is about taking the focus off the details and placing it in something simplistic, for example the fabric colour or silhouette. This is often mistaken for being easy to design and create, it is not. This from of design requires a mathematical eye, to ensure everything is balanced, from the colour to the hem to make sure no detail is too overpowering.

As you may have guessed, day 22’s blouse is all about minimalism. The blouse has no collar, cuffs, buttons or details in the front or back. This is to create a pure blank canvas of fabric that moves in a natural way, not interrupted by detailing.

However, the sleeves today break the simplistic silhouette of the body. The sleeves are based on destruction and taking a traditional sleeve and elevating it. But the sleeves are still made out of minimalistic stripes, to stay true to the inspiration of today. The blank canvas of the body allows for a focus on the architectural sleeves, which add a luxurious element to this blouse.

Today we enjoyed working with minimalism. We did not create a sketch and instead focused on construction and building the blouse in a natural way.

 

Day 21

 

Day 21 was a heavy day it wasn't becuase a negative mood, but because there is a substantial physical toll to create a new design everyday.

However, some of this burden is revealed today! Thanks to the experience and help of Jolanta. Jolanta is a seamstress and tailor who Marina has worked closely with since the start of the Marina Schwan label. She is a true expert in her craft and has 35+ years of experience. This knowledge is vital and irreplaceable in 30days / 30designs.

Todays blouse is based on minimalist architecture and crafted from stripes. Day 21’s blouse was incredibly technical to create, but looks simplistic to a none designer eye. This is something Marina associates with her label a simple appearance, but an intricate carefully thought out design. This blouse is for a woman who is not afraid to show her body as the waistline is exposed. The blouse captures the imagination of a confident contemporary women, it is built around their bodies and provides structural support enhancing their shape and confidence.

The stripes from today's blouse replicate the basic lines of architecture, which are bold and provide structural support. Each line has value and is reinforced in every seam. Day 21's blouse has no sleeves, but two lines coming to provide movement and create elongated lines, which adds to the architectural power of this blouse.

On a final note 30days / 30designs is made possible by the support of a strong team. Each person is sharing their own knowledge, time and expertise which is vital in a project like this!