ff. stands for fashion forecasting.

Fashion Forecasting.
Tarka Heath.

Start. Every project begins and then continues. Designers for that matter find starting difficult. Getting the ball rolling. Pulling the trigger. You know, pushing that ball up the hill is difficult and annoying sometimes. But always worth it when it free falls and crashes down the other side of the hill. Picking up speed and then stopping as the momentum looses all power and time takes control. Start. For me, it was Paris in spring. Bus. London. Sleep. Train. McFly. The romantic city surrounding us. Premiere Vision, the crème de la crème of textiles.
Yet the peak was not until I bought an Italian Vogue, which contained all the fashion forecasting goodies of the 2011-spring/summer collections. The colours were delicate and pretty. Pastels. I liked the palette of colours and decided I would try and be carefully and not bolshie as I normally was. Alexander McQueen was an inspiration for me, very feminine and pretty.
Breeze was the idea that I selected. I liked the idea of trying to capture Breeze, never thinking that in the future this idea was going to be a pain. Drawing the sky or wind was awkward for me like eating spaghetti with a spoon. I tried to keep it simple.
After doing research I found a love for Japanese art, which blossomed as I delved into looking at clouds and trying to capture the shapes in a modern way with a Japanese kick to it.
Then I started to take photographs of the Tay Bridge. It was a miserable day, so there where plenty of clouds and the light was fantastic. This introduced minty green into my palette that was reinforced by tundra.
I started to look through lots of fashion magazines and noticed that photographs in adverts have little colour and then a splash of bright red. Red has always been one of my favourite colours symbolising the most powerful emotions, love and anger. Which in my experience go hand in hand.
Japanese woman are renowned for glamour, dressing in very impractical clothes. Being dressed in a kimono behind a very fine silk screen. Erotic as some of the body can still be seen. A silhouette or maybe more. Perhaps my pattern could be used on a screen?
If I could have gone back and changed my project; I would have started experimenting straight away in the print room and on paper. Hopefully I have leaned form my mistakes. I defiantly learned a lot doing this project and feel that I have grown as a textile designer.
taa xx