About Me
Hi, I'm Leia a Fashion Design Graduate from Birmingham City University
Focusing on menswear, my personal design style is mainly ready-to-wear garments with elements of casual streetwear, whilst empathising practicality and technical details that benefit the wearer. When creating concepts, I enjoy taking inspiration from narratives and personal experiences within each project to create a cohesive design collection.
When it comes to my design process, I enjoy looking into my concept on a more analytical level by delving into my research to find key areas that can be developed further into my design development. By approaching my work in this manner, I find I can incorporate intricate areas of research and technical detailing that I can translate into my collection via fabric choices, textiles or silhouettes. More so, I enjoy incorporating experimental textiles within my work and trialling new techniques to push my boundaries and develop my work further.
INSPIRATION
Inescapable Escape is inspired by The Great Escape where 3 inmates executed their ploy for freedom
With the escape story and surrounding mystery, there is a strong focus on the technical and finer details of the scheme. The collection is centred around outerwear pieces constructed from waterproof, durable materials, inspired by the inmate’s use of rain jackets used to construct the life raft and preservers in their escape. More so, the use of life preservers in the story was a key area of inspiration for the silhouette demonstrated through multi-functional garments that double up as an accessory.
This takes careful consideration of the design, ensuring both function and form; use and looks. The collection takes further inspiration from the life preservers through the detailing and functionality within the garments, demonstrated through the sophisticated use of fastenings and pocket detailing. Furthermore, reinforcing the mystery, the collection also surrounds itself with the use of oversized elements and silhouettes to add a subtle yet modern touch on the story.
MY WORK
PORTFOLIOS
DETAIL
Combination of DTG emulsion transfer, rust dyeing and fabric manipulation textiles.
From the story of Alcatraz there were multiple key areas of the narrative that I translated through my textiles which further developed and progressed my collection. Not only did these textiles indirectly portray the story, it also added innovative and unique prints to the collection. The rust transfer was solely inspired by the architecture of the derelict buildings of Alcatraz alongside the fabric manipulation reinforcing the crumbling wall texture. To create the rust transfer, I manually rusted some metal slates which I then transferred the surface print onto fabric.
"Alcatraz was no good for nobody" - Frank Weatherman
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