Are you ready for another installment of Flashback Friday? Yes, I am reliving the 80’s again this week with some faded and dog-eared pages of my old college fashion design portfolio. (Tim Gunn, if you’re reading this [as though!], please avert your eyes.)
These pages show the 5 outfits that were a part of my Senior Collection. I focused on knitwear and designed my own printed fabric as well as machine knit sweater pieces.
I was very much influenced by something new: computer aided design. I know, right? So very cutting edge back then. We fashion design students had virtually no computer access. During one of my co-op jobs (internship) as part of the fashion program*, I worked in NYC at Liz Claiborne Accessories. I was able to get one of the designers to teach me to use their singular CAD workstation. I scanned some feathers and manipulated the image (above center). Then I turned it into a graphic that I screen printed onto fabric (above left). During the time I worked at Liz, my brother worked at a T shirt co in Brooklyn. One late night he and my other brother and I took over the screen printing shop and printed a bunch of cotton jersey for my school project! The colors available were very limited and printing yardage with small T-shirt screens was a challenge, but we made it work! (What I would’ve given for Spoonflower back then!)
Such an over-achiever…at least that’s what I am sure my classmates said when I returned to school the next quarter with an armful of some crazy fabric I came up with. I used it in the three garments above: leggings (whoa!) a tunic, and some kind of romper thing(???).
For the sweater knits, we had been taught how to knit on punch card knitting machines. I basically converted the chunky pixels of the screen print to a gridded punch card that went into the knitting machine. The machine was operated by hand (much like a loom) and that is how I create the masterpieces above. The sweater on the right was sort of a reverse fair isle trapeze tunic. Let’s just say, it grew. The whole yoke area was a graduated rib that didn’t not support the weight of the body! The outfit on the left…well, it could be cute on a toddler!
It’s so surreal looking back. I can’t even look at these with my present eyes and decide if this is good bad or ugly (well, I’m pretty sure by today’s standards they are fairly hideous). It was simply a chunk of time from half a lifetime ago. When I look at these my mind fills with images of college roommates, late nights in the studio sewing, new wave music, the smell of clove cigarettes, cold pizza for breakfast and all of the things that go hand in hand with being in your twenties.
I loved those college days of design experimentation! I still own a knitting machine (or 2) and would love to have the time to experiment with it again. Maybe someday!
Hope you enjoyed my blast from the past. Happy weekend!
*My degree is from the University of Cincinnati. UC has a co-op program, alternating quarters of study and professional design experience. I highly recommend it!*
I just love seeing the process other people go through to create something, and how they started. Learning that the creative process is an actual mechanical journey is an enlightening experience all by itself. It resets the brain. Creativity doesn’t happen on its own. It takes a lot of experimentation, fearlessness, risk, and curiosity. But above all, like one of my teachers told me repeatedly, “You just keep your hand moving…Nothing will happen at all if your hand isn’t moving.”
Thanks for the glimpse!
j.
Awesome!! Thanks for the flashback. I graduated from the fashion design program at Ryerson (Toronto) in 1994 – same era as you and this brought back so many happy memories!
It’s interesting to see that our interests really don’t change that much over time. Even back then you were interested in designing prints and working with knits! That must feel validating.
Fun post. It made me want to rummage through my attic to see what I was doing way back…maybe not! LOL
Thanks for sharing! I like the off the shoulder looks. They still work!
I forwarded your blog post to my daughter – she is a fashion design student at Parsons – I think she will get a kick out of the time lapse view of fashion in the design stage.
This post is absolutely fantastic, it made my day!
Hi,
I am from the UK and I too have a fashion degree. Same era I think. 1991-1993. Prioe to this I did a BTEC in fashion design and I remember the punch card knitting machines as well. Once I was wearing a baggy sleeved top and not paying attention I accidently machine knitted my sleeve into a row of my knitting machine! Cuased quite a stir, I was detached from the machine but after that the interest wained a bit. Funny that now I show knitting machines to my students and that story always gets a laugh!