Fabricated Well-being: The beginning

Starting the Masters.

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After graduating from the BA (Hons) Textile Design course, I decided to stay on at university for another year to further develop my skills as a textile designer; Over the summer I enrolling onto the MA Fashion and Textile Design course and started to consider what I would like to spend my final year at university exploring.

Specializing in knitwear design in my third year left me keen to delve deeper into this area of design. Many of the collections I produced during my undergraduate studies were almost exclusively concerned with aesthetic qualities, although I enjoyed designing fabrics and garments for the catwalk, I always felt I needed more.

Attacus Atlas: Final year undergraduate collection. Derby University Fashion Show 2018.

- Fabricated Well-being -

As i'm sure it is for many others, mental health is a topic that is incredibly close to me. Due to a high demand for the NHS services, waiting lists can be long and it can take a long time to see a relevant health care professional or get onto a therapy program. Over the summer I was put on one of these long waiting list. It caught me off guard and i started to wonder what on earth I was supposed to do in the mean time.

The predicament got me thinking, instead of wondering what i was supposed to do I began to wonder what i could do; Which led on to build the framework for my postgraduate studies. I began to research how fabrics, color and pattern could create a sense of mindfulness and well-being and whether their were any companies or designers exploring these theories already. From weighted blankets to fidget cushions, I found that a range of products exist that target different issues and i began to consider how these technical aspects could be translated to greater effect into the knitwear industry.

Once a range of samples has been developed, focus groups will be arranged to assess how effective the technical aspects of the fabrics are and how they make the participants feel. Because of this I have chosen to work in a completely neutral palette so that the results are not contaminated by colour.

First Samples: Weighted Pockets