SEED : Sewing Elements of Exploratory Design : London

The first month of working for Volcom has gone past so fast, got my fist pay check but that didn't last for long... did a massive food shop, paid rent and already booked a long weekend back to London town. Now I'm nearly broke again...

For the next part of this design story it begins in a warm office with my best friend IIlustrator. I now have to develop some technical pages with all the information you could possibly give to make the garment, this includes:

- The garment name
I have to think of names for the clothes using origami and Japan as inspiration. So for example I named one of my dresses Kanari-gami which translates in Japanese as "pretty paper".

- The Style Number
There is a special formula to figure out what the number is but if its for women's wear it will always start with the letter B.

- The Description
Just a couple of sentences of what the garment is.

- Fabrication
This means what fabrics I intend to use, like 100% cotton

- Illustrations of the garment
My precious drawings I took forever working on with arrows on the key details explaining what they are.

- Garment front view in colour
Just to show how it would look all together.

- The Trims box
I have to put down what type of buttons or labels I want.

- Vendors
I put down to who I need it sent to.

Then finally The Designer of the garment that's... me!

...And that is what goes on the first page of the technical file.

After that I need to work with software called "Full Circle" where everything comes together like the size specifications, a swatch of the fabrics and all the labels.

One of the most difficult tech packs to do was the fur coat. It sounds pretty straight forward but it was difficult trying to translate fur in 2D... I had to draw each hair individually which took forever and I even stayed behind after work to finish it.. just to find out the next day that it did not save! What a nightmare!

The next day...
Back to work! We were trying to find an unusual colour called Smaragdgront (I don't know how to say that so I'm just going to call it aqua green) so to match this powder substance with a pantone card we had to make the powder look as flat as possible. it was messy but we finally were able to match it with one.

Then I realised that for most of my outer garments, I needed a lining inside. I looked at some of the men's wear garments and I noticed that they had customised linings so this inspired me to create my own. I used origami as starting point then I manipulated the image on Photoshop and of course, added the volcom stone to it.

When researching origami I found out how to make little paper clothes, so this has inspired me for an idea for hang tags.

Last week I fell sick with a little flu that was going round the office, I took Friday off to recover which helped me loads as I was really run down. I slept for 20 hours straight, drank my body weight in water and sweated it all out... sounds gross but my skin looked really good after it was like I have been in a sauna.

This week has been packed with loads of crucial decision making.

Design selections

The design selection is one of the hardest things to do. To narrow down 100 designs to 25 was a big challenge. With a second opinion from Crysthel (my boss) Josie (marketing) and Julien (house mate and graphic artist) we managed to cut it down drastically to the strongest designs.

Fabric selection

I had a rough idea of what types of fabrications I wanted individual pieces to be made out of but I was advised to use the same fabrics for multi garments, which would make the collection look more synchronized.

Illustrator triumph!

After drawing the garments on paper I have to convert them to a more readable format, which meant that I had to test my illustrator skills.

For most designer's illustrator software is like a second nature. But for me it's a different story. To use illustrator was so hard for me in the beginning, I didn't know the short cuts and the first design I did took most of the day. I managed to find my own style of working with it and now it takes me less time to finish.

The most important thing is to be very clear about the detailing so that it would translate well when I send it to the vendors.

Looking back at the first images of my office I realised that my desk was probably the most unorganised one! I tried to tidy up as much as I could, however I felt that something was missing... like a pen holder!.... I searched high and low to find something to put all my pens in but I couldn't find something right... so I thought out side of the box.

I used a hat that I found near my desk to store all equipment in... turns out that it was someone's hat... bad times!

During this week I have improved my IT skills and I have also had the privilege to experience one of the largest festivals in France, The fete de Bayonne is know for being a drinking festival inspired by the Christmas Pamplona, I live in the centre of all the action so I had the best view of all the fireworks and  seeing everyone walk together looking united dressed up in white and red.

Hi my name is Anju from London College of Fashion. You may remember me from the Volcom SEED blog that started in November 2009. I took part in the SEED competition working on the denim project. I created a Kimono sleeve denim jacket with bleached lining... The competition was very hard I was up against my whole class. When I found out I had won the competition, I was very excited and over the moon. The prize is working for Volcom for 6 months working with the design team of Volcom Europe.

So this is my weekly blog of my journey working with Volcom!

To start off my placement I was whizzed off to Paris for the B-Movie Party on the 1st of July. Volcom is highly praised for its wild party nights, I was so excited to go... and to work obviously, I have to admit it didn't feel like I was working because I was having so much fun.

My job for the night was to be at the front door and hand out free drinks tickets that where exchanged for cocktails or beers.
The other good thing about being on the front door is that you can meet all the VIP guests.
The Paris clubbing scene was the perfect balance of the fashion forward kids and skaters. The success of the night left me buzzing with what was to come ahead.

My first official day of working in the Volcom offices in Anglet.

I woke up extra early in the morning as I couldn't really sleep the night before, I felt like it was my first day at school when you get that butterfly feeling.
I arrived in the office about half an hour before I started. When Crysthel (my boss) arrived I was already comfortable at my desk with a note pad and ready to go!

I was sent the brief before so I had a rough idea of what was expected.
For the duration of the time that I am here I will be working on;

- Research market, trends, and fabrics for the Fall 2011 collection
- Design products and give colour direction
- Create detailed tech packs that will be handed off to the development team
- Work directly with manufacturers for prototype process
- Attend product fittings and provide input to maintain design integrity
- Follow up on styles until samples reception

For the first part of the day I was researching trends, I went on the fashion blogs like stylebubble.com to find inspiration. I found many different directions that could be a possibility to look in to. I printed off a wide variation of images and made a file for each garment.

I started designing pieces that I thought suited my brief. I ended up with about 80 design ideas and 10 boards for each direction. Suddenly I realised I had done everything in too much detail so I called Josie marketing manager for advice. After talking to her I felt so much better. She told me to de-clutter all the images I didn't really need.

I came home for work feeling very tired, the commute back home took about an hour by bus but by bike it only takes 15 minutes... one of my aims before coming to France was to learn to ride a bike. This never happened so I had to learn in France. I took one evening learning and the next day I decided to ride to work. The only problem was that I couldn't ride in a straight line and I also didn't know how to stop! What a silly idea. I fell over 5 times and really bruised the back of my leg. Now I plan to practice on the weekend when it is very quiet and there is no one to cycle in to.

The place where I am living is in a small town called Bayonne. It is surrounded by old beautiful buildings and cobble roads and the building that I am living in is really near to the cathedral and has a spectacular view form the balcony.

My room is very cosy and girly. It is a nice room to chill out when I am not out and about.

Out of work hours, there is so much going on: Music festivals, birthday parties, flea markets and the national French holiday! It has been a busy couple of weeks before I landed here in France.

To describe my first weeks of work for Volcom in two words it would have to be radical and impulsive. I feel like I have joined the Volcom family pretty well... I still have a lot to learn like: surfing, skate boarding and riding a bike properly! And of course, to learn more about the business side of fashion!