Rowena Luke-King

This course will give you an opportunity to develop embroidery skills whilst creating a collection of textile designs for the fashion industry. Starting with a thorough investigation of the international fashion textile market and the influence of designer fashion, you will create a source book of ideas, trends and colour stories on which to base your collection. You will be introduced to different image layouts such as stripes, borders and spot repeats and learn how to engineer your ideas into garment shapes (the presentation format used by most UK based fashion textile designers today). You will learn how to adapt the basic garment shapes provided into a variety of different styles; to use transfer paints and applique to create grounds for your embroidery designs; to experiment with machine embroidery and hand beading and learn how to finish, mount and present your work to both prospective buyers and fashion textile design agents whose remit would be to sell your work for you. Whilst the focus will be on embroidered fashion textiles, students with an interest in interior textile design will benefit from all areas covered on this course. This course can be a follow on from the Level 1 course, or can be taken independently should you have the basic skills already.

Rowena Luke-King is a fashion, textile and accessory designer, currently involved in sourcing vintage fabrics for the international fashion industry. She studied fashion at Central Saint Martins and has worked as a stylist and colour consultant.