Dual City Courses - London Paris

Tutor: Aimee McWilliams (London) and Jayne Estève Curé (Paris)

Who should attend?

This programme is aimed at current fashion students or new professionals who wish to broaden and enrich their design experience in two great fashion capitals. Fashion design studies will include references to London and Paris, with projects incorporating influences particular to each city. Studio sessions will be supported by visits to places in London and Paris to gather research material.

Entry criteria
To attend this practical course participants must have completed at least two years of an undergraduate degree in fashion or have at least three years fashion industry experience and be competent in patternmaking and sewing.

London content summary - Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design

•    Contemporary Fashion in London
•    Research Skills
•    Practical Fashion Design, Draping and Textile Development
•    Developing 2D Concepts into 3D Prototypes

Paris content summary - Institut Francais de la Mode

•    Finding a vocabulary for your Creative Process
•    Expressing and Transmitting your Creative Vision
•    Defining your key style components and whom the designs are aimed at Collection Process & Structure
•    Insight into French fashion specifics: Haute Couture & "French Touch" brands
•    Analysis of a Fashion Show Contemporary Fashion in Paris

London (5 day course)

Monday 20 to Friday 24 August 2012

Week one, London, Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design

The first part of this course will be based in London and will mimic the initial research and explorative stages of the design process.  You will arrive at the start of the course with a body of research that you have been collecting. This should reflect your unique interests and sense of aesthetic. You should be approaching a clear direction with your research by the start of the course.

The London part of the course will focus on:

1. Understanding your research and your creative identity:

The London side will be an initial analysis of past projects and of your current research.  Through group discussions and individual tutorials the tutor will help you to focus your research and identify your individual strengths.  The tutor will help you to distinguish characteristics within your research that will lend itself to a successful design process.  Together you will discuss design methodology, creative identity and developing your own creative philosophy. You will have time to digest and analyse your own work in preparation for the creation of the Pictorial Board(s) and their Manifestos in Paris in week two.

2. Translating your research in to a design process (initial stages):

This phase will differ for each individual and will be discussed at length in individual tutorials. You will be free from restriction and able to explore the transition from a body of research in to the early stages of your design process. For some 2D work will commence be it sketching, collaging or photo-shop experimentations. For others further research may commence through sourcing and styling experiments.

3. How to explore initial ideas in 3D through stand work, draping and styling exercises on the mannequins:

The group will spend half a day on a group exercise named the mannequin experiments. This is an exercise that will free up your attitude to stand work. It will explore possibilities in shape and silhouette through the augmentation of existing garments. There is one rule. Nothing is to be used in its conventional sense. All students will be expected to participate in this section irrespective of the specifics of their project, and this touches heavily upon the influences of styling upon design and image making. This exercise is designed to free up your expectations and increase your fluidity from 2D to 3D. You will then return to working on the stand with a more considered approach that is relevant to the specifics of your current projects.

4. Continuing through a design process in 2D and 3D:

In groups and individual tutorials, you will evaluate how to push the specifics of your design process to the next stages, thus incorporating your 2D and 3D developments. You will have the time to develop your work further at this stage.

Throughout the week you will be given the opportunity to explore London, experiencing first-hand, our culture and how it has affected the contemporary fashion scene in London. We will focus on the east end of London: the most densely populate area in the world for creative people. We will access the rise of the young designer scene, the new labels immerging and its impact on the London Fashion week schedule.  There will be a series of hand-outs that will recommend areas of London to visit.

There will be an opportunity to meet several key speakers:

• A young designer/creative director Hannah Martin (CSM graduate and visiting lecturer) who will reveal the specifics of her own design process and discuss her relationship to working in the Capital.

• A visiting lecturer, the stylist Kim Howells. Kim's work as a stylist and fashion director is submerged in the digital age. She is a stylist that is at the forefront of cultural movements and works predominantly with the up and coming!

• A second visiting lecturer, Johnathan Miles (cultural studies tutor CSM) to lead an afternoon session. He is a very philosophical speaker. His take on the 'creative processes' and 'what is a design methodology' is a breath of fresh air. I'm sure the participants will find him highly enlightening.

PREPARATION BRIEF to be complete prior to start date for London programme:
The key words for the London part of the course are experimentation and exploration. You will be encouraged to fully explore your research and access your processes in anticipation of opening up and discovering new aspects to your work that your processes previously had not allowed for.

All students are expected to arrive on the first day with:

• A body of new research developed over the summer.
• Past projects and any relevant visual data they would like to discuss

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Independent Travel (2 days)

Saturday 25 to Sunday 26 August 2012

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Paris (5 day course)

Monday 27 to Friday 31 August 2012

Week two, Paris, Institut Francais de la Mode

Having explored the initial stages of the design process in London, the second phase of the course in Paris will give you the opportunity to produce and communicate a clear vision of your creative identity, how it materializes into a fashion project (brand/product) whilst defining whom it is aimed at through an in-depth step by step understanding of your creative universe and style components. This will lead you to formulate and communicate the results of this process through the creation of pictorial boards and manifestos. The clarification of the creative process will lead to the initial stages of a collection process and plan definition.
This approach will be based on a series of group briefs and talks, individual tutorials, workshop sessions and research in Paris.  You will work from your own fashion designs including the collection research initiated in London, collections previously designed, as well as visual data (photos / drawings / magazine cut-outs etc) collected during the summer before  arriving in Paris.

The week's course content will be articulated around 3 main phases aiming to:

I) Accomplish an in-depth analysis of the creative inspirational and narrative universe based on the work produced in London and any collections previously designed.  During this phase you will produce the following elements that will allow to articulate and communicate his creative identity and vision:

• Pictorial board(s) that will visually communicate the key aspects of the creative universe and inspirational sources
• A concise written "manifesto" of the creative intention with a choice of the key words that make up a creative vocabulary

II) Venture upon understanding his creative process and whom it is aimed at  thus conceptualizing your work as a fashion designer in response to the following questions:

• How do I proceed in my design process?
• What are the key elements/components of my style?
• Whom am I designing for?

III) Be introduced to the collection process and collection plan. From this perspective you will analyse your collection in terms of structure, choice and use of materials and consistency of vision.

The course will provide additional contextualized topics through lectures and workshops that will allow participants to enrich their fashion design creative data base and vision. These include:  Haute Couture, Brand DNA and how to analyze a Fashion Show. You will explore the contemporary Parisian world of fashion by researching the retail scene and thus discovering the newly launched major Winter 2012-13 collections. Also, you will be given the opportunity to discover the design process of a young fashion designer and benefit from the interventions of IFM's creative cycle expert Francine Pairon.

All students are expected to arrive on the first day in Paris with:

• The work produced during your week in London at Central Saint Martins which will be essential to the second phase in Paris.
• All types of visual data (on paper and/or USB key) you find inspirational and that convey/symbolize your creative universe and sources of inspiration. You may already have these and/or will collect during the summer before your arrival in Paris.

These can include :

• Photos: your own or photos (taken by others) that you find inspirational
• Drawings/Paintings. again, your own or by other painters/artists
• Magazine cut-outs/photocopies/scans
• Other references to sources of inspiration (music/films/poetry/literature/architecture.)

Dates:
London: Monday 20 to Friday 24 August 2012

Independent Travel: Saturday 25 to Sunday 26 August 2012

Paris: Monday 27 to Friday 31 August 2012

Day of the week:
Monday to Friday

Time:
10:00 – 17:00

Duration:
2 weeks

Fee:
£1,380

Accommodation

• Information regarding London accommodation

• Information regarding Paris Accommodation [88kb PDF]

Location: Central Saint Martins, Kings Cross, in London and IFM, Paris.

Tutor: Aimee McWilliams (London)

Aimee McWilliams is a graduate of Central Saint Martins and Associate Lecturer within the BA Fashion Design department and is also a tutor on the MA at the Royal College of Art. In 2007 she won the prestigious Scottish Designer of the Year Award. Find out more and view her collections at www.aimeemcwilliams.com

Tutor: Jayne Estève Curé (Paris)

Reflecting her French-English heritage, Jayne Curé is a graduate of Park Lane College in Leeds, the Ecole Supérieure des Industries de Vêtement and the IFM in Paris. She worked with the Paris-based designer Olivier Guillemin, for whom she developed and implemented an international development strategy, helped Les Chemins Blancs to reposition their women's ready-to-wear brand, and is currently working with the Berlin-based Esther Perbrandt on the launch of her contemporary fashion and accessory line.
 
Through her own consulting business, she provides regular advice on marketing and development strategy. At the same time, she has always worked as a teacher of fashion marketing, product development and fashion culture, at the IFM and other highly-regarded schools in France, as well as in the UK and Asia.

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London and Paris accommodation

The fee is inclusive of the cost of tuition.  Please note that accommodation, travel, insurance and living expenses are not included.