People Tree Internship: Weave

From January 2011 till June 2011 I took on the role of Design Intern for People Tree.

People Tree are a 'fair trade fashion pioneer and online garment retailer'. They create beautiful clothing using environmentally friendly materials including Fairtrade and Organic fabrics such as cotton, wool and silk.

SS12 Wholesale Lookbook

People Tree studio

Most of the woven fabric used in People Tree's designs are woven by hand. The yarn is also hand dyed and therefore a labour intensive process. A lot of time and love goes into making the fabrics, which is why the designs for the woven fabrics have to be sent off right at the beginning of the season, so there is sufficient time for any changes to be made before approving production. I contributed to the designs below by creating an array of colourways using Adobe Illustrator and the People Tree SS12 colour palette for the design team to make the final edit. From sending off the designs, it took about 6-8 weeks to arrive back at the office in the form of a fabric swatch. Every time this happened, I got so excited. Seeing a design materialise will never lose it's novelty!

Fabric swatch

CADing up the design

The finished product!

Weave 2 close-up

Checking the colours against Pantone chips

Lovely fabric, 3 different options

Dobby check fabric swatch

Dobby check in 2 options

Lydia Garde: It's just a folk world after all

 

Photography: Lydia Garde
Styling: Francheska Liberman and Lydia Garde
Prop Styling: Lydia Garde and Christine Letham
Models: Lucy Evans, Jim Clarke and the Bourne River Morris team
Hair: Sarah Bird
Make-up and Grooming: Clare Greathead
Photographic Assistance: Luke Hutchings
Assistance: Fiona Osborne and Jess Holt 

Folk Play

My sister's final project for her second year at University explored the idea of folklore. After weeks of researching and brainstorming she began making props to use in her shoot. Colourful, playful and fantasy like objects. I was the guinea pig for her test shots to see how they looked on film.
Here are how a few hours of play in our garden panned out...

 

Lydia Garde Photography

Lydia Garde: Boudicia

Photographer: Lydia Garde
Model: Jacqueline Boulton
Hair and Make up: Holly Rowley

Lydia Garde: Boudicia Backstage

My very talented sister, Lydia Garde, chose to photograph my graduate collection as part of her University project. She is currently studying Commercial Photography at The Arts University College at Bournemouth.

So, I went down to Bournemouth for the day to assist the shoot and bring down a few extra missing pieces. Mostly, I watched on with a needle and thread in my hand just in case any adjustments were required. I did take a few sneaky photos from behind the scenes.

Carved Buffalo Skulls

Firstly, to paint the picture.... the rice paddy fields surrounding Ubud, Bali...

After our batik workshop, walking around Ubud the cultural hub of Bali we came across these amazing pieces of art. Hand carved buffalo skulls. These take at least 3 week to create and require such skill and precision. We wanted one. They are quite sizable objects though, being buffalo skulls etc and seeing as we had another 2 months of traveling we couldn't carry them will us. We had to say good bye...

....Until we saw them again nearly a month later in Padang Bai, Bali. We kept passing the shop they were in, oogling at them each time. The shop owner kept trying to entice us into buying them, but we were so worried about keeping them in one piece in transit - we still had 3 more flights and numerous hours of bus and ferry travel to complete. On our last evening in Padang Bai, he called out to us as we were walking by. He had engineered custom made cases for the skulls so we could carry them with us. How could we refuse to buy them after such customer service!

Our beloved buffalo skulls before they are wrapped up

The shop owner - ledge.

So the buffalo skulls did go in planes, trains and automobiles and after a few funny looks from airport security we got them home to England! Definitely worth it.

In their new home....