Meet GFF Talent, Mia Harris from Arts University Bournemouth. Mia’s final year project is inspired by photographs of her mum, which she reinterpreted as pop art images to create the aesthetic vision of her work. She used the collection as a way of thanking family and friends who had supported her through university. Combining pop art and recycled denim, Mia’s collection proves that old can become new again through a bit of imagination. Read more about Mia and her work below.
What is the most valuable thing you have learnt at university?
I have truly learnt so much over my time at university not just in the sense of education but about myself personally and myself as a designer however I think the most valuable thing I have learnt from being at university is how amazing collaboration can be, working with other creatives not just within your class but with other disciplines can create incredible work and Is a better representation of the industry. Although it is so important to develop your own work and grow as a designer working with others can unlock so many new skills whilst getting other valuable opinions and developments you may not have thought of. We had many evenings that were organised as ‘course match nights’ with the aim of creating contacts across different courses.
AUB fully supports collaboration which was further shown in talks given to us from past AUB alumni where they all told us how they still work with other alumni from our university as well as those they collaborated with whilst at university. It is rare to work fully alone within the industry and although as previously mentioned it is important to find your handwriting as a designer, getting used to collaboration is just as important. Collaboration also gets you used to working extremely closely with other people who may be just as strong willed, have contrasting opinions or appear difficult to work with, this also gets you used to obstacles you will most likely need to overcome in the future, you build valuable people and team working skills.
Collaboration also leads to contacts and friendships, within our collaboration project completed in our second year we all truly became each other’s support system, we had many obstacles to overcome but we all come out of the project so much stronger as designers and with so many more skills learnt from the individuals we were collaborating with.
What was the starting point of inspiration for your final project?
The starting point for my final collection came from being back home and looking at old photos of my mum with my family, a lot of them taken by my Grandad. I wanted to find a way to combine these old photos with my passion for denim and recycling, the photos I used and were inspired by mean a lot to my mum and as a family we regularly sit together and look through old photos and listen to old family stories so using the photos of my mum especially, was really important to me.
Using my mum as the main inspiration was of course very personal for me, I really wanted to create a more personal project to thank the people who have supported me throughout my time at university which is why using old photos of my mum combined with photos of my parents when they first met for contextual research and concept development, meant so much to me and constantly made me strive to work hard. The main photo inspiration I used to inform all of my prints was a portrait photo of my mum when she was 18 that was the only photo of herself that she liked and it comes with a lot of good memories for her.
I did not want to just use the photos as they were so decided to create my own interpretation of the photos, I took influences from the pop art movement, Roy Lichtenstein’s work in particular. I enjoyed pushing myself creatively to design and draw a pop art illustration of my mum for a print as I have never felt confident with illustrations but I wanted to push myself as I felt it would make the collection pop a lot more and show my mums fun and quirky style.
What form will does your work take?
My final project will take the form of a 6-outfit denim focused streetwear collection featuring a combination of outerwear, classic denim styles and innovative pattern cutting techniques. My collection includes; a half dress and recycled denim bodice outfit, jumpsuit, jumper dress, digitally draped and gathered shirt with recycled denim trousers, a gathered denim coat with a digitally printed shirt dress, a gathered shirt with a recycled denim two layer skirt. Combining high quality denims, organic cottons and Jersey with a youthful and sophisticated colour palette and recycled materials.
My collection would have been paired with a photoshoot that would have been promoted in our university’s NIL magazine designed and created by the Level 5 Fashion Branding and Communication students as a collaboration between years and courses. Due to the current global situation this became an online platform created to promote all of our work under the theme of 90’s nostalgia, chosen by the Level 5 students as we are the last year of graduating 90’s babies. We each shared or favourite elements of our work as well as interviews, childhood images and our adapted workspaces at home.
We were also working towards and fundraising for our own Bournemouth fashion show however this has been changed into a dedicated online platform for all of the university’s 2020 graduates including portfolios, books, videos and any other work the student want to promote not just on their personal websites and social medias. I also intend to create a virtual catwalk of my full collection using the CLO software as I have been creating all of my patterns digitally on CLO and with LECTRA. I will showcase this catwalk on my personal website and LinkedIn, also on my brand Instagram account to show a wider audience and continue developing my digital skills beyond just my degree work.
What materials have you used and how did you source them?
I used a variety of materials for my collection, the main fabric for my collection was denim as it was a denim focused collection which I paired with digitally printed organic cotton sateen fabric and recycled denim. As a course we had the amazing opportunity to travel to Paris to source our final fabrics, it was here that I completely changed my colour palette and fabrics, before going to Paris I didn’t feel 100% certain of what I wanted to use so it was really helpful to walk around the fabric markets and be inspired. My colour palette was originally very bold and 80’s however after looking at all of the fabrics and trimmings my palette changed to lilac, mint and acid yellow.
I found a textured indigo denim in Paris which ended up becoming the base fabric for my collection and the fabric I built the rest of my fabric palette around, I would later decide to wash and dye the fabric a bold lilac colour which due to the texture of the denim would dye to different tones creating a really bold denim. I combined this with a digital print of the pop art illustration of my mum and a loopback jersey dyed a bold mint colour to later be screen printed with the same illustration as the digital print.
The final fabrics I sourced were recycled denim garments, I sourced these from charity shops and jumble sales as well as asking friends and family members for any old denim garments that were not being used anymore. So that I had a lot of denim to use and recycle I also asked my course mates and their housemates and ended up with just under 60 denim garments. The main garments I recycled were jeans and dungarees as they came with the most fastenings that I could also reuse throughout the rest of the collection.
How has it evolved from your initial ideas and what have you learnt along the way?
My collection took on a lot of different looks before ending up how it did, a lot of the original designs started looking very commercial and not as innovative as I had intended, originally I wanted to begin with classic denim styles and then develop them to show them in an innovative and experimental way which was not coming across in my collection . My line-up naturally changed a lot from start to finish and slowly through a lot of digital pattern exploration started to look very experimental and in my eyes started to really come together. My colour palette also did a complete U-turn and went from aggressively bold to youthful yet sophisticated which when combined with the design changes caused my collection to really take shape.
I learnt so much throughout the time spent working on my collection both technically and personally. Where my collection theme was so personal I sadly spent a lot of time torturing myself that I wasn’t doing the theme justice or that it wasn’t good enough, I also spent a lot of time doubting myself and almost disconnecting myself from the collection, it took a lot of time but I started to realise if I wasn’t happy with something it was up to me to change it and that the whole point of our final collection was for it to be truly us as designers in collection form, instead of starting to see the personal theme as a disadvantage I started to fully embrace it and connected with my collection once again and carried on with all of my work with the passion I had started it with. I learnt to trust myself and value my work alongside the importance of experimenting without worrying about making a mistake as the experimentation I did was what lead to most of my final designs and work.
What are the messages and themes behind your project that you want people to take away? Do explore any topics like diversity, sustainability or politics in your work?
The two main themes that I would want people to take away from my collection are sustainability and personal support. I would want people to realise that recycling doesn’t have to look recycled it is a method anyone can use to also create innovative high-end looks. I feel people still feel negatively towards recycling as if it will not have a ‘new’ feeling the same reason people are funny about shopping from charity shops. The bonus of recycling old garments are that they come with so many amazing details that can be reused to create really amazing garments as well as give them a whole new lease of life so they do not just get sent to landfill.
There are so many garments that sit in the back of wardrobes for years and years and then just end up being thrown away, these garments hold so much fabric that can be used to make so many things including face masks that are in such high demand with the current situation in the world. The second message I would want people to take away from my collection is the importance of support, whether its family, friends or personal everyone needs and deserves support. I wanted to use my collection to say thankyou to my parents for supporting me as much as they do as I know a lot of people don’t have that kind of support I never for one second forget that I am lucky to still have this, I have a lot of people close to me that have had a lot of people in their life turn their backs on them and although it has been hard, have created their own amazing support system.
Creating a support system was something I found to be so helpful for my mental health especially while at university, there have been so many highs and a lot of lows but creating a support system has also helped me to be my own support system too, realising the value of my work and generally supporting myself. I would encourage everyone although easier said than done, to really value making your own support system that not only benefits you but the people around you as well.
What’s an aspect of the fashion industry that you’re passionate about fixing or having a positive impact on?
Sustainability and inclusivity are both areas of the fashion industry that I feel very passionately about. Although the industry is changing a lot in terms of sustainability there is still a long way to go and a lot of amazing methods of reusing fabrics and zero waste pattern cutting being taught to students but aren’t being supported and utilised by a lot of the big fashion houses, it is amazing that a lot of students are being shown these methods with a lot of them carrying on the passion into final collections and own brand work however it would make a larger impact if more of the large brands promoted this way of work. We have enough clothing in the world currently to clothe the next 5 generations at least, fast fashion isn’t the answer, working smarter and more consciously is.
Another area where the industry is slowly getting better is with inclusivity, the fashion industry always gets a lot of criticism of not being inclusive with minimal exposure of models seen as ‘Alternative’ and a lot of the time minimal exposure of models of colour as well as promoting the ‘classic’ size 6 size which is not comparable to the average sizes of the customer. There is not a lot of promotion of the other fashion ranges such as plus size, as a general many physical stores stop their sizing at a size 14 or 16 meaning any sizes larger than those are only available online meaning customers of those sizes don’t receive the same shopping experiences due to the size they buy.
If larger brands used a wider range of models with ranging looks, shapes and sizes this would promote a more diverse body image message as well as breaking the super model stereotypes that we are so used to seeing. I feel your experience with fashion shouldn’t be minimised due to how you look, I have always seen fashion as a way to express yourself and a way to give yourself confidence so the way you look shouldn’t disadvantage you.
What is your plan once you finish your BA?
My plans for after my degree are to begin with internships so that I can gain more hands-on real-life experiences within the industry with a mixture of smaller and larger brands that share my values as a designer. I would love to also complete internships in other countries as it would allow me to travel and delve into another country’s culture. Although I have worked in collaboration with a brand during my second year I am very excited to get out into the industry to see what it is really like and to learn so much more from the people I work with and for.
As well as looking for internships I intend to carry on with my previous university work as although my Final Project is handed in, I still want to work on the work I did not get to finish due to lockdown to my standard and continue to develop the work I have already done to further promote my work via my social medias and website. I will also be taking this time to properly plan out what area of the industry I want to develop into and plan out the steps I need and want to take to get there, including entering competitions in the field I am passionate about such as Digital Fashion, sustainability and inclusivity. In the long run I would love to have my own company who create styles and trends that are full inclusive and work with and alongside other brands to promote a better image of how inclusive fashion can be and how it can be used as an amazing tool to fully express yourself. I will also be entering the competitions I can to continue developing the skills learnt at university and in preparation for industry and personal work.