My Capsule collection is titled ‘Sunday Best’ which centred around my family’s experiences of Catholicism, particularly during my mother’s childhood going up in South Wales with Northern Irish influences. Through my research, I expanded my concept to look at the contrast between dressing for a sunday then vs. now - looking at casual leisurewear juxtaposed with religious dress. My collection is all white, initially I designed with hints of 70’s colours from my mother’s childhood which did not end up translating to the final line up.

As a Fashion Knitwear student, I fully documented my making process here, looking at how I could use hand skills inspired by the 70’s era of my mother’s childhood with more modern machine knitting techniques. I really enjoyed this process because it gives a unique finish and personal touch giving a connection between the designer and the wearer taking the anonymity out of the design process. I used techniques such as elongated stich and eyelets to give the effect of openwork, allowing the t-shirt yarn macrame to be woven back through the knit.

Here, I really experimented with repurposed lace dollies, looking at combining them to make a fabric with macrame. I decided to let the t-shirt yarns hang loose along both the sleeves and the bodice to give an extra sense of texture. I really enjoyed looking at designers using similar old style textures but using conceptual new silhouettes to give lace an openwork a current feel, yet retaining the personal handwriting of the designer.

This is my final line up for my Capsule project as part of my third year of study. I made one outfit from this collection in full and would have loved to have made more to stronger convey the concept of ‘Sunday Best’. I really enjoyed this project because it gave me the opportunity to combine repurposed materials along with hand skills of weaving and macrame with my machine knitting skills. This collection is made up of 4 dresses and headpieces; some of which are all-in-ones and others are layers of garments to give the wearer a sense of control and choice over their clothes. I used a black background for the illustrations of my all-white collection to bring the drawings off the page which gave me the opportunity to communicate strong textures - often this is the main driving component of my work.