MANAAL'S PORTFOLIO

TEXTILE DESIGN EXPLORATIONS

manaal Khan

FASHION DESIGN PORTFOLIO

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I'M A sENIOR FASHION DESIGN STUDENT AT PARSONS SCHOOL OF DESIGN, DEDICATED TO ELEVATING FASHION WITH CONCEPT DRIVEN STORYTELLING. I create WITH A FOCUS ON TEXTILES/MATERIALITY AND SUSTAINABILITY.

CONTENTS

'YAADEIN' (MEMORIES)

My collection is named Yaadein which is Urdu for ‘memories’. my own personal experience of growing up between multiple polarizing cultures (US/Pakistan) and ultimately losing sight of my roots is a story that rings true for so many. Though my collection has strong flavourful influences from South Asia, namely Pakistan, I created it as a way to inspire everyone to reunite our fragmented identities and reignite pride in the cultures that we came from - wherever that may be. Through my moodboards, reflections and research I rediscovered my own memories of visiting Pakistan. Memories painted with such vibrant hues from the textiles, fruits, nature and architecture. The sounds of the roosters, the tune of the ice cream trucks, the horns of the buses, the fruit sellers singing the names of the fruits. This eclectic, chaotic, decadent atmosphere is evident in the bold color play, juxtaposing textures, drapery and traditional handcrafts, all fused with western silhouettes. The collection is a celebration of rich heritage and multiple identities, giving permission to the audience to acknowledge that the different stories within us are not mutually exclusive.

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ASSIMILATION VS AMALGAMATION

surrounding the idea of 'returning to our roots and embracing them', I created a brainstorm/mind map on all the influences from my Pakistani roots that I wanted to include in this collection. I also thought about the audience that my collection is designed for, why I'm designing it and what I envision for the collection.

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I created these PRINTED on Adobe illustrator by manipulating found images of things that influenced my collection such as, mangoes, marigolds and Mughal art. I incorporated these prints into the designs of my collection.

My final outfit consisted of 3 pieces. An up cycled, off the shoulder denim, patchwork top with a silk georgette fringe. A pair of Up-cycled, denim, knee length shorts on top of which I did mirror embroidery and block printing. And a decorative detachable waistband piece with hand-dyed, silk georgette drapery. The materiality is significant in expressing the ‘amalgamation’ of cultures as it’s almost a collage of eastern handicrafts on a more traditional ‘American’ canvas of denim. I wanted to represent the rich history and culture of handcrafted textiles in South Asia in a unique way. The mood-board depicts examples of patterns, architecture sounds and colors that influenced the design.

Here I include the inspiration from henna, its color and the patterns, the iconic fruits and the flora of Pakistan.

The collages depicts the mood, atmosphere, tranquility and vibrancy of the outfit and entire collection.

This half scale piece includes my Bandhani-dyed silk georgette fabric which is used in the full scale piece above. It is a twist on the traditional 'sari', combining it with a more western gown silhouette but still including the drapery and pleating.

Textile Design Exploration

These were new textile skills and techniques that I learned and put into practice through these experiments. I explored many different Shibori methods ranging from stitch resist to block resist and binding. I created swatches of different natural dyes, fiber reactive dyes, silk acid dye and indigo dye after learning the entire unique processes of dyeing different fibers. On some of them I tried soy wax resist patterns and I also created mud pigments mixed with soy milk to hand paint onto fabric (bottom left).

'Consuming Fashion' Textile Installation

(height 6ft, width of two large handspans)

Although this piece is more of a fine art Installation, it marks the beginning of my shift into Fashion and ignited my interest in textile manipulation. I focused closely on the invasive nature of certain flora and the way they are able to ‘consume’ their environments, as the installation focuses on the effects of fast fashion and consumerism. I explored this theme by turning different fibers and fabrics into more natural, organic and delicate forms to represent nature's fragility. I contrasted this with the volume and scale of my installation, which depicted nature’s invasive ability to consume its environment and, in turn, the plague fast fashion has brought to the industry.

'Consuming Fashion' Fashion Concept/Moodboard

'Consuming Fashion' Fashion (Silhouette/Texture Inspiration)

Consuming Fashion' Fashion (Final Illustration and material exploration)

Cotton, Voile, Felt, Organza

I recreated the look of flower garlands by hand cutting cotton petals and roping them together. Then I experimented on different materials by drawing a floral pattern onto the fabric using PVA glue. Once the glue dried I used a heat gun to melt away the remaining fabric so that the floral pattern would emerge. Different fabrics reacted differently, some became crunchy and some remained malleable.

I wanted to try structural pieces out of the fabric that could depict abnormal growth (the bottom left photo). After the heat gun revealed the pattern, I soaked the fabric in PVA glue and wrapped it around a balloon. Once this dried, I popped the balloon and a delicate floral sphere was left behind. with the 'invasive growth' aspect I still wanted to emphasize the delicacy of nature, not only through the pattern, but also through the 'see-through' element.

Final Garment and Process Photos

I challenged myself through this piece by combining fiber and non-fiber materials and having these be completely recycled or found items in my environment. I started off by reusing an old black body suit which was skin tight to create a base for my garment. On top of this, I sewed on the fabric flowers I had created onto the neck and arm area to recreate that invasive growth/nature consuming humans concept. I created the bodice out of large banana leaves and a wrap skirt out of a trash bag on top of which I layered the textile experiments from the previous page.

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