Designers and Design Icons A2 level Product Design: Textiles Design and Market Influences

Exam Preparation What do I need? Designers- You will need to be able to discuss a variety of designers, offering biographical commentary as well as discussions regarding their work and influences on the fashion industry Design Icons- As well as designers you will also need to be able to recall a variety of iconic designs or design classics. Again you will need to be able to discuss these products in detail and explain how they have influenced the fashion industry we know today There are a wealth of fashion and textile designers who have been deemed as iconic throughout the 20 th Century A level Product Design: Textiles

Designers You will need to have knowledge of a few designers for the exam as you may be asked to discuss their work, their influences, their successes… will supply you with a wealth of biographical information about a range of different designers Dior Yves Saint Laurent Chanel Quant Lacroix McQueen Poiret A level Product Design: Textiles

Designers Dior Yves Saint Laurent Chanel Quant Lacroix McQueen Poiret A level Product Design: Textiles Who are they? What are they famous for? How did they influence fashion? Are they still ‘designing’?

Design Icons What is a design icon or design classic? LBD Quilted Bag Capri Pant Mini Skirt A level Product Design: Textiles As well as being able to discuss designers you must also have a good understanding of products that are deemed to be iconic- for example Mary Quant is famed for designing the Mini Skirt which is now regarded as a design classic or icon of design. It was original and innovative at the time of its creation and is still influencing the fashion industry today

Design Icons What is a design icon or design classic? LBD Quilted Bag Capri Pant Mini Skirt A level Product Design: Textiles

Design Icons What is a design icon or design classic? LBD Quilted Bag Capri Pant Mini Skirt A level Product Design: Textiles The ‘Mondrian’ Dress designed by Yves Saint Laurent in 1965 was heavily inspired by the De Stijl design movement, where artists were using a grid effect on canvas to achieve colour blocking. The dress was a revolutionary development in production as all sections were cut as individual panels and pieced together with a black seamed panel. The dress is an iconic design as it completely summarised the artistic movement at the time of its creation. Piet Mondrian Dutch Painter

Design Icons: Mini Skirt A level Product Design: Textiles Mary Quant, (born 11 February 1934) is a Welsh fashion designer and British fashion icon, who was instrumental in the mod fashion movement. She was one of the designers who took credit for inventing the miniskirt and hot pants. Quant brought fun and fantasy to fashion in the 1960s. As creator of the mini skirt and hot pants, she showed a generation how to dress to please themselves. Her instant success made traditionally cautious designers change their attitudes and make their designs appeal to the newly important youth market. Mini Skirt

Design Icons: 2.55 Chanel Bag A level Product Design: Textiles In the 1920s, Coco Chanel became tired of having to carry her handbags in her arms and decided to design a handbag that freed up her hands. Inspired by the straps found on soldiers’ bags she added thin straps and introduced the resulting design to the market in After her successful comeback to the fashion industry in 1954, Chanel decided to update her handbag, for the modern women. The resulting design was called 2.55 after the date of creation, February Some interesting features are included such as the lining is burgundy representing the convent where she grew up, on the inside of the flap is a zipped compartment allegedly for her love letters… 2.55 Chanel Bag

Design Icons: Harem Pants A level Product Design: Textiles In 1911, Poiret introduced "jupe- culottes" or harem pants. These full pants fell together almost as a skirt would and were worn under a tunic. This style was popular primarily among women with bohemian tendencies, as most women did not yet wear pants on a regular basis. The same tunic could also be worn over a skirt, a style much more acceptable to the general public. The fashion press dubbed this the "Persian silhouette," in recognition of its supposed origins. This style was widely copied by other designers and the tunic/skirt combination proved especially popular. In 1913, Poiret pushed the tunic to its most extreme silhouette by inserting wire in the hem, forcing the so-called "lampshade" tunic to stand away from the body. Poiret Harem Pants

Design Icons: Capri Pant A level Product Design: Textiles The European fashion designer Sonja de Lennart invented the famous Capri pants in Well known as Capris, long or three-quarter shorts, they end below the knee and calf. The pants name comes from the Italian isle of Capri, where they rose to popularity in the late 1950s and early 1960s. First only worn by women, they later became popular also with men in many countries, especially in Europe and Latin America. In 1948 when women were wearing the typical wide and rather masculine pants, de Lennart created the sexy tight three-quarter length Capri pants with the stylish short slit on the outer-side of the pant leg. The original classic Capri Pants were designed in specific lengths for winter and summer wear. Capri Pants

Task The following textile products are all considered to be icons of textile product design: Mini skirt, 2.55 quilted chain bag, Mondrian dress, Harem pant, Capri pant. Select one product from the list above. Describe this product through the use of illustration and annotation. It is important to include key style and design features. (8 marks) Name the original designer of this product. (1 mark) Explain the importance and ongoing influence of this product in fashion history. (9 marks) Name a further iconic textile product that is not listed above. (1 mark) Name the person who designed the product you have named in the previous question. (1 mark) Explain why you consider the product you have named to be iconic. (8 marks) A level Product Design: Textiles Exam Question- Past Paper 2010