FUSED. part 1

Our final project in my Apparel 101 class was to work with a group to create a company, design a seven piece line, & figure out marketing techniques and a brand and sourcing and everything that goes along with starting a company. I wanted to share ours with you because we're all super proud of it, and it completely took over our lives for about a month.

Our brand is called FUSED, inspired by different cultures and based off of the idea that our line is a melting pot of different ethnic styles mixed--fused--together. We make sophisticated clothing marketed to 18-25 year old women, and this particular line was for Fall 2011.

We started out by deciding on our brand, market, and competitors. Lindsay sketched up a bunch of possible designs for us to pick from, and we all started gathering fabrics. Although it wasn't part of the requirement, we chose to make our entire line, hoping to wow our professor. We spent eight hours sewing one chilly Sunday, after spending eight hours the day before putting together our presentation boards and working on the charity foundation we created to go along with the company.

We did so much and spent so much time on it that I don't think I can even begin to cover it all, so I'll just dive in and show you some pictures. This is a two-part post because there are so many!



Here we are, hard at work in the CAD lab. We had to outline our designs in heavy black pen, scan them in, scan in our prints, & then fill the designs in with color & fabric.





Finished flats & sketches!



We took over our entire lounge when we started to piece the boards together.



Making bracelets for our charity, "Fire."



We hand-stenciled about 90 ribbons, strung them together with some nice cording, and handed them out to the class the day we presented. Everyone loves free stuff, so it was a hit!





Sewing day! Ah, typical apparel majors... I'm pretty certain we had more machines than people in that room!



When we finished our line, we of course had to put together a photoshoot! We hunted around in one of the buildings on campus one evening, and came across this mostly empty, unlocked gallery. It was so perfect for our purpose! Our fried Hannah & I took the pictures, trying to work super quickly so we wouldn't get caught/into trouble for being in there.





More to come soon!