SWOT Analysis AD203 Art and Design Method 2 

" Little Black Dress Project" 

As a part of this module I was requested to produce the portfolio of work for the Little Black dress project as well as the design of the garment itself in the final stage of this project. 

As this time it was up to us as final year students  to choose the theme for the Little Black Dress I decided to focus on 1920's Art Deco era as an inspiration. 

STRENGTHS

* What advantages did I have?

The biggest advantage was the fact I accumulated a broad spectrum of books, magazines and made a huge research into the origins of Art Deco era and its famous artists, not only designers like Poiret, Shiaparelli, Vionnet, but also for the first time I learned how significant impact Art Deco era had on current designers like Vivienne Westwood, Lanvin or Prada, whose 2011 catwalks were full of 1920;s inspired gowns and continue to serve as an inspiration on 2012 flapper fashion chic.

* What section of work did I complete well. 

I was quite happy with the outcome on how my portfolio looked like in comparison to my previous portfolios.  I must say that during the presentation of my previous portfolio about "Architecture based Fashion" I found it quite difficult to capture all aspects of the founding during my research and sell my ideas and thoughts via the imagery and drawings, which to be honest were, when I look at them now- quite poor. The LBD final outcome of presenting the ideas were in my opinion more mature. 

Due to the fact that  I read and looked via multiple amount of Art Deco Fashion books, as well as the pattern books of that particular Fashion era, I had a better knowledge also on what I was expecting my final garment to look like. 

In my opinion the best part of my garment was actually a collar part of my dress. During my steam punk project I focused on the complicated sewing techniques of combining fabric of completely different textures like suede, lace and chiffon. 

This time I wanted to show that I can offer and show my knowledge and skills in different area of fashion design like embroidery. 

WEAKNESSES

*What do others see as my weaknesses and what are my negative work habits. 

Definitely one of the weaknesses being pointed out to my during my tutorials was still the lack of being systematic and not always being able to stick to the assigned deadlines.

Also my tendency to forget and rushing during the garment completion, which resulted in the necessity to unpick and to alter the parts of the garment.

Sometimes I also tend to leave the assigned tasks to the last minute which results in the quality of especially my portfolio and design development, which is the most time consuming, to look not totally up to the standards I would wish for them to be. 

OPPORTUNITIES

*What did I learn?

Again like during the Steampunk project I had the opportunity to learn about the historical aspect of fashion and how it impacted and still impact the designers and fashion catwalks today. 

I had the opportunity to design the type of garment which theme I could choose myself and suited me perfectly considering the type of garments and people I would like to design. Androgynous style of 1920's, feminism movement and the born of the string and independent woman of those times are the factors on why learning and getting into insides of it gave me an extreme pleasure and satisfaction. This was the time well spend and plenty of knowledge gained:)