1948

Today was the fifth and final day of the Flyknit Formfitting workshop at 1948.

After adding the final touches to their jerseys, the Flyknit participants got camera-ready with a little styling help from fashion blogger, Susie Lau. “I want you guys to create a vision that speaks of your personality” Susie told the group. “What can you say about yourself in one picture?” The short answer was: quite a lot. The finished jerseys incorporated everything from netted artificial hair to floor-length transparent panelling to entirely backless, bungee-cord embellished designs. But each conveyed the Flyknit principle of Formfitting in its own way.

The shoot was a fitting end to a week that has seen the participants explore the Formfitting principle in a host of new and unexpected ways. From Tuesday’s Fuel Challenge with Tremaine Emory and Tarik Fontenelle, to a sketching session with Astrid Andersen and Jarrett Reynolds, to pattern-seeking with Patternity, tailoring with Trinity Ellis and Carri ‘Cassette Playa’ Munden and styling with Susie Bubble…with the guidance of the Flyknit innovators, the group had created innovative, imaginative designs that were the perfect balance of fit, style and function. But it was the participants themselves whose creativity and energy made the week such an amazing success.

Congratulations to the third Class of 1948!

We asked four Formfitting graduates to reflect on their designs.

OLIVER WORSLEY AND DAVID BHALLA

Why did you want to take part in the Formfitting workshop?

O: I was interested in the shoe already – the concept behind it and the construction. As a brand, Nike is going from strength to strength so I thought it would be a great project to get involved with.

D: As a designer, I’ve always been into fashion but never really explored it much. I wanted the challenge of working with designers in a different medium.

How have the Workshop Challenges shaped your final design?

D: The pattern challenge was a really big one for me. Working with Patternity was great – I learnt a lot and they really opened my eyes to using pattern in a different way. Also, the idea of putting performance first is something I hadn’t really explored before.

O: Having Jarrett come down and tell us about the processes that Nike goes through definitely made us approach our design in a different way.

D: The Fuel Challenge also really made me think about movement and how I could reflect that in the garment. I added a Moire effect, which is kind of like an optical illusion where you different lines to create a wave effect. I didn’t want to put a pattern on for pattern’s sake.

O: After we completed the Fuel challenge we decided that we wanted to drop the sleeves to add movement and tailor the jersey to make it more Formfitting.

RAEL STONE

What do you do?

I’m a menswear designer but I work much more like an artisan. So I don’t show my work every six months – I make pieces whenever an idea comes to mind. I want to move into furniture next, I want to start a design team, I want to do everything! I want to make teapots and sofas and beds. I want to start a movement.

What was the thought process behind your jersey?

It was really aesthetically driven – Nike is so much about performance and it was a bit daunting for me to take on that aspect. But I love the idea of a Destroyer jacket with all the patches, so I added those to my final design. And I added transparent blocks, just because I thought they were quite sexy. It’s really important to me that my designs look good.

JOSEPH BOND

What do you do?

I lead workshops in pattern cutting for MA Sculpture students. I did a year of fashion at University and then transferred to sculpture. My course is based around that transition and crossover.

My work puts forward the sewing machine as a legitimate tool in the sculpture process. There’s this idea that fabric is for garments, but I want to challenge that. Pattern cutting is about putting a 2D form into a 3D form, which is also what carpentry or metalwork or welding are already doing. So it’s not a new idea for people who do sculpture.

What inspired the design of your jersey?

I play ball with the 48 Ballers at 1948 London. Some of the things I spoke about with Jarrett really got me thinking…Everybody that we play with or play against now wears the DriFit underlayers and in a way it’s made the basketball jersey itself a bit redundant. Jerseys are almost a symbolic style more than anything now. I wanted to reference that idea in my own design – I don’t think I’d wear it, but I might hang it on my wall.