INSPIRATION & RESEARCHI started my research by looking widely at as many areas of science as I could. I began looking at circular formations in science and pattern - bacteria and Petri dishes, nebulas, stars and planets. I then found these extreme close-up photographs of the human eye. I found them so incredible and they had such an impact on me that I knew I’d found the basis for my response to this brief - they encompassed both areas I’d be interested in.

FORMING THE CONCEPTAfter finding these incredible photographs of the eye, I began thinking about their relationship with our body. Despite almost every part of the body being absolutely essential to our existence, the eye is often given more praise than the liver for example. It is said that the eye is the window to the soul, people tell the truth through eye contact, we can understand people through looking into their eyes. When people are asked what sense they value the most, it is usually their sight. When people sign up to organ donor lists, it is often only their eyes they want to keep. The pattern in the iris alone is as individual to each person as a fingerprint, as DNA.

With such value being placed on an element of the human body, I began thinking about fashion’s relation to our bodies, and the value placed on fashion by everyone, especially Topman’s customers. The connection I formed was one of value. Fashion is fundamental to our individuality. Through our clothes we can represent ourselves the way we want to. We can show people who we are. We can say something about ourselves, just as our eyes can. Our eyes are essential, our clothes are essential. Our eyes reveal things about who we are, our clothes reveal things about who we are.

After my concept was strengthened in my own mind I began thinking about how I wanted to represent this graphically. My interest in pattern and the build up of the eye led me to look at spirographs. I experimented with both manual spirographs and how to build up similar patterns in Adobe Illustrator.

SPIROGRAPHS

TRACING PAPER & SCREEN PRINTING

I really liked how these spirographs were beginning to look, particularly the ones with darker centres as they better represent the eye with the pupil - the connection is more clear. To strengthen the connection I used ‘All eyes on us’ for this range of clothing’s title. This is the name for the whole collaboration between Topman and The Wellcome Collection, which refers to the way we use fashion to be noticed and to tell others who we are. I went on to use neon paper to show this idea - to get people’s attention and to say ‘look at us’.

The look-book represents the layers of the eye - the outer protective layer (the acetate cover), and inside there’s sheets of tracing paper to show how the iris layers up with the spirograph patterns, and the inside spread is predominantly black (representing the impact of the black void of the pupil).

Both the tracing paper and the neon paper struggled with taking ink well, so I began screen printing my designs. Pages from the look-book are opposite and below.