UnitX Collaboration

Fashion design student Sarah Bimpson was looking for a jewellery designer making some over the top playful jewellery to compliment her fun and floaty floral garments.

We met up and discussed our current work and where we expect our projects to be heading and the potential for collaboration.

Sarah was really keen on using geometric shapes to create a chunky layered look using a combination of materials, and I was excited about adapting my designs for a fashion context so we decided to go ahead with the project which would help support, enhance and expand our individual practices.

Sarah's high-necked garments were ideal for a choker style necklace which meant I had to go a lot shorter than my usual long rope length necklaces. I started plotting out potential designs and measuring up how many supplies I'd need for each piece and made a slection of items for her to give me feedback on so we could develop the pieces further.

Some pieces were a bit too over the top and distracting like these chokers encorporating my soft and squishy beads

Or this full length layered disc necklace

But the lazer-cut acrylic shapes seemed to hold a lot of potential

At this point in the project I was adding the stacking bangles to my black and white collection and this inspired my suggestion for floral bangles.

Originally I didn't think this suggestion would be successful since the first garments Sarah had shared with me had long floaty sleeves so these would have obscured my bangles but Sarah said she would have a piece with shorter sleeves in her collection and bangles would be a great addition to complete that outfit and she also liked the potential of hanging the bangles on the neckpieces (see above)

She sent me the outlines of floral shapes she had already designed on Illustrator which she was ebroidering onto her clothes which I then adapted into layered stacking bangles.

It was really exciting supplying Sarah with a selection of Links and Loops and seeing how she combined them for her final look and I was really pleased that the collaboration gave me the opprtunity to expand my collection into a different colour scheme.

Though Sarah's original request was a zesty colour scheme of fluorescent oranges, yellows and greens this became much more subtle in order to not over-power the outfit and instead compliment it with a more refined colour palette.

Overall I was really pleased with our collaboration and enjoyed the experience of adapting my exisiting designs according to someone else's brief which also aided the development of my individual practice.

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