My project: Fashion Futures: Research and Experiment, focused on designing and creating in a forward thinking way, to confront some of the issues associated with the fashion and textile industry, especially around environmental sustainability. The design process had been flipped on it’s head and I was being lead by materials and fabric, using my creativity and technical knowledge to base my experimentation and sampling around what I had sourced. It challenged me to be more savvy with using my materials, and it has encouraged me to find ways to celebrate and embrace some of the items’ existing features. One of my main focuses had been leather, both real and faux, as they are unique yet timeless textiles that we have in abundance, and will be the ideal material to utilise for an outerwear piece that I am now starting to construct in my current module: Fashion Futures: Design Development and Resolution. I experimented with a range of techniques including: print with foil and flock, laser cutting, deconstruction, draping, hand embroidery, digital embroidery, and natural dyeing. This project was an exciting and experimenting approach to design and materials, and I cannot wait to utilise some of these techniques in my final piece.