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So I had a tutorial with Kit Miles today who had in the morning given us a lecture on his interior print design company. I loved his designs and ideas and, how he mixed traditional detailed drawings with a modern aesthetic. I was intrigued to see what he would think about my work with it being a similar take on the idea of combining traditional ideas and motifs with modern approaches, smart textile applications and modern imagery. To be honest I don't think he really understood what I'm trying to do and why. Obviously I'm working with mainly embroidery but I am going to be working with print with smart applications using thermochromic and colour shifting pigment. He seemed to struggle to see past its obvious medical application with regards to a final product and certainly could not understand the use of the glow in the dark referring to it as gimmicky on more than one occasion. Although he didn't seem to understand why I had chosen to use these applications it was a good opportunity to really defend my ideas and why I had done them. He asked me about my market and I explained the various markets I am looking into and that the work doesn't simply sit within one. He suggested from that I look at creating my own market, a new sector looking at smart textile applications for RTW and Couture which I do think is defiantly worth considering. I had explained already though that the idea to pursue smart textile applications was a personal one and that I intend for the final designs to work simply as designs if someone where to want to use them without the smart techniques. He did seem to like my ideas without the smart applications and gave praise to them, particularly the quilling acetate idea. If anything the experience makes me want to prove how these ideas can be used well in modern fashion and that they aren't gimmicky. It hasn't put me off my ideas of what I want to achieve but made me aware that I may need to defend them more than I had previously thought and really work to convince some people that they would be used more in fashion. Its also made me start to think more about my audience and who exactly would wear these designs and why.

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