Water Ways

For the last 5 weeks I have been working on a project entitled 'Water Ways'. This project has been inspired by the colours, patterns and shapes associated with the British Water Ways in particular the ‘Narrowboat’ and canal life of the late 1800’s early 1900’s.

I have had many childhood holidays on canal boats and since then I have been fascinated by the many different colours, patterns, crafts and stories related to the canals. The canal folk would proudly decorate everything to do with their boat. Every panel on the boat would be painted in different colours. Enamel buckets, watering cans and other accessories associated with the boat would be embellished with fairytale imagery of castles and flowers (roses are the most predominant painted flower). Inside the cabins would be swathed in crocheted blankets, lace tablecloths and tatted porthole curtains. In this project I wanted to capture the Edwardian boatmen’s love of bright and bold colours and look at the fashion of the women who lived on the canal and look into their use of domestic crafts.



The shape of my garment has been inspired by the blouses worn by the boat women and decorated with red and black roses (taken from the enamel buckets). The pattern structure of the skirt has been informed by the patterns found in lace making and tatting. In keeping with the boatmen’s tradition of making the panels of the boat different I have tried to encapsulate this by making each section (the skirt, sleeves and neck pieces) different in colour and texture.

Designers such as Gudrun Sjoden, Kenzo, Saltwater, Eley Kishimoto, Balenciaga and Etro have helped inspire my work as I feel their collections emphasise with folkloric style to which I am so drawn.