This project draws upon ideas and imagery in fairy and folk tales from around the world. I was inspired by the writings of Hans Christian Anderson and the brothers Grimm as well as the more contemporary Angela Carter. I am interested in classic fairy tales as well as some more obscure stories. Behind the magic fairytales often deal with human experiences everyone can relate to, this is what gives the fairytale it's timeless appeal. I sought to design a range of fabrics that show not the 'disneyfied' fairy tale but the strange and sinister tales the way the brothers Grimm intended. Dark woods, frightening beasts as well as knights in armour and fairy tale castles. I worked primarily on paper, scanning my final drawings onto the computer to construct patterns in CAD (photoshop and illustrator). 

Colour was very important to the realisation of this idea. Whilst the tales themselves are read from pages in black and white, they evoke a myriad of colours in the imagination. Through colour I aimed to evoke a feeling of the past be it your childhood when you heard the stories or reflecting the age of the tales themselves. Fairy tale inspired prints I have researched are always so garish, bright pinks and blues for boys and girls. For my designs I saw instead a colour palette alluding to the folktale's history; a dusky colour palette of warm ochre, rusty red, forest green, regal blue and other dusky shades.

I want to further challenge the pigeon holing of fairy tales for little girls and design this fashion collection for menswear. Men's shirts with monsters and unicorns, or knights rescuing princesses from castles. The unexpected combination will put a fresh spin on the fairy tale theme and I think the final outcome has a sense of fun, which I love in a textile print. 

​