Deconstruction/Reconstruction: Days 8, 9, 10

On Tuesday when I went back to uni, I had a clear idea of the exact garments that I wanted to make and since I done a lot of stand work over the weekend figuring out how I would make them, I was clear about what I needed to do for the last 3 days of the project.

On day 8 and 9 I focused on making the garments which was quite a simple process even though it took a while to get each piece exactly how I wanted them. On the last day I drew my final lineup made a concept board which I pinned on the wall so when people looked at my work they didn't have to look through my whole sketchbook to understand where my ideas came from.

Deconstructio/ Reconstruction: 4, 5, 6, 7

Over the weekend I did more focused stand work working towards garments that I wanted to make for my final piece. I looked at ways to add colour into the denim fabric so did some textiles samples making the denim into a patchwork and using orange and yellow zigzag stitch to join the pieces. This was really successful and I love how it's turned out so I'm going to do orange zigzag to join all the pieces together.

After this I continued to do lots of work on the stand. This was successful because since I can't make an actual pattern for the pieces I want to make, this helped to figure out exactly how the garments would be constructed. I continued to switch between stand work and illustrating to design so that by Monday I knew exactly how I was going to make the garments

Deconstruction/Reconstruction: Day 3

Today I started to think about my concept. I went to the library and looked at some books on architecture. One them that I found was about an architect called Richard Rodger. I really like his work especially one building called 'The Lloyds Building'. Because of its appearance, lifts, stairs and pipes shown on the outside, it is often nicknamed 'The Inside Out Building'. I really like this idea of have all the clothes seeming to be inside out and the buildings he designs also has lots of interesting shapes and colours that I could use to inspire my designs.
Since a lot of clothes I've used so far are made from denim I decided to look at American Workwear in the 1920s and 30s when denim first become worn. I photocopied a lot of images from book about denim which I am then going to use in collages.

Doing this research really helped because before, although I knew I wanted to used denim, I found it hard to come up with solid ideas to create a collection and felt I needed more than just a material to link my designs. I like this concept because I think it is a real good idea but it's not a concept that needs a lot of time to understand and research and it will still allow for the clothes to be my main inspiration while still giving them a common thread.

Next I made collages joining together my research, some the stand work I'd previously done and illustrations to see how my research could fit in with the work I'd already done on the stand. I then tried to recreate some of these looks on the stand. I found going back and forth with my illustrations, collages and stand work was really helpful for my design process. The collages and illustrations gave me inspiration and then I used working on the stand so I could properly visualise how these garments would look and how they would be made. Today was really successful because I now have a clear idea of my concept which is influencing the design work I'm doing.

Deconstruction/Reconstruction: Day 2

I spent the next day doing mostly stand work and collages. This time it was more refined and developed from the day before. The day before I was just testing things out and seeing what I could possibly do we the clothes I had. Today I started think more about the exact types of clothes I wanted to use so I used mostly denim. I tried to use the clothes in the complete opposite way that they were originally meant to be used. For example I used a pair of jeans to make a cropped jacket which I really love because it's completely unexpected and looks so much like a jacket that if it was made up properly, you would hardly be able to tell they were a pair of jeans.

Next I continued with my collage work from day before but like the stand work, it was much more focused, particularly on denim. I continued to design from both my stand work and collages and I really like where this project is going. I think today was successful because I was able to develop my ideas better. It felt weird not working with a concept and using the clothes completely as inspiration so I'm going to do some research on possible sources of inspiration tomorrow.

Deconstruction/Reconstruction: Day 1

Today I started the deconstruction/reconstruction project. The weekend before I went to a vintage clothing sale to get lots of cheap clothes. Denim is one of my favourite fabrics so I was immediately drawn to denim jackets, shirts and jeans as I like the material and I think it could be interesting to take apart the pieces and put them together in a new way. I also bought some tailored jackets and shirts because there are a lot of pieces that make them up so there is a lot to work with.

I started by doing work on the stand using the clothes that I'd brought in and used them in ways that they wouldn't usually be used (upside down, inside out, jackets as skirts, trousers as a jacket). I really liked this process. It helped me to start looking at the clothes in unconventional ways. I think with this kind of project it would be extremely hard to design just by drawing so I think stand work will be very important during this project.

Then I printed off these photos and started to design from these, thinking about the types of clothes that I could possibly make for a final piece. I also went through magazines and found clothes similar to the ones that I had used on the stand and made collages using these. Today was really successful for me as I got loads of ideas for where I could with this project and I'm excited to see where it goes.

Industry Project: Day 9 and 10

Today I focused on bringing together mine and Paulina's designs to create our collection. We went through all of our designs and chose the ones that we liked the most. We talked about what fabrics we were thinking about using and chose some specific shapes/ details that we could incorporate into our designs so the collection would be cohesive.

Then we developed our designs for about an hour exchanging ideas and going through all the designs that we definitely wanted to use. We put all the designs into outfits, mixing our designs together. I think the collection that we produced shows how well we communicated because even though we didn't design every piece together, all of our designs worked well together and you could hardly tell who had designed what.  Together we decided on the fabrics we wanted to use and which colours would work best. Then we decided who would draw what for the final collection and presentation.

When I got home that night I drew out the final line up and put together the slides that everyone and sent me for their part of the presentation.

The next day we did our group presentation in front of the class. It went well but we had to rush a lot to finish it in the morning. I think we were too focused on our final outcomes and left the presentation till the last minute so I don't think it was as good as the work that we produced.

Industry Project: Day 8

Today was the photo shoot for the promotion students. The first thing I did was try the dress on Maria, our model, so I would have enough time to make any adjustments before the shoot if need be. Luckily it fit her perfectly but when I saw the dress on I realised it looked a little plain and Ella agreed as well. I saw that she'd done some beading samples for her sketchbook and asked if she could do some on the dress as well. I think this really brought the dress to life and made it look more Pradaesque because of the extra embellishments.

The promotion students needed a lot of help setting up for the photo shoot so the whole team helped to set up.

While we waited me and Paulina talked about our ideas for the collection and showed each other the work we'd done over the weekend. Since neither of us had finished our 15-20 designs we agreed that we'd have them done by the next day and then we'd start to put it together into a collection.

Industry Project: Days 4, 5, 6, 7

I spent the weekend focusing on making the dress for the photo shoot. On the Friday I went to Shepherd's Bush to get fabric. I ended up going for a thick jersey in a deep turquoise colour. I made a toile of the dress first so I could check that the pattern I had made would work. When making the pattern I used calico to drape it as i didn't know that I was going to be using jersey. It was a good thing that I decided to make a toile because the dress turned out way to big and this have me the chance to fix the mistakes. Once I'd made the dress. I did more designs so I had some ideas to show Paulina but unfortunately because I spent most of the weekend making the dress, I didn't get as much design work as I would've liked.

Industry Project: Day 3

Today I focused on designing, focusing on garments which had a lot of texture and that could incorporate some of Ella's textile designs. Using my research I isolated shapes that were interesting and then experimented with using them in lots of different ways. I also used my fabric swatches in the drawings so I could see how different fabrics could work together. I did this quite a lot because Prada is a brand that likes to use contrasting materials, colours and pattern so I felt that it was important to do so my designs would fit in with the Prada aesthetic.

Me and Ella were constantly aware of what each other were doing during the day which was important so we could make sure our designs worked well together. Once she had made some knit samples, I used those on the stand and started to think about different ways I could use them in designs. Then I did some quick sketches next to the photos so I could begin to express my ideas on paper and get them out of my head so I could show them to the rest of the team.
After showing Ella some of my initial designs, we decided together on the ones we liked the most. Then I drew them out clearer and show them to the rest of the team. Since we'll be using the design in the photo shoot, I felt it was important that the whole team agreed on the design. I also thought it was good to get a some more opinions on whether my designs were Prada enough. Luckily, everyone agreed on the same design

Next I spoke to Paulina, the other womenswear designer in my team and we spoke about how we were going to present a final line up. We decided that we would each come up with about 10-15 outfits/ designs over the weekend and on monday we would start to think about mixing our designs together to create approximately 15 look collection. For the rest of the day I continued to do some rough sketches and began picking out the ones that I liked the most and want to develop.

Industry Project: Day 2

Today I felt like our whole group really came together as one and we all had a clear idea of what we want our final outcomes to look like.

At the beginning of the day we discussed what we wanted our themes to be. One theme that stood out to most of us was drag queens, especially in the 70s/80s. I decided to focus on one of the most famous drag queens, Divine, who completely turned drag on its head by coming out as this trashy, punk queen with a filthy sense of humour. The two promotion students weren't really keen on the idea of drag queens so we decided to incorporate the themes of 70s glam rock, focusing mainly on David Bowie, and also Andy Warhol and the Warhol Factory, which is a place that all of the muses we've chosen to look at often frequented.

Then we decided that the designers would go to the Prada store on Bond street and collect fabric samples while the promotion students stayed behind and did more research on Andy Warhol and start thinking about what ideas they had for the promotional side of this project.

I think our research trip today was really useful. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photos in the Prada store but it was great to be able to see the clothes close up and touch them to get a feel of the fabrics. I took lots of notes on the style of clothes, types of fabrics they used and the aesthetic that Prada has.

It was good going to the store before fabric shopping because it gave us lots of ideas about the types of fabrics that we wanted to get. Because there were four of us we were able to get a wide range of fabrics. In the morning we had started to think about a colour scheme but hadn't really decided on anything specific. As we got more fabrics we saw that we had started to develop a colour scheme of turquoise, cobalt, bright orange and fuschia. It was good that the designers all went fabric shopping together because although we are doing our own project it is important to make sure our work is still cohesive.

When we got back to Ravensbourne we discussed what we had all done and realized that our group a really strong, cohesive concept. I felt that everyone had done their part and because we'd spoken in the morning about our ideas when we came together our ideas were really cohesive.

The promotion students had spoken to John and realized that it was really to get the photo shoot done on Tuesday so they had enough time for post-production. This means that I have to work really hard over the next few days to get my designs done and make a garment for them to use.

When I got home I put all of my research on Prada and our themes into my sketchbook. I made some collages which started to give my some ideas for designs and I started to draw some initial designs so the promotion students can see what type of garment I could be making and begin to think about styling. Tomorrow I'm hoping to do some work on the stand and carry on designing.

Industry Project: Day 1

Today we were briefed on the designers the teachers had chosen then asked to choose the ones we'd most like to be work on. Then we were put into groups. I was nervous about being put into a group with people I didn't know very well or who I had clashing opinions with but I think the group I have been put in will work well together.

Once we were in our group we chose some lyrics from the Lou Reed song 'Walk on the Wild Song' mainly because we all thought the lyrics were interesting and there was a lot of ways we could interpret them.

Holly came from Miami F.L.A.
Hitch-hiked her way across the U.S.A.
Plucked her eyebrows on the way
Shaved her legs and then he was a she
She said, hey babe, take a walk on the wild side,
Said, hey honey, take a walk on the wild side.

Although we all have very different styles we felt it was important to start brainstorming as a group. After doing some individual research on the song we came together and made a mind map with all of our ideas which included transgenders, punk rock, travelling, glam rock, 70s and feminism.

We also decided that the two designers would try to make garments by next Tuesday because we all agreed it would be good if the promotion students could use some of our clothes in their photo shoots.

Before lunch we decided to all collect imagery which we could use to create a group mood board. I was a little annoyed when after lunch I was the only one who had actually collected images especially since we only had an hour left of the day. Luckily a few other people managed to print off their images and we were able to put together a decent mood board which has lots of inspiration point so hopefully everyone will be able to agree on just two or three themes.

At the end of the day we decided that everyone would do more research and collect images tonight on the themes that'd we'd already looked at and by tomorrow we'd finish our mood board and hopefully have our set themes.

I think so far my group has worked fairly well together and hopefully everyone will be able to work a little bit faster tomorrow.

Lamula Project: Day 3

On the Thursday I started by grouping the fabric swatches that I'd got the day before and seeing which ones worked best together. Then I went through all of my designs and chose a few that I liked the most and thought would most likely fit in with the Lamula Nassuna brand.

I chose a design that I thought was quite outgoing and little eccentric but still smart and appropriate for work. I think it might have been a bit over the top for Lamula Nassuna as the brand is more about basic clothing with a slight flare but I loved the design so much that I went with it anyways. I spent the rest of the day drawing the final design, print off my concept board and doing a working drawing. I didn't have enough time to do the working drawings properly so I am going to redo these neater for my portfolio.

Lamula Project: Day 2

The next day I started to look at colour. I made two colour mood boards, one using the Frida Kahlo research and another using the Jeanne Dunning research. The Frida Kahlo mood board had lots of bright colours such as fuchsia, turquoise, and blood red whereas the Jeanne Dunning one was full of skin tones ranging from deep browns to pale pinks and burnt oranges. I decided to go for the more muted colour scheme as I think it fits more with the Lamula Nassuna brand. I think the bright colours would be too much unless used in a print or a trim.

Since I'm looking at deconstructing I took apart two suit jackets and recreated them on a suit. I tried to position the pieces in ways that they wouldn't usually be done, such as doubling up lapels, turning pieces upside, inside out and using sleeves to make the bodice. This was really useful as it gave me loads of ideas and starting points for possible designs. Then I printed off the photos and designed from these. It also helped me to properly visualize what the suit could look like if I were to make it and how it would be constructed.

That afternoon I went to get fabric samples. I wasn't really sure what type of fabric I wanted to use, but I knew I didn't want typical suit fabrics. I focused on looking for fabrics that matched my colour scheme and where also quite sturdy and fairly thick so if I used them they would be to keep the structure that I wanted my suit to have.

Personality Project: Day Eight

Today I decided to improve on the rough prints that I'd made based on Frida Kahlo's work. I recreated them on photoshop making a repeat pattern using the motifs that I'd drawn. I preferred making these prints on photoshop rather than hand drawing it as it was easier to experiment with scale, shape and colour. However, I think this was a waste of my time because I needed to focus on my design work and therefore didn't have enough time to develop these prints into something I could use.

At this point I felt I had enough initial ideas that I liked so I went through all my designs and put a dot next to the ones that I liked the most and reflected my themes the most. Then I started to put together different outfit combinations. Using these outfits, I drew lots of quick designs developing each garment and changing details such as seam lines, sleeves, shapes and embellishments.

I decided on my final line up by looking at which garments I liked the most and which ones looked the best together. Then I drew the final lineup. I think my final line up would look better if I had my own style of drawing or even just added face and hair to the illustrations because these ones look a little lifeless so I'm going to try to develop a style.

Lamula Project: Day 1

The first thing I did when we were given the task of designing a new suit for the Lamula Nassuna brand was research on the brand so I could see what her design aesthetic is. Her clothes are quite simple but with interesting design details. I imagine the target market is a working woman who likes to look professional but still have a personal style.

Next I created a concept board. As it is only a three day project I decided to use some of the same research that I used for the last project, such as Frida Kahlo and Isamaya Ffrench. I also looked into an artist called Jeanne Dunning because I think her work is interesting and I also really like the colour palette that she tends to use. I also looked at deconstruction, particularly Yohji Yamamoto, as I think deconstructing a suit could be quite an interesting but simple way to change it.

Looking at the 2005 Yamamoto show he focused on the lapels, using bows and ruffles instead of the traditional lapel so I thought this could be a focus for my designs. I started by cutting up suits, shirts and trousers and then collaging them together in new ways. I think these were really successful because I created lots of different shapes that I could have come up with just by drawing. I drew lots of designs next these collages which gave me a lot of possible ideas for a final design.

Personality Project: Day Seven

Today I continued with the work on the stand that I started to do last night. I wanted to create a shape/motif that represents the restrictions (trapped, holding in emotions) you feel when you're depressed. I came up with the idea of using bows/ties to represent a feeling of not being able to escape, like someone is sitting on your chest and won't get off. I also started ripping and shredding the fabric to represent self destruction. I also drew on the the fabric recreating the prints that I did based on Frida Kahlo. The rips and shreds portrayed vulnerability and how when you depressed you can feel yourself falling apart. I really love the how the bow idea has worked out and I want to continue using this motif and see how it could look on a much bigger scale. Although the rips had a rather deep meaning, I think aesthetically they look quite 'done before' and something that everyone has seen before so I don't think I'll be focusing on this too much.

Work on stand, I wanted to create something that represent the restrictions you feel when you're depressed. trapped, holding in emotions. Bows represent the trapped feel and feeling like you can't escape, like someone is sitting on your chest and won't get off. The rips represent self destruction, transferred frida prints onto stand work using marker pen. shreds, vulnerability, feeling yourself falling apart

Drew designs from these, put in colours that represent the words I'm using. Changed the placement of the bow/rip details, used them on different types of garments. coats, trousers, skirts, jumpers. Red represent pain, hurt, blood. Grey represents dullness, numbness, cold. turtleneck is trapped, suffocating.

Second party of the story, escapism through partying and clubbing. Idea of bra falling off. A party girl on a walk of shame, her clothes are falling off. Fun confetti/ glitter print. Represents a fun night gone wrong. She's a bit of a mess and has put her clothes on wrong. More work on the stand. Worked with the ideas of ties again but bigger, more extravagant to represent the hedonistic life she's living. The bows are untied to represent the freedom she's feeling but there's still something holding her back.

Personality Project: Day Six

Yesterday I was able to finalize all of my ideas so today I focused on moving these concepts into fashion. I started this by cutting out images relating to my themes and mixing them together create some really interesting and quirky garment shapes. I think this was successul and it was a quick and fairly simple way of mixing contrasting garments and themes in order to create a look that is completely new and exciting.

Inspired by these I drew some quick initial designs and then collaged my fabric samples into them to see how they could work together. This was successful because it helped to almost bring the designs to life and I immediately started to see how just from these few designs I could start to develop a collection.

I decided to look back at the research that I'd done on Frida Kahlo and the prints I'd created and started to think how I could use them in clothes. With the words torn, ripped and self destruction I made some more and cut them into sharp angular shapes. I then rearranged them onto a body, crumpled them and collage them with some fabrics. I really like these and I think to develop them more I need to do some work on the stand so I can see what actual shapes I could make with fabrics and how I would sew it.

At the beginning of this project, our tutors asked to write a story about our objects but I decided not to do that because I didn't really think it was relevant to me. At this time I felt that writing a short story could really help me to organize my thoughts. Although I have my themes clear I think it's interesting to tell a story with a collection with a clear beginning, middle and end. The story starts off sad, self destructive and depressing. The girl in the story turns the drugs, alcohol and partying to get away from this sadness, they were her way of escaping. In the end she starts to accept herself, and believe in herself. She's hopeful and is no longer scared.

I really like the story that I came up with and it's almost a metaphor for how I feel the last few years of my life have been. I think it has given me a focus for not only what I want my clothes to look like but also what I want the say and what I want people to think they see the clothes.

Next I looked through my fabric swatches and put them together in three groups to represent the three parts of the story. I thought about what their colours, textures and feel represented for me and how they related to the different emotions and thoughts i want each garment to portray. this was really useful for me because it forced me to think about what my clothes could actually look like. Doing this helped me turn my concept/story into and fully thought out idea for a collection

With the first part of my story in mind I did some work on the stand and took photos of which I will print off and design from tomorrow at uni. 

Personality Project: Day Five

On Saturday I went fabric shopping but since I'd only really started the project a day ago, I had no clue what kinds of fabrics I wanted. Since it's a personality project, I decided to focus on just getting fabrics that I like and speak to me. I thought about if I was a fabric, what would it look like; maybe a bit quirky, a little loud, different, slightly girly but with and edge. I also new I wanted some sweat shirt material which could relate to tracksuits which is basically the uniform of grime artists and also something sparkly which for me represents the distractions that people seek through escapism.

I'm really happy with the fabrics that I found as they suited my themes even more than I expected them to. One that I really liked was a grey sweatshirt material (grime, tracksuits) with a glitter overlay which represent the partying, fun and also relates to Cyndi Lauper's extravagant outfits. Surprisingly, this was a very successful trip considering I had no idea what type of garments I was planning on making. I feel quite inspired by the fabrics and I think they will influence my designs almost as much as my research/themes.

Later that day I did more research on Frida Kahlo. I like to get to know each theme rather than just taking it for face value so I looked into the meanings of her paintings especially some of her lesser known ones which represent the sadness she continually felt throughout her life due to her many illnesses and miscarriages. I can relate to depression a lot and found out that she was a heavy drinker and took drugs to get away from it. I think it's important to put some of the sadness into this collection to contrast the excitement of the club scene that I'm also looking at and I think it give my concept more depth. I wrote words around the paintings which I felt when I looked at them and also words that I think Frida may have felt when painting them such as anger and self destruction. Inspired by these words and the colours in the paintings I created a series of mark makings which could create some interesting prints for the garments.

A couple of years ago I bought a Cyndi Lauper CD called 'A Night to Remember'. At the time I was quite depressed and I don't know what it was but whenever I listened to this CD it just made me feel so much happier. After looking at the way other people I escape, I thought about how Cyndi was, and still is, my way of escaping. I made a concept board about her, especially focusing on the clothing she wore. I've always said that if I grew up in the 80s I would've dressed exactly like her. Although all of the objects relate to me I definitely think the Cyndi Lauper CD is the most personal to me so this was really important for me to find a way of incorporating it into this collection. I'm going to use Cyndi's free spirit and and no fucks given kind of attitude as my inspiration for the type of woman I would want to wear my clothes.

I feel that today was a very successful day because it helped me to finalize my themes and ideas and also find a way to bring the different objects together. I feel like I have collected enough imagery and developed them enough to start designing some clothes in the next day or two.

Personality Project Day Four

On Saturday I went into uni and printed all of the research I'd found. I made mood boards, picked out quotes I liked, made notes from articles I'd read and using my favourite started to create a colour story. I felt it was important to pick out certain images, colours, words and phrases that can immediately help me define the mood and feeling of this collection, especially since I only have 6 days to do this. Afterwards I decided to look at each of the images individually.

I started with the Grime music. I felt it was important to actually listen to the music, especially the people who are credited with creating it, Roll Deep, so while reading some of their interviews I listened to some of their early music. I also wrote words and themes that I felt the music was trying to get across such as anger, crime, estates and outsiders. I think the words that I wrote were really good starting points for more research so using them I looked into them individually. To move these themes into something more visual, I created some collages which expressed the idea about how many grime artists use their music as a way of connecting with friends but also as a way of escaping from the gangs, anger and crimes which was common in the areas they lived in.

I continued to look at escapism and began to think about how people use all kinds of music to escape, especially at parties and clubs. I did some research on the ways people choose to escape; television, drinking, drugs etc. I really like this idea of escaping because I think it's something that everyone does in their life at some point. It also links nicely with the 1920s paris theme as many parisians went to burlesque shows and speak-easies to forget about WW1. Escapism is a way of being free and for a few moments being able to forget about your worries and stress.

Using this overarching theme of escapism, I made more collages for each of my individual themes. I think this was successful because it helped me turn my fairly conceptual theme into a visual aid which I can then develop from and use as inspiration for my initial designs.

I also did some more focused research on Isamaya Ffrench. Her make up often more art based, and creating interesting looks rather than making a girl look pretty. She uses colours, shapes and embellishment which I think could heavily inspire my colour story. One of her looks that has particularly inspired me is where she covered a girls face in glitter. It reminded me of a photo-shoot I was looking which told the story of girls night out and there was glitter and sparkle everywhere. I like to think about textiles, pattern and colour whilst designing as I think the fabrication is extremely important. Using the glitter as inspiration I developed several prints changing the colour combinations, shapes and layout. I want to focus mainly on garment shape and construction so I don't think I will have time to develop these prints as much as I'd like, but I really love the colours that I used and think these will help inform which fabric samples I get.

Personality Project: Day Three

The book that I read about the exhibition at the barbican had a lot of photos of artists in their studios. I think look into the place someone lives or work is one of the best ways to learn about a person because whether they mean to or not everyone collects objects and we keep most of them in the places we spend the most time. Not just the things we own but also how we present them says a lot about us. Last night I took photos of my room and the many collections I own, including magazines, clothes, teddy bears and fabric. I did this because although I spend a lot of time in my room, I never really noticed how many collections I have and I think this says a lot about me. I unconsciously hoard all of these items and it's become such a habit I don't even notice that I'm doing it anymore. I would love to take photos of other people's room and see how they present the things they own and what this says about them. I think how we present them actually says a lot more about people than the actually objects we have.

Then I wrote words around the photos which described how these photos say about me. I did this to help turn these photos into a more conceptual idea, words such as unorganized, cluttered and chaotic. I want to then use these words and respond to them making fabric samples or with particular fabrics or patterns that I think represent them. I wasn't sure how I was going to use all of these ideas and turn them into a final collection. Usually it's good to not have an exact idea about what the final outcome will look like but as it's quite a short project I'm a little worried about where I'm going with this project.

I decided to go back to the beginning of my research and realized that I hadn't done any research into the photo of the speak easy in paris so I did some research on Paris in the 1920s.

By the time I got home and had thought over my project and where I was going with it I realized that I really had no idea where I was going with it and to be honest I wasn't even enjoying it anymore. So I decided to start over, got a new sketchbook and chose new objects.

I chose a post card of frida kahlo, a photo from a concert that I went to last year, a cyndi lauper cd, a photo of makeup by makeup artist Isamaya Ffrench and a photo of Josephine Baker. That night I did loads of on these themes, on the interenet, read some books I have and looked through magazines. By the end of the night I felt really confident about the research I'd done so far and I felt really happy that I decided to change the direction of my project.

Personality Project: Day Two

I did some research on how other designers, artists and photographers have approached the idea of collections and claustrophobia. I decided to do some responses to their work as a way of quickly developing ideas that weren't necessarily fashion focused but I could later use to inspire my initial development.

The first artist I looked at was Jim Golden. He takes photos of collections, normally mundane objects and lays them out in a fairly simple way. He relies on the amount of objects usually shown in one photo to make them interesting. I responded to his work by doing my own photo shoot of random things I had in my pocket and the bottom of my bag. I did this because I think it's interesting how everyone has little collections of things that they keep with them, usually without even knowing. For me claustrophobia is about space, or lack of it, and chaos. I used the same 15 or so items in each of the three photos I took and changed the spacing and how they were organized. I think they created some really interesting photos which portray what I was trying to say about how space and the way objects are organized can completely change the way we see them. I think this was really successful but could be made even better if I was able to do this on an even larger scale. To relate it to fashion I want to use objects like buttons, zips, poppers or just have loads of one detail like ruffles, pleats, collars etc.

Next I looked at a collection by Comme des Garcons which was all about monsters and clothes taking over the body. As a response I did a photo shoot where my friend started off with just one layer of clothing and after each photo we added another layer. By the end she looked completely overwhelmed by loads of clothes, I would have loved to keep adding but we'd run out of clothes to use and I could tell she was becoming uncomfortable. I really love how this turned out, I can imagine a garment that is only one piece but looks like its made from loads of layers and different items of clothing. I think there are a lot of ways I could develop this and will probably do some collages to help generate more ideas from this idea of how things can overwhelm a body.