I haven’t
written anything on here in a couple of weeks, I think the shock of having to
get back in control of homework after the holidays was too much to take!
So I am now
back at Uni (sound better then Institute!) in my third and final year, and am just
over half way through in my dissertation and it needs to be handed in just over
a month. I also have to start wrapping up my main module of fashion and
textiles; creating my own collection, drawing illustrations, technical
drawings, making a toile and then putting the portfolio together!
Me and my work mates work tables-I'm in the middle!
So I’m going
to start by explaining my dissertation. Which now in the third year-the student
can pick whatever subject you would like, which started off as exciting to
think any subject that you fancied! But it then changed into a “oh my gosh what
on earth do I pick?! “ So
after considering what it is I’m interested in and also what would fit in with
what I will hopefully be doing for my final project, I’m really interested in
way-out fashion, Lady Gaga-esk so I have come up with “Ridiculously Unwearable
Fashion!”
It sounds
good but then I realized there needs to be a lot of research, so for anyone
doing a dissertation within the next year or so, start reading things now! I
had started reading library books last June, red a few dud ones but they all
come in handy one way or another.
Books I can
highly recommend were:
Fashion as Communication by Malcolm
Barnard which was
very useful when realizing that words that you believe to mean more or less the
same thing-don’t. Meanings such as clothing, fashion, style, fashionable, it
analyzes what comes under fashion and how fashion is linked to the culture
around it.
Another book
was Fashion-A Philosophy by Lars Svenson
which is along the same lines of analysing fashion. He also looks at the
changing face of fashion and how it can also be viewed as art. I haven’t read
all of it by I can recommend a good read as it looks at the industry in depth.
Other books
that have helped along the way are:
·
Fashion
on the Edge by C. Evans.
·
Extreme
Beauty by H. Koda.
·
Radical
Fashion by C. Wilcox.
So on this
journey of “Dissertation”, I have been googling things, friends have been
picking me up items, magazines and papers…etc and I have found a couple of
really interesting designers. Whether I put them in my paper, I’m not sure but
I defiantly found them inspiring!
Morinaga's designs.
The first is
Japanese designer Kunhiko Morinaga
who shows at Tokyo Fashion Week. He designs for a brand named Anrealage. Which by the looks of his
collections look right up my street! Their different and “unfashionable”,
similar to other Japanese designer such as Kawakubo and Yamamoto, he doesn’t
think of the conventional body shape which I find really refreshing. I stumbled
across him through another blog- thecenterghhs/wordpress and saw some of
his designs. His latest collections include wire cages and pixelated garments.
How cool are these shoes?!
This is the
first image I saw-it depicts garments that are in geometrical shapes that are
being displayed by being hung in an exhibition. I thought this was a really
novice idea and one that I have ever seen. They garments are like pieces of art
instead of just pieces of clothing.
Morinaga's "shaped garments".
This was
another image that could my eye-It ignores the western view on enhancing a
female body but bloats it up transforming its shape.
Another
designer I fell across was an Icelandic fashion designer Sruli Recht's who has made his Autumn/Winter
2013 collection from wood. The collection is called Concentrated, it’s a menswear collection and most of the pieces
have apparently been made from a single pattern and piece of material. Most the
items are quite big and baggy and have quite a muted tone
Recht's Concentrated collection.
These images were found on a magazine site DeZeen at: http://www.dezeen.com/2013/01/21/concentrated-by-sruli-recht/
This could be introduced to my dissertation as it runs in
very well to my theme of unwearable fashion and also as me myself has an
interest in wood; so this was a really fascinating collection to discover.
I love how it does not appear as wood but possibly some
kind of glass as all the forms are so neat and sharp.
From Recht’s collection I also found Pauline Marcombe who is a French designer who also studied as an
architect; therefore being interested in construction. This is just her first
prototype and is made from MDF wood and wire.
Marcombe's wooden t-shirt.
I think this is awesome! It is what I really love about
fashion; using something from another discipline and creating a new and
exciting piece. It does look uncomfortable-but it could be seen as Ridiculously
Unwearable! I love the different sizes of triangles that have been adapted to
the body creating a very hard and sculptural piece. I love the contrast of the
harsh laser cut wood and the soft skin and skirt.
Tell me what you think of them too!
