Wednesday 23 January 2013

Ridiculously Unwearable Fashion


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.
Morinaga's pixelated collection.
 
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!