Final Photoshoot

Here are a sampling of images from the photoshoot- I am very new to photoediting so it looks a little hokey-pokey but it will be resolved for the visual presentation tomorrow.

I am thinking of having 2 mannequins with dresses on it, and 2 silver coat hangers with Lizzys face printed on a piece of paper on top, so that it is clear to the viewer that the garments are just objects created through the design subjectivity of the buyer. Also I will have my folio and blog printed out, a sample box of objects (the ones that originally didnt work out)- so you can see how it would work in a retail setting, and my garments. Also I will have a video (simular to that of the last blog post but more refined) and my presentation on powerpoint with key images will also be shown!

wow. so much to do and I only just realised :) isnt that always the wayyyyyy!!!

The first wedding dress:




The dressing Ninja:


The second wedding dress:



The set:


The third wedding dress:






The fourth wedding dress:

Dressing videos

Drawings

I've decided Im going to scan drawings of my garments because I have run out of things to do; not that I've really run out of things to do just that I should really refine what I have done rather than start new projects with only 5 days left.

Here are some my final outcomes:

Photoshoot/Presentation inspiration

Doing the photoshoot for the garments & now 1 pair of lace booties on Sunday and have arranged an amazingly beautiful friends cousin to model and I have been researching the styles of photography that I think will suit everything;

I like the idea of over-exposed white-washed blurry sort of photographs:

(Lavin)

Elizabeth:

(so so wedding beautiful!)

Also, in terms of my presentation I was thinking of originally putting my garments on mannequins but then I saw this and am inspired:


So I trialed it....not sure of whether I like it?.....?>...............?

Fourth Wedding Dress

Continuing with the idea from my orignal point of inspiration- a wrapped dress with paper streamers- I have created a wedding dress out of chiffon using the same method / process of twisting around to get dressed and thereby create a covering of your body by the long object.



Here is a video describing what I am failing to articulate properly:


The twisted object was then entirely hand tacked to itself and became a dress, in an original form, which was then cut again:


This is the first version of the final product:


Here is the finished actual:



HOW MUCH DOES IT LOOK LIKE TOILET PAPER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Third Wedding Dress

This wedding dress investigated
BRIDAL FASHION CODE: lace, drape, translucent fabric, embroidery
CONSTRUCTION METHOD: pearl buttons
OBJECT: random ovals
DECORATIVE TECHNIQUES: tea dyeing
DESIGN PROCESS: d.i.y

Prep


Final

Second Wedding Dress

This prototype involves an investigation into lacing objects together to create form, specifically a wedding dress which embodies traditional elements of bridal wear including pleating, tulle, ribbon detailing and lacing.

final outcome of second wedding dress:

(not put on the mannequin properly as the lacing takes forever)

Eyelet machine to create holes for lacing:



Original shape:


On body:


With tulle draped over:


Creating the ruffles/pleats in the tulle:


Pinning the tulle on the dress:


Sewing the tulle down and final ribbon:


FINNNALLLLLLLEEE:

Revised Proposal

What is your project about/what are you researching?
Researching the difference between fashion and clothing; deconstructing the elements that create ‘clothing’, although retaining the non tangible elements that contribute to ‘fashion’ and creating a series of objects that are able to be placed onto the body. “A notion of fashion: the desire to identify the form of the garment with the anatomical perimeter, a tangency between inside and outside.” Double-Face.

I am also researching codes, particularly the very traditional code of bridal wear, because even today bridal wear is quite rigid and formal in structure and tradition, and therefore very strong in fashion information. "It is possible to isolate in fashion discourse certain residual codes that have been consolidated in the past; dominant codes which reflect the present adequately and emerging codes which imply new processes." Dysfashional.

I am researching how to deconstruct wedding dresses to create ‘objects’ which when joined together and applied to the body become clothing- although the individual objects are quite fashionable when related to bridal trends. “Cutting up and organising forms and figures, images and materials, on a surface and in space[...] changed one's manner of perceiving reality and constructing a new existence.” Double-Face. The shadow aspect of the studio in my project refers to the codes of the wedding dress that have been reinterpreted into a new form. “Fashion is an intangible object. Fashion is not a material product but a symbolic product which has no content substance by/in itself.” Fashionology

I am researching the difference between:
Clothing and objects: whether you can create a fashionable object which, once applied to the body, can become clothing. If the objects are joined together on the body are they more fashionable or traditional in their original codes they are referencing? If the objects are not on the body do you read them as objects or clothing or fashion?

What outcomes do you have in mind?
I hope to break the codes of modern bridal wear and create a series of prototypes made from bridal objects that interact with each other in different ways in terms of construction. More specifically; I plan to create objects that are laced or studded or buttoned together by the wearer to create their own wedding dress of their dreams- using aesthetic elements of traditional bridal fabrication but non traditional pattern making or garment construction. “[The cut] severs the garment as the simple container and portrait of the human figure and transforms it into a creative act, a language that builds new objects.” Double-Face.

Also I would like to create a book to go with these garments, a 2d folio, a blog, a video informing the wearer or different ways to ‘put on’ the garments/objects and do a photoshoot that mimics traditional bridal photoshoots so that the garments are easily read to break the codes of wedding dresses. .

How are you going to go about making the project?
Experimentation, I plan to present my process rather than completely refined garments, and therefore hope to make my project very organically. From an original research into what constitutes a garment (I will interview peers), and what are codes of bridal wear; and therefore the fashion. I will make my project by also experimenting with objects as garments, focusing particularly on natural objects (as a reference to Double-face reading) and the mimic these experiments aesthetically with the bridal fashion traditions to create deconstructed pattern making and garment construction.

Who are some of the artists/designers who relate to your project and why?
Vera Wang- the pioneer designer in today’s wedding ‘fashions’ who creates the codes of bridal dress for women of this era.
Nicola Formichetti- a stylist who uses experimental materials to create clothing and fashion looks; in particular his work with objects as clothing.
Martin Margiela- a fashion designer who uses non-traditional materials frequently to create fashionable garments such as jackets made from soccer balls.
Cubists & futurists- ie Picasso & Braque & Sonia Delaunay; their non-traditional ways of expression and methods of abstraction in art can easily be transferred to design processes in fashion. “The Cubists were the first to cut out images, disarranging and rearranging them in order to forge new relationships with the object seen and experienced.” Double-Face.

Timeline- plan of how you will be spending your time over the next 7 weeks.
Week 8- Random sourcing of objects and documentation, also research into other artists
Week-9- Experimentation of found objects & creation of garment definition rules
Week 10- Refined design for garments through experimentation and fabrication research
Week 11- Cutting/Sewing Garments
Week 12- Cutting/Sewing Garments
Week 14- Compilation of research into video, book & poster formats
Week 15- Presentation

Wedding Dress Codes

VERBAL CODES OF WEDDING DRESSES (AESTHETICALLY)
- white variations of colours (cream, ivory etc)
- more modest than most garments
- possibly floor length
- some form of embellishment (ie beading, lace, embroidery)
- luxury (something you spend a lot of money on), fabrics are higher class
- symbolic tradition
- element of expression with woman who wears it- carefully articulated, "brides get judged on that day"
- want to be timeless- nothing too trendy!
(Interview with Sharlee, Sophie and Emily)

COULD these technically be wedding dresses?




Is Bjork wearing this Alexander McQueen dress as a wedding gown? It is using bridal codes but also laces together with pearl hooks into the skin, intense piercings, and the bodice is wrapped necklaces....

for her video: pegan poetry

These are some images of wedding dresses that are aesthetically accurate to the codes of today in terms of bridal attire. Decorative techniques are difficult to find images of so I have researched haute couture techniques in my 2D folio and am referencing those in my prototypes so far, these are images of inspiration particularly for my third wedding dress as I am going to use a collaging technique to come up with the silhouette and pattern pieces simular to that used by modern artists such as cubists and futurists.






A more deconstructed/less traditional shape:


Excess useage of tulle is very interesting:


Details:



All dresses by Vera Wang

Fashionology

1. Fashion-ology is concerned with the social production process of the belief in fashion which exists in people's minds, and which begins to have a substance and life of its own. items of clothing must go through the process of transformation to be labeled as fashion.

2. Differentiate; fashion production & fashion consumption and clothing production & clothing consumption.

3. Fashion as a belief is manifested through clothing.

4. Fashion is an intangible object. fashion is not a material product but a symbolic product which has no content substance by/in itself.

5. (doesn't really relate to my project but is interesting) Female fashion constitutes novelty and change, two important characteristics of fashion; the male population dresses conservatively in the workplace although leisure clothing seems to be gradually replacing traditional business clothing as in the 'business casual' dress code in force in many firms. Traditional male clothing styles have remained static- a characteristic which has little space in the realm of fashion. Therefore, whilst men tend to be defined by their occupation, women's social roles are often discussed within the framework of women's interests in fashion and their supposed obsession with beauty.

6. Fashion as non-verbal language

7. 'Fashion is capitalism's favourite child' Sombard (1967).

Double-Face

"The story about fashion and art from Mohammed to Warhol".

I found this to be a very interesting read, it has certainly inspired me to research into a few people before developing my 3rd wedding dress prototype. These are the quotes I found interesting and some extra information I found on the internet.

TO CUT IS TO THINK
1. The Cubists, with Picasso and Braque, were the first to cut out images, disarranging and rearranging them in order to forge new relationships with the object seen and experienced.
- I could photocopy wedding dresses and cut and arrange the pieces randomly to create my next prototype that can be attached to itself with satin covered traditional bridal buttons.


Braque- Violin and Candlestick, Paris, spring 1910


Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, Pablo Picasso, 1907

2. Cutting up and organising forms and figures, images and materials, on a surface and in space, was a radical process that changed one's manner of perceiving reality and constructing a new existence.

3. Cutting structures language, but also clothing. It is an intervention into the traditional conventions of representing and seeing a body or thing, and thereby produces a new sensation.

4. The cut puts an end to the traditional representation of the image, dissolving it and then restoring it as testimony to the artist's vision and understanding.

5. [The cut] severs the garment as the simple container and portrait of the human figure and transforms it into a creative act, a language that builds new objects.

6. Futurists seemed more interested in bringing disorder to the logic and communication of clothing. The changes they brought were based on the use of asymmetry, clashing colors, and juxtapositions of dynamic forms. These relationships were highlighted by [...] the elimination of certain parts or diagonal cuts shattering the concepts of unity and univocality in clothing.

Giacomo Balla, Abstract Speed + Sound, 1913-1914

7. SONIA DELAUNAY:
[...] several different cloths bearing a lively chromatic interrelationship between them.

[....] does not alter the structure of clothing, nor break it apart in order to transform it, since it does not use a cut that is any different from what was customary at the time.

this image is also really similar to the idea I had and will post about next with the photo shoot for the wedding dresses in front of an old white bubble car that is always parked outside on the street. I could use it as a reference.


8. A notion of fashion: the desire to identify the form of the garment with the anatomical perimeter, a tangency between inside and outside.

9. Salvador Dali's placement, as photographed by George Platt Lynes, of a lobster over the pubic area of a nude female model, not only "dresses" her, but also exalts the enigmatic; aggressive charge of her sexuality. It produces a linguistic shift in the role of the covering object, the garment, and reveals its secret erotic tension.



"he drew a close analogy between food and sex" Tate modern