Detail | V&A

 [Various Edwardian Dresses displayed at the V&A]

[Lace Details]

[lace detailing in fashion with some samples I collected]

The trip to the V&A wasn't as helpful as I thought it would be, mainly because there is a minimal section on the Edwardian Period. However I took images throughout, mainly on detailing around the period. There was a small Section near the Wedding Dresses Exhibition that had period clothing from 1901 to 1920, I noticed the use of lace as a textile across the era, but in particular the main identifiable detailing was cuffs, high collars, large lapels, miniature buttons in lines as fastenings and cravats. The coats of the era were full length normally with buttons the whole way down. The dresses remained long, but lost the large skirts of the Victorian period. 

The Coat-

'These include the reverse collar and lapels, where the outer edge of the lapel is cut from a separate piece of cloth from the main body, and also a high degree of waist suppression, where the coat's diameter round the waist is much less than round the chest. This is achieved by a high horizontal waist seam with side bodies, which are extra panels of fabric above the waist used to pull in the naturally cylindrical drape.'

Something I liked about the dresses was the amount of layers they had, in certain skirts the skirt had 3 or 4 separate layers. I presume this was for warmth as the houses were probably really cold. Most separate pieces were matching; for example the skirts matched the tops, both matching the coat. The most amount of detail was on the collars and chest area, in particular ribbons and laces were used. Much of the detailing was repeated across a garment. For example if small buttons were used as a fastening down the top (collar to bottom) it would also be used on the sleeves and maybe on the hem of the dress or skirt. The tall, stiff collars characterised the period, usually high boned. The decline of the popularity of the bustle meant sleeves increased in size and the 1830's silhouette became popular again; the hourglass. That of a confident woman, low full chest and curvy hips. Blouses and dresses were full in front and puffed ion a "pigeon breast" and the waist was accented with a sash or belt. Dresses had trains, even during the day. But by the end of the period the skirts were barely touching the floor and were closer to the ankle. 

Detail | Mood Boards

[Pages from sketchbook]

I started making a few mood boards from various early 20th Century books I found in the library, in particular one named 'Details through time' which the sketched images are from. This book was extremely helpful as it labelled each parts of the  clothing at exact timing. Even over the Edwardian Period the physical details on the dresses was slightly altered. Taking these details, I will experiment different ways of reproducing them.

I think I've greatly improved how I mood board, selecting relevant images only and also including my responses to brighten up the boards and highlight which parts are most important. Sometimes these responses actually help me jump from board to idea development. 

Detail | New Project

Today we started a new project, the outcome is to produce a collection of work based on the extreme intricate details taken from an era over the past 300 years; 1640-1940 to be precise. We could pick any era we liked, and any section of the era within that. As I have very little knowledge of history, i decided to visit the library and root through various 'Fashion through ages' books until I came across an era I found particularly interesting.

The aim is to understand the detailing of the clothes from a particular era, to improve my basic designs skill and process. Fashion designers often use this method, borrowing ideas from a wider variety of historical periods. For example Mcqueen using paintings by Bosch, Botticelli and others embroider into his final collection. Different era's had very obvious detailing on each pieces; ranging from the minuscule waist sizes in victorian dresses to the head to toe buttoning on edwardian to the denim stitching in american workwear. One aspect I will look into is how the rich dressed, the gowns in the past centuries were extremely extravagant, both in detailing and colours. Materials were outrageously expensive, so the fabrication and cleaning process had to be taken into account.

The period I am going to research and base my project on is very early 1900's, The Edwardians. The clothes of the rich were flowing gowns, long coats, many buttons and fastenings, but in particular lace. The dresses of the rich women, the aristocracy, had many removable parts. From sleeves to lace shoe spats. As I aim to modernise this time into a full collection, I will try to take the most iconic details and focus on them. The collection must be daywear and therefore doesn't need to take the gown shape or flowing skirts. However, this big skirt silhouette could be translated into a more modern idea, using length and a number of layers.

Politics and Fashion | Textiles Development

After working on various abstract textile designs, I started thinking about colours that could be related to free speech. Continuing with terrorism as my main theme, I started thinking about peoples responses to such acts; how people 'retaliate'. People's responses to the Charlie Hebdo case was to illustrate; bigger, bolder comics with the pencil as the leading symbol of free speech. Colour-wise this was quite uninspiring so I thought of other ways people respond to death and such situations. Normally in the form of flowers, for example the poppies after the war in crimson red, and laying bouquets at graves. The physical 'free' response to such acts seems to be colour and expression. So as a contrast, I have decided to go with bold colours as my palette, not focusing on one colour in particular. On the other hand, the colour of peace in many religions is white, so mixing the use of the pure white against the abstract bright colour markings could work really well. Literally the clash of terrorism and free speech, of the fight of religion being good against bad.

Politics and Fashion | Ideas Development

Saatchi - 'Religion and Ideology' 

After picking my topic and feeling inspired by the Saatchi, I decided to research more into the Charlie Hebdo case. Finding a variety of tweets, images and cartoons online, I also started to collect articles for more physical responses. Although the Charlie Hebdo case was the starting point for my Politics, I didn't want to focus on Islam at all. Then due to visiting this instillation at the Saatchi, I decided to focus  my project on free speech and provoking a reaction; whether it be good or bad.

Continuing with research, I started looking into the terrorist aspect of the case. Whether this act of terrorism was really 'free speech' turning into actions, or whether it was mental. I looked into psychopaths; the concept of a suicide bomber is similar to that of serial killing. There is no guilt of committing mass crime, although it is unproven there have been studies on whether the brains of people who become terrorists are different to 'normal' people. I used some of these studies, and some images of brain scans to inspire some textiles designs that could be used in embroidery or print.

[scan]

This concept could easily be translated into a laser cut layer over a silky textile print, or even into something more sturdy like neoprene. From this experiment I need to design placing of textiles, where and how they would look put into clothes. The concept of mental illness was one I wanted to incorporate into designing, mixed with the concept of free speech. This made me think of some sort of constraint, the opposite of free speech; a mental straight jacket. Taking this as design inspiration I started working and draping various constraining silhouettes onto a mannequin. From these drawings I started designing shapes and seams to develop them further. 

[scan]

Politics and Fashion | Gallery Visits

Based on our new project we all met at the Design Museum in Shad Thames for the morning, in the afternoon we were allowed to visit a gallery of our choosing; I picked the Saatchi. After narrowing down my political topic choices to 'religion' and 'consumerism' the 'Women in Power' exhibition at the Design Museum was less useful than I hoped it would be. However, It was interesting and showed a great deal about physical appearance and how people use it in political ways. From Royalty to the Suffragettes, each women in their own right dressed how they wanted to be addressed, an idea I will take into this project. Depending on which political topic I choose, this 'first impression' idea is one I will use further. Whether judgment is correct, and if fashion is that shallow.

The Saatchi, extremely luckily had two gallery spaces based entirely on my two final political ideas. The first room on religion and the second on consumerism. This trip helped me narrow down my ideas to finally picking religion as my topic. Although the consumerism had some great pieces, it automatically reminded me of Moschino's recent two shows; the McDonald's lookalike show and the Barbie show. The whole idea's are based on consumerism and gender stereotypes. I knew if I ran with this idea it would end up a less original and exciting project, swaying me towards religion. A particular installment at the Saatchi was of a mechanical set of what I presumed was Muslim women praying (based on the black linen). Given recent news on Charlie Hebdo, I decided this would be an exciting project start point. Hussein Chalayan, a fashion designer who gave an extremely controversial show on Muslim women came to mind as soon as I saw this, but instead of focusing on what the women wore, I hope to focus on the phobic side of religion; Is religion a good thing? And does it cause more harm than good?

The Design Museum

First row - Vivienne Westwood power suit jacket, Suffragettes hat

Second row - Philip Treacy hats, Slogan T

The Saatchi

Religion and Ideology

Advertisment and Consumerism

Politics and Fashion | New Project

So today we started a new project, the combination of Politics and Fashion. Whether or not there is a link is something many designers have debated. But simply through looking at the catwalks it can be seen that there is. From Chanel to dressing Princess Diana. How people dress has always been important, and first impressions include what someone wears. Fashion can be related to almost any political issue, whether it's through expression for example 'H&m for AIDS' campaign, or the march Chanel did during one of their shows.

I aim to focus my project on Discrimination. I am unsure which category yet as there are so many to choose from. But as we have 3 weeks for this project, I will spend the next few days narrowing down until I pick a final idea that I am happy with, one that I feel strongest about. The main three types of Discrimination I hope to look at includes; Racism, Consumerism, Sexism, Feminism and Religion.

Today I focused on research and probing further into discrimination. Hoping to come across a particular topic that made me especially angry, this was to ensure that my work has emotion. This project is about expression and opinion, so I felt I needed to really connect with my chosen topic within politics. I decided to head over to 'Ted Talk's' a part of youtube where people can freely speak about any issue's they desire, majority are political but some are comedy. In particular I searched for the above 5 topics, and came across some brilliant talks. One particular speech from Zena Agha really interested me, she was a Muslim lady who was a feminist. She speaks about her first realisation of being a feminist and also her current views. Believing that being 'oppressed' due to her religion, sex, age etc wasn't going to stop her, something I greatly admire.

As well as general research, I looked into various articles about political issues in fashion and designers that combine the two. One article I found interesting was by Jemima Khan, who asked the question "does fashion even care?" which I think is really important, ranging from Westwood to Largerfeld the question provokes; is it just a publicity stunt, or do these companies care?
-  http://www.newstatesman.com/society/2012/02/interview-climate-fashion-hero