FASHION & FUNGI

Here is my final Fashion Guide! I thought i'd blog about it seen as how i got my results on Monday. I got a FIRST!! I'm so chuffed, the amount of effort i have put into this project, i'm so happy! The embroidered page alone took me 6 straight hours on the sewing machine. The only critique i got was writing too much so i'll have to learn from that. I was dreading hand-in, i'm always quite down on myself about my work, it's never good enough and i can guarantee i'll redo it about 2 or 3 times before i'm even remotely satisfied. Quite a confidence booster!

"NEW CONCLUSIONS" SKETCHBOOK

As you may read or may not have. My first project of my fashion course was "New Conclusions" as part of the Fashion Practice and Methodologies module. The task was a research based one, creating mood boards and exploring your chosen subject. So here is a few bits of my sketchbook!

Over summer we were asked to create a box and fill it with, basically things that you like to create a Primary and Secondary research mood board. All of my box items were 3D so my Primary research board was not that great in all honesty. My items were so nice, i did put a lot of effort into collecting them but it wasn't specified what they were actually for. I should probably bring my box home, it's still under my table! Anyway, for my Secondary research i looked at a mixture of my favourite things i find inspiring. Art Deco has to be my favourite movement, the structures and shapes are so beautiful so i focused a part of my board on doorways. Another part i looked at was Fetish wear, i based my Final Major Project on it in College, i'm not sure why i find it interesting but i think maybe because it's different and unusual.

And finally i looked at Structural fashion and Contemporary fashion. Including the work of one of my favourite fashion designers Iris Van Herpen. 

The next part of my mood boards were association related. I was given a word at random and had to stem off from it as a technique of finding inspiration. My word was Hardscape. 

After completing the word association, we were asked to complete a picture association board. I chose a photograph of Anne Boleyn. This eventually stemmed to Henry VIII > Execution > Murder > Rose and Fred West > Prison > Lady Gaga's Telephone Video < Celebrity < Money < Royalty < Elizabeth I. This was another technique of inspiration ideas and i did find it quite strange that i could get Lady Gaga from Anne Boleyn. It was interesting. 

The next board i created was based on Leeds. Instead of basing it on Leeds itself, i looked more at the architecture. The buildings in Leeds are really beautiful, especially the oldest ones. Throughout Leeds there is a wide variety of different types all in one place. For instance in Millennium Square, where there is the strangest shaped building (you can see below), it's very modern and artistic and happens to be next to the Leeds Museum which is vey old and decorative. 

A bit like the picture associate board, i was given a page of strange paragraphs. I had to create a board that tells the story just through photos. 

"Another beautiful sunrise bathed Strathnaver Forest in a warm summer's glow, chasing away the dark shadows of the night. Beyond the tree line, hidden deep in the Scottish wilderness lived a secret world, lost in the history of the once great lands of the Sutherland countries. Carefully nestled high in the trees, hidden in nature's greens and browns, were the homes of the fairies of the old Sutherland kingdom. Duty, fear and maybe guilt had led to this secret kingom's history being re-written, the powerful rulers deciding what their fairy people should believe."

Out of the paragraph i focused on the words "Fairies", "Wilderness", "Forest", "Scotland" and "Sunrise". I also looked at work from designers Alexander McQueen and Givenchy which i think had a 'fairy' inspired fell to them which could relate to my board. 

I was given the word "soul" and had to create a mood board in that theme. Naturally i expanded and focused my theme on Death instead. There are some really great books in the library on death, i think the subject is so interesting. 

For my last initial research board i chose to base it on jellyfish. I looked at jellyfish inspired clothing and tried to create techniques and samples i could incorporate into a garment design. 

We were then asked to extend our 3 initial boards in relation to Theme, Colour and Shape. From my Fairy board i decided to look more at the word "Forest" and looked into the plant life found there. Primarily into Fungi because of the interesting shapes, colours and textures.

For my pages on Soul i looked into designs by Alexander McQueen which i think represented 'soul', as well as Fashion icon Lady Gaga and Skeletons. 

When i got to the Jellyfish extension pages i had realised i really didn't feel as inspired as Soul and Fungi. Everything about Jellyfish is interesting and unusual but i was just not feeling it.

It was hard to decide which board i wanted to develop. Soul is more my kind of style but i was worried that as i had already based my FMP on death, it would be too similar and i would be stuck in that mindset. Fungi was the only other option. I was a little stuck in the beginning of what to actually do because i've not done anything similar to Fungi or even anything none-related to death or sex. So i started off exploring Mould and different types of fungi, and ways i could incorporate techniques to replicate them. 

I even experimented with ways i could create patterns for fabric. 

As part of my design ideas i layered and resized photos of fungi to create silhouettes for garment inspiration.

Fashion Guide layout plan. 

I'm not completely happy with my sketchbook. But i do think i've improved a lot on presentation since the beginning of this brief. My later pages are a lot better in my opinion. 

PAPER DRESSMAKING

As part of my new project "From 2D to 3D", for the Fashion Production and Processes module; as the brief is based on primarily pattern cutting, we were asked to design and create a paper dress through creating a Master draft and pattern pieces. We only had a day to do the pattern pieces and create the dress. Safe to say it was very stressful!

The first part of the pattern i drew was the bodice using a simple bodice block. I wanted a 'T' dart which i had heard was hard to make but i went for it anyway. I closed the darts and created a more central one. 

To create the large skirt i used a simple dress block and cut it into strips from the bottom. Depending on how big i wanted the skirt to be, i spread out the strips so i could trace to make a skirt pattern piece. 

After adding a 1cm seam allowance i was ready to cut out my final pattern pieces. 

 My dress is a little different to my original design. Main reason being i didn't completely like it that much. I'm not used to working with a pattern, i usually just work straight onto a mannequin. It was a lot less time consuming than working on a mannequin but i made alterations to my design because i didn't like the fit so much. I added darts into the shoulders and a front dart into the skirt. I also changed the way the skirt is pleated. Oh and the back, it was supposed to be plain but  i just started folding and got that result. 

I love my dress. I based my design on Fungi from my last project and created a mushroom style skirt. Paper was so difficult to sew! Every time a tried  to sew the 'T' dart the bodice would rip. I ended up using a domestic sewing machine to finish it off, much easier. My dress was not this creased when i made it, a bumpy taxi ride and wind didn't help with the matter. 

WEEK IN PHOTOS

Bad Girls Club and Noodles hangover cure, My 15 year old sister is more mature than i am, Drunken flatmates, Sarah's friend, I used to love Jungle Run, Paper cutting my paper dress, Ankle bruise update, Going home!, Carlisle cathedral is so pretty, Graduation treats, Flamin' grill, Graduation night out in carlisle, Concrete, Bauble souvenirs, Stag club, Me and Dylan, Every time we're in carlisle we visit petshops, Stange looking puppy, Bestfriends, The worst thing about leaving home, Back to leeds again. 

GOTH

Gothic subculture began in England in the 80's but it can be found in many countries. Deriving from the Punk and Glam culture, Old English literature and horror films. The movement has outlasted any other in that same era, continuing to diversify to BDSM, Fetish and Pervs. The goth subculture has it's own distinct music, aesthetics, and fashion sense. The music of the goth subculture comes in a number of different styles including gothic rock, post-punk, deathrock, darkwave, Industrial Music, Ethereal and neoclassical. Styles of dress within the subculture range from deathrock, punk and Victorian style attire, or as a combination. Mostly they wear black clothing, with dark make-up and dark hair. 

(The Batcave 1983: the post-Romantic goth look championed by Olli Wisdom’s clubnight.  By Shapersofthe80s)

The term 'Goth' originated in 1979 when the producer of Joy Division described the band as "Gothic" in comparison to the mainstream pop music that was popular at that time. The term was later applied to newer bands as a genre. But it wasn't until 1981 that Gothic-Rock became it's own subgenre within the post-Punk era. Followers of "Gothic" bands came together to create a recognisable movement. The Batcave opened in July 1982, coincidentally in the same venue of Gossips, in the upstairs venue Gargoyle, in London's Soho. It provided a well-known meeting point for the "Goths" having a club night on wednesdays called The Batcave. The term "Batcaver" was then used to describe old-school goths.

 (Membership card for London nightclub The Batcave)

(The March Violets 1982)

The style itself of Gothic culture was based on 18th and 19th century literature, where a gothic novel is a mixture of Horror and Romance. The most famous of these being The Legend of Sleepy Hollow published in 1820, and has continued to crop up throughout the past two centuries. Classic romantic gothic, horror literature has played a significant role in the subculture. 

(Standing in line for the Batcave club, early 1980s)

A combination of black velvets, fishnets, lace and leather stained with purple or scarlet. Accessorised with tightly laced corsets, gloves, platformed stilettos and silver jewellery depicting religious and occult symbols. Back-combed jet-black hair with faces painted  white, with heavy black eyeliner and lips that were blood-red or black.

(People wearing Martin Degville 1985)

(Members of the Vampyre Society on a 1992 outing to Whitby, a key location of Bram Stokers's original Dracula)