Final Design Evaluation

After completing my original narrative design, I had thought of many more creative ideas, in which I didn't include. My original summery design to suit Jean Paul's narrative story reminded me slightly of beachwear, and so from this I decided to create a design that would suit womenswear beachwear, for Spring/Summer 2014 - still suiting to Jean Paul's narrative story.

When I think of Indian womenswear, I think of the gorgeous gold jewellery that Indian women wear. When I think of that typical sailor look, I instantly think of blue and white stripes. Therefore, I decided to combine the two in my design. I think I went for a kind of 'cop out' with this, however I think that the simplicity of it works perfectly. I didn't want the design to be too overcrowded with embellished Indian patterns, as I was scared it would drown the sailor twist within. Going for a simple blue and white striped bikini would have been fairly lifeless, and so I dazzled this up with an Indian style sarong, in the colours of the common sailor stripes. Then I have hemmed the outfit with small gold aluminium plates, to give it that feel of the gorgeous Indian culture. As body jewellery is not only popular for Indian women, it was also becoming very popular in sales at the end of last summer, and so I have included a gold body chain, of the same material as the hemming jewels. I love the dramatic effect this has on the outfit - I feel it creates a great balance between the two themes in the narrative story that it is based upon.

Evaluation

Analysing the Vivienne Westwood dress from her 'Red Collection', came naturally to me. I found the task of being able to recognise the designer, and the era in which the garment was influenced by, fairly easy. Noticing the different aspects of the design such as the, boning, drape across the bust, and the halter neck straps helped it to become very obvious that the dress was to enhance an hourglass figure.

Taking the time to choose my items from the V&A museum came from instinct of what I found eye catching, suited to my personal taste. It might also have party been psychological, based on having similarities with things that I have researched or analysed before. The first item that I chose was the Turkish tiling, which is also my favourite of the three. This is due to the gorgeous colours that consists in the piece, and also that repeat patterns really interest me recently. I have studied repeat patterns in my two previous design projects in a separate unit, and created garments based party on this. This reason might also relate to why I chose this item. I'm happy with my decision on the Turkish tile, and the typical late 60s women's suit, how ever I feel that I let myself down on the lack of knowledge for my third item.

Researching into; narrative, abstract and conceptual styles of fashion designs, has been extremely beneficial to me in this unit. I have thoroughly enjoyed learning about the three separate methods of designing. Researching at least two designers for each method allowed me to explore more collections within this area, and the ideas that they consist of. This wider range of research has been a great influence for my designs. I found that the narrative approach most definitely allowed me to create to most successful ideas, in comparison to the others, which also resulted me to create the most successful design out of the three. I think that this is down to the fact that with a story, one will have more of insight - more of an inspiration. The list of adjectives helped me to receive a clearer image, allowing a lot more creativity.  I chose to base my narrative design on Jean Paul Gaultier's collection, based on the story of a sailor, experiencing Indian culture. I am pleased with my outcome from this, and I definitely find this method the easiest to work with. After experimenting with narrative designs, I feel that is definitely something that I will use when designing my own collections, to allow me to create the most inspiring ideas.

My Abstract Designs

These two design ideas above are examples that I created to show abstract fashion design, based on my research. These are both designs for womenswear. I feel that these designs on the stand express abstract, due to the bold shapes and dimensions. For the final designs of these, the colours would be very bold. For example, the design on the right; the diagonal strips could be red, and the rest yellow.

Abstract Design

I really do love Dolce & Gabbana's, SS 2013 collection, which is shown above. I just adore the simplicity of it all, and how effective that really becomes. The collection was based on a summer beach holiday, which got everybody rearing for summer.

I really love abstract designs, with these in particular. The bold and fierce stripes completely absorb my attention. Even the shape of the items themselves - No matter how much I adore an outrageous and unique 3D fashion design created from absurd materials, I think coming back to a rather more formal collection, is fabulous.

Fashion journalists and other parts of the media disagreed with this collection, slating the designing couple for 'staying in their comfort zone' - their comfort zone being very sicilian and neutral. Dolce and Gabanna often use a lot of white in their collections, suited to the curvy figured women. (In my opinion, I think that their typical style can often be quite tacky), so personally, I disagree.

Alexander Mqueen's collection for SS 2014 'Abstract Expression', says it all really. It's explainable in itself, for the meaning of abstract fashion. From the bold shapes to the vibrant, shocking reds, this collection is as abstract as could be. I even love the stiff fall that the outfits have. I think it's absolutely brilliant, and I take this as a great inspiration. 

Conceptual Design

Iris Van Herpen is a conceptual Dutch fashion designer that uses 3D printing to create her collections. Her work is absolutely astonishing to me - I find her creative ability fascinating. The creations shown below are examples from her Spring/Summer 2012 haute couture collection shown in Paris on January 23rd 2012. 

The 3D printed outfits are first of all created by a pulsed laser that layers powdered rubbers or metals into a shape calculated by computers. This manufacturing technique was originally developed for engineers, and also has a history with footwear and jewellery.

I find Iris Van Herpen most inspiring due to her individuality as a fashion designer, and her dare for a unique style. Her creations are like something i've never seen worn on a human figure before. The detail that consists within, is simply astonishing - especially the allow for comfort and practicality. The female dutch designer, is a true inspiration to me.

Issey Miyake is a Japanese fashion designer well known for his technically driven clothing designs. He has been experimenting with technology in fashion since 1997.

This is an image of Miyake's latest experiment using custom software to create complex, digital patterns. Within this, he created three dimensional garments that were not cut - nor sewn; instead they are folded with permanent pleats to fit the garment to the body.

This creative idea is fascinating, and the though processes within his work is without a doubt incredible. How ever personally, I cannot grow to his designs to suit my personal taste. I feel that this collection is too dark and alien like for me.

Narrative Design

NARRATIVE STORY FROM STYLE.COM
SEPTEMBER 20, 2009LONDON

By Sarah Mower

Luella Bartley's girl has calmed down and smartened up for Spring. Where for the past few seasons every dress had been multicolored, flower-printed, beribboned, buckled, or frilled up in various pop-ironic ways, for this outing her clothes have become almost straightforward, in a mid-sixties Sunday-best sort of way. Stripping away the teeny, cutesy haberdashery of the collection had the effect of focusing attention on silhouettes: princess coats with Peter Pan collars, pannier dresses with padded hips, and various other devices lifted from the Balenciaga era Great Granny knew so well. If it hadn't been for the fact that Bartley's color palette was bright and cheerful—lemon, lipstick red, teal, camel, and sugar pink—and all the shapes were cut short and given a girlish raised waist, it could have been an uncharacteristically sober affair for a designer who's made her name by supplying a hearty dose of cheek to runway proceedings. As it was, without the surface froufrou (excepting the tulle-frilled dress and skirt), the collection looked well made and set fair to compete on the same kind of ground as Marc by Marc Jacobs—although these clothes are going to read as several degrees more dressed up and formal than Bartley's usual offerings.

From reading and analysing the narrative for this collection of Luella Bartley's, I can tell that the Spring 2010 collection was based broadly on the typical mid-sixties look, and the Balgenciagra era.

NARRATIVE STORY FROM STYLE.COM
JUNE 28, 2012PARIS

By Matthew Schneier

The sailor is a house icon at Jean Paul Gaultier. There seems to be no limit to the number of times the designer will go back to that well. The twist for Spring is that our hero, the marinière, has traveled to India. That is to say, he wears the seafaring garb that is his standard and classic—the buttoned panel sailor's trousers in denim, the Breton stripes, the cape-back tops—but many pieces bear the influence of Indian craftwork. Those Breton stripes are picked out in a scattering thicket of beads. The sailor's tattoos (anchor, siren, so on) are embroidered onto shirtsleeves and fronts. A toile de Jouy, meanwhile, featured scenes from sailorly life, including le mâlefrom the ads for the JPG cologne Le Male. It may be a lot of Gaultieriana if you're not already a Gaultierite.

From reading and analysing the narrative for this collection of Jean Paul Gaultier's, I can tell that the Spring 2012 collection was broadly based on the typical sailor style, with a twist of Indian culture.

NARRATIVE STORY FROM STYLE.COM
SEPTEMBER 29, 2012PARIS

By Tim Blanks

The British Embassy, with its rooms full of nineteenth-century furniture and walls hung with twenty-first-century art, was a perfect backdrop for Vivienne Westwood, who has often fused past and future to great effect over the course of her four decades in fashion. Of late, however, her interest in the future has had more to do with the issue of climate change. Today's show, for instance, was called Climate Revolution. Westwood insisted the title actually had nothing to do with the collection, but there was an unfinished quality to the clothes that you could read as an anarchic delight in dystopian rawness—if you were inclined, that is, to the designer's apocalyptic train of thought.

From reading and analysing the narrative for this collection of Vivienne Westwood's, I can tell that the collection was broadly based on the British Embassy, with a twist on things to support climate change.

Analysis Of Fashion Item

This is a Vivienne Westwood dress, that the college were lucky enough to get hold of for us to analyse.

The dress is an item that was designed as part of the 'Red Collection'. Being created recently, means that it is a modern wash label, rather than a vintage.

I could tell that the dress was Vivienne Westwood before knowing, down to the 'rocky' theme that this garment has. I think also the colours, and the shape gave it away. It is kind of Vivienne Westwood's typical style that she is known for.

Other than this 'punky' feel to the dress, I have also noticed that the shape of the dress is possibly influenced from an 18th Century court dress, due to it's corset, silhouette shape. The boning in the sides suggests that it is influenced from an older era, rather than a modern. The drape across the bust also.

This dress is most definitely designed to give a silhouette shape, not only for it's boning corset, and the drape across the bust, but also the halter neck straps. Having the straps at a diagonal like this gives the bust a great enhancement. The skirt being wide, also allows the waist to look smaller.

Alyssa Monks

Recently, I have discovered the extraordinary talent, which is Alyssa Monks. Alyssa creates large scale oil paintings on linen, and well I am just taken a back. Her online portfolio might be the best I have ever seen. 

This was the first painting of Alyssa's i'd ever seen, and as you can see - I just had to look at more of her work, and well my amazement didn't end there.

The detail in this painting is so life-like, that it looks exactly like a photograph. Even down to droplets at the front of the image, and the creases in her lips.

Alyssa Monks created this piece of art in 2009.

This is an older painting of Alyssa's being produced in 2008. I do not feel it is quite as life-like as the previous example 'Smirk', how ever it is still as equally amazing.

The tone used to show the creases of the shower curtain, are stunning. I don't know how she does it. I have noticed that she focuses very much on paintings in water, or with steam. This is interesting, I wander why she chose this as a focal point for all of her work.

Here is a link to Alyssa Monk's website, to see more of her inspiring art work. 

http://www.alyssamonks.com/

Online Portfolio

I have successfully created my own website that I can use as an online portfolio, to present all of my best work. I am absolutely thrilled about this, as I have wanted one for a while now.

I found that creating the website itself was extremely straight forward, with the website being very easy to use. I used to source 'weebly.com', to be able to do this. So far, 'weebly.com' has done me wonders!

I plan to use my online portfolio greatly - It makes me extremely excited for my future.

Here is a print screen, to give you a sneaky peak of the website itself. To find me, my address is; ambercoote.weebly.com or type 'Amber Coote weebly' into your search engine.

Evaluation

Overall, I am extremely pleased with my outcomes for this photo shoot project. I feel that my research helped me entirely, in the best way to ensure that my final photographs were how I wanted it to be. I feel that I managed to create the aspects that I set out to, such as; The Cindy Sherman expression, the black and white effect to create 'grunge', the relaxed cigarette style from Kurt Cobain, and the crazy facial expressions that show that grunge characters are 'too cool' for posing. Throughout my final photograph, and the final possibles, I managed to create this.

 

One of the problems that I had with this project, that I would change differently, is the fact that I photographed myself in my work. The idea of a self portrait is great, and I think it worked well, how ever I feel that I protrayed my photographs differently, simply due to the natural reaction that I judged the photos differently. This effected the project slightly, and would be something I consider for next time.

Final Grunge Photograph

So this is my final photograph and outcome, for my grunge photo shoot project. It is a self portrait photograph of myself, expressing a facial expression, that i'm hoping could be protrayed in many different ways.

When editing the photograph in Adobe Photoshop, I set out to go for an effect that was; black and white, an attention to high contrast, and used the' colour filter' to give a slight blue tinge. I also used the 'selective colour', to take attention for the blues in the photogaph. This brought out a high amount of contrast in the darker bits of the Levis denim jacket, and I think this worked brilliantly. I also did this for shades of reds, which darkened the lips.

This is the original of the final photograph, before any editing. I am delighted with how grungy I created it to be, through Photoshop.

Possibilities For Final Photograph

After taking around 200 photos in the photo shoot, I finally managed to narrow it down to four. These are the the three photos that I decided not to choose. The main reason as to why I made this decision, is because I feel that the composition of my final photo worked much better, not only for grunge, or my Cindy Sherman influence, but as a better photograph in itself. I definitely think that I made the right decision with this.

Outfit Planning

This is the selection of clothing and accessories that I put together, in order for my grunge photo shoot. I managed to get this collection together by borrowing off friends, family, and some from my own wardrobe. I am happy with outfits that I collected, although I still really wanted to have a black beanie, for the shoot.

Cindy Sherman

Cindy Sherman is an artist and self portrait photographer, that is famous for taking photos in hundreds of different concepts, and poses. She wildly changes her makeup and styles, to make herself look like a completely different person.

I like how this portrait is close, starting at the neck. This concept is interesting, and shows more detail within her face. Which brings me to her makeup. I will need to think about how I will approach the hair and makeup of my model (which I am thinking might be me), to suit grunge.







This self portrait of Cindy Sherman's, is famously taken in New York, and has a totally different approach to the previous. To my knowledge, this is Sherman's most popular photograph.

I had quite a debate with myself, about Sherman's expression in this photo. I've come to a decision that she looks either disgusted, or bemused. This once again relates to Joseph Cornell's unknown story. I really do love this idea.

Terry Richardson

Terry Richardson is an American fashion and portrait photographer. He is still currently working as this profession, and has been since 1993.

This is photograph taken by Richardson, of model and actress Ashley Olsen. Ashley is an identical twin, with her sister being Mary Kate Olsen. These celebrity twins are also famous, for their grunge image.

I like the composition of this photograph. I also take interest to Ashley's serious facial expression. Is this grungy?




This photograph, is of Terry Richardson himself, with four female models that he was shooting. Although group photographs can work extremely well, as there is a lot going on, I do not think that this would suit what I am going for, in my photo shoot.

Although, I interestingly like the idea, that Terry Richardson is in the photograph himself. I think this is a great idea, for photographers.

Kurt Cobain & Courtney Love

Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, are the legendary couple that rock the name of grunge. Kurt Cobain was a popular American musician, famously known for being the lead singer of the band Nirvana. Courtney Love was Cobain's wife - Also a musician.

Their image was very much 'grungy', and this photograph instantly explains this.

My favourite aspects of this photograph, is the faded black and white effect, giving it that 'old' image. I think that this suits the grunge style brilliantly.








This photograph, has a very different approach to the last. It is not a pose, and almost looks like what is called a motion shot. I really like this whole idea that pulling emotions like this, shows that they're 'too cool' to pose, which ironically suits the grunge style also.

I decided to include this photograph of Kurt Cobain on his own, as it shows great charisma, as to what I think grunge relates to.

The leather, the hair, the guitar, the cigarette. Grunge. Not only the aspects of the photograph, but also the mystery behind it, interests me. It also relates to my research taken from Joseph Cornell. Is he performing? Rehearsing?

Introducing Grunge

Exploring the whole concept of 'grunge' in fashion, as a starting point I have decided to create an ideas board, to give me an insight into the trendy 'style', rather than working with what I know already.

I decided to chose this certain theme, mainly down to my own personal taste, and how easily I could create the best outcomes. Not only do I know more about grunge, rather than the other themes, I will also be able to gather 'grunge' style clothing, together fairly easily. I am planning on asking friends, family, and possibly using some of my own clothing/accessories too. I am determined to make this a cheap project.

Joseph Cornell

I have recently discovered the astonishing American sculptor, Joseph Cornell, who has simply amazed me with his work.

Cornell creates intricate little sculptured boxes like these, made of mixed medias such as wood, cardboard and plastic. They were often glass fronted.

This box here on the left, is named 'The Hotel Eden', and it was created in 1945 - Interestingly the ending year for World War 2. The box below, is called 'Habitat Group'.











The main reason as to why the boxes interest me so much, is not only for my love of birds, but for the detail, and the story as to why. Cornell's idea for this was very unique, one like never before. It makes me wander as to what interested him into creating these cute little boxes, and why he included what he did, for each one.

This 'story' idea, links in with the sculpture that I have written about, earlier on in my blog. A detailed sculpture of a house, that I discovered at the V&A Museum in London. (See 'Visit to the V&A').

After taking such an interest from this idea, I am going to try and interpret this into my photoshoot, which is my next brief for this module.

Too Many Shapes

This second illustration consists of many, many layers. So many layers that most of my time creating this illustration, was spent being baffled, and confused.

As the brief recommends including typography into the illustration, I firstly inserted the letter 'A' and 'Z'. I chose these letters for ascetic purposes only. Rotating the 'A' upside down like this, I filled out negative space, making the letters fit together perfectly.

Originally both the letters and the figure were white, and because of this some parts of the figures would not show up. Therefore I had to introduce a different colour to bring separation, and I used black as it creates the best contrast. To do this, duplicated the layers and after changing the background black, I removed sections of the figure using the Polygonal lasso tool, leaving the black layer underneath to show. I repeated this process, for different parts that I wanted black.

Now, I was ready to include my galaxy theme, into the positive spaces. How ever, I like to think that is a finished illustration, in itself.

I chose this stunning image for the background, of this chosen illustration, due to the mixture of bright colours and the way that they blend together. It suits the theme perfectly, and I think that it would stand out amazingly in the background, of a black and white illustration. I found this image on tumblr, and wanted to use it instantly.

Inserting the image, to be the background of my fashion illustration was fairly easy, as long as I knew which layer I was working in. I pasted it into a layer which was underneath any others, except the white layer that I wanted to replace.

I absolutely love the way that this image has come out, and the way that the galaxy image gleams through. I initially had the idea, to edit the galaxy image using another technique, but I decided that it didn't need it - And that I really like it as it is.

As a whole, I am very pleased with my fashion illustrations for this project. At the beginning, I struggled with using Adobe Photoshop a lot, and I think that was down to my awful short-term memory. But after playing around for hours, I definitely feel that the time has paid off, and that I have achieved everything that I could.

Gravity Has No Limits

This is my outcome of my figures, taken from my tracing of the Kenzo advertisement. I decided to keep the clothing influenced from the original slightly, but adapting the colour shades, and giving it more of a 'cartoon' look. I think that this will suit well with the planned background.

For the prints used on the clothing, I used patterns that I found on google images, that were appropriate, and pasted them into a new layer on my project. I then created duplicate amounts of the image, creating enough to cover the area size needed. By putting this layer underneath the others, and deselecting anything unwanted with the Lasso tool, the selected print shows though.

I repeated this technique to create the pattern for the women's shoes, and her bracelets. For everything else, I simply chose colours provided by Photoshop. How ever, I used the gradient tool for the extra effect on the skin, and hair.

I chose galaxy and space as a theme, as not only for it's 'endless' possibilities, I also thought that it would be very appropriate for a current fashion illustration, to include on of the top latest street trends, in fashion now.

This is an image of an album cover for the producer Major Lazer, which shows a 'cartoon' looking galaxy. I found this image on google, however I had the image in mind before hand.

This is the final outcome of my first fashion illustration, created on Adobe Photoshop. The background layer was easy. I simply pasted it into a separate layer and put it behind the figure layers. I did not make

any other alterations to this, as I thought the colours worked well as it is.

To finish the illustration of as a whole, I decided to duplicate the layer of the figures, before slightly rotating it. I then changed the blending mode of each layer of the figure. As a final technique on the illustration, I changed the opacity for each rotated layer, to give the impression that the figures are fading away. This works perfectly to suit the theme, as it looks like the lack of gravity is effecting, and the figures are floating away.

My Fashion Illustration Figure

For my series of fashion illustrations, I decided to do something a bit different, and take a figure from an advertisement. (In this case two). The above advertisement for Kenzo clothing range, I took great interest too when reading my new monthly issue of Vogue (May 2013).

I decided that I wanted to chose the figures from this particular advertisement, because of it's unique approach onto fashion photography. I could see so many opportunities of ideas hidden beneath the two figures eg. rotations, symmetry, shapes. 

This is my black and white pen drawing that I used from the magazine image, and I then scanned this onto the computer. I am now going to experiment with this same drawing, and put it into a series of different contexts, following one theme of my choice.

 

 

 

 

Peter Saville is a graphic designer, that works a lot with typography. I think that the concept of this deisgn, is interesting. How ever, I find it rather 2D looking, for what I would like to create. Taking influence from this, I would like to use typography, but make it look much more 3D on the page.

 

 

This deisgn by Peter Saville, attracts my attention much more. I love the 'busy' feel to it, and the feeling that some of the detail is jumping out at me. Looking more into the design, I love the comic style of image that is within the writing. The use of typography, inside typography itself gives great attention to detail, and this really interests me. Maybe I could try and interpret a comic style image, into my theme of galaxy some how, but how would I create this?

 

Learning the basics on Photoshop

As I am a complete beginner to Photoshop, I have decided to get into the swing by practicing with a image of Mickey Mouse that I have copied from Google Images.

Here I have simply copied and pasted another copy of the image, to make two, and transformed the image to a different angle. 

Here I have experimented with the effect that Photoshop offers, and used the mosaic and glitter effect.

I also made both characters bigger, by also stretching out certain areas. As you can see, both images have been made to a larger scale.

Now, I needed a background, and some body to the image. I didn't want to make the negative space to overcrowded at first, and so I figured out how to us the gradient tool. This is the back layer, with the green to yellow. I didn't want to use the normal colour that is used for sky (Blue), so I went with something different.

After this, I created another layer into the image and inserted a picture off Google Images of Amsterdam's light district. I don't know why I used this, there is no meaning, it was just a random choice.

I distorted the image by using the magic wand tool, and selecting the edges of the buildings. This is how I created the speckled effect through to the green/yellow background.

Finally, to finish off the illustration I took part of the building using the selection tool, and copied it into a separate layer. I continued this process three times, by making the building on the right taller and taller.

The final detail that I added to this illustration before I decided that it was finished, was adding another of the original Micky Mouse image that I began with. I like this touch, even though it's very small. I like the idea of finishing with what I started with.

Theme board - David Bowie Project

This  A2 theme board, I have recently created for my new project, that is to design and make an outfit, influenced by David Bowie.

I wanted to share this with you, so that you can get that feeling of 'What's the story?'
It's one of those typical unexplained pieces of art.

From this theme board, I have gone on to create a pair of high waisted flares, and a blouse. Both with asymmetrical aspects.

David Bowie Exhibition at the V&A

As a whole, the exhibition itself was a great opportunity. It was very interesting to see the designer outfits that he wore himself, to hand. This is the part that I enjoyed the most.

The exhibition also included of videos and projections. I wanted a thrilling selection of interviews on a projection, with some of the fashion designers that worked with Bowie. This was great. One of them, being Kansai Yamoto. He and Bowie worked together often.

The photographs above show the famous outfits of Bowie's himself. The top, being the most known.

In the second photo, it shows a wide variety of his outfits that were exhibited. The kimonos that are hanging of the ceiling in the middle of the room, were designed by Kansai Yamoto.

I would like to state this none of the above photos in this post, are my own. Unfortunately, taking photographs in the exhibition itself was forbidden, so I had to find my photographs from another source.