Deconstruction Samples

     Over the course of this project, I have been experimenting with different ways in which I could manipulate or enhance an already deconstructed piece of fabric, which I had already used on the mannequin. This ranged from cutting, shredding, gathering and more. I need a sowing machine to enhance these samples further, but for the time being I think that it is good to challenge my skills and really see my ability when it comes to design and/or textiles. The majority of the materials I used were the scrap ones I bought in either from my own wardrobe or charity shop, however I managed to go and get my actual materials which are bath robes and towels. I wanted this project to be rather humorous and make something that is stereotypically seen as a lazy, comforting garment into something much more elaborate and interesting. It appears to me that the majority of people are still pursuing to do double denim, which is why I am even more enticed with all my ideas and inspirations. I have been looking at designers such as Viktor and Rolf, Jane Bowler and many more, which really makes me wish that this project wasn't only for 2 weeks! Overall, these mini samples have worked well, but now I have to try them out on my new fabrics and garments which I bought, to see which process or medium will be most effective.

Belated Start: Deconstruction & Reconstruction

    Unfortunately, I missed the first couple days of this project, which revolves around the theme of 'Deconstruction & Reconstruction'. When I finally began to start this project, the first task was to collect items of clothing either from charity shops or from our own wardrobes, which we then brought in to photocopy and take pictures. The next stage was to use magazines as a medium for collages using different clothing, colours, textures and scales. I particularly enjoyed this project because there were many ways that you could create different perspectives with the cut outs. From this, I also used my photocopies of my garments to add as a layer to the collages to make it more of a primary source. In particular, I had a lot of denim to work with, hence the vast amount on the right-side image. Nonetheless, this will surely be the most mainstream and unoriginal fabric that the class will use for this project, hence I want to use something unexpected and unique e.g. a towel, dressing gown etc…

   
   

















     From these collages, I then got to work on the stands with the garments I brought in which enabled me to do multiple things with them, for example upside down, inside out, stuffed, layered and much more. I tried to relate my work to designers such as Helmut Lang and Comme des Garcons, who are well known for their distort shapes and minimal/maximal style. I think that this was a really good process to carry out so that I could experiment with different structures and materials, which then led to me taking photographs and drawing from the 3-D stand. Overall, this project has really made me aware of all the possibilities with garments, whether they're already constructed or not. The next step will now be to deconstruct these ready-made garments further and create something even more elaborate and extravagant for experimenting towards my final piece. Moreover, when I get a clearer idea of what I want to construct, I will then attach all the pieces together and create a photo shoot on location, which will soon be decided on nearer the time.

End of 2 Week Project: Design House

    Yesterday we finished our 2 week project by showing our presentations to the whole of the class. I found this probably much easier than some, as I mainly led our presentation with the evaluation of the groups work and how we worked as a team. I mainly focused on my advertisement role as a promoter during the presentation and explaining where I got my inspiration from and why I did my work in a certain way, which was reflecting a bad quality Japanese TV combined with a painting print one of our other promoters did for the invitations relating to Jackson Pollock. Overall, I wanted to make us express ourselves as a team and how we worked off of each other, rather than completely individual. However, one of the members in our group was very unprepared for the presentation, which affected the overall vibe for the presentation. Nonetheless, we still presented our work well and was probably one of the stronger Comme des Garcons groups in the class. Below are the 2 slides I used in my presentation, which included my makeup concept boards, photoshops, advertisement testers and mood boards. In particular, people were impressed with my shoot, to which was a great relief!

   Again, we were one of many Comme des Garcons groups which was founded by Rei Kawakubo in 1969. Collectively, we worked well as a group and I know for some, it has been a very antagonising two weeks, admittedly I would say I had taken the role as team leader, which encouraged me to advise others within their roles and help with their processes. We focused our theme around communism, however each member took on their own narrative journey, which seemed to tie in well together at the end. We also thought it would be suitable to split the collections into diffusion lines, for example Comme des Garçons Homme Plus. Overall, our group has made a substantial amount effort and managed to keep the communication levels very high. Plus, representing Comme has been a great experience where we have gained many skills in different mediums and it made us aware of how we work as individuals and as team members.

   Considering I am generally a Textiles and Design student, I really wanted to challenge myself and push my skills further by trying something i've never done and in this case, fashion promotion for Comme des Garcons. In general, I would say that I've done more work than most people in the groups, my sleeping pattern has definitely been changed due to this, but as a result it has really paid off and I am  glad I put as much effort in as I did. It is key to note that especially considering I have never done promotion, I didn't really know how to present all the work or how to take it forward and exhaust the medium, but once I got the hang of it, I really got a great depth in my work. Nonetheless, for this next project, I plan to stick to textiles or design from now on considering thats what I want to do for my BA, but I just wanted to add something more diverse and different in my portfolio to interest my future tutors for the next coming academic year.

 

Catwalk Observations: Womenswear

   Today I experimented with how some of the designers illustrations would look like on the catwalk. I think this worked very effectively because it will not only give me a perspective on the overall catwalk, but the designers too whether they wanted to change or improve their designs or even just to see how it will look to the audience alongside their other designs. I did this on photoshop by using the magic lasso to copy the image and then paste and rescale onto the catwalk. I really enjoyed this process and it could be very inventive or unique to use as an advertising, but I already have something else in mind. As a promoter, I think it is key to analyse the layout of the catwalk to make it as interesting and creative as possible and designing under Comme des Garcons really needs to be extravagant and bold. Originally, the designers illustrations were just black and white, so I in sited on adding colour to make it seem as realistic as it possibly can. Again, perspective is key at this stage because we want to present our collection well. Moreover, this designer really wants to focus on the colour red, due to the theme of Communism, however I suggested to perhaps change it up to not show the expected, but she still needs to take it into consideration due to her being the designer. Despite this, Comme des Garcons is utterly unique and bold and we really need the designers to show this through their designs, illustrations and colour pallets.

    Overall, I am very excited to present our work, but I am still waiting to receive work from the designers, hence I still have quite a bit of work left to do. Nonetheless, I have used the time to my advantage and focused on other things in the time being so that I don't fall behind and have more of a depth in research and development within promotion. 

Advertising Testers

     I think at this point of the project, it is now time to focus on the advertisements for Comme des Garcons. I only focused on the menswear today as I feel that I have more to work off from because I still haven't received much feedback from both of our womenswear designers. Nonetheless, I have tried to stick to my concept board for the menswear shoot (hair and location wise), which went really well in my opinion. However, it is clear on some things that I need to work on but it will be much easier once I have some primary photos to work from, although I don't know how easy it will be to photograph a man with a lot of hair! Below are some of the examples I worked on today. I decided to add either Russian or Japanese letters within the advertisement to enrich not only the theme, but the designer also with her Japanese heritage. They all quote something unknown to those who can't read the language, yet it looks very effective.

      I am really keen on working on a black and white image because I feel that it shows no true emotion within the face, which again relates to the theme and humour with Russian anti-gay beliefs and the mental emotion from going to war, whether that is living conditions, death, wealth and much more. I still have many more ideas for advertisement, however I have to come together with our other promoter who is organising invitations, guest lists and catwalks, thus try make a connection between the both without giving the collection theme away. On top of this, I also came up with the idea to incorporate origami as an invitation to still keep the Japanese essence, but the paper could have a militaristic image on it representing the quote we received from the 'Communist Manifesto', thus it all links in and binds together nicely. Overall, I am happy with the general layout of my designs, but I now need to get my own imagery and location to make this more professional and appropriate to our theme and closely related to Comme des Garcons advertisements. Considering I haven't done promotion, I am happy with my progress, but I need to do a lot more work, for example accessories, props and potential styling. However, I can't to this until I get the final illustrations from the designers and as soon as I get them, I can do as much work as I possibly can.

Photoshop Illustrations

   Today, my main focus was to work from the designers illustrations and put them through photoshop to get more of a realistic digital approach to the garment using colour and backgrounds. I found this process rather fun and it was very helpful after our previous workshop we did with Dan several weeks ago. In particular, I loved the menswear illustrations that we had because we wanted to capture diversity between the menswear and womenswear. Nonetheless, I also got photographs of the knitting samples our Textiles manager did and I used this to put on to the illustrations also to see what it may look like on a garment. I would say the only challenging thing was that I didn't have enough designs to work on, so I organised a group meeting to really make sure that the designers upped their game because it helps everyone out when we're all on the same page and this worked very effectively. Nonetheless, I have tried to keep the theme very Japanese to relate to Comme Des Garcons fashion photography shoots by using traditional Japanese art backdrops and colouring. I have also created concept boards to go alongside these for potential photoshoots and advertising. Moreover, I really like the idea of slicked back hair, but to make it seem even more Japanese, I am considering man-buns similar to traditional Japanese soldiers or warriors.

    I really liked presenting the processes which I did for these and I know that Comme Des Garcons likes to make her photo shoots very oriental, hence why I used traditional art. I did love adding the knitwear to these designs because all the textures and folds created an amazing and unique pattern on the garment. Moreover, I think these could help our textile designer a lot more when it comes to illustrations because she can be more aware of shape or scale of the garment, hence pushing her abilities further. Overall, I really think that we are moving ahead, but we really need to up our game over the weekend and I think that we will be very effective if we all work hard together and keep the communication flowing considering that it is a group project. On top of this, the designs below were probably my favourite because I got to use primary imagery to go alongside these illustrations. Over the weekend, I plan to go to the British War Museum and also take pictures of anything I see which may inspire me to push this project further. 

                                         

Mert and Marcus: Experimentation and Response

   During our project as promoter, I decided to do some research on famous fashion photographers and in this case, Mert and Marcus. I really liked their sense of style with their photographs and in particular, I was very inspired by their industrial photographs. I thought that this would relate very well with our current theme of Communism and portraying the military in a suitable area e.g industrial machinery, forests, fields and more. You will see from the photos below that I have tried to relate to their location rather than posing and styling. In relation to Comme Des Garcons, I would like to look at other photographers other than Cindy Sherman because I want to absorb as much inspiration as I possibly can for this project. Moreover, it encouraged me to take advantage of our practical space and considering we have industrial references within, it would be interesting to experiment with the area. On top of this, I was keen on taking the photos in the elevator because I thought that it portrayed a sense of entrapment within the army or being secretly gay, which is what my group is trying to present and create. On top of this, Mert and Marcus tend to have very dark moods within their shots, which was what I was trying to portray. Hence, this is the beginning to creating my photo shoot concept boards and experimentation with other photographers. I found this task to be challenging in the sense that the location was very limited with areas that I wanted to use, plus the model I chose had no reference or wearable garment that was red, which is the colour we were wanting to use as the collections mono colour for Comme Des Garcons. Below are some examples:

     Overall, I think this experimentation worked relatively well and I am glad with the turn out. If I could take this further, it would have been edited in more depth on photoshop, whether that was adding layers of images on top of the photograph to express the sense of japanese culture and militarism. Nonetheless, doing promotion for the first time has really made me understand the depth that there is within this industry, however it is so similar to design in the sense that there has to be a concept and extreme experimentations with how people will wear the garments and how they should be presented from the shoot.

New Project - Design Team

    Today we had our first workshop since our previous assessment, which actually went really well! (Thank God…) Nonetheless, it was time for us to get started on a brand new project which was to be split up into mini-groups of around 5/6 people and be designated roles, similar to a Design House hierarchy structure. In the morning, we had presentations from the tutors on various designers, moreover we also got to choose which designer and role we wanted to go for. I think that I have come to the realisation that I want to study textiles as a BA, however I wanted to push myself and opt for both textiles and promotion. I have never studied promotion before, but in the last project I took a keen insight into photography and styling, which really impressed my assessor. On top of this, I wanted to challenge myself even further by choosing Comme Des Garcons as my designer. I have always been fascinated by her work. From the morning presentation, I became to understand her concepts and ideas much more. In particular, I noticed that she likes to work in mono, revolves around the human form and has insights into historical themes. It is key to note that the reason I actually wanted to do promotion was because Comme Des Garcons tends to work with Cindy Sherman, who is an amazing photographer, hence I felt very inspired by both their works.



























      Above are some images I found in the library, which were from a Comme Des Garcons book. At this stage, I really want to focus on my research, especially from having no experience in promotion. Thus, I want to really look at how Comme Des Garcons tends to have her shoots created and the angles of the models which will really accentuate  her style as a designer. Furthermore, from the research I noticed that she liked to work with a lot of knit and heavy textured materials, so I came up with various ideas and ways in which our textiles could be involved, whether that was knit, paper, recycled objects, metal and more because we want to be as original and unique as we can be to really push our potential. In addition, we were given a quote to influence our collection and we instantly thought of military and Russian history, which tends to be very dark and eccentric e.g Bloody Sunday and the Russian Holocaust. On top of this, we also liked the idea of using red, despite her previous collection being red. Although, I think our group has a really strong narrative to this collection and it will defiantly stand out from her previous collection, yet relate to her style in some shape or form. Overall, I am happy with the group I have been put with, I can already sense some conflict with ideas, however it is an individual project in a sense and I will do whatever it takes to really collaborate my group and my ideas together to create an amazing Autumn/Winter 2015'16 collection.