PE Task 2

PE Task 2

During my first year of university, studying Textiles in Practice, I have learnt a lot of things and made a lot of new friends. 
For my first workshop choice, I knew from the start that I wanted to take part in embroidery. I found this workshop very good, as the work load was differed (three weeks with work how much you feel necessarily and then three weeks of being told what work needed to be done) I believe that this eased me into the workload and explained in a good way, what work needed to be done. Whilst learning how to use a sewing machine, I felt I knew quite a lot about it and was very well experienced from my foundations, however I was surprised how much I did not know and it was great how the tutors took us through each section of it and explained in fully. 

For my second workshop, I chose Knit and Weave. This is something I have always wanted to take part in as it is something I have never done before. The first workshop was weave, which included a lot of slow learning, for example, doing one thing at a time and being in the same place. This is something i’ve never liked doing before, but in this case, it worked very well. I also liked learning about all the different threads available in weave and experimenting with all the different textures. Weave is something I really enjoyed, the lengthy process made me feel more proud of my work, and it is something I would definitely like to re-visit later on. During my time in knit, I found that I could create more and more samples in a short space of time, rather than with weave, which was a lengthy process, giving me more freedom. 

When I first started university, I thought that I had made the wrong choice and that I would not be able to cope with such a different change. I spent the first couple of weeks debating whether it was the right place for me to be. This is something which how now changed and I am really looking forward to hopefully return to start my second year.

Overall, I think I made the best choice by sticking to my gut feeling and staying at university. I have learnt so much in such a short period of time and I cannot believe how fast my time has gone. After noticing how fast the first years has gone, I have realised how little time I have and I wish to learn as much as possible in such a short time and take part in a much as I can. 

Unit X - Superstitions

Final Film 

This is the final film that we decided to show. I think this film shows all the different skills and the processes that each individual person explored. I think it joins us together in a group and showcases all our different talents. 

Unit X - Superstitions

Final Exhibition 

For our final exhibition, we decided to show our work in Hilton House. Jenny arranged all of the space and I think we got a really good space. The room was perfect of exhibiting the film as it wasn't took large that the film got lost in the room. 

 After having to leave early the day before we put our work up (due to the Manchester United Parade) I came in the next day ready to put work up, however having had to leave early, I did not know where my work was to go. The curators Hilton House told me where to put my work so I went along with it. When other members of the group turned up, they had already decided the day before where work was going to go. This turned into a little argument, which was all apologised for afterwards. I think that that helped clear the air a little bit as we were all stressed our with the exhibition. I decided to wait until Nichola turned up and asked her where she thought the best place was. 

Nichola decided that the best place would be to line my photographs up along the bottom of the wall, in order to tie in with the idea of the shoes. This is something I really liked and thought it was a very different way of showing my work. Another good thing was when people were leaving the room after watching the film, they would see the shoes on the floor, another thing I really liked. 

 Overall, I think the exhibition was a great experience and working with people on it was something I would try again. It was nice at the end seeing everyone work together and all the different skills showcased in one final show. 

Unit X - Superstitions

Final Ideas

This photograph is of some of my shoes that I made. I was hoping that I would have a collection of shoes in the exhibition showing all different designs and techniques. After rushing and panicking, I started decorating my shoes, which in turn ruined the shoes. I think that the amount of stuff I was using on them (glue for the glitter and the water for the brusho) might have added too much to the shoes and made them collapse. Luckily, shown in the previous photographs, I took lots of photographs of my shoes, in really good light, which shows the different techniques I experiment with. After looking back over my work, I have realised that the photographs are maybe stronger than the shoes them self and this is what I wanted to exhibit instead. After a tutorial with Nichola, we decided that the photographs would be the best decision.

Unit X - Superstitions

Final Piece Photographs

These are some photographs that I have taken of the shoes that I have created. In order to link all of our groups work together, about the dark side of things (hence the name superstitions) I decided to show the dark side of the 70s reflected in my shoes. I created the shoes in very bright, garish colours to reflect the good times of the period, but photographed them against the dark, cold, wet pavement in order to reflect the bad side. 

I will leave the shoes outside in the rain overnight, or for as long as possible, in order to see how they rot and change in the rain.

                

                                  

Unit X - Superstitions

Final Idea

These photographs show the design process of my shoes. I decided that it would be best to use technique that were effective and did not take a lot of time (as I underestimated the time it would take for the mod-rock to dry) I thought that the use of brusho paints would work very well as the results are almost instant. It also links in with my 70s theme, as the brusho paints look very tie-dyed when applied to anything. What I liked about these paints was that you had no control over what happened with them, just the colours. I thought that the best way to get an effective tie-dye pattern would be do add the colour outside in the rain, making the paint bleed together. This worked very effectively, however again it meant because the shoes were wet, it would again take a while to dry them off. 

Another thing I decided to include in my decoration was glitter. Glam Rock was all about adding glitter to almost everything, almost masking certain things to make them seem that much better. I used mainly red, purple and blue glitter (as these were the main focus of colours that I picked out from my drawings. The glitter was very easy too apply, however, I feel it may now look quite childish. 

Unit X - Superstitions

Final Piece Production

These photographs show how I began creating my shoes. These are pictures of the first stage of the shoe. Taking casts from an actual shoe, then cutting off the cast. I found the use of mod-rock very effective, however, it takes a lot of time to smooth over the holes to make it look neat. I've mentioned this in other posts. Overall, if I had more time to create the shoes, I would experiment with the different types of materials available in order to see which one worked best.

Unit X - Superstitions

Samples

These are some videos I created whilst making my mod-rock shoes. I decided the best way of getting a good shape to the shoes was to take a mild from an actual pair of shoes then cut the cast off it. This method worked quite well, however, the mod-rock take quite a while to dry, only being able to do one layer at a time, therefor the process is quite lengthy. 

There was another downside to creating these shoes, with the mod-rock being so thin, the shoes took quite a lot of layers to give them stability. When taking them off the shoe, they broke quite easily, which was very frustrating. 

Unfortunately, these videos could not be used in my film, as I filmed them on my iPhone (I wasn't told they had to be in a certain format) 

Unit X - Superstitions

Research and Final Designs

After focusing on the idea of 70s fashion, I thought that making a garment in time would take too long and would be too time consuming as it is something I have never done before. I decided to look back though all research I had done and decided to focus on shoes. My idea would be to make a few pairs of shoes, differing from small shoes to large ones.

 I will then decorate the shoes using different types of materials, from beads and glitter to feathers and fabric. I will take all the different fashion statements from the 70s and incorporate them onto my shoes, for example tie-dye. To make them, I will use mod-rock in order to give the shoes stability and to hold the decorations onto the shoe.

Unit X - Superstitions

Research - Bowie Inspired Fashion

 Dries Van Noten, Fall 2011

Dries Van Noten's fall show, 2011 channels Bowie throughout their men's garments. Taking the 'Thin White Duke' character that Bowie played as influence. Just like the Gaultier show, the model has be styled with the red, slick back hair that Bowie sported at the time. The suits are quite baggy and high-waisted, something that Bowie favourite. The palette being unusual, with beige suits rather than the favoured black and grey suits. 

Prada space-age spring 2013

These shoes, designed by Prade for their s/s 2013 catwalk show, echo the fashion of Ziggy Stardust. Opting for silver and red colours, almost a space like theme, connects well to Ziggys 'rockstar spaceman' persona. The high platforms and chunky soles show influence of Yamamoto and his Japanese background.

Russian Vogue

The model Alana Zimmer has been used many times in Bowie inspired fashion shoots (being used in the Jean Paul Gaultier s/s13 show) poses for Emma Tempest in tailored suiting and separates from Gucci styled by Camilla Pole. The heavy eye make up channels Bowie, the bright eye blue eye shadow and highlighted cheekbones, again finished off with bright-red hair. The blue suit screams 'Life on Mars' styled in a feminine way, again something which Bowie favourite (as he has such a feminine figure)

Kate Moss for Vogue (May 2003)

Kate Moss has said that Bowie is one of her icons, having done photo shoots with him throughout the years. This specific shoot, Moss wore some of Bowies most famous outfits, from his blue 'Life on Mars' suit to his knitted jumpsuits and his later 'Thin White Duke' suits. Whats interesting about these photos is that, if you did not know these were Bowie's costumes, they look like women's clothes, very feminine and fitted garments. Whats interesting is that when Kate Moss wore these outfits, they has to be taken out by at least 6 inches on some because they were too small for her, this shows how petit Bowie's figure was.

Unit X - Superstitions

Presentation and Ideas

As part of our brief, we were asked to put together a presentation discussing out ideas and how we are going to channel them. Three of us from our group decided to put together the presentation, adding pictures of our work and explain how each one of us are bringing something different to the project, however all having the same thread through our work that links us together, the 175th anniversary of the art school. 

For our final idea, we have decided that a film would be the best idea. Each of us have some many different ideas that we did not want to just decided on one that and that would be it. Instead we felt that a film would be more appropriate as we could each show off our skills and research but it would be seen as almost an individual collaboration. 

The film would show us doing our own thing, for example, since I have been focusing on the fashion of the 70s. I will bring my own part into this, but still having the 175th anniversary in mind. The 70s was such a massive time for art and fashion, it was turned on its head and has never been the same since, therefor I wanted to celebrate this. I am going to focus on the fashion and create little garment, possibly shoes, that represent the 70s. I will create these out of different materials and film/take pictures of myself creating them, which will then be added to the film. 

Through as discussion on facebook, this was our final idea.I really like this idea, as I think it brings together all our ideas in an joint project.

Unit X - Superstitions

Research - Jean Paul Gaultier Spring/Summer 2013

 In the season of Spring/Summer 2013, fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier created a homage to past fashion, focusing on the influential stars of the 70s. Gaultier took sections of each star and what made them great and added his own touch to each one. 

This specific one is based on David Bowies character, Ziggy Startdust. Ziggy was an androgynous, loud and unusual dressed character that Bowie created for the stage, calling him 'a rock star from out of space'.

Gaultier styled his models with the famous red mullet, which makes you instantly think of Ziggy. He also used very heavy make up on a quite masculine faced woman, which sums Bowie up. The heavy blue eye make-up echos that of the 'Life On Mars' video. 

The clothes themselves take so much influence from Bowie/Yamamotos designs however Gaultier puts his own mark on it. The materials themselves are one of Bowies favourites, knitwear. Some of Bowies most famous costumes are knitted. Gaultier has also chosen the garment to be the same cut as Bowies outfits, one long sleeve and only one pant leg, which Bowie favourited. The design channels Bowies risks he took with his fashion, however, the only difference is the model is wearing tights, which Bowie did not. The colour pallete itself focuses on a collection of Bowie and Yamamotos designs, mainly focusing on the reds, with Yamamotos influence of bright pops of colour to break the outfit off. This is all topped off with a huge star shaped bracelet to top of the Ziggy Stardust look.

Unit X - Superstitions

Research - Fashion 

After researching a lot about David Bowie himself, i've moved onto looking at the fashion which surrounded Bowie at the time, to what he influenced and what influecned him. I have begun to look at Kansai Yamamoto and his designs. As he was the costume designer for Bowie during the 1970s. I found a video on youtube of Yamamoto's first catwalk show in London (he was the first Japanese fashion designer to show in London) which shows his influences. 

This video shows Yamamotos first opening outfit to his show. As you can see he is heavily influenced by the traditional Japanese dragons. This is something that he channels through Bowies costumes. Another traditional aspect that he focuses on is colour, this is something thats evident throughout all of his catwalk work, not just his early ones. Yamamoto loves bright and vibrant colours. 

The show its self is almost like a performance, the models dancing and prancing around on the stage. Their costumes open up to reveal bright dragons, almost appearing from nowhere. Perhaps this is something Bowie liked or inspired, being a huge fan of mime and performance art, rather than just letting the clothes speak for themselves.