Saturday, March 20, 2010

playing

This evening i had a play with an old jumper i bought ages ago in an opshop.. its a linen knit, Weird i know.. i thought that linen cracked when it was bent….
There isnt a lot of stretch to the garment, but its rough edges roll really well,
Initially i just wanted to have a cut in the back.. sort of trying out my new rotary blade (which i am still scared of)
The idea of removing that rectangle from the back came from reading "showing and hiding: equivocation in relations of body and dress" .. another chapter recommended by ricarda..
In a summery, what i pulled out of it was that menswear, and men in general, covers the entire male body. Men use the trick of layering to show, but hide. His ideas on the male gaze on women (and also the gaze cast upon men as well.. ) to be what dictates how we dress.
"a generalised male witness [came] to structure women's consciousness of herself as a body being"
Obviously the text went on about the progression
of female attire.. and how .. slowly.. more and more became revealed, wrists, forearms, shoulders etc. But men have generally stayed covered.
I dont really like this writing at all.. i think there are far too many presumptions and assumptions made about men and women.
Anyway, i wanted to think / play about with spaces
that can be shown on using holes etc..

Obviously i am wearing a garment underneath… fitting in with the idea/rule that men always show by hiding.. i like to relate this idea to 17th century hose… the leg shape was obviously visible, but skin was never shown.. also there was generally always some mass of fabric, if not a codpiece covering the .. doodle (hehe).. which again.. sort of played on revealing something by covering it up.. Especially the codpiece..
Here i cut a line up the centre of the sleeve and then created strips either side of the cut, then i plaited, from the top, slowly integrating each strip.. i guess i just played a bit with the tying
here is the money shot.. ahaha.. SKIN!
I have also decided that no-matter what i design.. for the final project.. it will be covered in bright colourful floral prints...

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Thinkings

Even before starting stretch, i knew i wanted to learn how to sew and design with really low denier. I can't deny that its inspiration coming from last year's stretch students and thier use of fleshy coloured fabrics.. which made me think of panty-hose..

After reading the suggested text: Helmut Lang; Fabric, Skin, Figure, One particular line st
ood out for me
"The male body remains, clasically, fully covered; uncovered, it is at best, sporty, at worst, ridiculous. It is never erotically invested. The Contrast between bare skin and fabric
material dominates the matrix of feminine fashion"

Thinking about men's fashion, the ways its changed in the past century.. the way women's wear dominates the industry, its almost a pay back for the way women were oppressed in western culture (and ofcourse in other cultures). We outline fashion legends as those who liberated
women; Chanel, Yves Saint.. But its now been taken to a point where the mens styles incorporated into women's wear are "ridiculous" in the context of male attire. Think of something as simple as the skivvey or the turtle neck..
So, obviously with this notion, i want to explore a change in menswear.. a revert back to feminine attire.. or .. original masculinity ..

Something that got me thinking a lot was the use of knits in sportswear and the line "uncovered, it is at best, sporty, at worst, ridiculous" Noticing the level of knitwear around.. on men.. it really does usually just look sporty, especially if the guy is particularly masculine.. otherwise his appearance could almost be label
led as queer…

anyway, i found some big designers who sort of seem to (subtley) push these boundries too
Gareth Pugh:
Includes Spring 2010
Autumn 2010
Images Taken from www.style.com on the 14/3/2010


low denier knit shown below..reveals the body
This image below is particularly interesting. It reminds me of the Jean-Paul Gaultier outfits from the Fifth Element (1997) .. Leeloo wears a thermo body strap outfit. There is no need to have the body covered, because the utility of fashion for warmth is erased by modern technology… If only it were that simple

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Post 1

Post 1 Stretch Generics.
So i'm a little bit lazy when it comes starting blogs etc, but i become quite dedicated when i get into a roll.
We've now completed the second week or stretch generics and we've already completed:
1 T-shirt Project:
Plain Tee
De-constructed Tee
Geo-metric Tee
2 Sing
let Project
Plain Singlet - constructed on a mannequin (i chose to create mine on a size 38 mannequin, I requested a smaller, new alvaform mannequin because the older ones seem to be rather…. fat.. i also plan to continue on using male mannequins… and obviously design for menswear)
Cut-Copy Singlet - This i have only done preliminary technical drawings for, i won't get my head around it until i start making and dra
wing from 3D. i'm really excited to try some high-stretch shapes…i really enjoyed wo
rking on the plain singlet.

Images of me playing with lace. I beleive its
raschel knit. Its interesting watching how far fabric can stretch and where it will stretch when a body is forced into it.. as though its going through it.




Late last year i went and saw a chunky move dance production. Although the show was a little pathetic in its flow and story-line, there were some really spectacular scenes. Opening scene had the three dancers sliding below a liquid looking black fabric, high high stretch, they were able to even stand up.. the shapes created underneath this were remarkable and it was an unforgetable scene. It was like oil had been given life, but it was angry and ma
licious.
I'm having a lot of trouble finding the name of the production, let alone images! but they will appear, its something that i find very interesting!

Here are images of
my geometric tee-shirt finished.. there is one more photos.. but i'm still getting used to using blogspot, not that its a real concern. The different photos showed the multi-funtions of the t-shirt. I really admire designers who used multi-funtionality in a really simple way. Lui Hon for example! Previous to trying it out, i considered that sort of design rather difficult to come up with, when perhaps it can be defined as on purpose accidental.