Week 2 Day 5

After learning about the wearable technology involving wires, sound, and light etc. we moved onto 3D printing with Levi and Alberto and how that could also be used within a garment for this project. For this part of the project we used Sketchup which is a designing app used to create our prints. For me I found this one a little more exciting than the wire base technology for the simple reason that it was a little more design based; however I did feel that it was a lot more frustrating to actually get it to print. When it came to the 3D printing our group had had our theme that we thought was fit for this project which was based around blood circulation and body autonomy, nonetheless I still struggled to see how this could still work within a piece and how we could add both elements together. So in conclusion I still felt that this project for me was just a little too confusing as technology was something I wasn’t completely confident in which lead to a lot of struggles within the project and not much of a final outcome.

Week 1 Day 2

This project we again had to work in groups in regards to creating new wearable technology. For me personally this was one my most difficult projects. For the first reason being I felt a little out of place on how much I really knew about wearable technology nor did I know that much about how it could even be worked into a garment, plus I felt that my group was on the same level as me, resolving with us all quite clueless throughout the project. Nonetheless for our first day of the project we had Farid who introduced us to the technology of these lily pads and wire cables and using Arduino which is an app run by using codes to function the lily pads, and he taught us how to use different kind of sensors within clothing such as sound, light, monitoring and so on  how this could be used in ways to possibly track things like our heart rate, whether, movement etc. and in some aspects I found some of it very interesting in was especially interested in the sound and being able to play music, plus I thought it could be quite fascinating if it was attached to clothing.

Week 1 Day 1

Autonomous

For the Autonomous project we were asked to take a trip to the ‘Fear and Love’ exhibition which took place at the design museum. I felt that this exhibition was quite helpful to get us in grasps with today’s technology and how it is used in multiple different ways. One of my favourite things which took place in the exhibition was this robot which was meant to sense peoples movement and followed when you came quite close to it but it was said that it would only follow if it liked you. Another one that interested me was these colourful sculptures which were made of wax and plaster. They particularly interested me as I thought the way they had this kind of prickly shape and the way it poked out from these kind of skull looking masks was very fascinating.   

Week 2 Day 5

Here I have shown my groups promotion video and Garment. For our line up we targeted our audience to be aging from teens to late twenties, and had decided to go for a traditional over-sized Kimono which nowadays is only really used for formal events, but we choice to make the kimono appear more modernised in contrasts with the old and the new, and which is also represented in the promotion videos as youths appearing free, not having a care in the world for anyone or anything, and without any responsibilities nor expectations. 

This was done in attempts of using a collage of un-matching old clothes to combine into a garment as a way of showing how the young people of Japan today are trying to escape this stereotype stuck upon them by the media, concluding in exaggerated and over the top clothing, mostly as a way of making a statement as it is not just one individual wearing this style of clothing but a whole community of young people showing that they can be unique and our not tied down by their ancestors. Yet this could also be a way of them revisiting the trends of the past as before it may have been frowned upon before and now dressing peculiar is now seen as a good thing. This is why we wanted to take all these interesting patterns and textures into one garment showing an idea of their innocent experimentation but awareness of fashion from the outside world which again takes away from the Medias perception of their lack of change. Nonetheless our attempts in adding traditional embroidery and the kimono shows that although the Japanese society tries to escape the medias approach, they still won’t be able to fully erase foreigners stereotypical views.

Week 2 Day 4

 During this day our group was concentrating upon in-depth research around today’s fashion in Japan. We could see that the medias notion was the complete opposite and in fact by observing a popular magazine called ‘fruits’. We could see that a lot of youths mostly aging between twenties have been particularly interested in this kind of urban style which consists of clothing set back from iconic clothing from the 70s to the 90s and an adaption from western fashion with a modern twist, with bold and captivating colours upon it, presenting this kind of unkempt but childish look to it which somehow brings us back to our past.         

We also learnt that this modern Japanese culture took off in the 80s/90s showing this new ‘cutting edge of fashion, and a kind of thought out sort of illustrative freedom.  I also see a kind of link between Comme des Garcons as it brought this new kind of upbeat and original, vibrant designs and layers with complex cuts created from high tailored techniques. However we did not want to introduce this into our design as we felt making a complex and exaggerated, but tidy piece would only be just another design like Kawakubo’s; instead we wanted to keep it simple and playful and having that playful, yet scruffy look which is mostly shown in ‘Fruits’ but still showing some aspects of Japanese tradition.

Week 1 Day 2

Industry

For this new project we have teamed up in groups of six with fashion promotion where we are given a pacific fashion industry based off of the one we are most interested in and are asked to alto the style of the way the industry usually works and put a new style to the company. For our chosen industry my team received Comme des Garcons with I, being the menswear designer and I was very excited to be working with this particular company personally with Rei Kawakubo being one of my favourite designers. When starting we had to come up with a theme for this year’s autumn and winter collection and originally my group had decided to do the theme upon war in ancient Japan with that being Kawakubo’s home country. When it came to designing the collection we wanted our theme to originally work around the history of ancient Japan, as viewing Rei Kawakubo’s previous design collections her work seemed to be very historical in regards to ancient Japan, with some areas around fantasy, and fiction, However we later felt that sticking to the ancient Japanese theme that Kawakubo is well known for we decided to focus upon a more modern approach to Japan, focusing around Japanese pop culture,  then what is perceived to be by the media in approach to a more traditional and safe outlook. And to the majority of people who know little to none of today’s Japan, or that is known is what the media portrays which results in us declaring Japan to be old fashioned, and restricted.

Week 2 Day 5

Showing my final garment I would have to say that I am very pleased with how it turned nonetheless there may be a few pieces here and there that I could have tweaked, but overall, and with my level of sewing skills at this moment in time I am quite pleased. In regards to my piece I felt that the concept of the three words have shown its elements within the garment as I was able to show my thoughts upon capture through the use of the extra fabric that I had chose to attach to the garment as a way that it appears as a kind of canvassed art which is complemented by the shapes which rest upon it in resemblance to ‘Revolving doors’. I also felt that the word brave also took its part within the garment as the garment as a whole had a lot going on within it through the vivid colours and abstract and uneven shapes, which for the viewer would make it very difficult to know where to look first, coming to grasps with the piece. I also feel despite the vibrant colours and the playful representation I have also presented a quite dated look to the garment such as the frilled collar and the plaid pattern which in a way can compare back to Man Ray again as his work is seen very old-fashion, especially involving his photography work which can show a contrast of the past and present.   

Week 2 Day 2

Here I have shown the step by step of my garment making. For me I felt that this particular garment was an ongoing creation, meaning I felt that I kept  having to change the garment over and over again as everything I tried to do to the garment it just seemed to not work for me, it just did not look right. This referred to my pillow shapes that I felt was a good idea to add the garment at the time but the more I tried to work with it the sillier it looked when actually looking at the physical piece in opposed to the image in my head. This was an issue for me as I felt there was no way of my garment looking good but still representing my ideas at the same time. Nonetheless I came to the realisation that the rest of the piece was absolutely fine, the only thing holding it back was the 3D shapes. This made me think that I should just abolish the pillowed shapes completely but still finding another way of adding them in without it appearing irrelevant, leading me to come to the conclusion of making the shapes into a solid flat piece which balances upon the garment rather than curving within it like it did before.

 

Week 1 Day 5

For this week I have been working upon shape and figuring out how I could combine the words brave, and capture to Man Rays style of work. With regards to Man Ray I particular liked his collage work especially the work revolved around brightly coloured shapes, constructed to form a quite unusual and captivating impression of the piece. I felt that using this style of composition within my own work would make it possible to take my three words and make them into one whole piece. Figuring this out was simply through observation of Rays ‘Revolving doors’ I was able to pick out elements that attached together sections from the word brave and capture. For example in regards to brave I could see a link through the exaggerated and vibrant shapes as to me it felt that so much was going on that I didn’t possibly know where to look first or why exactly the shapes were placed in the areas that they were. This lead to me exploring the similarities of these shapes and my interpretation of what ‘brave’ actually means to me.  When thinking I chose to think of the word brave as more of a mental behaviour then the action of being brave, such as being able to stand out from your surroundings and presenting yourself in a more over the top way then what is socially accepted. I thought of ‘brave’ as being able to look past society’s expectations and judgement to just being free. In regards to capture I thought of it in its simplest way, as that being what is seen within the eye, the sight of our surroundings; that splits second of scenery, a frozen picture to our eyes whenever we take a beautiful sight in. That’s what ‘Revolving doors’ reminded me of when thinking of the word ‘capture’.