Fashion

During the fashion and textiles week, an introduction to design and creating clothes or accessories happened. Considering I am aiming to chose the fashion and textiles pathway I was looking forward to the aspects that are included in the subject. To begin with, we each made small paper creations: I created a butterfly, present, 'fortune teller', plait and I glued folded paper together.   

 Image 2.           Image 3. 

Image 1.
Using them as our inspiration we then moved to making clothes (especially dresses). 

However, the first lesson was interesting as although we created clothes, it was in a way that I have never done before: instead of using fabric, we used paper. Using a mix of white and brown paper unusual and creative pieces were formed. The sturdy and strong materials allowed for the outfits to be folded, pleated and crushed and this resulted in creative pieces that contrasted normal fashion.                                                                                                                                                             

                 Image 4. 

                                                       Image 5. 
                                                     Group design

Image 6.  

Romantic 

To the left (image 7) is a painting by Pierre Carrier Belleuse (1896) and the right (image 8) is a drawing from 1830. These are from the period of romanticism. I wanted to created an item of clothing that contrasted the others and look feminine. By using white I think this also stood out again the brown paper and appears less harsh and this is a key element of what we wanted to achieve.

                                           

Image 9. 
Shoulders

Image 10.   
Hips

         

Image 11.
Gothic

Image 12.
Gothic

                                                          Image 13. 
This is by Elsa Schiaparelli. The inclusion of bones creates a creepy appearance as they appear somewhat inhuman. The dark colour allows the outfit to become negative as well. We decided to make the paper become the back of the piece as it resembled a spine. The use of the spine in both adds a gothic style which is strange but different from most everyday fashion.

The second day involved more design aspects as we used the paper creations from the first day and created fashion designs. Like the previous activity, this was something I have never done before. I found it developed my making skills as I explored completely different ideas but by just using paper improved my abilities using various materials too. I used the small paper shapes as inspiration again and by doing this, my ideas on fashion design improved as I explored different styles and shapes.

    

Image 14 (top left)
Image 15 (top right)
Image 16 (bottom  left)
Image 17 (bottom right)


On day three, I decided to create a shoe made out of paper but still including the creations made throughout the week. I used paper mache and covered a high heeled shoe and chose to decorate the hill in different sized pyramids. I hoped to create a layered effect but contrasted the simplicity of the white coloured shoe. I hoped that the use of colour would do this as well. I didn't want there too be too many bold spikes as It would ruin the flow of the white shoe and the pyramids. 

 

Image 18. (Top left)                                                         
Image 19. (Top middle)
 Image 20. (Top right)
Image 21. (Bottom left).
 Designing and creating this shoe allowed me to explore artistic styles I have never before tried. It may not be a technique I am extremely pleased with as I found the molding complicated, but I have the confidence to try new styles and build my range of skills.

Image 1, 2, 3,4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21. Authors own.
Image 7. Pierre Carrier Belleuse. 1896. Before the ballet. 
Image 8 . Unknown
Image 13. www.vam.ac.uk.