FINAL

Styling - Ideas and Suggestions

This week we had the pleasure of working with stylist and creative director namalee Bolle. She gave us loads of great ideas on how to style an image and creating looks that poetry atmosphere, mood and meaning. This workshop helped me particularly, because I was confused and unsure of how to style my fabric samples. Two tasks that we were given were, to style a white shirt in an unconventional way and to dress a punk. Dressing a punk was a good task for me because it helped me to excessively  adorn the body in jewellery and accessories, this not being my usual style encouraged me to be over the top rather than subtle. The challenge to style a white shirt in an unconventional way was also helpful to me, it encouraged me to be experimental in the way in which I dressed the body with such an iconic piece of clothing. Both of these tasks challenged my preconceptions of the styling I want to use in my shoot. 

In light of this workshop I decided to style the garments on the human female body.  Due to the curvy and flowing nature of the samples, I discovered that they work well with the curvy nature of the female figure. I experimented with three garments and dressed them in ways that seemed impossible. Because of  the diverse shape of the samples you're able to twist and turn them in ways to create new shapes.With some of the smaller samples I decided to carry out a similar styling task, instead of using them for their original purpose of sleeves or cuffs I decided to turn them into a full garment.  Using a miniature mannequin i used the samples to create various outfits. I positioned the miniature mannequin in natural positions so that my models can replicate them in the studio.

Test Shoot

Due to the unconventional nature of the garments in my shoot, I thought it would be a good idea to get a test shoot out of the way with to highlight areas in which I needed to improve. I started this process by thinking about what sort of models I'd like to cast for my shoot. I decided that the pieces would probably create a better aesthetic on "real" and "interesting" looking models, contrasting with the experimental samples. I recored the process, and above shows some of the people I would like to cast in my shoot. They vary in age, gender, height and race. Since the project is based on the theme of diversity, I think it is easy to "tokenise" models, merely using someone to indicate allegiance to a particular group of individuals. I think I have avoided this issue by using models I think can bring the garment to life, rather that just a pretty face.

Following the casting process, I decided I would benefit form arranging a test shoot, so I chose the most readily available model and conducted one in a pop-up-studio. The idea of the test shoot was to experiment with styling the samples on the body in a variety of ways, but as the samples are not finished garments it proved difficult to “adorn” the body substantially. This task was extremely helpful to me as it encouraged me to style the samples in various different ways, and helped me to  guide my usual style towards something more interesting and unconventional - which i think is needed to celebrate these pieces. The samples have an abundance of diversity in the ways in which you can style them on the body, but I noticed that they were too small and too incomplete to fashion a whole 8 page editorial. 

I didn't want to scrap my idea because the samples I have decided to use are stunning in so many ways: shape, colour, texture and most importantly, versatility. To overcome this problem I created ways in which I could make the samples go further in terms of “outfits”. I experimented with colour correction to begin with and produced some mediocre outcomes. But something that really interested me from my previous visit to the Guy Bourdin exhibition at somerset house, was his use of scale. Extreme post production of images is something I am not fond of, as I think it can lead to amateur results, but after experimenting with scale in photoshop in a similar style to Guy Bourdin, I realised this might be a way forward in my project. Above shows a small percentage of the images I have taken for the test shoot. As you can see the light changes half way through the shoot, this is due to one of the bulbs in the flash kit overheating and breaking. Even though I encountered  a problem during this shoot I carried on, and ended up producing some images that could work well as a final. Although the test produced some good results, the contact sheet clearly demonstrates the lack of material / outfits.

Refining Ideas

Based on last weeks feedback I created two extended and modified mood boards, which reflect colour schemes and concepts for post production. I have chosen the colours green, orange and yellow because of the bold tones, and they're representativeness of nature and traditional African body adornment. I have chosen samples of knit rather than finished garments to emphasise the theme of diversity. I have demonstrated how the samples can adorn the body in a variety of different ways. Mostly the samples include ruffled and obscure textures, contesting and working alongside the clean and concise concept for the photo shoot. In the mood boards there are examples of how I could style the samples experimenting with movement and angles. Below are three small mood boards I created which demonstrate the atmosphere I'd like to create. To me these images depict free spiritedness, diversity, celebration, non traditional ideas and confidence. In the past I have produced fairly straight forward images, with little exaggeration or manipulations to garments. For this project I intend to experiment, creating unconventional accessories and garments.

Exhibition Visit - Chanel to Westwood

I recently visited the exhibition at the Fashion and Textiles museum “Chanel to Westwood.” It is an exploration of the knitwear clacked up by some of the biggest names in fashion.” The space demonstrates how shapes, styles  and pattern in knitwear changed over the decades, from Coco Chanel’s neat twin sets – which introduced jersey to the world of couture – to the vibrant, multicoloured knits that came out of the ‘make do and mend’ movement in the ’40s. Whether machine-produced for the general market or hand-knitted during wartime rationing, the garments on display give a sense of the emotional investment that went into their creation. That is something almost unique to knitwear, in my opinion.

Dennis Nothdruft, the museum’s curator, believes the “basic functionality of knitwear” loses out against the glamour of couture. But with knitwear, especially if knitted yourself, every step and stitch in construction is known, seen and touched – the very same characteristics of haute couture, which makes it even harder to understand why knitwear suffers by comparison.

Before visiting this exhibition my understanding and passion for knitting was present. My mum had previously studied knitwear design at central saint martins and had produced some amazing samples. Over the years as she saw me follow a similar pathway as her, we began to look at them together and she taught me some basic skills. I decided that my project could become a lot more personal due to this aspect, and could be explored in detail.

Although everything on display was amazing in its own right, something that really grabbed my attention for a potential narrative idea was the traditional knits. In comparison to the other garments they aren't instantly amazing, but they represent cultural identity and tradition. The Fair Isle is a traditional knitting technique used to create patterns with multiple colours. It is named after Fair Isle, a tiny island in the north of Scotland, that forms part of the Shetland islands. Fair Isle knitting gained a considerable popularity when the Prince of Wales (later to become Edward VIII) wore Fair Isle tank tops in public in 1921. Traditional Fair Isle patterns have a limited palette of five or so colours, use only two colours per row, are worked in the round, and limit the length of a run of any particular colour.