Senior Project Assignment 1

Creative statement
I wanted to create a free spirited collection of textiles that combine chaos with logic. This is executed through free hand dying and structured tie dye. One fabric in particular uses burning with fire as a way to create burn and smoke effects on the textile.
Textile designers that have work like mine
Alexandria Beckett (hand paints textiles)
Jennifer Dodge (she told me my work looks similar to hers)

Inspiration:

Itemized list of materials
 6 yards of linen @ $16 a yard- $96
4 yards of heavy cotton @ $4 a yard- $16
4 light acrylic paints- $45
1 pack of metallic pigment- $14
3 packs dye- $18
Yarn-free

Textiles and their processes

Tiger textile
Fold and dye
Dry
Fold and dye again
Spread dye across in missed areas

Blue textile
Mixed pigment with paint
Painted linen
Let it dry
Repeated process twice

Check textile
Folded textile
Sewed it to keep it in place
Dip dyed the folds
Let dry
Unstitched the folds
Painted orange with a paintbrush to create check

Hairpieces
Wove textile in blue cotton yarn
Made linear repeat in design for 2 of them, others are a plain weave

Burnt textile
Dyed textile in folds
Created checks
Burnt textile in areas while tied to create a burnt tie dye effect

Sample textiles (Pre group production)

Actual Textiles made

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sociology: Gender Roles and Fashion

This was the inspiration behind my creative project for a sociology class I am currently in.

Creative Project sociology

The Idea
My idea was to create garments for this project. These garments would be based on the following learned content from the class:
The association of things and certain genders
Gender roles
And Title IX

The Inspiration
Many designers for the past 3 consecutive seasons have shown men in kilts and skirts. I found it ironic that we associate women with skirts more so than men, and this was the perfect class to make such a design for.
Many designers also used the theme of sports jerseys or their lettering/numbering as inspiration for many shirts as well. This trend is worn on both the runway, and by the masses, and is therefore considered a fashion trend.

Inspiration: Givenchy

Inspiration: Gareth Pugh

Inspiration: Rick Owens

My Creation:

The Look:

The Conclusion:
I concluded that gender roles, although sometimes helpful, can also sometimes hinder or put restraints on things we do, just as we have learned in class.
There are masculine and feminine behaviors that both men and women do when they perform their gender.
Men and women should be treated equally

Art 438 Final Project: Exterior of Palace of Versailles

Versailles En Couleur

My final project was based on the exteriors of the Palace of Versailles. I included the wonderful gardens, the gates, the tile at the front entrance, and the exterior of the palace itself as inspiration for the line of textiles. The end use for these are all menswear.

Art 156: Final Project

My final project was a commentary on global warming and it’s effects on the homes of polar bears. I was very inspired by the CAFAM visit and it’s relation to art and weather. These garments that have been burnt or “melted” represent the melted and still melting home of the polar bears in the arctic. I embroidered a polar bear face with the eyes burnt out as well.

Art 302: Alter Ego Assignment

As an alter ego, I didn’t change my name at all. Instead, I made sure to add confidence and be sure to wear what I wore with more pride than usual. I chose something that would remain true to my inner self, but that I definitely do not usually wear. I own an orange suit and decided to wear this. Although no one would think that I’m out of my usual attire if I wore a suit or the color orange. However, wearing a suit that is orange is quite a different story. I wore this orange suit for a total of twenty five hours.
The orange suit was first worn to a gas station on my way to school. While here I experienced one stare, and surprisingly, attracted a homeless woman’s attention to the point where she thought it was okay to tap on my car window next to my face to ask for change (unfortunately, I was startled by it and just drove off). But this woman is always at this gas station in the morning and had never once asked for change from me before. I didn’t know how to explain this other than it is a bright color and she may have been attracted to such a happy and warm color. My next stop was school. I purposefully parked in the back of the parking lot so I would pass a lot of people on the way to and from class. As I walked up stairs to the outside of the theater department, there were so many stares given. Two girls sitting at a table giggled as they watched me pass by. A young man sitting at a table stared up from his book. When I arrived to class, there were not many people there, as it was the day before thanksgiving, and that class only has 8 people in it to begin with. I was told I looked “cute” by one classmate. I thanked her. This would set the tone for the rest of the compliments I received while wearing the outfit. Our professor Dr. Davis had to be sought out by me as she was in her office. When I approached Dr. Davis she said “Hello. Wow you look so bright and put together today.” This of course was a compliment and was another positive reaction towards the outfit. Dr. Davis and I shortly after discussed the assignment and she stood by her reaction and compliment, even after explaining it was a social aspects experiment. After class, I went to pick up my niece to go to a museum with me. When I arrived at my cousin’s apartment, my niece looked up at me and said “Why are you wearing that orange jacket?!” I guess orange pants were okay in her book, but an orange blazer was simply out of the question. The fact that she wasn’t okay with me wearing a jacket could refer back to gender roles set in at an early age. And the fact that if it is outside the norm, the aesthetic (in this case an orange suit), is deemed an outcast garment, and tossed to the side and disregarded because it is so obscure. The reading touches on this. “Thus, many contemporary philosophers oppose the Hegelian account for moral reasons: the concern with identity always involves the rejection of the Other as Other” (Levinas 2002). This totally makes sense not just with a child’s analytical procedures, but with adults as well. If you have to categorize your look as “other”, people don’t know how to categorize it themselves, and this makes them toss your look aside, and you are just put into a bad category. Instead of unique, you are seen as silly, playful, or just unfashionable. Gianna (my niece) and I went to the Museum of Latin American Art. When I arrived, the woman working the front desk greeted me without eye contact, and proceeded to help another person. As I waited for help, a man came to help us. He was very smiley. He made a lot of effort to talk to me, but didn’t make eye contact until he mentioned the suit. He said “Woah good thing I didn’t wear my orange suit today!”, as though he even owned one. But after he said that, he made eye contact the rest of the time he was talking. It was almost as though he had to bring up the white elephant in the room so he could get past it. Many people who worked at the museum would stare and smile. This went on for the rest of the visit. I also took my niece to a cafe called Hot Java where many gay men go to get coffee. I went here on ourpose because I knew if anyone was going to judge me, it was the gay men in my neighborhood. I walked in and the person who greeted me and took my order said “I love your ensemble. It fits you so well!” This, of course, coming from a much older man who was probably just trying to get into my (orange) pants! But as the time went by while we were there, most people did the same thing as others: staring with a smile.
The next day I wore this was on Saturday night. My boyfriend and I went out for drinks. Our first stop was paradise, a piano/martini bar we frequently go to. As I know most of the people who work there, I knew they would either give me an honest reaction, or kiss my ass for a tip. The bartender gave me his best “Ooh girl!…” And a laugh that said it all. The man who sat directly next to me said “That’s a nice suit you’ve got on.” I thanked him. As the night went on (and the martini went from one to more than one), more and more people were friendly about the suit. Some drag queen with fuzzy rainbow boots yelled “You look fabulous!!!”, as she stepped into her evening taxi cab. I felt unsure about her compliment, as she was wearing the most colorful outfit of the evening that night on broadway, but was that necessarily a good thing? And was the fact that I came in second for that title also a good thing?
The next time I wore this outfit was Sunday. I wore this outfit all day. Our destinations included Target, lunch, Toys R Us, Home Goods Store, and meeting my mother and cousins at a store to pick up a couch for my cousin’s new home. My boyfriend was honestly more nervous for me. It was one thing to wear this on broadway in my own neighborhood, but for him to have to walk around with me all day in Orange County while I was in the suit was quite a different story. The suit got every stare you’d imagine. The family of a mom and two daughters in their target sweats placed judgement on my outfit. The Jewish family also buying latke mix and geld was stunned to see a man in an orange suit at Target. A woman made conversation solely because I caught her staring at me. She asked if I was having a nice holiday. I told her I was and walked away. While at Home Goods, middle aged white people filled the store, and all of their eyes were on me as though I was wearing some sort of prison suit. The looks on their faces were priceless. There was a woman at Toys R Us who looked like she was so offended by my suit. She couldn’t stop staring at me. As we checked out a family stared at me when they were walking in. After that, we had lunch at Panera Bread. A family was praying at the table and as soon as they were finished, they all looked at me. I felt like a sinner of some sorts from the way they looked at me right after praying. A mom had three kids at the table and all of them stared right at me mid-meal. After this, it was off to meet my family. My mom’s face as I approached her was hilarious. She laughed and said “Well, at least it fits really well.” My cousin Zach agreed with her. After I explained the assignment, he said “If you needed a reaction you should have recorded mine…fuck you look ridiculous.” I laughed and so did he. His sister said I looked great. My niece said, “Hey, you already wore that jacket!” Again, the jacket being the problem. The people at this store reacted the same as everyone else. A large smile and a stare. As we left the place, two women walked in and one said to the other “Girl don’t even comment!” My mother laughed at their reaction.
Overall, this social fashion experiment proved to me one very important thing: people are not as sincere as they wish to be. I believe most people smiled, yet stared because they wanted to give a dirty look without me knowing. It was as though they were hiding behind their smiles. I know my fellow classmates were sincere with their compliments, but if they weren’t fashion students, I doubt they would have gotten pas the orange and seen the nicely tailored suit that it is. It was also clear to me that most people who have the subculture of being uncultured have a hard time being around anything that isn’t an ill fitting pair of sweats or a light washed jean. The statement made by these clothes of course being conformity and uniformity. The obscure man in the orange suit definitely did not fit their status quo.

Art 302: Reading #6

Refereeing to highland rape, rape is a horrific act, why are magazines allowed to romanticize it and put it in advertisements?

 As most people would agree rape is awful, there are also many people who prefer some sort of submissive or some sort of “Victim” style role when they are having sexual relations with a partner. As we see in Alexander McQueen’s work, he uses scenes that could be considered to reference rape in a glorified manner. Such as the scene of his 1997 show “It’s a Jungle Out There”, where he showed women as submissive creatures. This of course, being misconstrued as torture towards women, was in fact the opposite in McQueen’s mind. “He used the idea of animal instincts in the natural world as metaphor for the dog-eats-dog nature of the urban jungle, staging the show against a forty foot-high screen of corrugated iron drilled with imitation bullet holes and surrounded by wrecked cars, adding dry ice and crimson lighting for drama” (Evans, 208). I think because magazines show these scenes and rely on both fashion and fashion designers for answers, that they have a sort of “Don’t kill the messenger” stance and that they don’t feel responsible for relaying messages that they suggest, are really being given by fashion designers and clothing.

 

 

Is it possible for clothing to provide the type of protection McQueen try’s to creative by making women look “so powerful no one would dare lay hands on them?

I think that he does do a good job of making women look powerful. As mentioned in the reading, he was intending to make women look so powerful that they wouldn’t dare be messed with by anyone, particularly men. McQueen’s tailoring background help him take the men’s tailoring processes from Saville Row and institute the same aesthetics into women’s couture. The designs he made do have characteristics of menswear, and perhaps he feminizes them via silhouette, fabrics, and of course, make-up and styling. “The representation of female sexuality as terror has a long history (Tseelon 1995) in which the power of female display, or allure, is pictured as terrifying, sometimes deathly” (Evans, 207). This form of using sexuality as terror makes one think of the “man eater” and the sort of woman that McQueen was trying to portray via his clothing and fashion shows.

 

Are the opinions of the viewer or designer a more correct interpretation fashion?

I think that the opinions of certain viewers are a more correct interpretation of fashion. We as a society, hold certain people above others when it comes to interpretation of any artform. As far as fashion goes, we look to people such as Anna Wintour for advice, whether that advice comes from the woman herself, or from people who write for her magazine, Vogue. There are also style blogs who critique the work of designers, and are broken down into categories. In my opinion, the key to making these interpretations of fashion are to know where your source is. As a viewer, my opinion may mean a lot to one person, and mean nothing to another person. For example, I love the work of Consuelo Castaglioni (head of the house of Marni), but most people I know think that her clothing is outrageous and too busy. I think that my interpretation of her work is more accurate, but if the majority rules in my inner circle, than her fashion designs are to be considered ridiculous.

 

Why is it appealing to sexualize or eroticise fashion?

 It is appealing to sexualize and eroticize fashion because it is appealing to sexualize and eroticize anything. As a society that places heavy importance on both aesthetics and sex, we are driven by looks and sex. Alexander McQueen knew this very well, and used it in almost all of his work. “Yet McQueen’s images of a woman so powerfully sexual that no one would dare to lay hands on her, a woman who used her sexuality as a sword rather than a shield, also drew on an earlier, and more dissident, representation than the fin-de-siècle camp or her early twentieth-century cinematic successor” (Evans, 207). This could explain that since fashion is a world geared more towards women, that this is in fact a sexualized character women may aspire to be. Thus, making the idea of a femme fatale a sexualized character that women can feel their sexiest as.

Art 302: Reading #5 Quiz

1. According to Thomas Schnierer, there are three cardinal attributes that define fashion from a sociological standpoint. “It’s temporal, social, and material aspects (Schnierer, 1995)”. The temporal aspect can be best defined as the way someone goes about being in the moment, knowing that they will have to change quickly and often to maintain their status of being in the moment. Social aspects can be defined as a collective knowledge and general agreement upon a certain look being of the moment. And material can be defined as all of the physical elements that are both bought and/or altered to try and perfect the outward appearance for fashion’s sake.

2. Fashion is play in a sense because we are inherently playful with fashion, because it is such a social interaction with others in society. This interaction is a nonverbal communication and an expression of ones self. “However we may regard it, the very fact that play has a meaning implies a non-materialistic quality in the nature of the thing itself (Huizinga, 1939)”. I think that this is a way of saying that although it isn’t something physical (or for that matter, verbal), it is still present and we see how people send messages through how they look. In a sense, we are also the only animals who are interested in fashion. This, making it a problem strictly for humans. And even if animals are dressed by their owners, they are doing it without any sense of style or fashion, and in turn are just a reflection of their owners own personal message via fashion.

3. The histrionic attitude towards fashion is one of superficial and almost lazy minded as they are dependent upon the opinion and approval of others. This view is widely held and carried out via trends and aspects of superficial fashion such as social norms and how widely these “norms” definitions are accepted by the majority of society. We see these views reported almost constantly. We see them in magazines, on websites, in stores, reiterated through friends, television shows, web videos, and even news sources devote a portion of their reporting to fashion and lifestyle trends. Speaking of lifestyle, it is interesting to learn the origins of this word. “The word lifestyle was first used in the early 1930s by followers of the Austrian psychiatrist Alfred Adler. Adler himself saw lifestyle as a defense mechanism: a pattern of behavior adopted at an early age to disguise physical weakness or inferiorities (Adler, 1912)”. This word is now jus simply defined as a way of life.

The schizoid attitude towards fashion is one that’s based on the belief that you shouldn’t care what others think. If being histrionic seems lazy minded, this is only that to a polar opposite extreme. The book states “In contrast, schizoid personalities (predominately males) do not care about the opinions of others”

(Bonnelli, 228). This view isn’t as lazy minded as it seems. The prime example I can think of is one where someone wants to make a statement by saying they don’t care about what they look like. That they are above it. This view is best explained in a scene in the movie The Devil Wears Prada, where Andrea (Ann Hathaway) laughs at two identical looking belts and is put in her place by Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep), who is the head of the fashion magazine and decider of which belt shall be shown in an editorial shoot. Because Andrea thinks she is above fashion, or that it is below her because it seems so shallow, she is unaware that she is still choosing colors, clothing, and accessories all still chosen by those very same people making the fashionable decisions.

http://youtu.be/1LVptO7o4L8

Art 499: dying 3-D objects

I did my last 499 project on dying three dimensional objects. 2 of these objects were dyed after they were made 3D, and one was purposefully made 3D after dying. The two that were made 3D prior to dying were wool. They were felted objects made via needle felting. They both turned out fantastic. The 3rd object was paper. I used tracing paper to see how the dye would take to a transparent paper. It turned out great. The colors in all three are vibrant. I used the same black and orange color palette as the last project. I gained inspiration from a blog about dying wool on a toy website called handmadefelttoys.com. This shows how to dye using food coloring and was essentially the same process, minus having to wash them with dishsoap prior to dying. 

Art 156: Final Project Statement

I would like to burn fabric on a sweatshirt and after burning the fabric, I would like to embroider an image onto the front of it. After doing all of this, I would also like to tie dye the sleeves of the sweatshirt. This would all be inspired by the science seen at the CAFAM exhibit, as well as the skills and approaches to textile making and fashions social role in society.

Art 438: AATCC Project

Geometric Waters FINAL

This is my textile design project for the AATCC.