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fmpgender · 5 years ago

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Final Major Project Evaluation.

The theme I chose for this project was ‘Gender’ and the stereotypes around dressing men and women in the fashion industry. I think I had a good approach to the theme, as I searched articles around gender roles and designing androgynous fashion at the start of my project, it gave me a burst of ideas for further research and a list of artist names to investigate. I didn’t look into modern retailers and consumers and their approach to the upcoming trends relating to androgynous fashion, which I would have liked to explore, as I am wanting to do Fashion Promotion and Communication at university, this would have been an interesting topic to search relating to my university course. I have learned that there is a lot more androgyny nongendered fashion than what is popularly advertised once you look further into it. Also, the fact that a lot of brands are coming out with genderless clothing lines recently, as society moves away from pushing the body type and image stereotypes, these are becoming more readily available to the consumer. I decided on this theme because it is something quite personal to me, I believe that people should be able to wear whatever they feel comfortable in and should be able to express themselves truly with what they wear.

I gathered my primary research mainly from galleries, I visited the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Millennium Gallery in Sheffield. I took photos of the things I think would be inspiring to me and my project. I used a lot of the pictures from the V&A Museum as I looked into historical fashion and how the different genders used to dress back then compared to what we wear now as a society. These photos were really useful because there was a lot of historical clothing pieces, the name of the exhibition was called ‘Fashioned Through Nature’ which exhibited pieces from 1600 to present day. If I were to further this research, I would’ve explored the Sheffield Gallery research more, I didn’t use much of the information I found there but some of the pieces (a lot of it was metalwork) were very old, but this could have related as I did research on historical garments. I could have taken it a step further and looked at metal wear such as chainmail or knights armour with the photos and information I got from this exhibition. An idea I have now is to look at metal buttons in historical garments and search how they were forged or pressed which would have linked nicely to the exhibition. I also could have looked more into the artist Leonardo Da Vinci, there was a whole exhibition on him, and I didn’t do anything with this, though it was very interesting. I would complete further research on Da Vinci if I were to do this project again, and also complete some line drawings from some of the art in the museums. It was interesting to see in the ‘Fashioned through Nature’ exhibition all the methods and materials used in the centuries past, as a lot of them are very impractical and somewhat dangerous. A lot also included animal skins and furs, which I avoided because I don’t agree with this so focused on the embellishment side of it.

My ability to generate ideas and plan exploration is quite good, although my ability to carry them out does not always conform to my plans. I usually come out with some good ideas to try and sample however I am quite a slow worker and like to take my time making things just right, so I don’t always get the time to explore everything I intend to. This shows in my tutor’s reflective sheets that are in my sketchbook. To try and work on this I have constantly been trying to work as fast as I can without compromising on my work quality. To do this, I have done a few samples which are reversed with another sample or print on the back, to get maximum sample output.

When I came across problems, I tried my best to figure out a solution myself and if that wasn’t enough, I would ask my tutor or peers for help. One of the problems I came across was handling the sewing machine. I am not very confident and quite nervous when on the sewing machine, I overcame this problem by slowly going on the sewing machine more and more, another problem was the needle snapping frequently when making my embroidered collar for my final outcome. I overcame this by learning to change a sewing machine needle myself to speed up the process and using the sewing machine slower when sewing over my embroidery where the thread was thick. This collar also tested my patience because I sampled the embroidery on a small scale and the collar was bigger and took longer than I expected, I persevered and eventually completed it which was difficult because it took 2 more college days than I planned, meaning I had less time to work on the rest of my final outcome.

I made a time plan at the start of the project, but I am not very good at sticking to time plans, so I veered away from this quite drastically. I did stick to the logical order that my time plan had but I just dropped behind on the speed I was hoping to work. I worked outside of college hours but usually would stay behind in class to work or go to the library. I can’t concentrate easily at home so staying in college or in a café with my laptop for written work is where I be able to complete work easier than at home. I would usually work better outside of college hours but in college because my classmates would leave, and I would be able to put my earphones in and concentrate better with less people around. I think in my project I have been over ambitious, I planned and intended on doing quite a lot of things (regarding research and sampling) that I didn’t end up doing, usually because I would get side-tracked with exploring something else or time constrictions. I would’ve liked to look more into modern dress and androgynous dress in the current era, also a few more artists/designers such as Jaden Smith and Issey Miyake.

I explored dyeing as one of my main areas for exploration. I explored mixing disperse dyes, achieving different colours on different fabrics, I feel like this was necessary because part of my research was about how colours are associated with different traits e.g. masculinity and femininity. I also looked at different embellishment techniques. I looked heavily at ruffling and combining ruffles, embroidery. These were necessary as a lot of my research was around garments of the 1700s and their heavy embellishments. I produced sketches of most of my samples so I had an idea of what they would look like. I have learned that Satin is a difficult fabric to work with because it frays easily and has a slippery finish. I have learned about dyeing both synthetic and natural fabrics, how to dye small and large pieces of fabrics and how to mix colours for a spotless finish. I have explored and learned a lot about freehand embroidery, enhancing my skills on the sewing machine, which was what I hoped I could improve, even though I am still not exceptional at embroidery, I am happy with how much I have practiced. I designed some of my samples with pencil, by sketching them out first and fabricated them with materials. I designed my pattern with the paintbrush and disperse dyes which I think was successful as it fit with my theme of gender as it was quite feminine and the garment it was on was masculine.

I chose to make my final piece a shirt with embroidery and a ruffle neck piece because I felt it was a major mix-up of feminine and masculine characteristics, meaning it doesn’t conform to a stereotypical masculine or feminine garment. I chose the structured shirt because of its masculine characteristics, as men typically wear simple long sleeve shirts with a collar, but opposed this by dyeing it Fuchsia, the colour society has linked strongly to femininity. I also took inspiration from my research around historical 1700s garments and sampled with lace and my feminine print. As I found a way to create a feminine style print with the disperse dyes, I felt like it would be fitting to juxtapose these two by printing it on lace, which was commonly worn by males around the neck in the form of a cravat. I also experimented with my embroidery and decided on creating a neck piece as I was inspired by Josef Storck’s lace collar I saw in the Victoria and Albert Museum. This ended up being quite feminine and linked in my Gucci research because of the multitude of bright coloured threads. I created a ruffled neckpiece too to link to my historical garment research and linked it into my running themes of gender, as they are typically worn by males and it gives a nod to the bright colours in my Gucci research too because of the print I disperse dyed onto it. My final piece is currently in an exhibition in the college refectory. I put my garment on a male mannequin, because the shirt I used for my final outcome is a male’s shirt that I dyed, it has broad shoulders and fit better on the male mannequin. I also think overall, with the shirt being pink it sways towards the more feminine side, so I think having it on a male mannequin brings it back to half feminine half masculine. Some of my most relevant printing samples and embroidery samples are mounted and displayed next to my garment too. The visible link is there because the print/dye samples and embroidery are both featured on my garment.

I have used a blog to annotate and reflect on my samples and plans, I think this was the best way for me because I work quicker on this platform than having to both mount them and annotate them in my sketchbook. When receiving feedback I would look at what I was given and try to take it into consideration for my next samples, the main source of feedback I got was from my tutor and classmates. In my proposal I originally set out to make a wearable garment which I achieved, although I did want to work on my pattern cutting and sewing skills by creating my garment from a pattern but I ran out of time in the end and decided to use dyeing and other techniques to build on the bought garment instead. In my proposal I also stated that I would explore plaster and wire again, as I enjoyed and excelled at that previously. I didn’t end up doing this, I got sidetracked because I didn’t intend on researching historical garments and once I did that my project took this path instead and other more relevant techniques became priority. This path was unexpected but successful and stayed relevant to my theme, although I would sample with wire and plaster if I had more time in the project. I also stated I would visit the Leeds Art Gallery and Hepworth Gallery for primary research and I went to neither. I did look on the websites and the only thing I thought would be relevant would be the Henry Moore exhibition at Leeds Art Gallery, which I didn’t think it would be worth going for as I’ve been before. Instead I decided to visit the Millennium Gallery in Sheffield, which didn’t give me much inspiration however the photos I took at the Victoria and Albert exhibition fit perfectly for the research that I did. This project has taught me that I really need to work on my time management skills and not leave everything until the last minute, it has also taught me that perseverance is important, I never thought I would create a large embroidery piece because of my thought on sewing machines but I did. It has also made me realise that I really want to go to University, but not to study design or construction. I think Fashion Promotion or Communication courses would suit me better. During this project, it has really pushed me to work as hard as I can and as quickly as I can, having to apply for University, going through the UCAS application and interview process at the same time has been difficult but made me work hard and has put me in the right mind frame for University.

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