LOOKBOOK INSPO
Sow's Ear/Silk Purse Laura Graham - from an instagram post. For some reason I absolutely adore this simplistic layout and combination of fonts and overlapping, as well as the descriptive breakdowns of garments in cute fonts. Obviously a lookbook would format differently from an instagram post but this gives me lots of ideas.
Primary Garment Sample Tags
Use this in my zero waste patternmaking annotation
(I've made these out of tracing paper as sample tags with writing on them explaining the sample and suggested alterations of primary ZERO WASTE garments - they're filled with all of the limited thread offcuts and fabric scraps from the entire making process.
I intend to photograph these sample tags in black and white and format them in a film strip style.
Inspirations:
Dan Eaton (my friend) - Ghost Stories', has a fantastic digital layout.
Pinterest - By Gerhard Richter
Pinterest - Maison Martin Margiela spring summer 1989 line up
Printed Garment Tags to include in lookbook
(Alongside waste primary envelope tags, when showing product shots)
I'm intending to print these in cyanotype, and structure them as a sketch of the garment showing qualities, characteristics, components.
Videris - I adore this brand, but this style of diagram in particular would translate really well in my own work for explaining sustainability components.
Eg - 100% cotton thread, 100% silk fabric, cyanotype printed detail, etched and hand cut aluminium buckle detail, g-hook, van dyke print lining with hand painted details.
Biodegradable collection
Secondary garment - Upcycled from primary garment prototype
Explain circularity and end of life - CIRCULARITY: To biodegrade, remove metal hardware components and underwire, to be repurposed in another handcrafted garment.
Handmade in NZ by Tessa Wishart
I'd like to make these tags for all garments and show them in the lookbook.
Pinterest - A cyanotype image. I love the silhouette of this.
The most delightful die-cut garment tag ever.
Margiela - A Folk Horror Fairytale
Link to blog post
The purpose of video and illumination of my own sustainable process based techniques
In my last semester's work, where I drafted reduced waste patterns and then turned the residual fabric waste into undergarments, I spent a lot of time taking time lapses of the long patternmaking process. Unfortunately I got to the end of the semester and other things had to take priority so I couldn't even put together the footage, but my thought process was that the illumination of the process driven technique is an important past of the development of a sustainable collection for viewer, given that they're able to understand the value of the handcraft and the sustainable techniques. At it's most simplistic, I felt that showing an audience how the garments were cut without any waste would enhance the overall concept a lot and justify the sorts of silhouettes and shaped I'd been using.
With the constraints of lockdown (and the fact that my tripod is locked in our uni studio and unaccessible to me!) I haven't been taking any videos for this, even though I'm now at the point of making some of the final zero waste primary garments. I do however really see the benefit of video footage, particularly when I'm soon into the stage of upcycling the primary toiles.
One of my priorities is to photograph all of my final primary toiles with the final secondary toiles before the primary toiles are cut up into final secondary garments - this before and after stage in the upcycling process will ideally strengthen the concept a lot. (I'm unsure yet whether I'll shoot this on a body - myself - or just show the garments themselves but ideally I'd like to show the toiles being worn as a styled collection. I'm likely intending for this to make its way into the lookbook to so perhaps simplistic garment shots would be better? Showing this upcycling and repurposing process in detail is quite important to me.
FURTHER VIDEO IDEA
McQueen posted this video during last year's lockdown as a suggestion to public at home to make their 'Paper Doll' Ophelia dress.
It's seemed clear to me that I won't have the time to film any of the construction process for my collection, even though I would've loved to have had the chance to make a film of the construction process purely to show the transparency of the repurposing upcycling and zero waste techniques. However, INSTEAD...
After the semester, I might like to make a film for my own purposes showing my construction and upcycling techniques by making the zero waste patterns to half or quarter scale in paper, then 'constructing' them on camera by sticking them together like in this McQueen film.
I could do this both for the primary final garments - and by making (sample off video) primary toiles and then cutting the pattern pieces out to make the secondary garments out of paper. This would be such a fantastic way of showing the work without having to film the messiness of the whole disjointed fabric garment process. Cutting these together with voice audio explaining the techniques, then models wearing the final garments (and footage of the final primary toiles being work before cut up if possible!) would make a fantastic transparency process and outcome video similar to Margiela's Fold Horror Fairytale, only without the dramatised video narrative of characters within the clothing.
'Residencies'
I've been selected to show work in the Auckland Art Gallery in November - and we're being asked to perform a 'residency' - a performance or tutorial of sorts showing one of out craft techniques or processes. I had originally thought to show the etching process of making the fan lacing buckles, but this paper process instead - and undoing the 'toiles' and cutting out secondary garments from these as upcycling would make a fantastic tutorial/performance art.
Lookbook
Examining existing lookbooks and formats
Display of Images and Model Shoots, Styling
Raf Simons' Print Dress digitally layered over the inspiration and print source painting. I think that given how I'm being inspired by both existing images, and historical artworks, this layering style in a lookbook would work really well - could use my own life drawing artworks that I use to print of the final garments as backgrounds. Although I'm using busier artworks rather than a pattern like this, so wouldn't want to make it too busy.
This juxtaposition of traditional historical garment, flat pattern outline and figure underneath really matches some of my own ideas. Especially given that I'm featuring zero-waste patternmaking quite a lot within my collection, so showing the pattern layout is important - it would layer really well over a nude artwork or an image of a model wearing the outfit/garment.
Main Idea Photoshoots - Toiles and Finals
Given that part of the grading of the lookbook is the display of the garments in photos, and the fashion shoots I've experienced before have used reference images of poses and styles to guide the models, I've come up with an idea of photographing my own looks.
This will apply to both my final garments and also all final toiles. This is important to me as half of my processes are fabric upcycling for all secondary undergarments, so the original forms of the pieces as toiles must be documented.
I intend to style the photoshoots to mimic historical nude artworks and female subject poses. (Note that in all likelihood the toile photoshoots must be photos of me modelling given the social distancing restrictions.) These photoboards below show some of my first reference ideas for poses to photograph of models wearing the clothing, in imitation of these historical works.
I even like the images with backgrounds and interesting environments - I live by the beach so could shoot something like the bathing house painting (A Favorite Custom, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1908) if I really wanted to.
