Lucy Mcrae and Bart Hess

to cretae this idea the concpet behind it was, plastic sugery. using pins
and other mateirlas to pin and distort the facil features and skin to show a
 more exagurtated image of plastic surgery. i like this as it is an unsual
 concept behind it, with very indeath background research into plastic
 surgery and how it changes the body nd skin. 

The last fashion designers I looked into for inspiration where Lucy Mcrae and Bart Hess, who created similar work and themes as each other. they have also worked on many projects together looking at the body and human form. I like how both fashion designers use the same styles through there themes of work and the outcomes in which they display.

they both share a pation with the ideas and concepts of body manipulation and beauty expression looking at the human form and using this conc,ept into their designs.

the concpet behind this piece was to use foam inoder to cover the body
and change its shape. she experiemnted with foam and colour foam to give
 diffrent outcomes. 

In their collaboration work they created a project relating to the body and skin, to show this they used a lot of different materials like bubbles balloones, tights etc. inorder to design a more abstract style and make a different way of showing fashion inspired by the human form. they wanted to put across a visual message of the idea of beauty and how we judge people of the clothing as well as they way people look.

Bart Hess and Lucy Mcrae started off by discussing the body and how they could manipulate it. they both had the same perspectives on the project and design is similar ways. they first experiments using tools in the offices and sticking them on their face and taking pictures (imagining that the tolls where futuristic ways of putting on makeup). after there first meeting they then started meeting once and week to experiment with other materials such as toothpicks, seed growing bags,balloons and insulation foam still looking at the body as a theme.

to cretae this they expertiment with seed bags to adapt and change
 the models shape and form. they manipilated the silluett of the human
 body to reprent all shapes and sizes of how the body looks, and expresses
 the ideal beauty which is protrained thorugh todays society. i like this
 piece as is gives a clear reperesntation of the human form, adapting it. i also
 like the unusal use in materials. and feel that with experiemnting with unusal
 pieces you can then adapt the pieve to develop further. but overall i like the
 concept of the project.

they have no liminations to there designs inoder to sho the future humn shape and incoperating technology to enhance the body.

they use matierlas inorder to try and enhance serton aspects of the body as well as changing the human shape. they have experimented with diffrent matierlas and have created diffrent outcomes e.g. diffrent shapes.

they mostly looked for inspiration in gentectic manipuation. they didnt indent on using this into there work and looked more detasiled into ideal beauty












Bart Hess
I first looked into Bart Hess's individual work, which he uses a lot of wax work into his art, fashion pieces. he has also designed a wax piece for lady gaga on born this way which i reseached heavily on the indernet (google) so see what work he has designed. i am inspired by how the wax is incorperated within a piece of art incorpating the wax as a represnation of clothing. and to cover certon aspects of the skin. this cretaed a very ususual piece which is both look at form artist and fashion points of views incoperating both togehter, to geate an ivdividuasl style.
lucy mcrae

lucy mcrae
trained to be a classic ballerina which was a useful may of using the body and incorperating it into her work. she also has a history in arcutixture, proformance, fashion and art, thereofre she uses the term body arcutect. she looks at the aspects of the human bosy and skin. she looked into a prijectwof looking at the human form 20 years into the future she also researched into the human skin she worked with philip electronics for the fare future design

trained to be a classic ballerina which was a useful may of using the body and incorperating it into her work. she also has a history in arcutixture, proformance, fashion and art, thereofre she uses the term body arcutect. she looks at the aspects of the human bosy and skin. she looked into a prijectwof looking at the human form 20 years into the future she also researched into the human skin she worked with philip electronics for the fare future design

skeleton dress illiustration

for this illistions i first researched into fashion garments bast around the human body, looking at sketons and how you can incoperate skeleto bones into clothing and still make it fashionable. i found alot of creative pieces of clothing which inspire me. i found more abstract pieces which are less noticsble of inspiration form the skeleton form but still betrays the theme in the gamrnet, by making rib like shapes using fabric.

Alexander McQueen garment illustration

For another illustration I experimented with the inspiration of Alexander McQueen's work. using elements form his work to create a garment incorporating my own ideas as well.

I looked at images from the internet and books to refer to, when designing my inspired illustration of a Alexander McQueen inspired dress.

I found that when researching into McQueen's work he doesn't just create garments and clothing designs, he also creates accessories like shoes and hats.

I found a heavily detailed images of a McQueen designed hat accessory, with the use of swirl patterns. which reminds me of some of Oskar Schlemmers work which is featured the the ballet (of a looped wire dress).

Therefore I used the artist research and images collected of the Alexander McQueen hat and Oskar Schlemmers looped wire dress to create a dress illustration, with the use of wire swirls and loops around the neck and solder with the same idea and patterns used in the hat accessory.

I feel that this illustration has let me design a dress heavily inspired and reflected back to the artist work which has influenced all my illustration. but I wanted to incorporate an element of the artist work through out one of my designs and I feel I betrayed this element well.

Even if I may not use this illustration to create my garment I still feel the overall effect of the illustration looks good and is noticeably inspired by Alexander McQueen work.

Final Garment

Research beforehand

For the making of my garment I first referred back to my collective research of skeleton source material which images I obtained from the internet, (looking at close up bones and there structures), I then looked at the inspired skeleton dress illustration which I drew, in order to have first hand source material to refer back to when making the 3D dress. I wanted my garment to be as similar to the illustration design as possible.

I then reflected back to my artist research looking mostly at the production of how they made there dresses and garments, as well as the fabrics and accessories they used (e.g detailing) this helped me in the process to making my dress as I could use the knowledge of fashion designers like Alexander McQueen's work to help me.







Production

To start the production of my dress I first used an old skater skirt to use as the base of my skirt piece.  I then started to attach netting to the skirt by first cutting 15cm by 30cm strips of both black and grey netting. I then layered the netting by pleating it and pinning it to the waist line of the skirt. This created a more volumised skirt with the layered netting on the top. I then secured the netting by sawing it to the waste band.

After securing the netting I then added fabric to the skirt. I used grey organza for this piece folding it in half then I  marked out the shape which was waiste 20, lenght 50, and width 40.  Then I cut the shape out. I pinned the fabric over the top of the netting and then sawed to make secure.

After attaching the organza I kept some of the fabric loose with  no stitches so I could pull through some of the netting to create a more volumed effect both under an over the organza fabric.

I then started the bodice piece. I used an old top with the same material used in the skater skirt (stretchy and moldable to the body shape) I then cut out the light grey cotton fabric and penciled around the existing top to then create the same shape.  I then added an extra 2cms around the shape to add extra when sewing.

I then attached the light grey cotton fabric onto my original top, and pins around the seam I used the 2cm extra fabric and folded it around the seam making it neat when sewing.



After pinning to secure the seams together, I then started to sew, (pins helped make sewing easier)
While sewing the seams I found it difficult to keep the folded edge from gathering as I was sewing because there was to much extra fabric in places e.g. around the arm holes.

After assembling the bodice, I then started to add the fabric paint of the rib cage design. I had practiced this on a spare piece of the cotton material (as development), before applying this design to the final garment. I used a better fabric paint this time as well as silver fabric paint. I first sketched out the rib cage silhouette onto the fabric. I achieved this by using first hand source of ribs and there structure. This helped me get a clear realistic effect onto my piece as well as improving the overall effect.

After painting the bodice I then started adding the wire edging on the painted ribs by using super glue and shaping the wire to mold the rib shapes.  I found that I had to develop this further due to the super glue not drying translucent but yellow, this was noticeable on my garment therefore I painted over the glue with acrylic which helped the glue blend into my paint work.
Overall this method worked well but if  I was to improve I would of used a more translucent glue.

After that I cut strips of  grey organza and melted the edges over a small candle flame by burning the organza it gave a 3D rib like affect. I then pinned each piece onto the painted rib cage bodice.
I liked the burnt fabric effect as it gives movement to the fabric which is inspired by Alexander McQueens (movement of the body designs).

I then started to create wire elements onto the skirt by using influences of images from the internet of hip bones. I used the wire to show this effect.  I attached the wire onto the skirts waist band by first using super glue as a attachment and then sewed over the wire with a looped effect to secure the wire fully.

After that I then used organza material (burnt) onto the skirt to incorporate both the bodice and skirt together. This worked well to show the bone structure overall.

I feel I could of improved this piece by adding more material as I only used pieces in order to cover parts of the netting. I felt that the raw netting made my skirt look messy.

When the bodice and skirt was assembled with fabric and wire.  I tried on the 2 piece garment to see the fit as well as to see what the overall look looked like,
I found that I needed to incorporate the grey cotton and fabric paint onto the skirt some where. Therefore to alabirate more on the hip bones I created a wire structured, cotton accessory onto the hip to represent the hip bone itself.

To create this I used references from the internet of the hip bones as I used the shape and structure from the internet images to mold the shape out of wire.  I then used the grey cotton fabric and stretched it around the wire hip shape, and pinned the material tight so I could then sew.

I then created the shapes and shadows of the bones with fabric paint and acrylic. I feel that this made it more intricate and realistic, tying in both the skirt and bodice together. I liked the overall effect when attached to the skirt waist.

After that I then used body casts of both my back and collar bones to my shoulders to represent my bones in the body and adapted and exaggerated them with plaster bandage to  create a more prominent spine and shoulder blades as well as my collar bones.

To start the molding with plaster bandage process of my body shape, I first created a cast of my back, by first using cling film onto the skin and then cut the plaster bandage into squares (not ripping as the dust is harmful if inhaled).  I then got someone to apply the plaster onto the direct skin to get the shape with wet plaster and applied 3 coats to make it strong.  I then got someone to remove the plaster cast and left it over night to dry.  When dry i had to experiment with attaching this plaster back mold onto my garment.  Therefore I decided to use Velcro for my bodice and my plaster to fit together.
I attached the Velcro by sewing it onto the plaster bandage. This was very hard to do at first as I couldn't get the sewing needle into the plaster, therefore I had to make pin holes and then sew with needle and thread after.

After sewing the Velcro onto the bodice back and the plaster bandage mold I then started to shape the mold (due to sewing I had to re-do some bits of plaster as it made it unsteady) and added the prominent bone structure of the spine and shoulder blades, even though this piece showed the structure I still feel I could of developed further to make it more realistic and should of added white paint to get a better finish.

After attaching the back finally I moved on to create the collar bones. I used my last development work to help me as well as using the same casting method with my back cast (cling film and molding the wet plaster onto direct skin to get real shape of my collar bone)  I feel that the shape was very realistic and then I used this to develop further by exaggerating the collar bone and part of the shoulder.
The overall effect was good and i used paint to exaggerate the collar bone further with grey and white shading.

After finishing the piece I noticed that when trying on my bodice there was no adjustment to the bodice and would not fit, therefore I used safety pins on each side of the bodice to attach the side seams together, to let this fabric have more give in it.  The safety pin was inspired by the structure of grates/railings and how I could incorporate architecture into my piece.

I also was experimenting with elastic and other sources to see which represented the architecture the most. i researched into the grates in the road as well as railings and gates looking closely at the structure and style. i also used photography of my surrounding looking in my home town but also in Worksop. after doing this i also found that these pictured helped me with the use of wire and metal used in my garment looking closely at the similarities of gates and railings to the wire shapes of my rib design.

This use of safety pins gave the garment a raw effect as well as inspiration from a fashion design on the cat walk using safety pins to attach seems together therefore I used references of both architecture and the fashion industry to inspire me.

Finally when my final garment was completed I then wore it down a catwalk of a Wednesday lesson.  This helped me show off my garment in the fashion industry, which i wanted to betray and I feel I achieved this.

Even though the catwalk was a knew frightening experience it was very fun and I would defiantly like to do it again.  It also let me show off my work to a new audience, so they could see the hard work I had applied into making this garment.

I feel my opinion on the overall effect of my garment was good, and feel i incorporated all themes of architecture, the human form and the fashion industry.

But the things i would improve on is collecting more images of architecture which inspire me as some of my other illustration designs of garments incorporated more architecture than this piece.

Artist research Alexander McQueen

I researched and influenced my work based upon the clothing and fashion designs produced by Alexander McQueen.  His iconic dresses and fashion pieces inspire my design, how he uses such intricate detailing and heavily themed costumes which are unique and not found on the high street but more appeal to the fashion and catwalk industry.  As most of his garments are featured in highly recognized fashion shows. (The american express black show in London Earls Court venue 2004) Ref Alexander McQueen Genius of a generation) by Kristin  Knox page 50.

Alexander McQueen also was know for using skulls in his designs, which I used as a big influence for my fashion piece. Having to incorporate life drawing into my work the skeleton theme appealed and inspires me with the use of Alexander McQueen image reference.
I also wanted to use his knowledge and experience of designing cat walk dresses and how he adapts his design for the cat walk and other costumes which are showcased.

I feel his iconic dresses of movement of fabrics used really inspire me, how he captures the human movement through the use of moving fabric. I collected images off of  the internet to help me research further into the movement concept and I want to incorporate this idea in my final piece.
I collected images of these garments from internet to put in my sketch book for first hand source material.




Book research

Alexander McQueen genius of a generation by Kristin Knox.


This book research was the most useful source to creating my design, as it gave me information and images of the garments he designed. One image that stud out on page 64 was a garment design incorporating a wig element of hair in both the skirt and long pony tail. He also assembled a full body cast showing the human figure and shape.  He then extended and exaggerate the hips and shoulders of the body cast. I found this dress influenced me as it incorporated the theme of the human body shape.  It has also widened my thoughts and concept of the human body and how I can incorporate other elements like hair instead of looking at just the shape and structure.


Another image which inspired me on page 34 was a picture of a model displaying a gold painted fox skeleton wrapped around her arm and neck.  He wanted to display a thing of true exquisite beauty just from one element of clothing for the show case of the design. This also links in with the theme of the skeleton body, How he uses an idea to create an intricate piece of skeleton sculpture combining black clothing in order for the focal point to be on the gold painted fox.




Finally my most inspired image from the Alexander McQueen book reference by Kristin Knox, was an image of Page 50, of a skull print dress modeled by Kate Moss.  This design has since gone on to be one of Alexander McQueen's signature pieces.  And I can see why. I like how it reflects back to the theme of the use of skeletons and love how the skull print is repeated to become a part of the fabric itself.  The colour sceem and tones used in the fabric piece inspire me as it reflects the theme of the skeleton form. It is a beautiful garment which I will refer back to when I am designing my final garment.