Fashion Beauty Ideals

Design Exploration Assignment 2

Fashion demands a constant updating of ideas and styles. Innovation or newness therefore can be a desirable commodity and can be created in a variety of ways including the use of: new fabrics, new manufacturing technologies, new design technologies, new design ideas or concepts and new information from consumer research. As students studying fashion design and technology, can you generate creative ideas to drive innovation and create a better world for the future?

In an age where more pressure than ever is being placed on men and women to conform to the ideal fashion stereotype, you are asked to consider how to break through the established idea of beauty. How we perceive our bodies has a massive impact on our confidence and self-esteem. The way we dress and adorn our bodies can also greatly influence how positively or negatively we feel about ourselves. Clothing can also be used to change, enhance or flatter our bodies and express the personality of an individual. How can you use advances in design, fashion product development and technical innovation to create garments that make your consumers feel good.

 

 

 

My recent design project has been to investigate society's ideal beauty; what society consider to be beautiful and regards as 'ugly'. Instead of going down the popular route of looking at petite faces, big lips and long lean bodies; I have been looking into society considering nudity and sexual content as beauty. Yes, nudity is natural and sex is an everyday thing but why do those subjects need to be seen in every magazine cover, billboard advertisement or on the streets. I want to investigate into fashion and how its slowly turning into pornography. Can fashion still be sexy and suggestive with some flavour, without showing such intimate parts of the body?

Fashion or Pornography

Beautiful Object

Assignment Task:

• Select one object that you consider to be beautiful. Through visual analysis of colour, shape and form consider the essence of its beauty, how can this inform the aesthetic of your range?

 

I chose mushrooms as my beautiful object, photographing the appearance and trying to communicate what I personally like about them. Photographing oyster mushrooms, showing off smooth round skin and the delicate feather like gills. It gave me some inspiration to explore the tones and textures through paint and handcrafted paper.

 

Sampling and Developing Ideas

Innovative Technology Group Presentation

The group presentation, was a collection of our research as a group, but also our individual design development, showing out individual ideas of exploring the new technologies.

Modelling On The Stand

I personally find modelling on the stand helps me explore my ideas, and in this case it helped me development my design ideas from my beautiful object, a mushroom. I experimented with my modelling ideas, using cad to recreate the shapes and manipulate on a figure template. I developed these ideas, merging my modelling into areas of different garments.

Gerber Workbook

For the front bodice block, rotate the shoulder dart under the sleeve

Adjust the neckline by modifying the point and using the move smooth horizontal tool to lower the neck line by 12cm.

To avoiding the neckline from gaping where it has been lowered, a small dart needs to be inserted and wedged out. Therefore, a 1cm dart was added into the neck line, then pivoted into the closest dart at the hem using the combine different line tool.  

Then the darts can be folded and closed and saved, returning the piece to the menu.

 

Then open the back bodice, fold and close the darts, save, returning the piece to the menu.

Measure the front dart width by using the distance 2 point measure/straight tool. Keep note of this measurement. Then draw a hip line using the digitize line tool.

 

Now pivot the waist dart into the hem of the skirt, using the hip line under the dart apex as a pivot point.

 

Delete the hip line and to remove the dart shape, use the delete point tool. Then merge the hem of the skirt, using the combine/merge tool. Save piece and return to menu.

 

Draw hip line onto skirt back block using digitize line tool. Then pivot a percentage of the back dart into the hem, using the distribute rotate tool, the amount is the measurement of the front dart width. Then finish off by deleting the hip line and the dart point, and then combine/merge tool to connect the hem lines.

Check the waist line of the skirt, front and back block are the same length using the measure tool and save the pieces.

 

Add notches to the skirt, 20cm down from the waist to help match up in production. Finish off with seamlines.

 

Finish off pattern pieces with a seam allowance of 1cm, using the add/define seam tool.

General Samples & Development

 

Ultrasew Technology: using this technique has weld the fabric together sealing the edge for a neat finish. It's worked quite well on this polyester satin fabric, but isnt the type of fabric i'm looking to use.

 

Lay Down Bonding and Feed of Arm Bonding Machines: This creates a flat seam with this fabric, this was just a general sample to see what the technique appeared like, I'm not looking to use this fabric in my designs. I couldn't see how I could be creative with this technique, I thought it was quite restrictive, and couldn't to express my mushroom shapes.

 

Hot Taping Machine: This machine covers a seam with a stitch to create a waterproof seam and can help prevent abrasion against the skin by using different tapes. While in the process of developing my design ideas from my consumer and beautiful object, I was looking for quite a soft elegant look, and nothing came to mind about incorporating waterproof items into my collection. You could use this technique to create detail on the surface of a garment, but since I didn't see any vauable use for the technology for my collection, I did not develop the technique further.

 

Ultrasonic Welder: This machine uses a wheel, that can either create a seam, or be used as a decorative detail with the variety of wheels available. The pvc plastic is not the type of fabric I'd use, so I want to further develop this technique and test it out on my chosen fabric to see if it could be used as a construction method.

 

 

Bonding Machine: This machine can provide a neat finish to fabric, sealing the raw edge. I couldn't see how I could develop this technique creatively but want to further develop this technique on my chosen fabric.

 

 

 

Lay Down Bonding and Feed of Arm Bonding Machines: This is using the same machines as a previous sample, but using it in a different method. By applying the glue to the edge of the fabric and sealing the edge over, it creates a clean finish that gets rid of the raw edge. I liked how this method was very untraditional, but it creates a very stiff edge which wouldn't provide a nice feel or appear on my chosen fabric.

 

 

Brother PR-620 Embroidery Machine: You can create whatever design you want, and let the machine stitch it's way to create your chosen image. I liked this technique, but didn't think it could portray my mushroom ideas. It's a useful way of making a garment decorative, but in a 2D way, whereas I wanted to give my designs and garments decoration in 3D.

 

 

 

Ultrasonic Welder: Further developing this technology on a fabric I am potentially thinking of using. I have successfully created a seam on this fragile fabric, its created an interesting look, but I don't think it would be strong enough to hold a seam and it spoils the look I'm going for with this soft, fine fabric.

 

 

Ultrasew Technology: This machine has created a nice simple seam, that is fairly strong and barely visible with the seam allowance melting off as it's constructed. I quite like this technique and want to develop it further with this fabric.

 

Ultrasew Technology: I wanted to test out the technology on a similar fabric, thats even more transparent to see if you could see the seam. With this netting, you can barely see the seam, it isn't very strong and isnt the fabric I'm going to use, but I think it's worked quite well.

Chosen Technology: Ultra Sew & Laser Cutter

I have chosen to explore the Ultrasew machine, it's very similar to the ultrasonic welder, but instead of a wheel it acts like an overlocker. An overlocker stitches through fabric creating a seam and finishing off the edge of the fabric. Whereas, the Ultrasew technology welds the fabric together, creating a seam and melting off the trim as it goes. I want to explore this technology because it can act like a sewing machine, but creates different effects depending on the fabric chosen.

I started experimenting with chiffon, achieveing a very unusal effect by simply using it as a sewing machine. Below is an example of my individual sampling.

 

I have also chose to explore the Laser Cutter. The laser cutter can cut through multiple layers of fabric, melting the edge as it goes, providing a sealed edge. Due to this technology being quite modern, providing the ability to cut any design into fabric, I wanted to explore how I could incorporate this technology into my designs without being obvious and simply cutting out shapes into a garment.

 

 

 

 

Time Management Plan

Developing My Ultrasew & Laser Cutter Techniques

Ultrasew Technique

 

Once I started experimenting with the Ultrasew machine, I started to created this strips of fabric that crickled where the fabric had melted and become stiff. I liked the way this machine had turned the fine soft chiffon that draped well, into these unusal pieces.

 

 

 

 So I started to experiment further, adding more structure to the fabric. By getting two pieces of chiffon, welding them together, folding the fabric back on it's self and then welding the edges down again; it created these strips of tunnels. Adding two welded seams to the pieces of chiffon provided the fabric with structure that created this unique look below. Using different width of chiffon, and folding the fabric over tight or looser changed how the pieces reacted.

 

I really liked how these simple pieces of welded chiffon created a look similar to the gills of a mushroom, my beautiful object.  

 

 

I knew this technique couldn't stand alone, so I experimented constructing it within a seam using a 301 lock stitch machine to hide the welded edge.

 

Laser Cutter Technique

 

I wanted to recreate the detail of a mushroom, tracing off the gill shapes into illustrator as a simple linea drawing and comversting it into corel draw so that the laser cutter would cut out the lines. I first got it sampled in calico, which the laser burnt the edges slightly but did still show the shape detail.

 

I then got it sampled in chiffon fabric to see how it would act. Since the chiffon was very fine, the laser cutter just sealed the edges where it cut out the detail. I liked how it portrayed the softness and intricate detail of mushroom gills, but I didn't know how to incorporate it into my garment designs creatively.

 

I developed my idea, into the laser cutter, cutting small shapes with the gill shape detail at the edge. I then got these pieces and constructed them into seams using a 301 lock stitch, see picture below. By using the laser cutter this way, it gave me the option to develop the sample and construct it within my pattern construction and garment construction. This technqiue expressed the look of the mushroom gills, creating a unique look that could be incorporated into a lot of different garments.

Sample Development

 

I started to incorporate my samples into design development, considering how they could be used.

 

 

I experimented with knitting, even though we didn't have the resources to develop techniques on an industrial knitting machine; I tests out different size knitting needles, variety of yarns and also knitting with strips of fabric. My experimentation wasn't using new technologies, but I thought it was a unique appearance and helped me develop some of my garment ideas.