Doing the paperwork...

A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend. A successful woman is one who can find such a man. – Lana Turner

What a week it has been!! We are now over a month into the FMP and we should all be stressing past ourselves with the idea that Dan told us of living and breathing our project and everything that is consumed around it… I’m living and breathing (thankfully, or I wouldn’t be blogging to you my faithful chums). BUT when it comes to doing it with fashion and my FMP, you want the honest answer? I guess I’m not. Previously in my life, thinking that asking people questions on a subject matter that they have no clue on was a good idea… I did get some good answers tho! Also that I finally won at Bowling!! Don’t applause even though would be very much welcomed, thank you very much to you sir thank you please. Yesh, I guess winning was a triumph in my debacle as I never win and been called a sore loser on many occasions, but now being called a sore winner OBJECTION MY LORD. Even though creating an ‘L’ with my right hand in victory and shoving it in my opponents face this way and that was part of my way of showing I had done good for society and mankind. Such fun.
Now back to what you are here to learn about, even I have forgotten. Oh yes, Art Foundation work which is slowly taking over my life in such a way that even cleaning has become more interesting and a better sort of a distraction.

This picture relates to where my work on the paper garments had begun as this image represents the tweaked dress that it originally came from. (See first images at top of page). Looking at newspaper and how it can be shaped has enabled me to analyze and show the ideas behind disposable fashion and how it can be adapted allowing it to show how you can create a series of different garments simply from one. The drawing was constructed from pencil and promarkers and I feel my drawings are progressing rapidly as I watch more and more YouTube video tutorials on Fashion design and illustration. The pens allowed me to create shades of light and dark to create shape and emphasis. I took inspiration from the tuxedo with the tail creating the shape and flared nature and details. I felt inspired by Gary Harvey as he created a paper dress.

Experimenting with water colour has enabled me to look at using a different way of drawing dress design and is allowing me to play around with brush strokes and tones as a way of determining the best way of drawing objects. The water colour allows me to create flowing lines which fade out into nothing showing depth and the diverse nature between light and shade. Using strong lines and colours allow me to deliver a powerful outline that provides me with enough detail as the designer to then go on and make the garment. Overall within this part of my project I am happy with what is going on and how it is progressing.

Doing some further more diverse research into the effects of fashion on the high street has allowed me to gain opinions from others as a way of coming away from the secondary sources that we all become reliant on. I used Facebook as a way of gaining valuable 1:1 information on my area of study. I asked, ‘Do you think the London Riots of 2011 affected the image of fashion?’ and ‘Do you think we are seen as the puppets of the high street?’ From these answers I gained a range of different answers and conducted this with a variety of different results. I could be seen as an experiment as it has allowed me to see who responds and what responses I get with the different times of day that it was posted. This can be accessed if requested or maybe I could post them on another post? Who knows…
Overall I am pleased with the amount of people who have responded to my questions or mini survey.

Drawing the fashion figure...

'But I don't wanna go to heaven, If you're going to hell, I will burn with you.' - Lea Michele

Vintage Myth - Everything smells of the dead.

We are now in the 3rd week of the Final Major Project and I feel that I haven't done half as much work as I should of by now!! What am I going to do about this? I guess I will have to work harder and push myself further than I ever pushed before. I am scared as this is my final hurrah. Previously in my week, a trip to Ikea turned tasty when I was attacked with a soft toy and towels!! Also realizing that I no longer belonged within the kids section as I am now 20 and not 2. OBJECTION MY LORD!! I am 20 in age but not in my mind. I feel more like a spring chicken rather than a cow ready for the slaughter house. I have also realized that within a relationship there has to be give and take in terms of compromise. Makes you feel closer as you are coming to an agreement together.  This past week I have been concentrating my project towards my degree into which I will be studying at University. Fashion Buying and Merchandising is more than looking at clothe. Its considering the customer and there needs and what they require. After a talk with Dan I have been able to progress my work and what it entails and how to push my work forward. I am looking forward to expanding on my studies within this area!!

Your probably thinking how does this picture relate to my project? I was thinking this to until I realized the meaning behind it and the hidden meanings that sit behind it. This piece shows the separation between upper and lower classes and the differences within the class. It allows you to see the subtle inklings of there social class. I.e. the huge picture and stature. There faces are giving nothing away in terms of what there thinking and have to sit in a position that is comfortable as they will be sitting in it for a while. What does it have to do with Haute Couture? Is it killing it or helping the industry? I would say there are as they are the sort of people who can afford to wear it but are not. They may have the money but there not spending it on expensive one off pieces of clothing, rather on materialistic goods.

Jum Nakao takes another play on the Haute Couture and has created a series of garments that represent the idea that the material doesn't matter and inadequate when it comes to delivering Haute Couture fashion. The garments were walked down the catwalk and then ripped off to show that materiality doesn't come into beauty and it was all about the instant memory rather than the continuing. The collection took over 700 man hours and almost a tonne of paper to create. The ripping of the garments shocked the audience which is what Jum wanted. The shock and intense that would be created. The instant emotions that were put forward and shown at the time are the ones that would be carried forward for life. This collection is a spectacle and even in its destruction, it has a certain elegance and he has sewn the invisible.

At the moment I feel really positive about what my work is doing and how I am taking it. After sitting and talking with tutors I can see and concentrate on the next stages of my project and what it entails. Currently looking at sweatshops and how the history of what is going on in the industry. The sewing machine and the sweatshops are what I believe to be the key players into the death of Haute Couture as the public require fast fashion and ready to wear garments. They want everything now meaning that people are forced to work in conditions that are unsafe and don't meet guidelines. The throwaway society has enabled this to happen meaning that people want cheap clothing. Haute Couture garments start from £10,000 whilst high street can be as little as £2. They want tomorrow, today.

Personal life...
Harvey has not taken to the new collar and keeps acting like Thumper off Bambi to try and get his collar off!! Maybe soon Harvey. Also he has an urge for milk... strange? Love the boy tho!! 11 this year tho!! Partner is doing well!! A mischievous trip Ikea occurred this past weekend which involved pushing each other into sofa and whacking each other with cuddly toys!! Was fun and was good to sit with some food and get some 1:1 time.

The death of Haute Couture...

Lily Allen's reception dress. 

'My grandmother started walking five miles a day when she was sixty. She's ninety-seven now, and we don't know where the hell she is...' - Ellen DeGeneres

Vintage myth - Everything is to your taste.

Pathway ended on Tuesday which is relief and we have now started on the biggy!! The Final Major Project or as we know it as, the FMP!! I can't tell you how scared I am now that it has started and it is real!! I didn't have a clue what to do or how to start it, this is my final project at Cronton so I want it to be bigger and better than ever before and I want to test the skills that I have learnt and picked up over the past going on 3 years!! What a week it has been guys and gals, previously in my life, I have realized I dither when it comes to buying clothes! OBJECTION MY LORD!! I don't dither, will not really...OK, you got me, I spent 20 minutes wondering around The Works in Liverpool about which Sketchbook to buy, considering the amount of pages and the gsm (grams per square meter), I went for a A3 sketchbook with 130gsm which is ideal for what I am doing. On the other hand, Mr Glen's rule is make an decision within 20 seconds or you won't buy it at all because your over thinking it! His concept is bloody fantastic! (Sorry for the language). He picks something up and decides instantaneously whether to buy it or not, you should of seen my face!! I was speechless as I tend to dither over a bottle of coke never mind a pair of trousers.

For the Final Major Project I have started by watching a documentary on the secrets behind Haute Couture which enabled me to get inside knowledge of the industry that lies within the fashion houses and enabled me to get an idea into what makes this way of dressing people such a lucrative business. There is fine line between making something viable for a club member to wear and something that is completely garish and impossible to find an occasion to wear it to. Lily Allen had a £200,000 dress made by Karl Lagerfeld  who is the creative director for Chanel. (See first image) and is handmade by the man himself. It is inspired by 1920's vintage with the squared off collar. Is it something of a spectacle and is reaching the top end for a dress. The piece opposite is another Chanel creation which is constructed for the Haute Couture bridal collection. The exquisite details on the bodice, hate and lower skirt makes for something that fits and flows over and around the contours of the body beautifully, something like this would carry a hefty price tag, get your credit cards at the ready girls and also a serious overdraft!!

Continuing with the project, I need to find the routes into how and why Haute Couture is dying a slow and painful death, my first port of call is the high street where all the elements from Haute Couture end up in some form or another as designers take influences from there shapes and colour palettes. The shop window is what makes or breaks a shop as it encourages shoppers and is advertisement to the world.This is the shop front to Ted Baker and is simple showing into the shop whilst displaying the garments.The simple block text that runs across the top of the page doesn't interfere with the rest of the window. Panels of glass deliver the light and creates the modern atmosphere.

Personal life...
Another week has passed and yet again not much has happened....
Harvey has realized that climbing onto my bed frame gets him the attention that he desires after I ignored him in place of a  couple of hours extra sleep.
Glen is doing well, 7 months last week!! Jolly good! We are doing well and we are moving at a steady pace. Learn more about him on a daily basis!!



Closure to the Pathway...

Alexander McQueen

The final Piece

'I have a dream' Martin Luther King.

Vintage Myth - It will have worn out in a few days.

Pathway is coming to an end now and I am beginning to finalize the sketchbooks off ready for marking by the infamous Marilyn. To bring you up to speed, Marilyn is an unknown lady who Dan has been talking about and haunting us with, she will be the one who looks at our work to determine our fate. What a week it has been and Friday was the busiest as final pieces had to be made, I hoped and prayed that mine would be completed. It was horraaahh, more on that in the next paragraph, Naughty. Previously in my life I have been told my obsession with Yankee is getting out of hand. OBJECTION MY LORD!! I have 50 tarts and numerous jars but I am not obsessed but I do love the smell of them. This past weekend I visited Warrington City Centre which was fun as they have a lovely ice cream parlour called 'Scoop' which entitled me to 6 scoops of ice cream. Mwaahhhs. I do love ice cream, I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream. Anywhooo, I sorted my room out top to toe moving my Swan teasmade and 50's vintage tea service went into the loft for storage for when I move out eventually. I will never let of my vintage gear as it makes me who and I am it's what I love.

Development for shoulders. 

Anyway back onto pathway and the reason why your reading my blog. My Foundation studies. The final piece has been done but does need tweaks here and there. I have further been looking at the ideas of shoulder pads and advancing the geometric shapes, focusing on a continuous flow throughout the work. I continue to question the what's and if's and possibilities that could be linked throughout it. The pieces above continue to exploit the figure and exaggerate and disfigure the body.I have chosen to look at shoulder pads as it exaggerates the body and makes the person top heavy, I want to take in the waist to represent Metropolis. A collar would balance out the hips, they came into fashion during the 17th Century with the use of ruffles which I have converted to spikes to cover my geometric ways.

More development into shoulders.   

The piece is the finalizing stages before I drew my final piece where I finalized the ideas and concepts behind the shoulder pads and the shapes that would be placed in and around it. The decisions seem petty but add to the evidence into the decisions that I have made when it comes to drawing the final piece. Squared off vs Sphere'd off is a decision between cubed shoulder pads and sphere shoulder pads. The final piece has been given squared shoulder pads as they harden the garment and outline the figure in a stronger form and prefer them as they look less puffball and more power-puff as they dominate the shoulders and deliver and prowess and confident stature that reflects the ideas behind the geometrics. Exagerating the shoulders and other elements brings back in the start of my project when I was looking at alien and obscure shapes that challenged the catwalk. Alexander McQueen was a major research response as he uses obscure shapes and objects to challenge what fashion is and what it could be.

Personal life...
Harvey now has a new collar which after many years without one has not taken to it and is demanding a removal which won't happen as he needs one. Bad luck Harvey.
Partner is doing well and going strong as always, we have began taking adventures to places and letting ourselves go. Enjoying coffee and ice cream parlours that enable us to divulge into the simpler pleasures in life. A trip to Ikea and Walton Hall gardens is in order tho!!

Geometry in notion...

Paper round the neck

Paper on shoulder

'A spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down...' - Mary Poppins.

Vintage Myth - The clothes won't last as long.

Pathway is coming to a close this week so my motivation to finish is sky high but with a helping of clouds as my head continues to work towards a final piece. Previously in my life, I became obsessed with a chicken bag, OBJECTION MY LORD!! It is a lovely bag but carrying it round Liverpool and  in the real world wouldn't be so much of a rosey experience but more of one of carrying a handle of thorns. I also have had my hair cut, sneaky photo alert, Naughty. Yes, I finally decided that the huge amount of fibrous hair that comes out of head had become to much so visited the barbers for a chop. Another car boot descended on me this past weekend also, the temptation from the tat that people had on there table was never going to be an appealing prospect. Sometimes I wonder why some beings ever bother bringing there so called 'viable sellable and worthy items' but rather they are hardly salvageable to a hamster. Yes, I did buy a couple of DVD's and a few nik naks but that's besides the point. People at car boots have optimistic expectations to achieve £25 for a rusty teapot when the numbers all I want to here are 20p, 50p and £1! Next time I'll show her where to shove her poxy £25 teapot.




Liam Brazier

Anyway back onto the reasoning why your reading my blog. My Art Foundation studies!! Well they are going well and am fast approaching another 1/2 sketchbook complete. I have continued to look at the deconstruction of shapes and began the ideas behind what the final piece will be at the end of this week. I finally completed a time plan and began looking at a couple of different artists and designers to forward my studies and back up my work. Liam Brazier is a Freelance Illustrator who's work has been in demand from Apple and Samsung who are two massive technology giants. His work takes on an almost pixelated stance through the use of quadrilaterals and triangles. I take to the concept of breaking down an image to its simplest form. I felt inspired by him as he uses geometric shapes which I have been looking at as part of the garment construction. He used block colours to deliver light and dark and keep the dynamics of the object upon which it is based upon. His work centralizes around a point and linear segments which further into the creation. I have used him as I will be creating an illustration as part of my final conclusion to the pathway. I will have to look at the use of colour and how to create a 3D piece on a flat surface.


I have also looked at Bryce Aime who is a London based fashion designer who moved from France in 1988 in search of the ultimate dream of being recognised as a top fashion designer. He focused on creating collections that brought forward the women who understood luxurious fabrics, elegant cuts and precise fabrics. This piece is part of his Autumn/Winter 2012 collection and is made up of predominant lines and hard angles; this becomes the set DNA for the whole collection. He uses the idea of negative space and cold colours to deliver the sense of an 'ice queen' or as such eradicating the person wearing the clothing allowing the focus to be primarily on the garment. The head piece is strong against the shaded tones that are present within the shirt and leggings. The shirt is blacked out to extenuate the silhouette and break up the angular pattern on the top and bottom. His work takes on the hourglass figure and aims to disfigure the human body through illusions alone. I have been inspired by Bryce Aime because of his use of angular elements that become structures on the body and protrude from different parts of the body.

Combining influences behind Liam Brazier and Bryce Aime will help push forward into a final piece. I have been using biro as it takes on different tones and allows you to press hard for dark shades but be skittish for the lighter tones. I will also use Promarkers to put in lines and acrylic and watercolour for the block colour that is shown in Liam's work. From the first picture you see there is paper item on a baby mannequin which has helped with determining the positioning and how they sit on the body which can depend on the size of the piece of paper, the material and how you wish for it to hand. It was an interesting experience as it allowed me to look at proportions and what I am trying to achieve in the real world.

Personal life...
What to tell you guys and gals this week, Brother went to see Bastille on Saturday which sounded amazing and wish I had been there. Glen and I went to youth group as usual which enabled me to show him around the world of 'Firebox.com' and show him around my life online. Youth group was good and I managed to get him a 'Some people are gay, get over it' t-shirt. Harvey is getting into a routine which is good for him but bad for me as I want to be able to sleep the night through without his tail whacking me in the face or him meowing down my ear.