Wool, really?

Yesterday I had the priviledge of attending the 2010 Australian Wool Fashion Awards at Sydney's Royal Easter Show. It really is amazing what designers can produce with wool, a fibre which is commonly only associated with boring cardigans and warm clothing for the winter. It is really interesting what can be done with wool and wool blend fabrics, it is an extroadinary material. I have myself had a hand in using wool a few times, using natural merino wool and spending hours and hours felting my own fabric and I have, like a lot of other designers, had a go at knitting. I am a true fan of designers using wool within their collections, in fact I have been inspired by one designer in particular throughout my research so far this year.
Sandra Backlund is an incredible designer and her use of wool is amazing, there really is no other word to describe it! She takes lengths of knit and wraps it around the body creating unusual shapes and distorted forms. It is all about highlighting the body using forms that act as an extension on the body. The designs enhance our imaginations about clothing and especially the use of knit and what can be done with it. Although I am not embarking on the world of knit and wool at this very moment in my design life, I am not ruling it out but for now I would like to create distorted and structural forms like Sandra but using a different material other than knits and wool.

Images: www.sandrabacklund.com

rad about rad.

When I think about a mentor it is really hard for me to come up with just one inspiring person. It is also hard for me to come up with only ten as there are so many people in and out of the fashion industry that are mentors in my work. I cam across Rad Hourani a few years ago and when I first noticed his work I was insanely jealous. All I could think was - I wish I could design like this. His designs have such an effortless simplicity about them yet they are so detailed with embellishments and love. When I think about the designer I want to be when I leave uni or even while I am at uni, I think of Rad Hourani, among many others. His use of industrial materials and all black colour palette is so dark yet to me it doesn't feel gothic, it feels right. His latest collection for Fall 2010 Ready to Wear was inspired by a similar concept to mine this year, the idea of transformation and layering. He uses zippers in a really interesting way, not only to pursue his idea of transformation but also as an interesting aesthetic. I am looking at using really heavy industrial metal zippers as embellishments, edge finishes and closures within my collection this year.
I feel my design style is a lot like Rad Hourani's, although I am not designing a unisex collection, I would be inspired to do so in the future or atleast to apply the ideas of menswear into a womenswear collection. But for now I need to focus on one thing at a time...the joy of being a designer, so many ideas and so little time.

Image source: http://www.style.com/fashionshows/complete/F2010RTW-RHOURANI
radhourani.com/

distort my body.

While I am on the subject of sculptural bodies and distortion I thought it would be quite useful and relevant to explore the work of creative duo Lucy and Bart. A collaboration between these two successful designers has seen them unleash a whole new idea about human form and the boundaries that our bodies can go to if we allow them to. How far would you be willing to push your body for the purpose of art and experimentation.

Lucy and Bart have done it all and they are continuously experimenting which is why they come up so much in my research and my work. I have been following the designers for about 2 years now and they continue to inspire my work. The common place for me is sometimes boring, I like to be taken to a new and surreal world and I like to engage in fantasy. Who would've thought that sticking an extreme amount of paper to a persons skin or covering their body in balloons to distort the shape could be so intriguing.

Images: lucyandbart.blogspot.com/

Sculpted Bodies.

The idea of a distorted body really gets me excited. This year I am getting obsessed about sculptural and exaggerated form, distorted and mutation so I thought it would be fitting to post about one of my mentors.

Louise Goldin. WOW! Every time I look at her work I am pretty much lost for words. She has this amazing ability to sculpt the body past its normal margins and in a way create a piece of art. My research this year for my graduate collection is all about the evolution of the body and its forming into a machine like creature, a creature that can be enhanced, pulled and distorted to all sorts of shapes.

Louise Goldin is an inspiration to my work, not for the fact that she is a crazy knitwear specialist but because of her distorted bodies. She takes sci-fi to a new level and makes the machine body wearable.

Image Source: http://cyanatrendland.com/2010/03/04/louise-goldin-london-fashion-week/

Knight in shining armour.

Fashion photography for me is an inspiration, the way a photographer can capture a moment in time is something so special and the way fashion photographers create a narrative through clothing is unbelievable. I cherish opening a magazine and devouring the editorials. I could go back hundreds of times and look at each page over and over again and I will always be fascinated. Each time I look at them, something new opens up to me about the pictures, about the clothes and about the photographer. Fashion photographs are a place I can indulge my fantasies. A place that my wildest dreams can come true. One photographer in particular, Nick Knight, takes us on a journey like no other...

Nick Knight. WOW. what an amazing photographer and story teller. His work is amazining, when I look at it I am instantly taken to another world. We should all engage in fantasy and imagination from time to time, it will keep us sane, or so that is what I believe. Why follow the norm when you can indulge in the luxury of someone like Nick Knight's photography!

I have been studying the work of Nick Knight for my dissertation, which ties in with fantasy, transformation and pushing the boundaries of the body and fashion. This particular editorial, photographed by Knight is out of this world. I cannot take my eyes of it. The clothes, the poses, the props, the models, the composition. It is just unreal. It is a dream. I really wanted to share this editorial with you, it was published in Vogue UK in 2008 and is something that I feel should never be forgotten.

So, as I am indulging in a year of futuristic 'Alice in Wonerland' type fantasy and thought you could do with a little journey to the other side as well. The side that is out of this world, unreal, imaginative.


After all, we're all slightly mad anyway.


Images: Photographer Nick Knight

Vogue UK. Fashionation. November 2008.http://www.fashion-ation.net/category/women/post/106/vogue-uk-unbelievable-fashion.aspx

www.nickknight.com/

back to the beginning.

I thought I should let you all in on the main reason for creating this blog...and my plans for the journey ahead.
So it all began with an assignment, to create a blog about my design process this year, the year that is the dreaded yet much awaited fourth and final year! A lover of blogs myself, I had never actually thought of creating my own. What would I say. Would anyway even be listening. Then it occured to me, these are all irrelevant really, I would say what I felt, all the nonsense that was cluttered up in my mind and if no one was listening, well that is tough but atleast I was getting the nonsense out of my mind.

So....it started. 'pocketful of nonsense' - the place I can let my thoughts explode. To express my inspirations for my fourth year collection and beyond.

My area of research this year is - 'Fashions ability to transform the identity of the body.'

I am looking into Fashion as Fantasy - the superhero and the power of transformation. I want to explore distortion and mutation on the body, looking into future technologies to do this.

The ever inspiring Georgio Armarni explored fantasy, fashion and the superhero and stated that “Fashion, like the superhero, allows you to dream and escape into a world of unfettered imagination... Fashion designers have always been fascinated by the idea of how clothing can transform the body and even the perceived character of the wearer”

Looking into fantasy I am going to fuse together the futuristic and distorted nature of the concept car and the wierd and wonderful world of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland film. A futuristic blend of the wierd and wonderful, quirky and distorted, taking fashion and the body into a new realm.

Images: stills from Tim Burton's 2010 Alice in Wonderland 3D Film.
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/AliceInWonderlandAustralia
disney.go.com/disneypictures/aliceinwonderland/

Art of Vanity.

As I turn the page on a new month, the picture on my calendar jumps out at me. Simplistic, futuristic, desirable and strong, all the elements I am looking for when designing my fourth year collection. This shoe is admirable, it is classic and hard to take your eyes off. Suddenly, at such an early point in the day I am inspired and mesmerised. I am inspired by the wierd, the wonderful, the quirky yet it has to have a simplistic edge to it and this shoe by Rene van den Berg is all of this and more.

Who would've thought a simple shoe would have the power to inspire. It is a nice thing to open a new page on your calendar and instead of feeling dread about the coming month and the year passing so fast, you feel inspired and happy to be in this world surrounded by such beautiful pieces of design.

Exploring proportion, distortion and fantasy is one of my main aims this year and as journalist Suzanne Slesin stated - "Shoes, like buildings, have a mysterious chemistry of proportion."
......and she is right. We take shoes for granted, using them as protection for out feet, as something we put on to go to work or play. I think it is time we looked at shoes as an art work, an inspiring object that has the ability to transport us to another world.

Shoe Designer: Rene van den Berg - 'Art of Vanity' Covered Platform Bootie.
Image: http://www.virtualshoemuseum.com/vsm/o.php?id=950&col=person&sub=14