For this task, I have decided to further look into the chapter form the book ‘fashion as communication’ by Malcom Barnard. After reading through both of the texts a few times I thought it best for to continue with Bernard’s as I personally found it easier to understand and more interesting.

Barnard starts the chapter entitled ‘Etymologies and definitions of fashion and clothing’ by explaining the meaning of the word etymology, that it “is concerned with the origins and development of the meaning of words” (Bernard:  1966). And going on to say that origin of the word ‘fashion’ comes from the Latin word “factico, which means to make or to do”.

A little into the chapter he starts to talk about the relation and difference between the words adornment, dress, clothing and fashion and how at least one of these words will related to the other. I found this exceptionally interesting as it then made me think about what the definitions of each mean to me. Usually I would consider the words ‘clothing’ and ‘fashion’ to be very similar but as Bernard explains “not all fashion is clothing” (Bernard:  1966) I completely agree. Fashion is about much more than just clothes and worn garments, it is an art form, and as everyone knows art is shown through many different ways whether it be painting, sculpting or composing. This all links back with the original statement of the origins of fashion, that its more than just an industry or carrier, it is movement and accomplishment.

Another section of the chapter I found quite compelling was under Fashion and anti-fashion where he examines a claim from the sociologist George Simmel. In this he claims that without both the desire to be a part of a social group and to be individual at the same time ‘Fashion’ would not exist. “The first of these tendency’s is the need for union and the second is the need for isolation.” (Simmel 1971:  295) I think what Simmel is trying to say is that without the influence of others in a ‘social group’ an individual’s style would not evolve, ceasing the need for fashion. However, if the style of all the individuals of the group has morphed into one of the same it poses the same problem. Fashion becomes unnecessary. Without the push society and social groups have on the individual person to be ‘different’ and ‘push boundary’s’ we would be uninspired to create fashion.

To further my research into this statement I found a quote from Mark Tungate in the book ‘Fashion brands’ which he sates “What you choose to wear or not to wear has become a political statement” (Tungate:  2008) I feel this brings what Simmel is saying into modern day as it true that once you have asserted yourself into a social group, that group may be part of a bigger fashion ‘movement’ whether it be ‘goth’, ‘punk’ or more commonly these days ‘hipster’ or ‘indie’. In turn, these larger sub groups carry political association of freedom of dress.

Bibliography:

Coming to the end of the Research and Communication Skills module and reflecting on all the tasks we’ve done over the past weeks I feel that for the majority of the time I have enjoyed both the weekly lectures and the tasks. I thought that is was a nice break from our usual studies of fashion and textiles, as I found the rotations fairly stressful at times I was looking forward to being able to put that to one side for a couple of hours each week to concentrate on something different.

Task 1/2: How to use online resources

As this was out very first task, even though looking back it is very simple I found it slightly daunting, however once I got into it I found that I quite enjoyed the task. Overall, I think it has broadened my view on online sources such as archives and how easy they are to access, also how beneficial they have now become in my research processes.

Task 3/4: Academic integrity and Plagiarism

This second task I found very interesting as it showed me how fine the line can be between plagiarism/copying and being inspired by someone’s work, whether that be a painting, photograph etc. This task also introduced me to the Harvard referencing system, I had never used this before and find it quite confusing however with more practise I feel I’ll get the hang of it.

Task 5/6: Visual research

I have always liked researching designers so I think that’s why I enjoyed this task. The design house I chose was Dolce and Gabbana, I have always loved their designs so I found looking into their references for garments really inspirational and will be very helpful if I decide to look at them again for another project.

Task 7/8: Reflective writing

This was the task I found most challenging to complete. The academic texts took me a few tries to get through as I haven’t read anything like them in the past. This also made it difficult when writing the task as it took me a while to understand what I was supposed to be writing about. However, it has also introduced me to more sophisticated texts that I am going to challenge myself to read to gain better understanding.

Task 9/10: Ethical Issues

Out of all the tasks I found this one to be the most enjoyable to complete. I think this is because I felt the ethical issues were quite obvious and it was all quite opinion based. I find analysing imagery a lot easier then text as it is more interpretive to the individual. Also, I think that it is a very important subject matter within fashion and I enjoyed the chance to have my say and look at all angles.

Overall, I hope to take a lot of skills I have gained during these few weeks with me onto future projects and tasks to carry on bettering my written and design work and look forward to next semesters tasks.

From the two images we were given to carry out this task, I decided to choose this advert from the popular clothing brand American Apparel as personally it caught my attention more so than the one form Duncan Quinn. The advertisement that was presumably used in various magazines, bus stops, online etc.  shows a fairly young girl laid back on a bed holding her legs apart in the air with a pair of tights. It can only be assumed that the tights are the ‘product’ they are wishing to highlight in the campaign as they appear to be the only item of clothing in the entire image. However they are far from the main focus of the image, the position of the model and the pose she has taken is very sexual with the brands logo being the only thing to cover her modesty.

There are several ethical issues surrounding the image, one would be of course that because the image is so sexual and provocative it is deemed by most consumers as unsuitable for public advertisement. This however has been choreographed in such a way that the brand knows the reaction they will get, at the end of the day all any company wants is publicity good or bad and releasing campaigns such as this one does exactly that. Gossip equals exposure and exposure ideally equals to sales. American Apparel is a prime example of this and has been producing such material since 1995.

Another angle would be that it is unsuitable for the public as American Apparels main demographic is impressionable young adults/ teenagers and an image such as this and the message it sends, that if you shop this brand you’ll be just as ‘sexy’ and ‘desirable’ as the model, is very controversial. On the one hand it can be argued that showing a young woman in such a compromising situation, that it is okay to objectify and see women as nothing more than tools to make products sell. On the other had even though the models pose wouldn’t be considered natural it is obvious that she is in full control over her body and the way she is using it. There is nothing about the shot that suggests any force or uncomfort on her part, her expression and posture seems at ease so it can also be argued that in this age of growing feminism and unsqueamishness towards the human body that as long as it is all consensual there is no problem.

“The scandal-ridden teenage fashion company.” As it was reported by The Guardian newspaper online in 2015, the company had filed for bankruptcy as sales in that year continuously dropped. Followed by serious sexual harassment lawsuits against Dov Charney the company’s founder (not surprising seeing the kind of material he used to promote his brand) along with years of banned and risqué campaigns things looked worse and worse for the struggling business. I firmly believe that the controversy that followed the brand name was a definite factor in their downfall.

Bibliography:

Esquire.com (2016) The NSFW History of American Apparel’s Ads. Available at: http://www.esquire.com/style/mens-fashion/g2442/american-apparel-ads/ [Accessed 1^st December 2017]

TheGuardian.com (2015) American Apparel files for bankruptcy. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/oct/05/american-apparel-files-for-bankruptcy [Accessed 1st December 2017]

The designer and collection I have looked at for this task is the Dolce and Gabbana spring/summer 2016 ready-to-wear collection. I have always found Dolce and Gabbana to be very inspirational, they arealways front and centre when it comes to world-wide trends not just in fashion but also in society.

Mood board of references for Dolce and Gabbana

Sarah Jessica Parker and Kim Kattrall in Sex And the City

In this collection, Dolce and Gabbana have referenced lots of different cultures, traditions and styles, one that is very obvious throughout the collection is the influence of Riviera style. The image and reference I have chosen to analyse is this still from the program Sex in the City. The show surrounds a group of successful women who live in New Your city and their semi luxurious lifestyle. It is a fairly fashion orientated program so doesn’t surprise me that this modern Riviera esque look had come up in one of the episodes.

I believe that this picture is a still from one of the scenes from the program due to the styling of the two of the main cast members, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kim Kattrall. I feel that the lighting, positioning and focus of the image is too perfect to be a candid of the actresses. In the image, they appear to be walking along what can be presumed a New York city street or maybe they had taken a vacation in the episode to France which would explain why they are both dressed in very similar outfits as France is where the Riviera style originated. It also gives a feel for the episode, the brightness of the sunshine, bright colours of the clothing and expressions of the characters gives you the impression of a perhaps exotic and exciting episode. The television company may have used this for advertisement for this particular episode to entice the audience.

Bibliography:

• Vogue (2016) Dolce and Gabbana 2016 ready to wear collection

Available form: http://www.vogue.co.uk/shows/spring-summer-2016-ready-to-wear/dolce-gabbana

https://blog.neonscope.com/Fashion/Style-Trends/469-the-french-riviera-style

Fox, Chloe (2012) Vogue on Alexander McQueen, London: Quadrille Publishing

For this task, I have decided to firstly look at this book on Alexander McQueen. McQueen has been a firm favourite of mine in terms of fashion designers for a while now and I find I can reference him in almost every project I do as his work is so varied and interesting.

ELLE.com (2004) Alexander McQueen. Available from:                  http://www.elle.com/runway/spring-2004-rtw/g24870/alexander-mcqueen-51776/ [Accessed      20^th November 2017]

To carry on this research, I found a picture in the book of a design in the book that I found particularly intriguing and decided to see if I could find the rest of the collection. This was very easily found on ELLE.com, I could see the entire collection through an 84-picture slide show. I liked that these pictures also gave me a slight insight to the show.

Daily Mail (2015) Never before seen images from 2004 Alexander McQueen show, Daily Mail, 17^th March

To conclude this task, I wanted to find some more in-depth information on the collection. I came across this article from Daily Mail that looked at the collection more closely and also showed ‘never before seen images’ from the collection. I loved the dark/gothic type photography form Nick Knight, the article then went on give a brief biography of his life and included multiple pictures from his ‘Savage Beauty’ exhibition at the V&A. I thought this was a good addition to the article as it gave background information to his life and the collection.

Research and Communication skills

Task 1&2

Picture of Joe Tilson artwork entitled ‘Clip-O-Matic Lips 2’ (1967)

From the book Pop Prints, Arts Council Collection, The Southbank Centre and Marco Livingstone (1993) Page 21

Source found on website Art UK, Joe Tilson sculpture ‘ZIGGURAT’ (1963)

Photograph Credit: Walker Art Gallery

Tilson, Joe; Ziggurat; Walker Art Gallery; http://www.artuk.org/artworks/ziggurat-96875

A quick search online showed me that ‘TATE’ archives held a lot of information on Joe Tilson and his artwork.

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/joe-tilson-2043

Summery

To start this task, I looked through a few books and magazines I had at home but didn’t find anything too interesting. I then went to the library and looked at some art history books, I finally picked up a book on pop art prints, I found a few of the pictures in the book inspirational (lots of Andy Warhol) but I liked the Joe Tilson picture the most. I really liked the artwork I think because it was quite different to the rest of the art in the book, as it was a photograph that had been slightly photo shopped rather than a painting.

The book had very little information on Joe Tilson so a quick internet search showed me that he was a very influential artist during the 1960s Pop art movement, he was also a sculptor and print designer. I then decided to google imaged search ‘Joe Tilson Sculptures’ and found a picture of a piece of his called ‘ZIGGURAT’.

From this in the in the details of the picture I saw the link of the website the picture had originally come from, this took me to the website artuk.org which I found from looking through the website a bit that it is funded by the Arts Counsel England, who also provided the picture for the pop prints book I originally looked at. This gave me confidence that the website was a reliable source that I could trust.

Again, this website didn’t offer much information as it was just for showcasing. I again googled Joe Tilson and found the TATE archive had lots of information on the artist. It was from this archive I learned that the ‘Clip-O-Matic lips’ picture was part of a collection Tilson produced. Also, that he was friends and worked with many other famous artists at the time such as David Hockney. Tate is a very well know name in the art and design community so again I knew it was a source I could trust to give me relevant and reliable information on the subject.

Overall, I enjoyed this task, I feel that it has really helped me broaden my use of the internet when it comes to researching a subject, I also liked how it made me look at an area and artist that I had not really researched in the past. Before I hadn’t really thought of using archives as a source of information or taken much notice of if a website was reliable and trustworthy, this exercise now given me some useful sources and links I can look back to for future projects and research tasks.

Bibliography:

Pop Prints, Arts Council Collection, The Southbank Centre and Marco Livingstone (1993) Page 21

https://artuk.org/discover/artists/tilson-joe-b-1928 – Art UK website

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/joe-tilson-2043 – Tate archives