Reflective Summary

I have always struggled with writing and much prefer working in the studio but the tutor always explained in detail what we needed to do and was always encouraging us to give it a go. Posting to the blog was completely new to me and was not straight forward in the beginning especially since I realised you cannot copy and paste text to the blog at once but as the weekly tasks went on, it got easier.

As an introduction to the module we had to write 200 words and it took me an entire week to write something down. We did not have to post that to the blog so that helped. In the second task about how to use online resources, I realised how much I relayed mainly on online research but was not doing it properly. This was the first task to post on the blog and I dreaded that and having to write 500 words. This task helped me learn identify what is reliable and unreliable information online and I have transferred this knowledge to my other work.

The next task was about academic integrity and plagiarism and with this, I can now accurately reference different media resources using Harvard referencing. With this task, I started using the library more often for research other than just using online resources. During this lecture, I was made aware of how one can protect their work through watermarks, low resolution or online disclaimer.

Visual research is where we had to analyse an image. In this, I used the skills we had used in previous tasks about identifying reliable online resources and did an extensive research to find out more about what inspired the designer. It was interesting to learn more about what influences one of my favourite designers.

Reflective writing was the most difficult for me because despite the fact that I read both the briefs I could not decide on which one to write about because I was not very sure what I was meant to say. It took me two weeks going over them and it is not until the tutor explained further that we could even choose a section and reflect on that that it made more sense to me and that is what I did. This turned out to be my favourite task out of all of them and I used different media sources for references without it feeling like a chore.

By the time we got to the last task about ethical issues in fashion and textiles, I was finding it slightly easier to research and write. I am passionate about inequality in society especially when it comes to women and children, so with this task, I had to try my best to sound professional and not turn it into an angry rant.

I still struggle with writing but since we have been doing the tasks almost on a weekly basis, it has helped me adjust to writing, researching and using the library more

Duncan Quinn Advert

‘As such, advertising is also an important mode of social communication ( Leiss et al. 2005), and for this reason proponents frequently need to publically defend various practices from criticisms of being deceptive, manipulative, or otherwise implicated in adverse alterations to human culture and consciousness (McLaughlin 1996).’  McAllister M P and West E (2015). The Routledge Companion to Advertising and Promotional Culture, United States of America; Edwards Brothers Malloy.

Duncan Quinn sells men’s suits and in this image where they are advertising men’s suits by having a fully dressed man and a half naked woman laying on a bonnet of a car.

It is not ethical to degrade and exploit women for any purpose. In this image the woman is half naked in lingerie when the man is fully dressed in a suit. This portrays the woman as a sex symbol. She does not need to be half naked to sell a man’s suit. The main costumer here is men. It should be the suit being sold so a half-naked woman is to attract a man’s eye which confirms the theory of women being sex objects for men.

The fact that the woman is laying down on the car while the man stands over her shows the man’s dominance over this woman. She could be standing up with him or both of them laying down but in the image her laying down makes it appear that woman should be or is submissive to the man thus showing the man is powerful.

With the men’s tie, tied around her neck as the man holds onto the other end of the tie is not ethical in a way that it depicts a sense that the woman being a mere object. The man looks straight at the camera while the woman’s head is tilted while her whole half naked body is fully exhibited showing that it is just her body that is more important than the person behind it but this is not the same for the man. Women are more than just beautiful bodies, there are people with identities but this image does not show that.

The tie round the woman’s neck is disturbing since it depicts a sense of violence towards woman by man and the fact that it is being used in a public image gives off the message that this is acceptable or should be accepted in our society. The younger generation of boys might grow up believing that this is alright but it is not. ‘This is an industry which famously seeks out the young –’ Mitchell, David, Sexism in advertising is a problem, but hardly the worst on, The Guardian, 23 July 2017. The tie could have been put anywhere else but not around her neck to make it look like she’s being strangled.

The facial expression on the man’s face is equally obscene in a way that he seems to be taking pleasure from the whole situation of strangling the woman. The grin on his face shows he is in control and therefore powerful.

Bibliography

The Routledge Companion to Advertising and Promotional Culture, United States of America; Edwards Brothers Malloy.

http://newsactivist.com/en/articles/gendered-world-views-fall-2016-section-17/strangler-ad

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jul/23/exism-in-advertising-is-problem-but-hardly-worst-one-david-mitchell-asa-gender

Etymologies and Definitions of Fashion Communication and Clothing

Fashion can be defined in different ways. ‘The original senses of fashion, then, referred to activities; fashion was something that one did, unlike now, perhaps, when fashion is something that one wears’. There are nine ways fashion is described; ‘the action or process of making’, ‘a particular shape or cut’, ‘form’, through ‘manner or demeanor’ to ‘conventional usage in dress’.

Daily, we often form opinions based on what others are wearing which is referred to as ‘ social hieroglyphics’, by Marx (1954:79). The clothes people wear frame the differences and prejudices in our society. It is stated by Simmel (1971: 301), that for fashion to function in society, ‘individuals must possess the desire to be part of a larger whole, society and they must also possess the desire to be, and to be considered as, apart from that larger whole.’

People’s need to be considered as a part of a society or group is portrayed through fashion especially though advertising using celebrities and social media. As much as people want to look as individuals through fashion, they at the same time want to associate with something or show social hierarchy.

Advertising became a prominent way of communication where celebrities were popular feature in these adverts on televisions from 1955. ‘Perhaps the most effective place to start in the history of the creative style is with an advertising problem that the modern agency in its infancy faced ; namely to find an appropriate form of communication that somehow mediated between its creators (white, middle class and highly educated) and the intended target audience (a mass, urban population). Powel H, Hardy J, Hawkin S, and Macrury I, (2009), The Advertising Handbook, Third edition, Oxon, Routhledge

The celebrity’s value in advertising a fashion brand is measured through a specific image like lifestyle, look, skill or personality that other people want to associate with by dressing like them. People use what they know about a particular celebrity and end up buying into whatever fashion style they advertise or wear.

The founder of Voket, a digital marketing agency, Domenic Venneri states that he only choses who to lead a certain campaign depending on their social media profiles. “We won’t do a photoshoot that goes on a billboard somewhere unless everyone involved has some sort of [social media] following and some sort of leverage,” says Mr Venneri.‘ BBC, 2016, How Social Media is Transforming the Fashion Industry, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35483480 , (Accessed 5 February 2016). The more social media followers a celebrity has the more chances of them landing an advertising fashion campaign because it means more people will want to buy and wear whatever they are wearing which to them sometimes symbolizes a high social status in society.

Television presenter Holly Willoughby has a following of 2.8 million people and she has been known to sell out clothes in minutes of her posting them on their social media despite some of them going for as high as £1400. Anthropologie’s sequin palette skirt that she posted on her social media was sold out within the hour for £118.

Fashion keeps changing and the compulsion for this is people’s need to express the individual personality in different social and cultural groups using clothing. Clothing can be a nonverbal way in which people define their place in society and distinctiveness. Fashion advertising using celebrities has created the longing for people to pick sides with which celebrity they prefer to associate with.

Bibliography

‘BBC, 2016, How Social Media is Transforming the Fashion Industry, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35483480

Powel H, Hardy J, Hawkin S, and Macrury I, (2009), The Advertising Handbook, Third edition, Oxon, Routhledge

https://www.thesun.co.uk/fabulous/5002712/holly-willoughby-outfits-sell-out-in-hours/

http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/lisa-b/evolution-fashion-clothing-means-class-distinction

Guo Pei spring

The uniform was made on 7th of August 1798.It is made of a woollen fabric in dark blue which was the colour of the army.

The uniforms worn by European armies were all a work of art but Napoleon’s army uniform exceeded the rest with large sums of money used to purchase cords, plumes and pompoms that went on the uniforms.

Military uniforms worn during Napoleonic wars truly depict the extravagance for the military to stand out when it came to their uniforms and to this day French military uniforms during Napoleon’s leadership are still considered exquisite.

As it is written by the Napoleonic wars veteran that there has never been and will never be such outstanding military uniforms. The military uniforms were very colourful and full of ornate compared to other military uniforms across Europe.

Napoleon as a person dressed very simply as compared to his marshals who were very pompous military uniforms with lace trimmings, gold embroidering and buttons. He wore a simple hat and an undress coat of the Guard Horse chasseurs. It was only on Sundays that he wore regal uniforms such as a dark blue uniform meant for the Colonel of the Guard foot grenadiers with white lapels on it. He sometimes used his simplistic way of dressing to disguise himself.

In 1809 painter Adam wrote: “There he sat on his little white Arab horse, in a rather careless posture, with a small hat on his head, and wearing the famous dust-grey cloak, white breeches and top boots, so insignificant-looking that no one would have recognized the personage as the mighty Emperor-the victor of Austerlitz and Jena before whom even monarchs must bow-if they had not seen him represented so often in pictures. His pale face, cold features, and keen, serious gaze made an almost uncanny impression on my mind, while the glitter of the many uniforms which surrounded him heightened the contrast of his inconspicuous appearance”, Uniforms of the Napoleonic Wars 1805 -1815 http://www.napolun.com/mirror/napoleonistyka.atspace.com/napoleonic_uniforms.html

https://www.napoleon.org/en/history-of-the-two-empires/images/uniform-worn-by-bonaparte-at-the-battle-of-marengo/

http://uk.france.fr/en/events/napoleon-and-europe-musee-armee-paris

https://2jacko5.deviantart.com/art/Phoenix-Wings-566576583

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/explore/spring-flowers-wallpaper/

https://www.amazon.com/Corpse-Bride-12-Fashion-Doll/dp/B000A6U676

https://www.flags-flagpoles-banners.co.uk/product/royal-british-legion-9-art-silk-cords-and-tassels

http://rhondabuss.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/drafting-mandarin-collar.html

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/frithseraph/inspire-pastels-colour-texture/

https://www.lunss.com/blog/organza-fabric-knowledge-6.html

History of Native American Jewellery

I started by photocopying an image of a Native American man I came across in a book titled Tribes by Art Wolfe. Wolfe is an acclaimed American photographer and conservationist whose colourful photographs of wildlife, native tribes and landscapes have been documented in books and television series.

Tribes has over 120 portraits that captures 35 indigenous tribes from New Guinea, Africa and American Southwest.

The image is of a man from the Kalispel tribe that I captioned; ‘A Native American male from Kalispel tribe donned in tribal jewellery’.

I was fascinated by his elaborate native neck-piece which inspired me to search for images of Native American jewellery. I came across an image of a piece from  http://www.lostrivertc.com/product/medicine-wheel-breastplate-matching-choker/  that deals in Native American jewellery. This piece was listed as a medicine wheel breast plate and matching choker. It is a combination of medicine wheel, brass conchos, brass and cobalt blue glass beads, horse hair, ermine skins with tails, bone beads in cones and red felt. This native piece of jewellery is made using smoked coloured deerskin which are on the fringe and tail.

From there I decided to look deeper into the history of Native American jewellery to what it is in today’s contemporary world. It is believed that the Native American people were crafting jewellery before the 1880s when the Europeans settled in America. They created buttons, brooches and bridles worn during ceremonies rather than for fashion as it is today.

In the 1850s, a blacksmith Atsidi Sani from Navajo which is the largest Native American tribe, started incorporating metal in jewellery designs which they used as a currency when trading with European settlers. The Spanish introduced silver in 1865 and Sani learnt the craft of adding silver mainly by stamping on Native American ornaments, a skill taken from the Mexican workers. Sani taught his 4 sons this skill in 1890 and in time became a professional silversmith. A J.L Hubbell hired Mexican workers to teach this craft to several Native Americans from Navajo. They later acquired the art of combining turquoise in their designs and this became more popular as more mines were opened. Atsis Chon was the first Navajo to include turquoise on a silver piece. The Zuni tribe later on combined their style of jewellery designing with the Navajo as better tools and techniques became available in the twentieth century.

Native American jewellery became commercialised in the 1910s and 1920s when native traders and railroad vendors like Fred Harvey Company started buying it and later selling it to European settlers and tourists.

To this day the Native American community still make authentic jewellery and sell it to support their families.

The history of Native Americans and their ornaments can be found in museums like American Museum in Britain (Bath), Natural History Museum (Birmingham), National Museum Liverpool and British Museum.

Bibliography;

-Tribes by Art Wolfe page 116

-Documentary television series- Travels to the Edge with Art Wolfe

http://www.lostrivertc.com/product/medicine-wheel-breastplate-matching-choker/

http://americanindianoriginals.com/jewelry-making2.html https://americanmuseum.org/

www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/wml/collections/ethnology/americas.aspx

www.britishmuseum.org/explore/themes/native_north_america.aspx

http://www.alltribes.com/kcenter/jewelry-information/jewerly-history.html