Alexander Mcqueen waves to the audience

At the end of his spring|summer 2010 show

“Plato’s Atlantis.”

Below is an image of Alexander Mcqueens spring|summer show in motion called “Plato’s Atlantis.” This image was taken from dazed online.

http://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/article/32285/1/the-mcqueen-show-that-changed-the-future-of-fashion-platos-atlantis-nick-knight

Here is a screenshot of the met museums website in which a few of Alexander Mcqueen garmets from his collection “Plato’s Atlantis” were exhibited.

http://blog.metmuseum.org/alexandermcqueen/tag/plato-atlantis/

I surprisingly found this task very interesting. How easy it was to find things that followed on from each other especially when it come to fashion collections. At the beginning I did find it difficult to pick an image from a book as I was concerned whether or not id be able to find a website that would follow on or even a museum exhibition that would relate to the image that I had originally found. However, I was happily surprised when I picked up the Alexander Mcqueen book and scanned through to find my first image. Mcqueen is a big inspiration to me resulting in him being the reason why I started fashion design in the first place. I was even happier when I went online and discovered that daze magazine online had an article based on the collection that Mcqueen was posing for in the first image. Due to it being a well known collection I then knew I would be able to find it being exhibited in a museum somewhere, which it was the met. I’m glad I did do this task as I’m now more open to search though museum archives into finding relatable exhibitions to my current projects.

Throughout the Research and Communications module I found the lectures very insightful as I felt each task was interesting and individual to the last as they all linked together. Getting progressively more challenging each week, each task was building upon the last meaning for me it was easier to understand as I could use the skills I had learnt previously and apply it to the question at hand.

The first few tasks focused on different ways of doing and using research which although I didn’t particularly enjoy, I found extremely helpful towards the end. Before starting the blog, I had only really delved into online resources as they were accessible and not too time consuming, but after the How to Use Online Resources task I learnt that using the libraries was not as daunting as I had perceived. I still use online resources but I feel this task in particular helped me really understand the difference between primary and secondary resources and how to use them but also helped me realise how helpful the library resources were. The books and magazines definitely helped me find information I wouldn’t have otherwise found and this is something I will use more in the future. Similarly, the visual research task along with the reflective writing in textiles also helped me build my skills in these areas as well as practicing my Harvard referencing skills as this was something I struggled to understand at the start.

As the tasks went on I definitely found the module more enjoyable as I began to understand how to write in a better, more intellectual way. The reflective writing task was definitely something I struggled with as I couldn’t get my head around the writing in the first place. Eventually I went back to how I started these tasks and wrote notes on everything I interpreted from the text so it was easier to understand. From doing this is I had unpacked so many different talking points and had found lots of books and material to help explain my opinion as I was genuinely more interested in finding out more. Although hard at the start it definitely helped me to understand what makes a reliable and academic reference but also how to form a justified and substantiated opinion. The Ethics task followed this and having used the skills from the last task, I definitely found it a lot easier to write about. It started as a visual analysis but then went into reflective writing which I found the most interesting out of them all. I feel after learning about how important visual imagery is, in a fashion context, showed me how influential they can be amongst the general public as viewers and is definitely something I will consider in my future projects.

Overall, reflecting on the tasks has highlighted how much I have learnt throughout the module. The actual ‘blog’ aspect helped me to see that everyone has a different way of interpreting a task and being able to scroll through and pick up certain things that I may have missed was useful in developing my writing style. It also has introduced me to so many new skills that will benefit my future work.

For this research module we had to partake in the completion of weekly tasks that have proven to be challenging in certain cases but overall have taught valuable skills that could be used for future research. Throughout the course of these tasks I was able to progress my skills in terms of gathering resources from a variety of locations instead of just limiting my findings through the use of using the internet for all secondary research.

For the first task I collated a total of three images based around my project at the time – deconstructed pottery. I found this particular task fairly simple to begin with as I already had the starting point, a book by Peter Dormer, exploring modern ceramics. The imagery I chose from this, two striking pieces by Matteo Thun, included a lot of unique shapes and details that allowed me to comment as to why I chose them without difficulty. From here I believed finding a secondary source may prove to be a challenge however due to the unique shapes Matteo Thun created in his work I looked into more abstract artwork and found the artist Nathalie du Pasquier with ease. Further research allowed the link to the Memphis group to be made which led me on to find an exhibition held at The Dixon Gallery fairly quickly which meant that overall for this particular task I didn’t struggle as much as I thought I initially would.

Task 2 required us to focus on the skill of Harvard referencing finding sources that relate from different locations. The hardest part for me was finding a starting point as I wanted to think of an artist that would appear across the three mediums. Once this was decided and I obtained my first source from the library using web cat I found the following sources fairly quickly.

Following this for task 3 we had to create a mood board containing imagery focusing on a specific artist of whom I chose Issey Miyake. The image I chose to evaluate was by a piece by Bridget Reilly which I quickly found quite hard to examine as it was fairly simple in content, however I tried to use my existing knowledge of art techniques to analyse the image further making sure I took apart aspects such as colour in great detail.

Task 4 was probably the task I was anticipating the most as it required the understanding of a literary text followed by our own thoughts and views on what was stated. The passage itself was quite articulate and therefore the overall concept was a struggle to initially grasp. This in effect made the retrieval of further quotes tougher as I was initially unsure what I was looking for. However after reading the text through section by section I slowly seized the overall views and was able to complete the task.

Lastly for task 5 we had to comment on the ethical issues based around a selection of two images – I decided to choose the American apparel option as I believed I had more to comment on. Overall this specific task was not too bad as I had quite a lot to discuss in relation to ethical issues however for future tasks similar to this I believe I need to reflect upon what I am writing and refine as I go to ensure I do not repeat myself which I initially found myself doing.

Overall I believe that this module has been very beneficial as it has focused on honing in our skills and refining how we undergo specific research tasks. It has increased my confidence in relation to Harvard referencing, using a variety of sources, deciphering texts and making my own judgements corresponding to the analysis of work.

The research and communication module tasks were interesting to learn about, despite the fact that I struggled to find relevant research for some of the tasks.
Through this module I have learnt how to reference all types of medias correctly, including websites which has helped me to be able to go back to the websites to find more information if needed. This module has also helped me to break down images and not just look at them as a whole in order to find further research but to choose an element of the image as a research starting point.
Task 1&2 was a good warm up task as it made me utilise the library and online websites to find primary and secondary resources.
Task 3&4 was online based, I used online newspaper articles as I found that journalists can be very opinionated and to the chase in terms of their own critique as well as it being a way of finding interviews. I found this task quite easy as it was just about analysing the topic through my own thoughts rather than having to analyse the topic through the opinion of others.
Task 5&6: For this research task my designer of interest was Alexander McQueen. I used the Victoria and Albert Musem webpage as well as encyclopaedia to find inspirations for his collection Plato’s Atlantis. I found this task quite difficult to gather a variety of image inspiration as McQueen was merely inspired by nature and his own conceptual thinking. However, this allowed me to get into the mind of McQueen and research further into the references that I did find which really helped me to get to know McQueen as a person rather than a designer. This also allowed me to look into interviews of McQueen which I will use in the future when looking at other artists as it helps to get a personal feel of the designer. Resulting in me beginning to think about the designer I would like to become.
Personally, I enjoyed task 7&8 the least as I would not consider myself a book lover as I find that there can be too much information to take in at once and I lose concentration. For this task I used webcat to find other resources to help analyse Malcolm Barnard’s Fashion as Communication book. I found that webcat is really helpful as it directs you to similar books on the same shelve. Because I had to analyse more than one book I found that making notes on each book was helpful as it meant that I had all my notes on one page so that when I came back to writing it would be less of a hassle to find quotes.
For task 9&10 I had to analyse an advertisement based on whether I thought it was ethically correct. This task has made me realise that there are a lot of issues in the world that are there but we may not think about as being ethically wrong because it can be very covert in appearance allowing it to continue. This has changed the way I first view advertisements, images and designers work, as I will now look deeper into the message rather than just looking at the image.
Overall, this module will help me in my studio practice as I will try to be more quick and efficient in my research skills as I now know where first to go when looking for reference inspiration.

The research process for this task was quite straight forward, just by finding a random image in a book I found a lot of useful information through utilising museum archive and magazine websites. Through researching the Jazz Age 1919-1929 of fashion I found that this new style was like a new start for women after the first world war. This era really glamorised the modern woman. I also found that this era was care free as the younger generation ‘glorified fast living, dancing and the exciting sound of syncopated jazz described by the writer F. Scott Fitzgerald as the Lost Generation’. This fashion period really stripped down the previous fashion period of the female silhouette into a less figure hugging loose fitted shape and flattened breasts as the garment structure consisted of the lack of a corset which meant less tailoring, meaning that women could construct their own clothing in their homes. This fashion era to me was very constructive as it allowed women to move freer than before as corsets and petticoats really restricted movement and I believe it may have also restricted the behaviour of women, although petticoats and corsets was an amazing fashion trend with overexaggerated but lovely silhouettes it lacked a lot of freedom and was very dangerous at times. I think that the first world war was an unfortunate but good event in terms of being a reward for women because of their previous struggles of fighting for their rights and being seen as equally important and needed as men.
Overall, this task has helped me to realise the importance of doing further research into a subject as I never really do this as I feel like it can become very time consuming but I now understand that research helps you to better your knowledge and understanding of the world we live in whether the subject is in the past, present or future. This task has taught me that there are a lot of helpful resources out there to aid me when doing research for example, I have found that museums are a great way to look for objects both new and old, museums also help with finding information on an object or image which can really allow extra opportunities to find links to other websites designers and artists work. I think this task will help me in the future with studio practice as I feel as if when I create work I often don’t really know why I have done it in a certain type of way or why I have researched a particular theme which leads to me being unable to give a decent explanation of my sketchbook. Therefore, I will be sure to conduct thorough research into my project theme without finding the first thing I see and going with it.
Knowledge is really power.

https://bellatory.com/fashion-industry/WomensFashionsofthe1920-FlappersandtheJazz-Age

task 1&2images

For the past few weeks we have been doing tasks to improve our skills within research and communication. Each task allowed us to utilise our resources to find information and look harder at what we want to find and accomplish through our research. This task is an evaluation of all the others.

Task 1 and 2 was to help us know how to look for reliable sources and get into the swing of research. We had to find an image in the library to scan, then find something on a website that relates to it, then find a museum where it can broaden the informtion on the topic. With this task I chose a picture of a Greek God sculpture then went on to research about the modern day portrayals of greek mythology, then found beauty and the beast. The original story was that of Cupid and Psyche. I started off with something I personally found interesting so this task wasn’t particularly difficult in terms of being motivated. However, it isn’t always easy to find things on the internet that relate back to a random selection of a picture in a library.

Task 3 and 4 was very enlightening because I previously didn’t know how to Harvard reference. That was what this task was all about, learning how to give the correct credit to the owners of the picture or quote you are using and then putting it into practice. This task was quite simple for me since all of the information for Harvard referencing was easy to find. Now I know for future circumstances, how to properly reference what I am using.

Task 5 and 6 was one of the two that I found hard to do since I had to look for a fashion designer that fully exposed on the internet what their inspirations and references were when making one of their collections. I am not good at using the internet to the best of its ability so it took quite a long time to find the right in-depth information. Everything after that was much easier; making the mood board showing their inspirations and then picking a picture to research further into.

Task 7 and 8 was the second one that I found hard purely because I struggled to understand their academic way of writing. We had to read a text from a fashion book and then pick a part of it that interested us to write about. Then we had to relate it to another two pieces of text so that we can have evidence supporting our views. I tried my hardest to understand what was being said within the quote that I chose and therefore wrote about the importance of fashion nowadays, since I am also a fashion student. It didn’t take me long to find other texts to support my views because the importance of fashion is such a broadly discussed issue within the fashion industry.

Task 9 and 10 was an interesting task to do because I have always enjoyed sharing my views on sexism and feminism in the modern world. The ethical issue task was given to us in a form of a picture that we had to analyse. I did a lot of research for this because a lot of other people also had something to say about the same disturbing advertisement that I was analysing. It helped having other views compared to mine.

There are a few new things that I have learnt throughout this module of research and communication skills. I mostly think it helped me to slowly get back into the habit of writing and research for all of my projects, so I can continue to do it effectively in the future.

Monique Olowu

I decided to analyse the American Apparel advertisement as I believe it is equally as shameful as the Duncan Quinn advert yet many would perceive the other to be worse. American Apparel have had many issues during their time running as a clothing company that eventually led to bankruptcy. The company itself was known for selling good quality clothing with positive ethical values for many years before these disturbing images were released.

The use of younger looking models was a common theme for them and could be seen as a way to promote a younger target market for this company – a clever promotional decision to boost sales. However when this is contrasted with raunchy imagery it sparks up ethical issues and morals in terms of underage connotations. The majority of the of the image is covered up to disguise the issue and perhaps get round the matter at hand but the open body language that is still on show promotes the idea of submission which on a legal front shouldn’t be shown at such a young age – “For at least some of the public, sexual ads represent a challenge to standards of decency and are in a real sense pornographic” (Pollay 1986, p. 28). The adverts themselves fail to focus on the promotion of the brand in terms of the clothing which could in tern have discourage customers to be seen wearing and promoting a brand that is linked to these negative associations. The company started off in 1990 with the selling of t-shirts under the American HEAVY label which is completely contrasted in this image in particular as the model is not seen to be wearing anything from the waist up. Back at the beginning of American Apparel the company proved to be to go to company for good quality, affordable clothing. As an added bonus it was well known that there was no human suffering involved in the production sector of the company stating this way of working would “give more ethical jobs to more people around the world” which had positive implications that could be a stand out feature for customers – they would feel like they were doing good by choosing to shopping there. However it then seemed that this gave them a free pass to produce sexually influenced imagery for the advertisement campaigns that left a bad taste in peoples mouth. It completely contrasted the positive values that the company spent so long building up. This unique selling point was also lowered in value when the younger generation valued cheaper clothing over the wellbeing of others which was the introduction of fast fashion. This I believe is where their issues started to arise as with a loss in sales started the shocking imagery which they most likely believed to be desirable imagery for their target audience. However it seemed that they over stepped the mark which in effect pushed away their customer base even more leading to them filing for bankruptcy in 2005.

Analysing the image itself further the use of black and white will add to the sense of seduction that is usually seen erotic films such as fifty shades of grey. Black itself is seen as a dominant colour with white being more innocent and pure so when put together in the right scenario this colour combination will make an image seem much more suggestive. The colour scheme also reduces factors such as colour distracting you which allows the viewer to focus on the detail in the image in much more detail which also making certain parts darker and less visible making it more delicate yet mysterious. The overall set up of the room relates to this more sexual theme that the company was trying to get across with the minimalistic look containing the plain background which due to increased negative space makes the viewer focus on the forefront imagery.

The Guardian. (2017). The new American Apparel: Claims of ‘ethically made’ abroad clash with reality. [online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/nov/12/the-new-american-apparel-claims-of-ethically-made-abroad-clash-with-reality [Accessed 31 Nov. 2017].

Americanapparel.com. (2017) Ethically Made – Sweatshop Free | American Apparel. [online] Available at: http://www.americanapparel.com/en/ [Accessed 31 Nov. 2017]

Taylor & Francis. (2017) Ethics in Advertising: Ideological Correlates of Consumer Perceptions. [online] Avaliable at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00913367.1994.10673450?needAccess=true [Accessed 31 Nov. 2017].

I have chosen to read and respond to the text exploring ‘Taste, Fashion and the French Fashion Magazine’ by Sanda Miller.

The text explores ideas that focus around fashion magazines and how they can be mirrors of their time as well as the importance of art critiques and taste levels in relation to how we view and perceive artwork. Fashion magazines allow the craft to be elevated by presenting it in a different way – celebrating it for what it is and what people produce. They showcase the most up to date trends including those of different backgrounds and taste whilst also defining what we perceive as tasteful in the fashion world. It moves on to suggest that when we view art we have two main responses – we recognise the artwork itself and then have our own opinions of the work. Instead of looking for known qualities that make the artwork ‘good’ we psychologically created our own taste level for what we liked and therefore question artwork for what it is. Our feelings towards artwork make us question why we like/dislike it and result in taste but if we only have our own thoughts to go on there is not common reasoning (denominator) which needs to be apparent to compare work – critics are therefore introduced to set the denominator.

In the writing it quoted David Hume who stated that ‘the great variety of Taste, as well as of opinion which prevails in the world, is too obvious not to have fallen under every one’s observation’ (Hume 1965:3). I believe by this he meant how every one’s views on art, and more specifically regarding taste, are different resulting in there being cross referencing between thoughts on pieces of work. In contrast to this Edmund Burke later stated that he believed that the concept of taste is ‘no more than that faculty or those faculties of the mind’ (Burke 1990: 13) which in effect meant that there are always key points that every individual will pick up on such as the colours used or the overall distinctive shape resulting in taste not being on the individuals own thoughts. Reacting to ideas similar to this Hume acknowledged critics to have a ‘delicacy of the imagination’ meaning that different individuals will interpret scenarios and artwork inversely.

When reflecting on this time period James Shelly states that ‘the eighteenth-century theory of taste held the judgment of beauty to be immediate; against egoism about virtue, it held the pleasure of beauty to be disinterested’ (Shelly 2009). This contrasts the idea that critics were fair in their judgment of art at this time and how other factors such as technique and context were not taken into account. Instead he belies that ‘beauty’ was the main and only focus of the work meaning that people just liked or disliked the artwork but there as not a vast amount of opinions as to why this was. Personally I believe that whether it was voiced or not everyone had their own opinions on why the work was successful or not in their opinion as psychologically it is natural to do so. This could have been to do with the idea that fashion was fairly new in the enlightenment period so the idea of voicing your opinion could have been see as incorrect especially if individuals didn’t have anything to compare their thoughts to which, like I previously stated, could have led to critics being the denominators. Similar to this idea Nick Zangwill argued that beauty is ‘one amongst many aesthetic properties’ ( Zangwill 2003: 325). From this I get that he believed that something can be seen as beautiful in multiple different ways resulting in different taste levels.

Overall, I enjoyed looking into the concept of taste in the fashion industry and personally believe everyone has their own thoughts in relation to taste and the idea of a critic being a medium creating a neutral basis to base personal ideas off of seems very likely.

Bibliography:

Schellekens, E. and Goldie, P. (n.d.). The aesthetic mind.

Plato.stanford.edu. (2017). The Concept of the Aesthetic (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). [online] Available at: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aesthetic-concept/ [Accessed 22 Nov. 2017].

Barlett, Cole & Rocamora (e.d) 2013, Fashion Media: Past and Present, London: Bloomsbury

Sanda Millers has written the article ‘Taste, Fashion and the French Fashion Magazine’ which describes the introduction of the Fashion Magazine and what happened as a result of this. A main concept she talks about is the effect the fashion magazine has had on society’s ‘taste’.  An example of what she writes is ‘But whilst taste was indeed borrowed from aesthetic discourse, its application to fashion was, we could say, revolutionary, for these fashion magazines became – as pointed out at the beginning – more than repositories of taste; rather, they prescribed it.’ (Miller 2013). This was not the purpose though when the first fashion magazine started which was Le Mercure Galant in 1672. ‘Moreover it could be argued that the emphatic linking of the words fashion and taste in its title testifies to the unexpected role the concept of taste was to play within the newly emerging context of the fashion magazine’ (Miller 2013) Miller hints at how the Fashion Magazine was unsure of it’s purpose.

We are told how the first accepted fashion magazine was ‘initially conceived as a gazette aimed to cover the arts, theatre and literature, as well as society reports and a gossip column’ (Miller 2013).  I think the ‘unexpected role’ most likely came from the popularity of the items discussed within the magazine, such as the theatre as it is likely only the ‘best’ shows would be discussed which in turn gave the magazine credibility for what is good taste. Perhaps the magazines had the credibility to be able to start to ‘prescribe taste’ because they showed the style of the French Courts and Aristocratic circles. With these people’s style included within the magazine, who are so high up in society automatically gives the magazine authority on taste. Also, the way in which the magazines were displayed could almost be thought as tasteful as the fashion illustrations were drawn by famous artists. With this publicity society can now see a new and alternative view on fashion which they come to like, resulting in their opinion on ‘good taste’.

With the fashion magazine ‘prescribing taste’, people want to be able to wear what is thought of as good taste. Elizabeth Wilson explains how ‘Railways, the telephone, the cinema and the mass circulation of newspapers and magazines intensified the rush and pace of modern life … This meant that fashion became even more important than it had been in the pre-industrial city. It’s circulation of images was itself a form of mass communication’ (Wilson 1985). I think that this highlights how the fashion magazine makes people aware of style and therefore good taste, with society easily being able to view the popular tastes from all over the country.

‘But it is not simply because la passante distinguishes herself through her appearance that she is an appropriate figure of fashion discourse. Her status as the object of a fugitive encounter captures the ephemerality of both fashion and modernity, making her one of their ideal symbols’ (Rocamora 2009) This again highlights how fashion magazines are so influential on taste. The imagery that is used within the fashion magazine also shows a fashionable lifestyle.

Having read these articles I think that the introduction of fashion magazines did have an impact on societies taste. This makes me wonder how our taste is being influenced nowadays with images so easily available over the internet. If the taste of society changed so quickly with the introduction of railways then our view on what is good taste must be too. However with the wider amount of sources available to us maybe this means we are more accepting of different tastes.

Bibliography

Wilson, E. (1985) Adorned in Dreams: Fashion and Modernity, London. Virago

Miller, S (2013) Fashion Media Past and Present, London. Bloomsbury

Rocamora A (2009) Fashioning the City Paris Fashion and The Media, London. I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd