Alexander McQueen’s Spring/Summer 2010 Plato Atlantis explores colour and texture whilst mainly inspired by nature. I feel inspired by this collection as he has included many references and portrayed each of them through techniques on each garment, for example life above sea, moth and snake prints, as well as the transition to underwater with stingrays, jellyfish and blue/green hues. These two opposites are heavily explored with a twist of Si-fi fantasy such as aliens/creatures and under water cities, Atlantis and Ridley Scott’s Alien, 1979. As well as reversing the ideas of Darwin’s theory of evolution by making the garment have more amphibian like features.

McQueen’s Spring/Summer 2010, is split between under water life and above sea level. The garments exploring underwater life are covered in blue and green hues mixed with iridescent sequins. The full body garment has ¾ sleeves a high neck and a jellyfish like puff around the thighs. The full iridescent sequined garment mirrors the scales of a fish or the gleam of the sun on the sea’s surface, while the puff looks like the head of a jellyfish.

The colours and textures of snakes and moths heavily inspire the above sea garments. The garment is a mini dress with oversized long sleeves and a small collar with a zip down the front, it is covered yellow, green and brown tones of snake skin print, teamed with mustard like yellow sequins on the waist to look like the scales of a reptile, shaping the waist in an unusual way. Inspired by John McTiernan’s ‘Predator’ 1987. The strong/structured garment accentuating parts of the body giving the human body animalistic features.

Overall, I really like his SS10 collection, I find the combinations of cool blue tones and warm brown tones from the inspiration of nature are really well explored and are interesting within each garment as well as the over exaggerated structure of the Si-fi element in the garments.

-Darwin nineteenth century theories of evolution
-twenty-first century concerns of global warming
-Snakes, moths, Jellyfish, Stingrays
-Atlantis
-Ridley Scott’s ‘Alien’ 1979
-James Cameron’s ‘The Abyss’ 1989
– John McTiernan’s ‘Predator’ 1987

Bibliography
Bethune K. V&A The Museum of Savage Beauty (2015) Encyclopedia Of Collections: Platos Atlantis. Avalible from: http://www.vam.ac.uk/museumofsavagebeauty/rel/encyclopedia-of-collections-platos-atlantis/
Accessed: 29th November 2017

Balenciaga: Shaping Fashion

I chose to reference my 3 sources on the Balenciaga exhibition. I went to visit the exhibition at the V&A, the exhibition follows the life of the brand and the journey of Cristóbal Balenciaga. The exhibition showed the how the brand started and how the structures of certain garments where made. I found this exhibition interesting as not only seeing the illustrations and initial ideas but also the finished garments as well as a few
garments tailored for certain people or events.

The book I referenced gives more of an insight to how he worked. The book describes the illustration process, choosing fabrics for each garment and who the garment was for, the struggles around perfecting each one and inspirations and fabrics and ideas for his famous collections.

The website I referenced I found it gave me a brief understanding of what the exhibition entailed. Photos of his most famous pieces from the beginning of his career up to more intricate detailed designs on this current work. Quotes from other designers such as, Christian Dior, reflects on how his fashion influence developed the fashion industry. The website also has a gallery section showing different garments from some of his pervious collections as well as other collaborations with other designers that feature in the exhibition giving dates of when the garment was made by who and where it was taken.

The newspaper article i referenced reflected on the 100 year anniversary of the brand, looking back at some of his most famous pieces worn by big celebrities and fashion influencers in their time. the article reflects on his time as a designer and the 80th anniversary of his Paris salon. This article gave a personal twist and a closer look into people with a higher status whom wore his designs.

Bibliography

Book:
Miller, L.E (2017) Balenciaga: Shaping Fashion, London, United kingdom, Harry N.Abrams

Website:

V&A Balenciaga: Shaping Fashion (2017) Available from:
https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/about-balenciaga-shaping-fashion (Accessed 29th November 2017)

Newspaper
Mail online Reporter (2017) As Balenciaga turns 100, we look back at the showstopping designs that left Jackie Kennedy, Audrey Hepburn and Ava Gardner enthralled. Available from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/article-4534778/As-Balenciaga-turns-100-look-designs.html
(Accessed 29th November 2017)

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

Throughout this module I have further developed my writing I have particularly useful as I am retaking the year to use the library in a better way which I think I didn’t do well last year. I have learnt to use the online library resources to find the right book I am looking for and to also generally find the section of books that I am interested in thus making it so much easier to reference a book that is more relevant to my writing. This will prove useful in future when writing longer essays which need to be backed up with a varied range of references. Also making sure that the reference is of use. I also found the task in which I had to use Harvard referencing useful as I hadn’t used them in a while and need a refresh on how to do them. The task where you had to find, and designer and their reference showed me how much goes into a designer work and made me want to think more about the ideas I come up with and what they are informed by.
I found the task helpful on online resources because it helped me recognized what is something that is a reliable source to use from online because not everything online is reliable or useful. I particularly enjoyed the academic integrity task because it pushed me as understanding the language used by the author isn’t always the easiest of things, so it made me think about what I was writing more. Although I found getting quotes to relate to my points quite hard and I feel like there not the best to relate my points. I found getting to the word count on this task quite hard because I found it hard not to ramble and repeat myself. I found it easier to reach the word count on tasks such as the ethics because I felt more strongly about the issues involved I need to find the passion I have when writing this and try a transfer it to another task or relate their task to something I can more easily write about.
I also struggled with time management as I was concentrating on radical tasks I totally forgot about tasks some weeks and got quite behind at some points. in future I will manage my time better so tasks are easier to complete with time to look over them properly to improve them. Also by doing it as soon as it is set it gives me a few days to work on it and not rush it because I need to complete other work.
To conclude this course has encouraged me to utilize the library and its many features online and not to be afraid to ask the librarians for help. I found the lectures very helpful as they challenged me to do better research and to go further when looking at research. And to use this in my practical projects to get creative ideas.