The Line Up

The Final Garments

toiles

During the toile presentation, Rose raised the issue of making the armhole on the blouse the same shape as on the waist coat so when worn together, there isn't any awkward looking armhole seam at the top of the shoulder peeking through the waistcoat.

The most problematic area of the blouse has been the shoulder and armhole. The front part of the shoulder was always shorter and did not reach the shoulder seam.

During lesson, Sian suggested for me to make the back darts on the second layer panel into seam lines so the dart endings are not uneven. As I pinned in the lines, I realised there would be too many panels on one dress if the darts were made into seamlines and so I decided to stay with the original darts. 

Possible fabrics

For fabrics, I'm mainly concentrating on cottons and/or wools. The colours match well with my colour board and I thought about using a combination of differend fabrics to create the illusional cubist look.

Shorts and Trousers

These are some of my better pages for shorts and trousers. I've still tried to maintain the pattern diagram lines in the designs and the asymetric look.

Further research with pattern diagrams

I came across a book during my research which had patterns for the Tudor costumes. I extracted those and would like to used the patterns shapes to create designs, layering different patterns shapes together like Shelly Fox to give a cubost illusion.

Designs incorporating the pattern diagram lines.

Research and design for shirts and jackets

Initial design ideas

These are some pages of my very first ideas about silhouette and shape. I have tried to maintain both cubist shapes and Tudor essence.

The designs above has more detail and I quite like these ideas for their overall shape, which can be developed from.

Initial research pages

These 3 initial research pages focuses mainly in connecting the shapes found in Tudor costume with shapes in Cubism. In picking out and highlighting the shapes, I will incorporate them in my designs.

During a trip to the Design Museum, I found shapes on exhibited objects that relate to my project and I've used it to link in with the Tudor aspect. The shapes are minimalist and abstract and could also be used to create silhouettes.

In these 2 research pages, I have tried to convey cubism by cutting up and re-arranging the Tudor images in an abstract, cubist way. Also, through a book I have called "Textile Designers at the Cutting Edge"- Bradley Quinn, I have found a designer, Shelly Fox, who created the two white dresses above, which seem very cubist and relevent to my research. I particularly like how the same pattern piece drape many times over one side of the dress and how collar lines and pockets are at unusual places.

Mood Board and Colour Board

In this project, I aim to create designs that use abstract shapes found in Tudor period costume and Cubism. I would like to use Cubism to break up the regularity and symmetry of Tudor designs and design a collection with an abstract feel to it.
As the collection in for autumn/winter, the colours are naturally quite dense. The colours are mainly smokey blue, khaki greens with light yellowish beige to diffuse a dark palette.

My Concept

After researching Balenciaga and his very Spanish influenced designs, I would like to experiment with drapery, silhouette and proportion. I would like to use the Tudor's costume as the starting concept as the drapery and silhouette are very similar to Balenciaga's designs and I would like to carry this essence through to my collection. Paying particular focus to the Tudor's men's wear, my aim is to translate it into a fashionable and desirable collection for the modern woman.

From the images above, it is clear that there is a distinct correlation between Balenciaga's designs, both past and present, and the Tudors' costume in terms of patters, details, fabrics, collars, cuffs, shape, silhouette and drape. Nicolas Ghesquière's Spring 2011 collection echoes punk masculinity and this collection has been described as:

·         Punk, couture

·         Street, Japanese, punk, British (80s riveted by future)

·         Strong masculine, feminine mix.

·         Boyish trousers, lost in big jacket.

·         Complex, layers make it feminine

·         Wear it both feminine but also hard and edgy.

·         Reinvented simple dresses and materials. (little black dress, tweed)

·         Plastic, lace, leather,rubber

·         Play on dinner shirt

·         Instinct of protection with the big coats and emphasised shoulders.

·         Semi- defense mode, less of a victim in woman.

·         Strong girl

I would like to preserve a certain sense of edgy masculinity in my collection through form and structure. 

As both early Balenciaga and Tudors' costume were quite sever in cut, symmetrical in shape, I want to inject some playfulness and unexpectancy into my collection by introducing Cubism into the design concept. With this, I want to experiment with proportion, scale, displacement of garment features, exaggerating certain parts while understating others. Play with layering fabrics and asymmetry to break away from the severity and austerity of Cristobal's precise tailoring yet retaining his essence of design at the same time.

  

Spring 2011

Balenciaga: Spanish Master

At New York's Queen Sofia Spanish Insititute, the exhibition "Balenciaga: Spanish Master" focuses on Crisotal's enduring influence of Spain in his work.

"The show looks at the influences in Balenciaga's world, which were very, very Spanish."- Oscar de la Renta, chairman of the Queen Sofia Insititute. Even after achieveing great success in Paris, Cristobal "remained very deeply influenced by the culture and folklore from Spain, from the religious to the gypsies, flamencos and bullfighters.”

Below are pictures of parts of the exhibition with a video by Bart Boehlert.