Visual Product

Part 1:

Aim: Designing a wedding dress that shows movement.

How can movement be seen in a garment?

Movement in a garment can be seen by various aspects;the shape of the garment it self can create an illusion of movement as well as the patterns and prints. If the fabric of the garment is light enough weather elements such as wind can also create movement. Nowadays we can also create movement in a garment by incorporating technology into it.

Alexander McQueen - Movement through garment design and fabric print

House of Dereon - Movement through wind

Hussein Chalayan -  Movement through technology

Part 2:

Creating a scenario

I am going to create a scenario to direct me into creating a wedding design.

Occupation in wedding: Bride.

Character: Outgoing, confident, determined, self-assured.

Physical features: Hourglass, medium height, olive skin.

Season: Spring

Colours: Ivory with a touch of midnight blue

Ceremony:  Catholic Church

Reception: Standing up with a  dance floor.

Theme: Modern

Special enquires: Dress would be appropriate for church (having a veil, no bare shoulders, not to tight)  and appropriate to dance at reception ( skirt would be manageable, people would not step on it...) 

Part 3:

Inspiration for Visual Product

Art- Vine by Brice Marden

This minimalist artwork which represents a Vine is in my opinion one of the ideal inspirational artworks due to simplicity, and lack of recognition of the subject matter. It could drift one away into different final/ visual product. For my visual product I based the forms for both the head piece and the dress on this artwork.

Part 4:

Design- Collections of Hussein Chalayan

Chalayan instantly caught my eyes with his designs the moment I saw them. The mixture of technology and fashion inspired me to challenge myself into designing a garment which would be able to move through technology as Chalayan’ s designs 

are.

Part 5:

Film – The Princess and the Frog

As for the subject I choose and the way it evolved, the inspiration came from the animation film; The Princess and the Frog. In the scene where the two frogs take their first vows and transform into human, Tatiana would be wearing ball gown dress.  When the prince lifts her up they would end up in a church, where Tatiana would be wearing mermaid dress.

Part 6:

Designing the garment

From the beginning of the semester I knew I wanted to design a costume/ wedding dress. The fact that you can send a message/ information through clothing always intrigued me to be part of. The personality I choose to represent for the wedding dress I designed was an outgoing, confident and self-assured woman; this is why I was able to express the design the way I did.  If the woman was self conscious the tight fitting dress would not be ideal. Nor if the woman was shy would this dress be ideal due to the attention the sheer section is able to conquer. As for the headpiece since I did not want it to overcome the strength of  the dress, I choose to make it small and simple(no crystals, not shiny…),  yet delicate enough to be a bridal headpiece.

Part 7:

The technology and fashion

The Designer Hussein Chalayan and the technician Rob Edkins worked together, to create a collection back in 2007.  The technology used which is said to be smaller than a pencil, was hidden in the garments. To activate the technology one has to activate a pulley which would then connect to monofilament wires and this would give the energy needed for each cable to do its function.

For the dress I designed a similar technology would be used. The bottom section (skirt section) would have magnetic cells which would attract each other when energy is activated. They would be placed along the back side of the dress forming two columns, obviously taking in consideration the measurements of the woman wearing the dress.

Part 8:

Visual Product

The Materials used for the head piece and dress would be Midnight Blue coated 0.5cm thick wire. As for the dress ivory Sheer and ivory fabric would be used. As seen in the sketches jewelry should be kept at a minimal, a pair of earrings would be sufficient enough. To represent the concept I placed the bride in a modern church. The accessories used in the church were blue based, which contrasts the orange-brown decorations in the church.