Category: AD136 – The Object

Deconstructing The Textured Jumper and Gender Roles, Simultaneously

(AD136 – THE OBJECT)

 

I wanted to defy and question the ‘gender roles’ of today’s society by using current stereotypes, in this case, knitting being a feminine activity. By using the inspiration from the ‘Punk’ trend of deconstruction as anti-fashion, in a time when females still had a predominantly domestic role in the home in comparison to males. I felt the combination of these ideas with the use of male models looking feminine would make a statement saying, “Why are there stereotypes? What really is feminine? Why does it matter?”

Creating the garments:

I carried out many experimentations before I created my deconstructed and reconstructed textured jumpers.

First I got two ‘prêt-à-porter’ textured jumpers to have as my base.

For my ‘reconstructed’ textured jumper, I wanted to add to the garment. So, I knitted a large patch of knit and purl stitch and attached this with paper clips to the large blue jumper. I wanted my knitted patch to look deconstructed, old and falling apart and my use of paper clips followed the theme of the anti-fashion punk trend of the seventies.

Contrarily, I wanted to create a more ‘deconstructed’ garment. I ripped sleeves off another jumper and added them to the sleeves and neckline of the pink textured jumper. The use of different lengths of sleeves and paper clips also took inspiration from the punk era, and also current collections from luxury brands of today, such as Raf Simmons and Anne Sofie Madsen. To emphasise the element of deconstruction, I ripped holes in one of these sleeves and bleached the other.

The colours I used within the shoot; pink and blue, have stereotypical links to gender. Using irony, was the way in which I chose to take back the gendered connotations of the colours and give them new meanings. Then using orange as a complementary and secondary colour gave me the power to give a middle ground to each model to show that the colours they were wearing didn’t have to give them an gender identity.

Carrying out the Photoshoot:

I wanted to be sure to experiment with as many different angles and ways of creating a relationship between the two models. This was lots of fun as I was loving every shot.

I took 500 photographs, so it was a hard task narrowing this number down to 8. Full Contact Sheet

Editing:

To edit, i just played with the simple features of Photoshop: brightness, contrast, vibrance, and levels, as I did not want my photographs to look heavily edited. I wanted to keep the rawness and vibrancy of the images as the use of colour was important to the conceptual importance of the textured jumper within this photoshoot. The use of pink and blue due to their ‘stereotypical’ connotations with gender and orange as a secondary colour, to evoke a complexity within the social issue of inequality in society. Selected Images – Contact Sheet

Composing a layout using InDesign:

I am really happy with the look of my editorial as a first attempt at using InDesign. I am really happy it looks bold and vibrant and I feel as though it would catch the attention of a reader. Although it seems a little busy, I felt it was important to feature the photographs that I feel achieve the ideas I am trying to communicate.

 

I loved this whole aspect of my project ‘The Object’ as it was a great taster of styling, creating, photography and the use of InDesign and I am very happy with the outcome.

 

thanks to the models – maximilian kilworth and liam muldoon

 

Stay groovy x x