AD394: presentation

(notes from my presentation of work)PART 1: Activism in Fashion Communication

I initially researched into trends and forecasting using Trendtablet and Li Edelkoort’s anti-fashion manifesto. I wanted to investigate something I haven’t explored in previous projects, and a lot of my personal work outside of university, and my internship (at Hi Cacti, a cactus concept shop in Brighton) was based around botanicals, plants and wellbeing so I decided to explore this trend further, looking at the appreciation of plants in all areas of our lives and living in harmony with nature.

As well as visiting exhibitions for visual research and inspiration I visited Kew Gardens to take photos and observational drawings to inspire my research and image-making – focusing on shapes, colours and aesthetics that could relate to emerging trends, particularly in fashion and textiles.

Another area I researched into was the process of natural dyes – I researched into the concept of ethnobotany (the study of how humans and societies use nature in their everyday lives) and how we could revert back to that by bringing it back into fashion. I carried out still life shoots focusing on naturally pigmented materials, and then experimented further by actually dyeing fabric with the plant materials, to form colour and process inspiration for the trend.

I also wanted to focus more on fashion illustration in this brief as I feel I don’t have as much experience in it – I researched into different media and methods used by fashion illustrators to create a range of collages and illustrations to display the natural fibres and colours featured in the trend – in the trend book I paired these with Pantone colour swatches that would be seen in a trend book. This encouraged me to try out new styles of drawing as well as incorporating my photos into my work.

I researched into trend forecasts/reports and trend books (WGSN, Trend Union and others) to look at how they present their information through images and text. My outcome was a summarised extract from what would be a larger report on the trend of natural living as a whole – incorporating lifestyle, garments, pattern and graphics, and beauty.

PART 2: Developing my statement of intent

To generate ideas for my FMP I wanted to investigate an area that I have enough interest in to sustain the project, so I developed loosely on my dissertation topic (which is on the revival of 1950s underwear styles and how this relates to eroticism as well as women’s place in society) and started thinking about feminism in fashion – “feminist” fashion campaigns and the backlash that comes with them – questioning whether mainstream fashion can ever really be feminist?

My research naturally led on to look at feminist publications – I looked at the history of Riot Grrrl zines and how they were able to break all the rules of content and design because of their rebellious nature, and compared them to more contemporary DIY feminist zines which pull upon aspects of the Riot Grrrl movement. – began thinking about creating a satirical or anti-fashion magazine that takes inspiration from this; subverting expectations of fashion media, or making a mockery of it to discuss feminist issues.

I began thinking about trigger words in fashion or women’s magazines and advertising that suggest feminist issues or are considered offensive, and started experimenting with hand-drawn typography based on the images and connotations these words generate.

I was also encouraged to think about alternative formats, layout and printing methods, which I will research and experiment with further next semester. I researched into graphic designers, existing ‘off-the-wall’ publications and image-makers to create an initial mood board which lays down my ideas about the content and identity of the magazine.

I created an initial media pack to go alongside my statement – this puts all of my research and ideas so far together and also allowed me to start playing with type and layout in InDesign, which will develop in my final major project.