Big post-progress tutorial reflection

So far ive been embarrassingly bad at doing my regular reflection, so on the advice of my tutor in my progress tutorial, im doing one big one to sum up the project so far. Initially I was just interested in posture and how you can force a man into strong posture, but without much context or personal link for this, I was finding it hard to communicate and almost scientific- purely evaluating the strength of a variety of stances. I tried to mix the shape cue of strong aristocratic posture with the visual and textural cue of ageing fabrics, and this was working for a while but I felt it didn’t really read as the story that I aimed for it to. At this point I managed to link the two, thinking about how heirlooms, and how things that come from your ancestors give you a sense of pride and make you stand taller. Wearing the clothes of an old relative can feel like they are present with you, making you feel as though you are flying the family flag, which changes the way that you hold yourself. A man can feel support wearing a ring thats been down 6 generations of his family, knowing that he comes from strong people, and having a sense of these ancestors wearing it too. I have a shirt of my grandfathers that I feel I can almost sense his body within, and I definitely hold myself stronger and more openly when wearing it, there is a presence within these objects. This narrative allows me to keep the strong posture element, looking at my ancestors and the strong, noble poses that they are frozen in by photographs, and also how they make a man stand with more pride when wearing such objects. Aswell as this, I can keep my ageing fabric direction and carry on exploring heirlooms and the way that these materials age.

Having done lots of posture experiments and playing around with restriction, ive decided there are 2 main strength poses. The first being a display of physical power, carrying something above the head or pushing outwards above the head. Arms above the head and tensed shoulders, shoulderblades pinched towards each other, and a wide stance with good balance on the legs. This openness combined with a tensed rigidness creates an almost michaelangelesque sculptural form. The other is pure openness, providing a sense of being a host, open and comfortable, with the confidence not to cover yourself or worry about vulnerability. This is defined by the elbows being pushed towards each other behind the back, the chest stuck out, and a slight bend in the knees with a wide stance.

Right now as im entering the last month of the project, I have a sense of what my final outcomes will look like. I still have my intention to make a multiple outfit collection, and im intending for these 3 looks to be based on heirlooms I have and things that remind me of family. The 3 looks are more designed as a way to make the body into a rigid and strong form, than they are a wearable and liveable outfit. The first look is based on a sheep’s hip bone that I found on the land my great grandmother used to own in Derbyshire, and its a full body length “posture changer” which takes the shape of this bone, made from resin and brown velvet, the wearer stands sort of through and around it. The left arm of the wearer goes through a hole, forcing it outwards and leaving the wearer open, and another shank goes through the legs, forcing them into a wide strong position. The second look is based on the way that velvet so beautifully ages, and the aggressive peak lapels that my great grandfather wore in his heyday. Ive been loving my experiments with how you make velvet threadbare, and the way that this creates natural fold lines in the fabric for pleats to fall. This look is essentially a brown velvet dinner jacket with black satin lapels, but the back panel of the jacket is made of this threadbare pleated velvet, and it has an oval shape hole on the upper back, which the wearer sticks both of their arms through, as a restriction which results in open posture. I intend to make a matching velvet bottom for this, but I haven’t yet decided whether this will be a skirt or trousers. The third look is based on my great grandfathers set of detachable collars, and a Marcella style waistcoat where the back is open and only the front 2 panels are properly formed. The collars in the set are starched absolutely solid, and this is something I want to reflect in the fabrics used to make this. This look is a waistcoat with 2 properly formed front panels, and a more organic edged strap joining these 2 panels behind the back. This strap will be painted with resin to make it rigid, and will be moulded off of back where the shoulder blades were pinched, so will force the wearer to stick out their chest. This will be made of white cotton, in keeping with a traditional opera white tie waistcoat. This will come with trousers of the same concept, but im yet to decide whether these are black or white. This should pinch the wearer and hold them rigid in an open pose, while also providing a facade of traditional white tie tailoring.

Ive been really enjoying use of the resin room, I have wanted to work with such a material for so long, and didn’t know there was a workshop for it at college, nor was I allowed to use it at home. The ability to turn fabric into statue is a wonderful thing, and it opens up so many possibilities in the shapes im able to create. My most successful experiments so far have been the resin cube that I pressed into a sheet of velvet, creating a hard box with a hole in the middle, which can be worn as a sleeve with a rigid shape and drape coming from the non resined fabric. I also painted stripes of resin onto a waistcoat with the intention to pleat it, folding it in the places that the fabric was still soft. I didn’t account for the fact that the when the shape is almost cylindrical these won’t fold perfectly, but it made these wonderful transparent stripes which left it looking like a ribcage.

FMP term 3

FMP term 3

reflection

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