Concrete Canvas

These stools are made by Florian Schmid using concrete canvas, the fabric is impregnated with cement and when water is added remains malleable for a short time and then becomes hard and is dry within 24 hours to create a smooth but stable finish. 

Exaggeration

Big Fat Gypsy weddings was suggested to me due to the size of the dresses and because of the scars that are caused by the weight of the dresses and the corsets.

The heavily embroidered sari's worn at Indian weddings can be extremely heavy, A friend said she felt weak during her wedding as result of the weight.

I also looked at some of the hats worn at ascot as they are very expressive and as a result are sometimes difficult to wear.

 It seems that occasional wear is where people take more risks, push more boundaries and are willing to be less comfortable.

Questions raised at pitch a plan

During pitch a plan the question of whether I wanted my work to be more expressive or subtle was raised , its hard to be sure at the moment as I feel I need to experiment more before I can give an answer. Initially I think I had envisioned my outcome being more expressive/ exaggerated but now I have started to experiment I think looking at more subtle outcomes is also interesting. I was also asked about what materials I planned on working with but again I am unsure as I don't know what I am going to be producing and I also want to experiment with different materials. In addition to that I plan to experiment with restriction, scale and weight and I'm not sure whether my work will be a response to just one or more of these areas.

Restriction

I have looked at things like bondage(including japanese bondage) and stocks among other things that are made to prevent movement.  

I have begun to experiment with rope and ribbon to limit movement.

Gareth Pugh

Gareth Pugh's work challenges the idea of what is wearable and is favoured by Lady Gaga amongst other celebrities.

Hussein Chalayan

Hussein Chalayan is know for producing high concept pieces, utilising technology and for making breath taking collections and pieces that straddle the lines between fashion and art.

Negotiated No.2

I want to do a continuation of my previous project where I looked at fashion, comfort and wearability. I became interested in this theme as I feel that although we feel we are far from the days of fashion being prohibitive (like corsets) things haven't changed as much as we think. So I want to produce a piece of body adornment that exaggerates the discomfort caused by common fashion items. I plan to look and explore 3 areas; restriction, scale and weight and to make my final piece a response to either just one or an accumulation of the 3 areas. I am going to produce something that is made to be worn but only for a short time and I think I will present it through a series of photographs or through footage and I would like to use current fashion trends as reference for the styling of the final piece.