With this blog I'm marking the start of a new, more positive diary. I deleted my last blog, I felt it was so full of moaning and way too negative. Instead I think this blog should focus on a more positive attitude towards my work and reflect on it.
I am a 3rd year fashion design student and am currently working on my third year collection. I will have to go on an internship this summer and I have to write a thesis. This blog will be a creative and reflective diary of my progress in all 3 fields.
As I will be very busy working on my collection in the next 4 weeks I might not necessarily have much time to write, but I'll try and keep this blog up to date :)
RIIIIIGGGHHHHHT
So here it goes:
MY COLLECTION:
My 3rd year collection will consist of two outfits. One of them is going to be menswear. The theme is Iron Maiden's Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner. I am looking at the arrogance of man and the consequences. The first outfit of the collection is the menswear one. It reflects the arrogance and violence of the Mariner. Since these are very dominantly male traits this is the menswear outfit. It will consist of: trousers, shirt, knitted jumper and an overcoat. It will be very straightforward and tailored but through fabric manipulation I will try and have the "Mariner" unravel at the edges.....
The second outfit is going to be a very fragile and frayed knitdress. It's mainly inspired by the torn and ragged sails of a ghostship. It represents the vulnerabilty that the mariner encounters while he is suffering the consequences of killing the albatross. It's very frail but yet there is gonna be a proud and strong element to it. I am currently working on my knit and trying to play with the right textures that make it cutting edge.
INTERNSHIP:
I got of the phone with a lovely kidswear designer in Munich today. She does customized kidswear and does price her work very reasonably. She is a lovely person and we were chatting for a while. She can offer me a place from mid June onwards and I'd be sooooo happy to take it. I'll keep you updated on the progress
THESIS:
I am doing my Thesis on Fetishism and Fashion. now I've only started researching books and doing a bit of reading. I am currently reading through a book called Beauty and Mysogyny- harmful cultural practices in the west by Sheila Jeffreys. That woman has very extreme views and I can't believe some of the things she has been writing in it. At one stage she says (about shaving your legs): "The suggestion that women will not acquire male partners wihout shaving resembles the reasons given for the carrying out of harmful beauty practices in other cultures, such as female genital mutilation"
Now that's a bit harsh isn't it? She's very one sided as well. Talking about misogyny, that woman herself comes across as a proper misandrist.
Now I don't care what sexual orientation that woman has, but she comes across as a very angry, man-hating lesbian (which she is) and her views are very 1968, despite the fact that the book was published in 2005.
I do recommend the book to anybody though, because despite the fact that she's very biased and extremist with her views she touches on a few interesting points.
My next read will be Valerie Steele's Fetish- Fashion, Sex and Power can't wait for that one, it has the torso of a leather-clad woman on the cover....promising :)
