Eroticism

Final Collection

I finally ended up customizing seven men's shirts. I am pleased with the outcomes; I belive you can see a consistant trend throughout my collection. The strongest parts of my collection, in my opinion are, the colour palette and choice of fabric. On my boards are the outfits on my mannequin and in my folders are the sketches of my initial ideas for my collection.

Model -Megan Price

Fendi Spring-Summer Collection 2009

My collection takes a traditional idea and reworks it to be modern and relevant to current trends. The palette I have used demonstrates a combination of monochrome and a hint of metallic, which Fendi channelled as part of their S/S ’09 collection. Looking at the Fendi collection I can see that many of the outfits are all fitted at the waist with a big waist belt. This femininity contrasts the baggy and sometimes hard cuts to the dresses.

Because my shirts were men's shirts to start off with and could still look rather masculine when finished, I think putting a belt around the middle is a good idea and adds a feminine touch to my collection. I will experiment with belts and jewellery and see what happens...

Giorgio Armani Spring-Summer Collection 2009

My garments are all structured with masculine tailoring – having all come from men’s shirts originally. Many designers including Giorgio Armani are currently exhibiting versions of women’s tailoring that are oversized with strong, empowering cuts. Armani’s S/S ’09 collection in particular makes use of traditional cuts with a twist, such as an off-centre fastening or reworked seam and I intend to communicate this idea in my designs.

Wunderkind Spring-Summer Collection 2009

I came across Wunderkind's S/S '09 collection in 'Vogue Collections' and I could relate the outfits to mine and my ideas because of the way the cloth was draped and hung from the body, being cinched in with belts. Some of my more oversized shirts still hold their original masculine feel, and this can be accessorized with belts and jewellery to add a feminine touch.

Starting points

The first thing that inspired me to base my Laundry project on upcycling and reworking garments was a postcard of a student's work who just graduated from the same course as me. Stephanie Cooper specialises in print, surface design and upcycled fashion.

From this picture you can see how she has taken apart a blazer, turned parts of the garment inside out, re-hemmed seams, printed on certain areas and then finally put the blazer back together. There is no better way I could try and describe my ideas and where my core inspiration has actually come from, than this photo.

Because I'm looking at recycling and upcycling I thought the best symbollic representation of my ideas would be the recycling trademark badge. I decided to make my own stencil and use a combination of spray paint and print to transfer the stencil onto shirts I had previously taken apart. Some of the prints are smudged to add to the disordered effect.

Dictionary Definitions:

Recycle - To collect and process used materials into new products in order to prevent the waste of potentially useful materials, reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials and reduce energy usage.

Upcycle - The repurposing of a material into a new product of higher quality.

Mone Maurer

I saw these paintings by Mone Maurer in INDIE magazine. On one of my shirts I have taken the sleeves off and sponged white acrylic on them, giving them a kind of stone washed effect. The paintings are also based around a washed-out monochrome palette and have a stone look about them. I thought I'd add them to my blog as they have added to being my inspiration during the making of my collection.

Final floral print

I have decided not to make use of silk screen printing, and so to create a recycled look I will do my floral print through a stencil using sponge white acrylic paint. I am aware that having white acrylic paint on your shirt isn't very wearable but going back to the likes of Margiela some of his garments are better described as pieces of art because of their impracticality. He has made a mini dress out of combs, which in reality would be virtually impossible to wear.

"HAIR-COMB SHORT DRESS" Hair-combs in plastic, tortoiseshell or horn are cut and assembled on a metal chain to make a short dress, Martin Margiela.

Back to the floral printing, here are some images that will show you how I used my stencil and acrylic paint to achieve my final prints.

Here are some images of the shirt on the body. I am eventually going to stitch into the floral pattern and make the shirt look more shabby and worn out.

Floral print

Because I am reworking existing men's shirts into a collection for women I want there still to be a hint of femininity throughout the collection, despite the fit of the shirts being over sized and in some cases still looking fairly masculine from the way they fall on the body. I have therefore decided to experiment with floral prints. I have taken some floral prints from the Liberty website.

I like the small floral print, but it could be a struggle trying to print the pattern onto the fabric. Silk screen printing is an option but I'm worried that because of the size of the print the detail may be lost. Here are some larger prints I have looked at.

I like the last three floral prints and happy with the size of the flowers and what they could potentially look like printed on my shirts.