When I started this project, I wasnt focussed on costume nor did I have a 'character' at the beginning, this developed in time with research plus I wasnt aware I was able to look at it from a costume point of view until a bit later.
When I got the brief, I was intrigued by the idea of formal wear, which is a personal favourite of mine but what I immediately associated with the 1920s and 30s didnt entirely inspire me.. But of course each era has its 'typical' associations, suck as the 50s most people think of hippies, 60s maxi dresses, 70s and 80s massive shoulderpads and so on and so forth. The 20s and 30s just bought the images of shapeless boyish dresses with dropped waists and small hats. I think I was glad to have the opportunity to correct my thinking on these decades as there is much more to the era than I originally realised!
Since I was looking at the 20s and 30s, I wanted to look at the techniques developed in that time, what was popular and new. From my recent Victorian research where I found that Taffetta was a new fabric and certain sewing techniques were invented back at that time, they played an awfully large part in nearly every piece of research I found relating to that era.
I found that the bias-cut was invented in this era, and the bias cut bought with it a totally new silhouette to the women of the age. Bias, allows the garment to almost cling to the body's natural curvature, it makes the fabric far more fluid than on a straight cut and to drape softly.
Popular fabrics for the time seemed to consist of satin, silk, crepe and chiffon and were quite popular for the bias cut method.
I think that at the beggining, as the brief has set 'formal wear' into my mind, I was going to concentrate on either a men's suit or a really timeless classic dress style, as I am not someone who finds it easy to bring contemporary design into my work being someone who is heavily influenced by costume which of course works on strong links or accuracy. I have always felt the times I have made something 'comtemporary', that they dont look quite right to me.
Since I had decided somewhat that it would be elegant, I had decided to go for a satin fabric of good quality.
I looked at Men's formal wear a little, which I thought was of lovely design and shape and still somewhat adapted from the late Victorian style of mens wear which accentuated the broad male shoulers, and the smaller waist. Pre-1860s Men wore a type of corset (not a girdle) to give them smaller waists under their waistcoats, and is actually why today's waistcoats have little ties on the back of them.
I did however realise that if I did do a men's wear piece, it would have to be printed for the print unit of my project and as much as I love print, I did not imagine a formal mens wear piece would look as spiffy with print on.
Which made my mind up via process of elimination that I'd do a women's wear piece.
:)
I found by my research that women in this era had changed an awful lot from the reign of Queen Victoria, women had re-developed, re-designed and changed their image completely. They were frivellous, and open, and sometimes majorly underdressed. The silhouette from the reign of Victoria had shrunk, from big dresses with corsets and crinolines into a boyish, almost shapeless look. We had sex symbols, dancers, movie stars and pin-up girls... whereas the reign of Victoria saw even fabric covers being made for table legs and even the avoidance of using the word 'leg' to stop perverted thoughts arising! Times were changing, and so were the people.
Glamour in the 20s and 30s was incredibly well done, and much better than todays glamour in my books. Beads, feathers, lace, translucent fabrics, diamonds, furs were all used to create the glamourous look of these decades and to me was the most inspiring thing I have found so far. I'm not a very feminine person so felt it would make a change to make something feminine and showy. But trying to mix this amazing look with 'contemporary' for me, was like trying to sit in a bath of hot lava. Impossible. At this point I found I was able to do a costume piece from my tutor after discussing FMP projects, which made me far more happier to think of because before that time I was staring blankly at a page trying to make something modern and edgy.
:D
I indulged into looking at more glamourous people, and during that found the one and only Ginger Rogers. I'd always heard about her, along with Fred Astaire movies, something I have known about/heard of but never seen..
I was amazed by her dance-costumes/dresses, all of elaborate detail, sequins, diamons, ruffles, fur, even feathers. All bias cut, flowing and elegant and made of .. win, basically. :D
I decided that I'd base my 'costume' piece on Ginger, making it so that my brief stated that should there ever be a remake of one of the Ginger and Fred movies, this costume would be designed for the acress playing Miss Rogers.
Which of course meant my dress had to follow the 'set rules' of Ginger-ness.
Floor length
Bias cut
Stunning!
And also fit for dancing in - so must have movement.
I tried to think of what would give the dress movement, which made me think of a few of Ginger's dresses...
So I decided to incorporate one of the typical things of the 30s glam into it. FEATHERS.
Inspired loosely by pieces of art-deco architecture, I originally designed two dresses which I was fairly pleased with.
But I loved the beaded back of one [seen on the left] but the feathers of the other [seen on the right], so merged the designs into one! :D
Of course, I found out shortly after setting my heart on this design how freaking expensive it was to create something akin to Ginger Roger's show dresses :/ and then realised how much her originals must be WORTH after all the labour that went into them. But thats what costume is about.. Crazy details that cost the earth but make it all worth while in the end. I bought two kinds of fabric for this, one a Countess Satin .. was it countess or duchess.. :s anyway, it cost more than the other one. £11.99 a metre, and I also bought a £9/metre satin which was slightly heavier. I found that the countess had far more of a beautiful drape, and on asking my family my mum said that the countess looked much better for my design... of course since its my parents money that funds this >.> it was up to her really which one I had. But she went ahead and got me the expensive fabric in support of my project :) which was.. maybe slightly unneccessary as I'd have used alternatives but generous. Especially considering I needed feathers too.
As I also had to incorporate print into the project, I tried to go for something I liked and thought would look good on a classic design.. If I'm honest Id have preferred not to print on it at all though but I needed my unit. I made a design which I loved and got a lot of positive comments from classmates about which was even better, but during this time I was also busy working on my portfolio work for Edinburgh uni with a short deadline and didnt get time to go back and finish my printing... and without print on the entire of my fabric, I cant cut bias.
I also spent £70 on specially dyed coque rooster feathers to match my fabric but they didnt arrive in time due to the company being back-logged with orders, which meant that I could not make my garment in time for this blog but will be able to put it all together very soon.
Print:
Feathers that are coming!:
but in this colour:
I'm still overall happy with my design and think I will have more confidence my project when my feathers arrive and construction can actually begin :s
I only feel my sketchbook let me down because I didnt think of costume or ginger at the beginning, so If i could re-do anything, it would be the layout or organisation of my book and having costume in my mind every step of the project.
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