mediums, messages

tracciamenti is a print house exploring constructions of dresses two-dimensionally. i found these at the perfect time-- i am both learning the foundations of construction and questioning their necessary usage through the physical construction of clothing (the shirt). Here, the structures of garments are literally illustrated with respect to the dress. This really makes me consider the notion of medium in way that my recently (and necessarily) narrow-minded focus on fashion construction has caused me to disregard. This prints are so beautiful! Capturing structure in such a delicate way, the artist retains the purely aesthetic qualities of construction while staying true to the beauty of the dress as a whole. They each balance out coarseness and delicate intricacy which are two notions that i have found balance each other out in the design process. i want to make a dress with these prints on them- - - so postmodern!

kids with shirts

This blog has begun a series of initiations to the world of fashion production for me. after my first blog post, i finished sketches for my first real shirt. My shirt will combine the notions of the historically fundamental functions of the shirt + comme des garcons' activation of the space between the body and its adornment + children in men's shirts. While the last part seems cutesy and unrelated, it actually directly corresponds to kawakubo's attempt with CdG to rethink clothing "from zero" and challenge conventional codes of beauty and style. children are relatively unexposed to cultural codes--they are dressed by their parents; they are walking simulacra of adults, dressed to mimic functionality. But when parents put shirts on children, a new shape is created that is both specific to the child's body and completely separate from it. The shirt is once again worn for protection (albeit against non-toxic fingerpaint). The child then adjusts the strange shape to their body to facilitate movement. This act thus re-appropriates function and sparks a pure, unmediated body awareness that cultural codes render impossible for adults.
I'm inspired by this moment of immediate simultaneous reaction between the body and the clothes, and strive to recreate it with my unavoidably static garment.

processing process

oversized, overthinking

can my liberal arts education really "give me an advantage" at fashion school? so far, all it has done is left me stumped by my own academicism. or maybe if i really was a good academic thinker i could unstump myself-- but instead i have fifty drawings of shirts to do and i can't get past my need to reconcile these two ideas:

rei kawakubo realizing "that clothes could be the body and the body could be the clothes."

and the history of the shirt: "until the middle of the nineteenth century the shirt was always worn next to the skin; even when an undershirt of vest was later worn beneath it its main purpose continued as a protective layer between the skin and its outer clothing."

the shirt, in accordance with kawakubo's mentality, is the fundamental piece of clothing. it has historically been the closest to the skin, and its function is rooted in protecting the body. how then does that position the body when the shirt --unadorned with layers-- disregards the shape of the body? For example, does an oversized garment hide the body in disavowal or in protection? does the separate movement of a big shirt from the body (as opposed to one that moves when the torso moves) call attention to human movement and its relation to clothing or does it push the garment to the forefront and lose reference to the body all together?

Furthermore, does the fact that we are able to ask these questions just call attention to the frivolity of clothes? At this point, the clothes we talk about in blogs were not designed to provide mobility in labor, for example. I should consider my theoretical twisting a luxury. Because where clothes are not developed strictly according to function, I guess one must, or one has the opportunity to, find another reason to make them. If only I detangle my pencil from my head. And if that ever happens, my next goal will be to separate my head from the design process altogether.