Week 28 and 29
Written on March 15th, 2024 by Laura Weller
After the concept check I took the feedback at heart and worked on fashion references I used to design my looks. Next to that I deciced to make a bunch of sketches. Below you can see those sketches. After that you can look at the research I did into design principles.
Sketches
Design principles
The design principles I tried to cut up in different pieces. After my line up of 10 looks, and the made sketches, I turned to different ways of rethinking my designs. What is most important, is that all of the looks support the blockade. The looks that are impossible to make with biomaterial, I can make digitally. The looks that I can make with biomaterial, I can make physically. This brought me back to 2 looks that I can make physically. Those two I started researching.
The suit
While making some toiles with the suit, i discovered the suit was quite tight fitted. At the same time I did researchinto suits and realized that, with the idea of why I want to make a suit, the slim fitted option didn’t really fit the concept. I had to work more with the powersuits form the 80ies. I thought this suit would show power and that was the exact purpose of it while demonstrating. This suit came with a very classic styled pants with two pleats on the front panel. Some sources that I used for this were:
- Chenoune, F. (1993). A history of men’s fashion. (No Title).
- Kim, J. M. (2011). A study on the power suit style. Fashion & Textile Research Journal, 13(5), 679-685.
- Breward, C. (2016). The Suit: Form, Function and Style. Reaktion Books.
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2losnR0gQA&t=507s&ab_channel=TheStudio
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfj0-ptpo7Q&t=518s&ab_channel=Gentleman%27sGazette
- The Wolf of Wallstreet
Images that I used as inspiration were:
By using basic blocks of both suits, but also big coats, I found out how most of these powersuit patterns were set up. I used a big coat pattern as a starting point and created a suit pattern from that. The same I did with the pleated trousers pants. I looked into different sort of pants patterns and altered a basic block pattern into the pleated trousers pants. Below you can see some of the process and the final result.
The red rebel look
The second look that I want to make physically was the look of the red rebel. Initially I choose a pattern with no hardware, to not complicate my life more. While toiling I discovered that the material will not do with the pattern that I want to make, hence I had to go back and look at red rebel clothing and find a way to keep the look, while using my material. The red rebels use very flowy fabrics in their look, that means opposite fabric properties from my material. This poses a question as to what garments I should make to keep the red rebel aesthetic. While working with the heavy material I thought it would be wise to give to red rebels a more “strijdvaardige” look, but then at the same time also keep referencing to historical protest garments. This gave me the outcome of the culotte, but then make it longer so we stay a bit in the red rebel looks. Then I added a hood, as red rebels wear headpieces, but I changed the top to one of the jackets that people wear a lot during the blockades in order to show their role during the protest (police liason, wellbeing, press, de-escalation, rstsupport, etc.). Some sources that I used for this were:
- https://redrebelbrigade.com/visions/
- McKay, I. (2005). Rebels, reds, radicals: Rethinking Canada’s left history. Between the lines.
- O’Shea, J. (2022). A Beautiful Disruption: Extinction Rebellion’s Red [Rebel] Brigade and a Theory of Emotional Representation in Protest. In Politics as Public Art (pp. 26-42). Routledge.
- Sonenscher, M. (2009). Sans-culottes: an eighteenth-century emblem in the French Revolution. Princeton University Press.
- Soboul, A. (1980). The Sans-culottes: The Popular Movement and Revolutionary Government, 1793-1794. Princeton University Press.
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYUMgu9Q7OM&ab_channel=HistoricallyAdequate
- https://www.traditioninaction.org/Questions/L005_Culottes.htm
Images that I used as inspiration were:
The look ended up like:
Designers and other ideas
The other 4 looks had to keep supporting the blockade. This is why, with the help of Charlotte, I came up with 6 basic needs that would form as a key for the looks. These needs are:
- A suit so the police will take you more serious
- The red rebel inspired look
- A garment that can function as banner to communicate why you are protesting
- A collectief garment that can be worn collectively to make it more difficult for the police to drag you away
- A multifunctional garment, turned into a tent/ sleeping bag or something similar if you need to stay the night during a blockade
- A garment that is suited for the anonymous rebels, for example made for those who are living illegal in the Netherlands or have a statusholder citizensship and can’t take as much risk. Or for people who for example can’t get arrested due to their job (think about judges)
Into some ideas I looked into designer perspectives, such as Green Graig (number 5) or at Nicola L. her Red Coat: Same skin for Everybody (number 4). But into number 2 I just had a vague idea, but research into communication and clothing needs to be researched more. You can see below some of the key images that I took with me in the designing of the 6 looks.
