Interest:
beach/outdoor activities such as hiking
Concerts and Music Shows
Art Shows:
Work Experience: Retail
Currently work at the Gap and work on the visual merchandising
Past experience in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop:
Rebranded Anthropologie in Illustrator
Adobe Photoshop experience: Men’s inspired Lookbook
A Bit of Sewing experience
Princess-line Peplum dress with oversized bow
My inspiration from the Fowler Museum in UCLA was Barron Lacroix, which had a lot of colors. It’s a man wearing a suit with a bow tie, so I took the bow tie into inspiration and made it oversized in a women’s peplum dress.
proud of myself with my final result :]
For my alter identity final project, I chose to focus on Teen pregnancy. I chose to do teen pregnancy because it’s something we see a lot today and people view them differently. I also chose to do this project because I want to know how it feels to be stared at, I want to put myself in teen moms shoes. For dress I will be creating a fake belly and wear it under my clothes. I will be observing how people look at me and how I am treated differently when I’m pregnant and how it made me feel. Since this is teen pregnancy I will be wearing clothing brands that young women wear. For example, Hollister, Abercrombie and Fitch, American Eagle, Skate/ Surf brands and Pink by Victoria Secret. I will be visiting grocery stores, going to family functions, church, work, and even out with friends.
Teen pregnancy is hard because you are young and put your life on hold. You can’t do certain things you did before you were pregnant. A lot of people have different opinions on teen pregnancy. For example my parents are very traditional and feel that someone should be married before having a baby. I feel by doing this project everyone close aroud me can learn something from it as well.
The whole quarter I had envisioned what I wanted to do for my final project. I still wanted to keep my original plan and use the exhibit as inspiration to pick out my fabric. The exhibition had a dark feeling to it so I decided to of course incorporate black fabric. Behind the dark feeling that it gave me, there were bright colors that would stand out. The color that stood out for me was purple and a florescent pink. The piece I chose to focus on was Barron Lacroix (2010). It’s an older man in a black suit, standing on a platform. There are skulls represented in the piece. The background has a lot of different colored leaves, outlined with a different color. For my final garment I chose to make a peplum top. I would use the bodice sloper without the darts and add on the bottom hem to make into a peplum. For the peplum I would use the slash and pivot technique. For my bottom I will be making a skirt around mid thigh length. I will be using the skirt sloper. The fabrics I will be using are woven, cotton.
A females exposed body parts can mean different things in different cultures. In this chapter they give comparisons on the Kalabari tribe and the Euro American women. In the Kalabari tribe the way a woman is dressed starts with child hood and physical maturation and ends with the expected status of marriage. Dress tells a lot because the horizontal lines of women wrappers and blouses emphasize the roundness of the fertile or potentially fertile woman. The Kalabari tribe has an ideal shape for a woman’s body. The more plumped they were the more they where ready to give birth to a child. The meaning of having a wider waist was to show people that they have given childbirth and contributed to the tribe.
It’s true how a woman’s body is always more exposed then a male’s body. It can be different occasions, as a uniform, or even on a daily basis. I think this statement is true because at my old job at Hot Dog on a Stick, the girls would wear short shorts and a semi tight shirt. The guys would wear long shorts with loose fitting shirt. All the uniforms looked the same but the girls attire always had to be a bit more revealing. Even in special occasions as in a wedding the bride is meant to wear white to show she is a virgin. It’s tradition to wear white on your wedding day but today it is rare to see that. A lot of bridal companies make their dresses in ivory. The wedding dresses expose skin on the shoulders and arms and sometimes shows a lot of cleavage. A man’s attire to the wedding is a suit that covers him from neck to toe. I feel like woman today feel like the only way they can feel “sexy” or secure is to show a lot of skin to catch a male’s attention. It’s sad because a man should be attracted to you for who you are and not how much clothes you are wearing.
Ivory wedding dress
Tribal woman exposing skin
Even at work women show more skin then men
This project was fun. I would make another one. the hardest part was the facing. This project wasn’t as bad as i thought it was going to be. Now I know how to make some summer wraps. No fun to work when ur getting sick.
Alexander McQueen was in incredible designer. He graduated from MA Fashion Design course at Central Saint Martins in London in February 1992. His first collection was Victorian inspired. He focused on the dark side of the nineteenth century. His collections were dark and fierce. The themes of sex, death and commerce intertwined. People viewed his collections the wrong way. He showed women being abused and the themes were on rape, war, sex and death. But the inspiration came from the power of women. He likes to portray women as strong instead of a victim. It was the relationship between victim and aggressor. Marquis de Sade had the same views.
I have always heard of Alexander McQueen but never took the time to see his work. But after researching and looking at his work he became one of my favorite designers. At first while reading, since I didn’t know much about him, I was a little bit shocked and frightened. What he used for his inspiration for his designs was a little out there to me. I then did some research and it made more sense to me. The details he does on his garment are amazing. The shapes and curves and the structure where eye catching. I couldn’t stop looking at his work. I kept researching and researching. Just by looking at his work I found inspiration. He inspired me and made me open my eyes to things that can get your mind thinking and that any thing can be an inspiration. He inspired me with the lace details on a window display. I wish I could own a piece of his clothing. Taking this class has opened my mind to being creative and when looking at something to really observe it, look at the detail and really take it in.
“Fashion photography in this period shifted stylistically, giving expression to the Single Girl ethos. The model is shot outside, often walking, or running; she is ‘active'”.
“Audrey Hepburn marks a transitional moment in the move from haute couture to pret-à-porter, seemingly anticipating the new ideal promoted by Helen Gurley Brown. … She is remembered for the black turtleneck and capri pants that she wears frolic as yet unreformed in the cafés of Paris”.
“In the 1960’s, fashion editors looked for a ‘face’ that was somehow ‘new’ , or different, while focusing on a certain almost perverse image of girlishness”.
Fashion from women has changed over time. In the 1960’s women started being independent and had careers. A women’s body was now free from all the constraints of the previous fashions. The constraints were now being replaced with diet and exercise. In the 1960’s there was an ideal of the single girl. Through fashion photography, women in the 1960’s would look and want to be this ideal girl. Fashion photography and women’s fashion made a new feminine ideal. The ideal girl dominated the feminine culture. She was young, single, and economically self-sufficient. Fashion photography in this period shifted stylistically, giving expression to the Single Girl’s characteristics. The women or model would usually be shown and photographed outside, often walking, or running. She was active and shows that this new ideal showed youth. I still think that it is still influenced today because the woman you see in the magazines are thin, physically active, and pretty much your “ideal woman”. I mean I know that a lot of it is Photoshop but I still think that the fashion industry still tries to continue with the ideal size and shape of a woman’s body should be. We still look up to celebrities and see what they wear and want to be like them.
The film industry took part of it, as well as woman’s magazine. The “ working girl”, became the main target customer in 1965, when editor Helen Gurley Brown revamped Cosmopolitan Magazine. The working girl was the one who set fashion standards. But there was a difference of the working girl and the career girl that people would mix up. Haute, high class, couture was catered to the wealthy women of leisure, who had time and money to afford a wardrobe. Ready-to-wear was for woman of limited time and money and for whom fashion was useful as well as pleasurable. Ready-to-wear is the same today as it was in the 1960’s. It’s still made in factories and in standard sizes, which most women of today can afford instead of high-end couture clothing. Ready-to-wear clothing is now a lot more popular because a lot of people cant afford really expensive things. Ready-to-wear lines were important because the represent a shift away from formal evening gowns and a European look. Aubrey Hepburn marks a transitional moment in the movement from haute couture to pret-a-porter (ready-to-wear). She is remembered for the black turtleneck and the black Capri pants. In the 1960’s editors looked for “the face” of something new, different and also the image of girlishness. And that’s how Twiggy was discovered. She was 5’6, and weighed 91 pounds. They identified her as the “youthquake”. This chapter did have some similarities to how fashion is today.
Link: http://www.maybellinebook.com/2012/08/whats-your-take-on-helen-gurley-browns.html
Front
Back
This project was probably my least favorite. It was a bit awkward and confusing. I think my favorite part in it all was sewing the skirt seams together. When it came down to sewing the bodice to the skirt my bodice did not match up so I had to ease it in somehow. The hem was not fun, I think I will be choosing a different hem for my final project. On the positive side all these samples have me thinking about my final project which I am excited about! I have an idea in mind and hopefully i can create it.
“Any man, whatever his build, can always be measured with the great accuracy by means of the common inch tape…”
“…urged readers who were making the transition from theory to practice to ‘remember always that your hands are going about sensitive intelligent man, and not a horseblock”.
When I read this quote I thought about Abercrombie& Fitch
” Here a well-proportioned physical frame, with dress cut tightly to suggest muscular form and brightly to accentuate the possession of fashionable knowledge, could stand as a symbol of modernity; and to the wearer at least these attributes could come together to constitute a form of sexual attractiveness”.
The chapter talks about how in the late eighteenth century; tailors would make one pattern that fit the ideal body. The ideal body was average height, about 5’10 and had an athletic fit. Then eventually realized that the pattern they used didn’t fit every male body and that even man was different. They learned how to measure the different body parts required to make a perfect fit. They even learned to stand and kneel down when taking a measurement of a part of the body where the male may feel insecure.
When I think about men and fashion, the first thing that comes to mind is that that in present day I have met a lot of men that don’t pay a lot of attention to what they wear. But I have noticed walking down the street that there are a lot of men that do. Some men can wear the same outfit all day and some change up to two to three times a day. Reading the chapter I noticed that men are usually the tailors. Men know about structure and how the male’s body is built. But I also question myself on how there are a lot of male fashion designers that design for women’s apparel. I noticed that women designers are good at draping and knows women’s curves and add a feminine touch to the garment. A male designer knows and is well at structural design. A tailor knows and specializes in a male’s body structure. Everyone’s body is different. Every male’s body is different and talented tailors can make a suit on any shape and size. I also noticed that in movies when a wealthy man is getting fitted for a suit of just getting fitted for a special occasion the tailor is a male. I think if you have the money to pay to get your suit tailored I would. It would fit more comfortably and fit you perfectly.
Ruby Gracia 