Pretty Girl
During my time in UAL, I have had the chance to expand both my passions, my costume portfolio as well as my music career. For my final unit, I wanted to combine both. In the costume scene, I felt there was a large untapped potential for creating a more intimate fan base, rather than simply posting my projects and process online. Therefore, I wanted to use my music platform to also create content involving the construction of a garment made for my original music, gaining visibility on both fronts. I am hoping to channel that energy so that when I leave university, I have a more solid online presence which could open doors for me in the future.
Concept Board
The concept for this project is to design 3 garments inspired by 3 different songs of mine, with the goal to complete one in order to perform with it around the streets of london. I want to stand out by juxtaposing the ordinary of everyday life with lively, feminine energy, as a metaphor to my brand and music.
When it comes to female pop music ions, the divas, there is an extra aspect which contributes to their success and status on top of their talent. That is a signature look, and that one often being extravagant, innovative and on brand with their identity as an artist. Whether it is , feminine, sexy, empowering, etc, the look can make an artist go from a singer to a pop sensation.
Moodboard for “underground”
“Underground” is a song about a person who can’t seem to move on after a break up, but believes that step by step, with time they will heal. The song is called underground since in the chorus the lyrics say “though I was buried, the soil, nurtured my soul from underground”. I was heavily inspired by the idea of being buried and reborn. So i drew inspiration from the state a person gets after a breakup when their room becomes a depression den and there are piles of clothes everywhere, and they are buried in in their room, tissues and pajamas. I wanted to incorporate that idea into the costume, as well as the idea of shedding that coat and becoming new and lighter
Moodboard for “Breathe”
“Breathe” is a song about anxiety and depression, depicting the mental illnesses as a murder scene of the mind. The song uses real breaths to enhance the feeling of a panic attack, and uses vivid imagery to show the state a person is left in after a crisis. I was inspired by an art piece called “can’t help myself”, consisting of a robot that can never keep the liquids in its surroundings contained, causing it to lash out and stay in this endless cycle. Inspired by the ideas of expanding and contracting like breaths, i was also inspired by the gravity toys that expand once thrown in the air, and magnetic slime with its unnatural and thick movement.
For underground, I drew inspiration from Viktor and Rolf 2005 fall collection, specifically their sleep dress, from vintage sleepwear, and the met gala exhibition “sleeping beauties”. The concept is this garment which layers and combines real nightwear to then be shed, revealing a light, bright colourful 60’s inspired tulle nightgown, using the old garments as a cape. The pile of pajamas has odes to he lyrics of the song, with some containing actual lyrics, others having prints like snow particles, or broken hearts, etc.
For breathe, I followed the motifs of something expanding and contracting. So i envisioned these big glass/ blood like droplets that lay flat on the body when still, but flare out in different lengths and directions as the model moves. I wanted something that allowed for easy movement, while getting the shock factor in
Pretty girl is a song about the entrapments of societal expectations towards women imposed on girls. I wrote the song after watching barbie, and was inspired by the ironic take on tackling misogynistic traits in our society. I was inspired by the lyrics describing the girl as a prize, as well as the objectification of girls and their entrapments from a young age. I was driven by the idea that in order to deal with misogyny, women choose to adorn themselves with beautiful things, to create a gilded cage. I drew inspiration from the juxtaposition between graphic violent treatment of women in porn, and pop icons harnessing fashion and garments to reclaim their bodies and sexuality.
I knew I wanted to keep mixing technology and garments for this costume, so I drew inspiration from different artists and their interactive costumes, such as Lady Gaga and her fire bra, katy perry and her peppermint and her whipped cream bra, Jennifer lopez and her projection mapping dress and Robert Wun and his SS24 collection.
When sketching, I drew inspiration from the silhouette of both a woman’s curves and the oscar’s atrophy, trying to make the model a trophy. I also was drawn to tape and bondage pieces, how the clung to the body exposing and stifling it, as well as chainballs weighing down the performer.
I chose to make the performer the “shiny prize”, using the mirrored tiles to both draw attention and blind the audience, showing the conflict between embracing sexuality and being sexualized. The droplets on the bodice are both an ode to cleanliness as well as the objectification of women in pornography, being used for the men’s climax and pleasure. The heavy ruffles on the legs and arms both weigh the performer down whilst also allow her to take more space and require more distance from unwanted attention, and the spinning disco balls make her a prize but also shows her confidence and her self value. the costume is about duality, and the standards that both oppress and empower women. Even though it is a beautiful costume, once put in context with the lyrics, one can see it has more “layers” to it.
To start with, I created my leotard, and using the midpoint between the back and front measurements, created a cardboard cutout of my body so I could work on the bodice stretched and flat.
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I then colour matched the lycra to my skin tone, which was very difficult since it was too dark and yellow for me. I cancelled the darkness out with tones of blue and the yellow with red, which resulted in a really good colour match for my skin.
I also began experimenting with different glues and ways to stick tiles to the fabrics, aswell as how different plastics reacted to being vacuum formed and laser cut. I found that using a multipurpose glue on non stretch fabric, leaving small gaps between the tiles works best for adding the tiles to the fabric. I also found that 3mm mirrored acrylic did not respond well to vacuum forming, which made me change my plans on how to create the metal droplet decoration
I proceeded to attaching the bra pads to the leotards, then on one side sketching the lines and aplique sections, tacking those with needle and thread, applying tape on top of each section, tracing the lines, creating a pattern piece for the section and then using the pattern piece, sketching the stencil on the other side and tacking those as well.
Stretching the fabric sout, I cut the pieces, then using quilters spray, I stuck the stretched out pieces on to the stretched out leotard and tacked those into place. Mixing the different textures and stretches of the fabrics was very challenging,and complicated my process throughout the project. The quilters spray also made the surfaces too sticky to sew with the sewing machine, which meant I had to sew almost every applique by hand using nylon thread. It was a very lengthy and delicate process.
third fitting
In order to create the droplets, using adobe illustrator I created a multitude of shapes looking like droplets and cut them out of a 12mm cork square. I then used the square with the cut outs to place in the vacuum former, and on top placed a 1 mm sheet of clear acrylic. When the time came to vacuum form, I’d suction the air and release before it fully caught the shape of the stencil, allowing to create the rounded edges. I’d then lightly spray paint with silver paint inside the droplets to give it a misty effect. To finish off, I laser cut the same pattern on mirrored acrylic, and tuck it to the bottom of the decoration, given it the liquid metal effect.
Though the patterns for both are different the process for creating the ruffles for the sleeves and for the legs are the same. For the sleeves however, I added length to the bottom to enhance the cascade effect desired in the design. I attach the oerganza and leatherette with the overlocker, topstich them so they’d lay flat, fin the fabric onto a flat surface and begin sticking the tiles onto it’s section. By the end of this project I stitch aroun d 20 thousand mirrored tikes on to the garment.
For the disco balls, I designed a hollow platform that allowed the ball to hug the shoulder and hold the vital technology for the ball to spin. I then vacuum formed the dome, and attached the motor, mechatronic and battery back to the centre of the platform. That way, once all the pieces were connected, I could screw the top piece on and it would spin!
For the finishing touches, I attached mini disco balls to the cutout in the back and hand stitched silver chord on almost every seam and edge on the body. I also laser cut 6cm circle to attach 5cm falh foam balls, which I then sprayed, bejeweled and connected with hoops and a lobster clasp, attaching two of the disco balls to it. The other two discoballs, I attached to the shoulder with magnets.