Unga-Jonga Street Girls

A little drawing with a nod to fashion illustration style .  I Have been exploring  Shoreditch, London lately. All the galleries,  markets,  vintage shops  in Brick Lane.  I guess that is where the inspiration comes from. It was fairly quick to finish this one because textures did a great portion of job for me. I referenced and used  Fabian Oefner's photography.

'I'm Thinking'

Busy week at work it was (which is good ) ! Time for little refreshment, both in style and theme. It is called 'I'm thinking'. An attempt to incorporate fashion illustration approach and visualise a feeling of being overwhelmed by thoughts .. in a good kind of way.

I was looking at fashion illustrators such as Molly Grad and Aitor Throup

My First Fashion Shoot in i-D Magazine’s Style: Doppel Identities

The inspiration for aesthetics came from magazine i-D, analysis of which was delivered here. The theme for fashion shoot  I chose was double identities. Or if in more particular, the glamour identity pulled over. The beauty and the fake of it. The manikin qualities overwrighting  organity.   

 

 

 

 

 I was responsible for art direction, photographing and postproduction . The mask is also made from before.

One soft light and white colorama was mainly used . Images were aestheticaly postproduced for atmospherical and mood change. 

It was an amazing experience to be a hptographer to find the aesthetics, find the  model, the props etc. By the end of the shoot I was really exhausted to my surprise.

CAPS: Research for Fashion Photoshoot: i-D

 The Magazine:

i-D is a British magazine dedicated to fashion, music, art, youth culture and

 different issues around the central theme of identity. i-D was founded by

designer and former Vogue art director Terry Jones in 1980. Over the years the

magazine evolved into a mature glossy but it has kept street style and youth

central to every issue.

 

Tipped on its side, the "i-D" typographic logo reveals a winking smiley. Most issues of i-D magazine have featured a winking cover model.

The magazine is known for its innovative photography and typography, and over the years established a reputation as a training ground for fresh talent. The magazine pioneered the hybrid style of documentary/ fashion photography called ‘The Straight Up’. At first, these were of punks and New Wave youth found on English streets and who were simply asked to stand against any nearby blank wall. The resulting pictures—the subjects facing the camera and seen from "top to toe"—are a vivid historical documentary photography archive, and have established the posed "straight up" as a valid style of documentary picture-making.

 

Photographers :

• Nick Knight,
• Wolfgang Tillmans,
• Juergen Teller,
• Terry Richardson,
• Ellen von Unwerth,
• Kayt Jones 

Analysis for Preperation:

The issues have developed but retained 'core mantra' : 'Originate, don't imitate'

Essentially it seems that there is a dominant light from one side and slightly from above, which is modeling the shadows. For shadows are gradient and soft, it must've been soft box light or beauty dish.  Also, face is lit the brightest, perhaps using white or golden reflectors.

The background is not overcomplicated, and grey or white colorama is used. Some pictures use ‘screen’ or postproduction techniques to partly obscure the image. Most of the times, models are dressed in bold clothing,often limited to black and white pallet. 

It can be noticed that the image is complimented with lots of geometrical shapes to tie the image together (For example a reflection of the mode on the wall, which reaches to the end of frame) and direct the eye of the viewer towards model’s face ( hand towards the face, décolleté as a frame for the face).

To keep the photo-shoot guided, I have gathered some pose references for the model from i-D magazine history images. 

 The pose references and Example images of i-D issue work as moodboards for the fashion shoot

To end the analysis, it seems that i-D’s shooting style and approach resembles that of Brassai’s : full of soft gradient light, tonal values. I’D’s photography quite often goes with desaturated or almost desaturated imagery.

 

  And one particular image of Edward Steichen:

Visual Inspiration : Costume Design 2 and Fashion Illustration

I'm continuing to explore visual inspirations. UCA's fashion design student have directed me to numerous fashion designers, illustrators and so on. I'm showcasing here the ones I found most amazing.

More importantly, these examples are teaching ways of approaching design , creatin stricking costumes, it is helping to open up the mind when I'll be designing Queen of Pixies.

Garret Pugh

Style.com describes Gareth Pugh as the "latest addition to a long tradition of fashion-as-performance-art. Garret Pugh describes his designs as being about the struggle between lightness and darkness."
Pugh's collections are autobiographical rather than referential, and draw inspiration from Britain's extreme club scene. Pugh's trademark is his experimentation with form and volume, nonsensically shaped wearable sculptures distort the human body almost beyond recognition. He uses materials including mink, parachute silk, electrically charged plastics in his clothing.

Hussein Chalayan

chalayan is an internationally regarded fashion designer who is renowned for his innovative use of materials, meticulous pattern cutting and progressive attitude to new technology. He was educated both in Cyprus and London's Central St Martins college of art and design. Chalayan is inspired by architectural theories, science and technology

Issey Miyake , a Japanese fashion designer, known for his technology-driven clothing designs, exhibitions and fragrances.

Kenzo Takada

Japanese fashion designer has always worked towards a multicultural world, a world of colors and beauty, with nature as a vibrant, inexhaustible source of inspiration. Kenzo’s designs are based on values of life, energy, and a deep-rooted equilibrium.

Felicity Brown

An English-born fashion designer. The fashion magazine Vogue Italia noted: Raw yet refined, her design shows the amazing attention for detail and fantastic creative talent that have marked her career to date.

Another advice from fashion design student was to look at equally amazing and inspiring works of fashion illustrators. I was also looking for ways how designers comunicate their ideas. Often the drawings are not as descriptive, but rather boldly convey the feel of the costume. These is the handfull of fashion illustrators whose drawings didn't lack of character itself:

Visual Inspiration : Costume Design

Fashion is one of the sourcees for inspiration for  Baltic Pixie's (laume) character .

Lee Alexander McQueen a British fashion designer and couturier, known for his tailoring. His works are juxtapositions of strength and are infused with emotional power and raw energy, making it a provocative fashion.

Scuba diving was A. McQueen’s hobby and a source of inspiration for the his Spring Summer 2010 Plato’s Atlantis collection. It is one of his great fashion shows, exhibiting highly varied designs.

His work is fascinating for the designs  are very distinct from each other with types of material, chroma and tone values, shapes but at the same clearly fall under single theme for they evoke a particular feeling , that similar to what one experience surrounded by underwater life: cold underwater  holds unfamiliar alternate life forms yet fascinating and gorgeous.

I was looking at most of other McQueen's collections too and selected most inspiring examples to me personally. I use these examples to inform and inspire how clothing can contribute to sculptural form and add loads of character. I'll quickly discuss some examples.

in these images I found neckline and shoulders very interesting.

 these hold some great ideas of how texturing could be solved or what kind of elements can accompany the design

I am sure it will take some smart thinking what it comes to solving the scirt so it is both sueted to the desing purpose but doesn't get in the way when it comes to animating the character.

These images reminde of smart referencing to traditional folc clothing. Sort of reinterpretted and suited to the character. For example the heavy-looking traditional costume perhaps would need tweaking to suit playful and irrational Baltic Pixie (laume).

These Costume Designs hold fantastic ideas, it really frees up the thinking of how impactfull can a costume be.

Dragonflies are reference to Baltic Pixies as in baltic languages Dragonflie is called Pixie-horse (laum-zirgis). It seems that a. McQueen was incorporating some flies or peacock, for example, into his costumes.

I'd imagine Pixie's legs wouldn't be covered heavily with a skirt or heavy clothing in general, for I'd like to emphasise how morphed she is with chicken ( has chickens/roosters legs) . These images offer ways to emphasise legs.

A. McQueen  fascinating and very sculptural designs accompanied with feeling make them a very striking and memorable works.

Another source of inspiration, the amazing paper works of Nikki Salk And Amy Furry . Their work seems to defy the attributes of a regular paper, but at the same time it gives its elegance and fragility  to the aesthetics of the work . These wig designs simply teach how a character's hair can contribute dramatically. Thanks to tutor Phil for posting these .

I'm intending to post some more visual inspiration, looking at some classic painters and contemporary illustrators.