As I think were most of the others in my year, the idea of following the course of my first term by blog was daunting. It seemed like a lot of work.

I, by nature, am a procrastinator. Due to this, in the first few weeks of term I struggled with keeping on top of my blog work, I noticed my independent study visits were piling up and I was becoming stressed.

As I sat down and typed and typed, I caught up. As I worked and uploaded, the blog became easy – enjoyable. I enjoyed keeping track of what I had done and it forced me to reflect on what I had learnt and where I could improve. The blog taught me not to let work pile up until it made me stress, to continue at a steady pace and turn ‘work’ into a hobby and something I enjoyed. If I could start over I would do one blog post per every few days, I think this would have caused my blog to be less of a chore and kept them more relevant.

I had always wanted to start a blog of some form but never knew what to write about or where to begin – what could I possibly have to say that could be an interest to other people?

As I created my blog I realised the point in what I was doing was not for the interest of others approval, but rather for my own enjoyment, work ethic and learning. The blog made me keep up a constant stream of interest, always applying myself to my fullest, keeping notes, and not go through periods of time (as I usually do) of not doing anything at all, and thus, really getting out of a working momentum.

I am constantly trying to force myself to become a more organised person. To keep notes and lists, to write down what I learn, as I learn it. I think keeping a blog helped me organise myself in a lot of ways. I enjoyed having my process written down on the internet, where I could return to and reflect on things I had done, rather than unorganised lists I constantly make and evidently lose.

At the beginning of the blog I struggled with uploading pictures, it was something I seemed to always be putting off and therefore some of my photos are not the highest quality they could have been. If I was to start over I would progressively take photos as I am doing things, I would have included more photos of the actual processes rather than only photos of my final pieces.

Writing is something I have always enjoyed. I think in the case of the blog I got carried away with words and feelings where I should have focused more on facts, processes and technicalities.

Through the course of the blog I learnt that life is much easier when you don’t leave things to the last minute, when you push yourself and work methodically, the sense of accomplishment is really a valuable and worthy thing.

Atelier E.B Passer-by was quite an unusual exhibition in comparison to other exhibitions I have visited. Atelier E.B is a collaborative fashion label by designers Beca Lipscombe and Lucy Mckenzie. The exhibition was split into three distinct interiors, a showroom for Atelier E.B’s latest collection where visitors could try on clothes, a display of historical photography and objects focusing on the fashion ecology of the Soviet Union and a series of works by other contemporary artists.

The pieces were exhibited hanging from rails, creating the feeling of being in a clothes shop, but the different was these clothes were strictly forbidden to touch. I thought, in a sense, the clothing not being protected behind glass gave me a further idea of the touch and texture of clothes while also turning the pieces into works of arts in a gallery space, as opposed to advertisements for a brand.

One piece I thought was interesting was the tracksuit. This was displayed hanging from a clothing rack on a hanger. I think the reason I stopped and looked at this was that I had never before seen a big deal being made out of something so mundane and everyday as a tracksuit. The tracksuit was black with a neoclassical motif on it of a helmet. When I looked into this particular piece I found it was inspired from stucco in an interior shop in Vienna. The idea was taken from a hollywood designer, Gilbert Adrian. Atelier E.B decided to create the clothing worn by real people, turning beautiful art pieces they would never themselves get a chance to wear into something people can wear all the time – a tracksuit.

Much of the textiles on display have been represented using 2D techniques rather than onto a mannequin like would be expected. Clothing was displayed in one particular case, pinned up like the shop display for a gentlemans’ outfitters. They are displayed flat but with wrinkles, creases and movement.

The idea of touch in the digital age is a difficult one. I think the idea of purchasing items through a device has become the norm, thinking about it is strange; buying and paying money for something you have never actually truly seen or touched before has become the new phenomenon. In this exhibition clothing is exhibited as in museum circumstances until the end where you can actually try on and buy the clothing displayed. Toward the end of the exhibition a phone is displayed on the wall where you can scroll through and see clothing by Atelier E.B, this again challenges the ideas of touch in the digital age.

Francis Upritchards Wetwang Slack installation at The Curve Gallery, Barbican centre was an unnerving display of her work. Much of Upritchards work referenced to ancient artefacts and the distorted human body. Although much of the human sculptures had a sex I would argue and say they were mainly genderless. Many had extra limbs, club feet, and inhuman Along with the curvature of the room Uprichards work seemed to work strongly as an exhibition, giving her objects and sculptures more of an understand and explanation. Without the reference of all the of Upritchards work together I would say her work could be hard to understand, but the beauty of her pieces would not go unappreciated.

Upritchards exhibited a variety of mediums in her work, ranging from ceramic, to rubber to different fabrics. A selection I foundparticularly uncomfortable to look at were the leather ears, through both the texture and the brightly coloured fabrics they resembled real human, disjointed ears.

The beginning of Uprichards exhibition began with colourful and brightly painted figures. As you move through the exhibition, around the curve of the room, colours began to lessen and dull down, to me, mirroring the curve of life through to death. The way in which the exhibition is displayed encourages you to keep walking, following the curve as the figures change to extremely life like body parts to beautiful ceramic jugs.  I felt as though the way in which the exhibition was planned out, I was guided through it, making it easier to absorb and become engulfed in what was around me. It really chilled me. In regards to other exhibitions, where I could leave and still feel like I haven’t fully experienced it and seen all I could of, flitting from one side of the room to the other, this exhibition took me and shook me.

I was nervous to begin the stitch technical block. I had hardly ever used a sewing machine before and the whole method was alien to me. Although I was unsure of my skills on the sewing machine I was a lot more confident in hand sewing as I enjoy embroidering as a hobby. After laboriously learning how to thread the machine and the absolute basics, I started to sew. Pressing my foot onto the peddle was nerve wrecking and I’m still not completely confident at it. I had a lot of trouble getting the tension on the machine right. The stitches initially would create large loops on the back of the fabric which would eventually gather and become jammed into the machine. After playing around I confronted the curious problem of the machine stitching back to front; so the thread from the bobbin showed at the top of the fabric rather than the other way around. After many attempts and a lot of trial and error I final sorted out the tension. I was shocked at how suddenly sewing became easy to me.

In class we were taught how to sew with a broken needle, to create a stretch in fabrics using elastic threaded through the bobbin, pleating and wadding. Although I was slightly more confident in sewing, I still found it difficult to convey my ideas through stitch as my abilities were limited.

Stitch was based mainly around the drawings we had done for the box clever project and  drawing workshops. After my drawings being taken from DG15 this was more of a struggle for me. I decided to work only from my swatch book. Although this was a pain, I think it was also a blessing in disguise as this encouraged me to create more original and abstract stitches.

We were sent to go fabric shopping in Shepherds Bush with a price limit of £5. I thought this was impossible and that you couldn’t possibly purchase fabric this cheap, but after looking around for a while I saw how possible this actually was.

We started off the block by testing out our ideas and showing them to Isabelle. We were told to create 10 ideas per day over the weekend, but with a job and already being slow on the machine I found this next to impossible. We showed Isabelle our ideas and she helped us strengthen and expand them, working them up to create our final pieces.

For one of our most recent independent study visits, we visited the temporary exhibition Comme des Marxists at Fashion Space Gallery in London College of Fashion. I was initially surprised at how small the exhibition was but as I circled the room and took in what was on display I saw how much work and meaning was in it.

The exhibition addresses late capitalism with a satirical and anti capitalistic stance, using humour to look at societies fixation on superficial appearances. The exhibition uses Karl Marx ; the anti-thesis to Capitalism to portray this distortion of social values. Even the use of the word ‘late capitalism’ carry with it connotations of satire and critique.

After the 1940’s, the production of fashion changed drastically. As opposed to the dress making establishment described by Engels. The transition to new manufacturing processes meant the replacement of hand production methods to machines.

One thing that never changed was he conditions endured by factory workers, the hours put in and the exploitation of human labour and the dehumanisation.

Looking at the periodical collection in London College of Fashion, I enjoyed flicking through magazines and noticing the changes through the years. I found it interesting how styles which were once cutting edge high fashion, quickly became so obviously dated.

One magazine that especially interested me was Bloom No.22, 2012. The photos and colours of the magazine were enticing and as a lover of plants, flowers and anything nature related this magazine was great.

The earliest fashion magazine that I could find was from L’Officiel from April 1951.

I have always had an interest in 2000’s fashion as I enjoy the bold colours, funky hair and animal print. The magazine I chose based on the decade it was published was Dazed and Confused from the year 2000.

 

Visiting the main collection of the Tate was, like always, uplifting. After reading our assigned questions for this independent study visit, I had a hard time choosing which two paintings to talk about as so many of them evoke thoughts and feelings in me.

The first painting I chose was Stanely Spencers self portrait. The painting is an oil on canvas capturing only his head and shoulders. I thought the fact that Spencer chose to only include his face was a representation of his psyche while seriously ill and dying of cancer. The relationship between viewer and sitter in Spencers self portrait is interesting. Spencer painted his self portrait in the drawing room of a friends home in Yorkshire, looking into a bedroom mirror. Spencer looks unflinching into the viewers gaze. It is in this way the sitter holds the balance of power.

Spencer’s emotionless stare, in my opinion conforms to the binaries of male/active/mind. The reason that I think this is because the painting is not designed to flatter the sitter/artist, there is something deeper to him than his looks. It is designed instead to convince the viewer of his determination and strength and power of the intense hold of the stare – the point in this painting is not beauty.

From looking at the painting we can tell a bit about Spencers identity. In the background of the painting and the clothes that we can see I would guess he is a middle class English man. My reasons for guessing this is the 70’s looking patterned wallpaper in the background which was common in English middle class family homes. From the looks of it, Spencer is wearing a dressing gown and teeshirt, on a presumption, I would think more upper class men would put more money and effort into their appearance if being seen in such a way.

The second painting I chose was ‘The Siesta’ by John Frederick Lewis (1805-1876). The work of art was painted by a male, of a woman. The composition of the painting encourages you to spend time looking at the body of the sitter. The pose in which she lies is languid, open and inviting. In the circumstance of this painting, it is the artist, John Frederick Lewis, who holds the balance of power. The reason of this is that is almost seems as though, we, as the viewers are spying on the sitter. She reclines and bathes in sunlight, almost unknowing of the fact that she is being painted.

In my opinion, yes the woman depicted conforms to the binaries of female/passive/body. The woman is enjoying the comfort of the room and the warmth of the sun while we gaze upon her beauty and idleness. The theory of the ‘male gaze’ helps to explain what goes on in the painting. As the woman lies, with her dress falling to the side around her chest, covered in vibrant and beautifully coloured silks, she is immediately a focus of beauty and sensuality in the painting. Basing my opinion on the decadent and expensively decorated and the rich silks the woman is wearing she seems to be rich and upper class.

John Frederick Lewis lived in Cairo between 1842 and 1851, on his return to Britain he continued to portray representations of Arab-Islamic life, implying elegance and money, these symbolisms have been criticised as serving European viewers’ desire for superiority and control over the western world. (Tate, 2019)

(Image released under Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND (3.0 Unported)

License this image https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/lewis-the-siesta-n03594 29/1/19)

Tate. (2019). ‘The Siesta’, John Frederick Lewis, 1876 | Tate. [online] Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/lewis-the-siesta-n03594 [Accessed 30 Jan. 2019].

Knit has been my favourite technical block so far. Although I found it challenging, frustrating and at times, hard to understand, I also found knit to be so enjoyable, satisfying and most importantly I love the finished pieces, making it so much more worthwhile.

On the first day we learnt how to cast on, we did this by wrapping under and over, forming a “e” shape around the needles. We learnt how to manage tension, with 0 the tightest and 10 the loosest, we adjusted according to the thickness of the yarn. We threaded 15 needles on each side of the ‘0’ and then fed the yarn through the gate and pulled through the letter ‘A’. After casting on 6-7 rows we were directed to hang weights on either end of our knit, and as the knit gets longer to move the weights up toward the knitting machine to keep tension. Through out the knit block I never really got the hang of casting on as it was slightly different for left handers.

Just as I was becoming more confident on the knitting machine we were given instructions on how to knit stripes. To create stripes we fed our second colour into the second side of the tension mask, carry down and wrap the yarn around the other post. Take the first yarn out of A and place this yarn onto a hook on one end of the machine. You then simply feed your new yarn through A and knit! I loved being able to see my knit samples come together and found the pace of knit really gratifying.

One mistake I continued to make was forgetting to hold the knit when pushing the needles forwards and allowing my sample to fall off the machine.

Learning how to use the transfer tool initially made next to no sense to me until I tried and practiced on my own. Using the end of the transfer tool with a single hole we hooked it onto the end of the needle. The purpose of the tool is to allow us to manipulate the needle. Using this technique we pulled out a single stitch and carried on knitting, this created a ladder. To make the gap bigger, transfer the needle on either side.

After a while of knitting I decided I wanted to use thicker and courser threads which I thought reflected my box, to do this I learnt to change the needle set up to accommodate for thicker yarn as yarn can become too strong for the needles.

I have been to Liberty of London many times in my life, and never once has it failed inspire, excite and brighten my day. When on my independent study visit to Liberty, I decided to be more observant in what it was exactly that had me feeling this way.

Walking through the tudor-esque entrance, immediately it was unlike any other department store. The store front, constructed from timber recycled from the ships HMS Hindustan and HMS Impregnable, is absolutely beautiful, mirroring everything sold inside, unusual, quirky and different. The weathervane on top of the store bears a model of the Mayflower, the ship that brought the Pilgrims to America.

The interior of he shop is alive and bustling, wooden floors, a different patterned silk, upholstered deer head, or incredible work of art in some shape or form hangs from every wall. Everywhere I turn is something I absolutely must have.

The spacious, empty white walls and white shiny marble tiles of the normal department store is a long way from Libertys colourful, homey and eclectic feel. Beautiful clothing, designs and fabrics made and designed by artists and crafts people from all across the globe take up the whole six floors of Liberty.

Something that I especially love and admire about Liberty is its supporting of small businesses and artists, as an artist myself, wandering around the shop I find myself inspired and excited to carry on creating. To me, its support of small craftspeople and artists relates to Liberty’s association with the arts and crafts movement. The arts and crafts movement focused on fine arts and was essentially anti-industrial, advocating economic and social reform.

In my opinion Liberty’s heritage is built into its brand  image in numerous ways. In 1875 when Liberty was founded, Arthur Lasenby Liberty set out to sell artistic and eclectic items from around the world. He travelled the globe gathering fabrics, interiors and jewellery from Japan, China, Java and Persia. The shop todays embodies this eclectic, exotic style, originating from the dreams of the Liberty founder.

Looking around I can see Liberty’s customers have a lot in common with one another. Customers seem to be stylish and well off. In my opinion Liberty customers are also well informed and aesthetically discerning – they know that the items purchased here are one off’s, unusual in comparison to other shops but also must need to be able to afford such high prices.

There was one Liberty piece in particular that caught my attention which was a woven silk twill scarf. What made this item stand out to me was the vibrant colours and light floaty fabric.

The pattern is based on a tile mosaic by William de Morgan, an oriental floral design featuring vases, peacocks and flowers. The item was displayed knotted and hanging from a wooden rack along with similar scarves of different patterns and colour. It being knotted gave an immediate impression of how the scarf would look on the wearers neck, the vibrant peacock pattern bunched and wrinkled somehow became even more colourful and attractive. Seeing as this item cost £195 it was most definitely out of my financial reach, and I presume the same for most other students, this item in my opinion is designed to be worn by smart, well off, older women.

Leaving the shop through the pungent smell of the most aesthetically wonderful plant room and back into Londons’ harsh winds, I am left warm and nostalgic after the wonders of Liberty of London.

Friday 19 October, 2018

Walking around what is ‘the largest and most comprehensive collection of dress in the world’, I was in awe. There is dress ranging from 1750 to the late 2000’s of predominantly European designers, including Matilda Etches and Zandra Rhodes.

Clothing on display is both a mixture of formal and informal, day wear and evening wear. Its so common to see formal evening wear I thought seeing a mixture of both daywear and informal clothing was interesting, providing a more truthful representation of fashion. The earlier clothing exhibited portrays high fashion of the 17-1800s, as fashion in the exhibition progressed closer to the present day, more high street fashion was included.

Although I really enjoy and love this exhibition I would love to see clothes from outside of Europe. In my opinion the clothes exhibited were from a very small group of society through the ages. The collection represents white upperclass societies. People of wealth had clothes which were deemed ‘worthy’ of  preserving and keeping.

In my opinion, to keep the exhibition relevant and up to date more recent fashion should also be added. Seeing clothes preserved from the 1750’s reminded me of how permanent clothes are, it may seem fast and easy to purchase clothes with the intention of wearing them once but some fabrics such as polyester and lycra can take 100s of years to decompose. Todays ‘fast fashion’ society is unsustainable and I think sustainable fabrics and brands would be a really interesting feature to the exhibition.

An item of clothing which particularly caught my attention was the wedding dress.

Cream tones complementing oranges, peaches and the heavy muslin have a strange haunting effect, reminding me strongly of Chales Dickens ‘Miss Havisham’. The dress was made around 1851 in England, and is linked with the marriage of Eliza Sneath to Joseph Candin in Sheffield.

The dress is made from cotton muslin lined with linen and trimmed with bobbin lace. This garment signifies the marriage of Queen Victoria to Prince Albert, as after the wedding it became customary for a well to-do bride to wear white silk or fine white muslin. Muslin is a delicate fabric which needed skillful washing, and was fashionable around this time for summer day wear.