einstein on a beach

image from: http://wordsfromrobintobatman.wordpress.com/2011/02/16/albert-einstein-at-the-beach-1945/

Clothes Body and Space

a few designers who challenge the representation of clothes with unconventional space ideas

Boris Bidjan Saberi

http://www.borisbidjansaberi.com/

Chronicles of Never

http://chroniclesofnever.com

Aitor Throup




http://www.aitorthroup.com/polyphonic.html

Materials... chicken wire

I took this photo when I was living in Hannover, Germany on one of my wanderings; along with the interesting composition of the photo on a whole; the empty/littered block of fenced nature among industrial sites; I have since been interested in incorporating the form of the wire fence into my designs; as a manipulation, or mixture of surface design/print/form of garment...I am still thinking... there are a few different forms of chicken wire; I find the way they interlock and create mathematical forms and space relevant to my design concept.

image source: Keira Paradice

image source: http://www.chickenwire.cn

image source: http://hi-android.info

You can see how this structure has derived from patterns in nature. Above is a picture of honey comb. 

Mathematics is just another way of perceiving the natural world.

The hexagon

I know my initial image was actually a diamond/square, but I am going to run with the hexagon...

Hexagram within a hexagon

 

image source: http://endofamericanempire.blogspot.com/

I was just reading a bit from the blog this image came from it's kind of interesting, maths, freemasons, politics, oh the constructed symbolism, how interesting and mysterious considered design can be! 

everything is connected in this web of...webs

I keep finding interesting representations of hexagons, so I will just share some of the images which speak to me and that I could incorporating in my designs, naturally. 

image source: http://www.bigactivities.com

Connect the dots!! I have been thinking about such games as these recently (i.e. connect the dots, colour by numbers) I thought it could be adapted into an interesting sartorial fashion designing exercise. 

image source: http://www.thefullwiki.org/Magic_hexagon

image source: http://chestofbooks.com/crafts/children/Paper-Folding/V-The-Hexagon.html

image source: http://gramlich.net/projects/oceania/seastead1.html

image source: http://profeblog.es/blog/jfguirado/tag/hexagonal/

image source: http://faculty.uml.edu/jpropp/trg.html

image source: http://www.answers.com/topic/hexagon-test

Okey getting carried away perhaps, I thought this last image was interesting because it relates the form of a hexagon with the human body actually to test agility! Think about this movement within clothing?...hmm

Viking patterns

Miss Sarah Miers mentioned something to me today about some Viking clothing patterns she saw that would interest me. They reflect the idea of manipulating basic shapes during the patternmaking process  to inform the design rather than imposing the shapes of the body onto the fabric.
Therefore I went to look for Viking garment patterns and this is what I found.

http://thorsonandsvava.sccspirit.com/pdf_files/Viking_handout_men.pdf

Danke Sarah
http://blog.scmiers.com/

Alexander McQueen S/S 2011

Alexander McQueen S/S 2011 by Sarah Burton



I have often thought of this concept of shadow on a garment as a textile design; reflecting how you might have drawn the garment initially indicating shades and applying it to the finished garment, it is sort of a sophisticated/placed tie dye... I think it's a nice effect.

then pic 2- mixing up tailored styles within one look and emphasising a cropped look, and the cargo meets suit pants style, and this burnt dusty red as one of the key colours for the collection which... is in more abundance in pic 3


i am interested in seeing how colours are applied in collections, these are 2 variations of a reddy sort of colour which is i would have not usually would have thought of seeing together in 1 collection, alas it is here!

so many textures in one look, i respect this, the variety of textures is offset, ooorr enhanced by the neutral  colours used and metallic accents to 'pop'.

and the overview, always good way to look at the collection at a distance to see the evolution and proportion of colour and spread

http://www.style.com/fashionshows/complete/S2011MEN-AMCQUEEN

Off to Harrolds

Today I am going forth to Harrolds, 'Australia's Luxury Department Store For Men' to imagine my collection fitting into such an environment, Todd, my tutor, said I should imagine I have a rack in the store where my collection hangs; hopefully this will give me inspiration on how to make my collection more cohesive, give me some insight on how to disperse prints, colours and fabrications throughout the collection and all the little bits.
http://www.harrolds.com.au

Then I am continuing on to Australian Wool Innovation to talk...wool... I have been looking at all the new innovation textiles that AWI have been producing, and there is some great stuff, showing how wool can just as easily be a suitable summer fabric as is winter, some of the textiles I am interested in seeing are the Merino Cool, Machine Washable Suiting, and Merino Perform, which is odor resistant among other goodies, so we shall see.
http://www.wool.com

Costume National

Costume National Menswear S/S 2011

Designer- Ennino Capasa

Just wanting to show some summer menswear that is not your typical Australian summer wear, I love winter clothing... probably more than summer, but when you see these clothes, it is like winter clothing but for summer- it would be nice if such sophistication could seep into Australian summer dressing a bit more me thinks. 

Also a very good song used for the show; LCD Soundsystem's 'Dance Yrself Clean' from 'This is Happening' Album.  

The interest lies in the details and process from which the garments have derived; there was no actual seams in these garments, all thermo welded and laser cut with pockets being attached with heat sealing! It looks like traditional tailoring but it is not, beautiful, clean and innovative. 

Solfeggio Frequencies- maths and music

I have been trying to think holistically about my collection, thinking about the aesthetic, mood, imagery and all that would be associated with the whole shebang
So here I have searched for music and maths- therefore Pythagoras- therefore found this little bit of info...


"According to the myth, Pythagoras was walking past a blacksmiths, listening to the sound of the hammers on the anvils.  After a while, he realised that all but one of the hammers were sounding in harmony.  Curious as to the reason, Pythagoras made a thorough examination of the hammers and discovered that when their masses were simple ratios i.e. 2:1 or 4:1, then the respective notes produced were in harmony.  On the other hand, the mass of the hammer producing the discordant note wasn't in a simple ratio with any of the other hammers."  (http://library.thinkquest.org/18160/mathmus.htm)


then a comment on one of the numerous videos on Youtube related to Pythagoras and Music mentioned that he used simple solfeggio frequencies so here is some music apparently based on solfeggio frequencies...

It could be interesting to mix this perhaps with some more obviously natural sounds or a rhythm, I am not sure, that is not really my expertise, but, i have learnt something new today! 

Modified Toy Orchestra

I heard of them when i was listening to a lecture by Otto von Busch on hacking design, which is a concept for finding the truth in systems...

I find it is this sort of ultimate deconstruction and recontextualisation of interdisciplinary creativity
sooo was denkst du compadres?
(as in what do you think)

Deconstructing the circle

The Circle

The mystical theologian Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa regarded mathematics as the best symbol for things divine. He says in De Docta Ignorantia:

Since there is no other approach to a knowledge of things divine than that of symbols, we cannot do better than use mathematical signs on account of their indestructible certitude (Cusa, 1997).

For example, Cusa used geometry to illustrate the identity of the circle and the line. As a circle becomes very large, it appears less curved, much like how the surface of the Earth appears flat to us because it is so large. In the limit where the circle becomes infinite, then the curvature vanishes and the circle coincides with the straight line (Cusa, 1997, p.103).

It is an interesting site to look at- 

http://www.integralscience.org/sphere.html

Australian Menswear Designers

I have have added another link list whilst doing another assignment I was finding it difficult to find emerging australian menswear designers, which you can find but it takes a bit of researching about the place, so i thought it would be good to put all that i found in one spot, some are mostly women's wear with a bit of man here and there, but there is evidence, I don't also necessarily completely identify with all of the labels, but they are all quite conceptual and I just want to have them in the one spot for now.

so yes, i guess support for the local people!...

Time better spent

Time is better spent googling how to make time machines than dealing with all the work i have to do... yes, nothing new here.

LEGS

the focus on trousers and reforming them

using insect sounds for the music

using experimental textiles

Permanent folds  

Fashion Design vs Sartorial Fashion Design

Getting involved in fairly deep fashion theory I have been beginning to question the correctness of the term fashion design in relation to what I am doing at university. Our course is entitled Fashion and Textile design...

My qualm regards the term 'fashion'.

'Fashion design' is not necessarily what we are doing at uni, intrinsically we are designing clothing, and fashion does not necessarily mean designing clothing, there are fashions in music, interior design, architecture, graphic design, product design, philosophy, within all these areas there are fashions, in relating to the changing of taste and preference. Therefore, why has what we do in relation to design been directly associated with fashion?

fashion |ˈfa sh ən|
1 a popular trend, esp. in styles of dress and ornament or manners of behavior : his hair is cut in the latest fashion.• the production and marketing of new styles of goods, esp. clothing and cosmetics :

So my resolution has been to term what we do as SARTORIAL fashion design... it could even be sartorial design, as sartorial by dictionary definition is...

sartorial |särˈtôrēəl|adjective [ attrib. ]of or relating to tailoring, clothes, or style of dress : sartorial elegance.


I have recently been discussing the relevance of how caught up we should get in the definition of terms, and should one just get on with the content... but language shapes perspective which is highly important, so when attempting to write a thesis you are forced to look into such definitions. 

Anyway, I don't know if anyone else has opinions about this but it's been on my mind, I would like to hear what you think about it! 
... sartorial design ...  

Representations of Reflection

measure is subjective

image source: Keira Paradice 

The top two images I took on wanderings in Hannover,  Germany and the third in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. 

image source: http://www.exampaper.com.sg/questions/e-maths/transformation-of-the-moon-on-mid-autumn-night

wanderin' colours

finding colour combinations on my wanderings around sydney...

perfectly matched...

Neil Young's music for Jim Jarmusch's 1995 Dead Man

Haarbrille...

While we are on the subject of glasses, while I was in Germany last semester I did a project for a synthetic hair company; we had to find alternative uses for synthetic hair... my end product was creating hair glasses... an alternative to a wig! Who wouldn't want to adorn their face with removable yet artistic facial hair...
I followed the production of these glasses with market testing... as in taking them on trips to Amsterdam and to parties, getting people to put them on. Initially people were grossed out, but then they couldn't get enough of them!
I was fortunate enough to also win a prize from the company with this concept as I also accompanied the product with a blog with kitch advertisements i photoshopped up and also with an interactive element where i got people to put on the glasses and I would post the pictures on the blog.
I also attempted inserting the hair in resin for the frames but it is indeed a difficult medium to work with for an amateur and that toxic smell eh...yes it was too cold outside.

A nice looking man...

Marcello Mastroianni...charming

Stills from Fellini's 1963 film Ocho y Medio (8 1/2)

Ah yes last year I created a menswear collection inspired by this film, the themes, the composition, the contrasts, the dream sequences, the wit, humor, and sensitivity a very nice film, I will post some drawings and possibly some pictures from the project. The garments I made for it were on display in UTS building 6 for a little time, I will see if I can find the photos...  

Epistemology

Why and how we know what we know...
and it always comes back to the Greek's doesn't it!

I have been looking closely at the art and philosophy of the Ancient Greek's as part of my thesis; at the start of the course I was pretty sure I wanted to write about fashion design practices, the way designers work, practically, their materials and processes and why, maintaing a fairly 'objective' view on the matter, but here I am weeks later and things seem to have escalated and now I have decided to go right back to the root of seemingly most things, yep the Greeks, so. I will be looking at the origins of Western Ideals, focussing on the representation of the male figure, ideals of 'perfection' and beauty, humanism and idealism and then looking to see where these ideals fit into society today, with brief stop over in the Renaissance perhaps... so quite different, but thats what has happened.
Exciting no?!
So perhaps this is going to be a quest for me to better understand my origins and to make me question why I design the way I do.

Know thyself

love and death

Just a few highly important things from Woody Allen's 1975 film Love and Death, a favorite of mine
note:
Boris' (Woody Allen) mother making the best blintz's to mathematical measurements...

aaannnnddd secondly the banter involving subjectivity and objectivity...

Immorality is subjective.

                  

Yes, but subjectivity is objective.

                  

Not in a rational scheme of perception. 

 

                  

Perception is irrational.

It implies imminence. 

 

                  

But judgment of any system

of phenomena exists

                  

in any rational, metaphysical or

epistemological contradiction

                  

to an abstracted empirical concept

such as being, or to be, or to occur

                  

in the thing itself, or of the thing itself.

It's immoral. What time?

                  

- Who is to say what is moral?

- Morality is subjective.

   

                  

Subjectivity is objective.

  

                  

Moral notions imply attributes

to substances

                   

which exist only in relational duality.

                  

Not as an essential extension

of ontological existence.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073312/

mmhhmmm much respect mister Throup

Aitor Throup. Nough said?... My thoughts seem to have been running parallel in relation to this man's workings, he seems to work instinctually from the mind and with a social awareness general concern and respect, his works are aesthetically and psychologically challenging and inspiring

http://hypebeast.com

random illustration

drawings of the collection 'when football hooligans become hindu gods', 2006



narasimha drawings, 2006



shiva drawing and shiva outfit, 2006

modular anatomy project  - collaboration with stone island, 2008



lets dance illustration


http://www.designboom.com

http://www.aitorthroup.com
Looks kinda like one of the Ood from Dr Who if you know what I'm talking about...! 


I enjoy when designers are not too precious with their designs, i.e showing how someone could make this themselves if they so pleased!
process process process