Project outcomes and personal development reflection
For my final outcome of the better lives unit, we have been told to choose a brand that we ‘re interested in and create three fashion illustrations based on the research that we have done on the brand. The workshops have taught us techniques on creating fashion illustrations and I think the workshops have helped me a lot in the process of making the final illustrations. We have been taught to create drawings of images and poses in fashion magazines and also using different mediums. And I have tried to also draw fashion illustrations with different mediums, colors, and techniques
practice practice practice practice practice practice practice practice
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I have chosen the brand Y’s by Yohji Yamamoto for my final outcome. The first thing that I noticed when I first saw this brand is how the color black is widely used that there is usually not many other bright colors in his designs. It actually doesn’t affect any of the tensions and quality of his designs and it is just as eye-catching as some of the other designs that uses many saturated and bright colors. Personally I really like the color black but I have to admit that in many of the situations bright colors are more drawing to the eyes and so it is one of the reason why his designs really intrigues me. In my culture and in my family’s values black is very not ‘welcomed’ color and it is often a symbol of something bad. In his designs he has really proved that black can be also be ‘aggressive, rebellious, somber, romantic or seductive — is beautiful’(Menkes, 2000) just as all other colors. In the past blogs, I have also mentioned about how I was inspired by Yohji Yamamoto’s words in his interviews. After knowing more and doing more research on him and his brand it has made it clear for me that I am choosing Yohji Yamamoto for my final outcome.
I have looked over the past campaigns and runway looks of the brand and then chose a couple of the looks to do an illustration on. I wanted to create this very layered texture for the illustrations so I have used scrap materials as a base of the drawings and then painted it over with white acrylic. I then dry brush and drag pastel over the base while I was drawing.
In all of the three pieces, I have used Magnolia for their hair. Magnolia in Taiwan and also many parts of Asia, is a flower that is commonly seen sold by some of the people who are economically unstable or dependent to support their livings. This community I think is a group of people who generally will be considered to be ‘excluded’ from ‘fashion’ But after studying in LCF and better lives unit, I have learned that it is important to include every community in fashion as it is always inclusive of all people in the society and it is also what that creates diversity. I feel like adding this element into art, it is then including them in ‘art’ and ‘fashion.’
Magnolia is very well known for its strong scent but the scent disappears as it withers and it is most likely to be thrown away and very unlikely to be kept. In my opinion, witnessing the process of it wilting away is also witnessing how time flows and how life fades. I think this then corresponds to the concept of time and sustainability. No matter how flower withers and how time fades when art is created it is ‘perpetuated’ and is ‘timeless’- which is one of Yohji Yamamoto’s pursues.
In conclusion, the better lives unit not only helps with how I read a piece of art and also how I create in the future. It has taught me to think deeper and about the responsibility that comes with it. Lastly, to be very honest, I think one of the most important things that I retrieved from my fashion illustration tutor is to really have fun during the process of creating as it is where the passion lies.