Blog post 3 – reflecting of my project and outcomes.
Over the course of my project, I have noticed a great deal of personal development in my ideas regarding the three main themes. Within this project my own growth has also been realised in regard to refining techniques and processes in an illustration based medium.
The tutorials have transformed the way I view a body, and the taught mark making and stylistic techniques have enabled me to refine my illustration style in order to better tell a story and portray a scene.
Encouraged by my tutor, I researched into creatives, whose work focuses around one or more of the better lives themes. After the lecture series the themes I was most interested in were sustainability and social responsibility, how they worked together and how they can be considered in the wider fashion industry.
After carrying out research into several designers, artists and brands who vitalised these topics in their work, I decided to narrow it down and focus on two brands which I thought explored sustainability and social responsibility in innovative ways.
As previously mentioned (in blog post 2) the fashion and textiles industry have a great impact on the world’s water consumption and contamination – this often is a direct effect of material dying and chemical waste dumping. This prompted my research into forms of natural dying as a more ethical and sustainable alternative. Cara Marie Piazza – a Brooklyn based artist – uses waste flowers from florists or personal occasions to dye vintage one off silk pieces. Her ethos is to create beautiful garments which are sustainable, ethical and timeless, that can be kept and treasured.
To better explore this form of natural dying and further illustrate this story of sustainable water consumption, I wanted to experiment with this process myself.
The process itself was very simple and effective – steaming the silk wrapped flowers over salt water. It used only waste products, as the flowers were from a dying bouquet and the silk was off cuts from a vintage dress I altered. The only new materials were the water and salt but even this can be reused after in cooking etc. The overall effect was very magical and unexpected, illustrating a journey of sustainable process through abstract mark making.
After considering material further, I looked at the brand Vin and Omi whose colourful shows use innovative sustainable materials to create fun and playful looks. Specifically they have developed a material called rPET bonded silk. Their collection of their rPET textiles are made from waste plastics collected from “existing clean up projects, or (they) initiate (their) own projects to clean up rivers or areas of ocean or beaches”. I wanted to illustrate and take inspiration from their “A/W RESIST” show, using the online tutorial guides to capture figure and form as well as draping and shape, in combination with the fabric I created, through digital manipulation.