Lisbet Wright

I loved taking part in the Better Lives project ‘navigating through clothing’. We were given the text Hansel and Gretel and had to design a costume for one of the characters showing the diversity of the world. I decided to explore the witch as a character and develop a suitable costume for a Theatre production.

 From visiting the National Theatre’s costume museum, I was informed that costume design has a huge amount of purpose, it is very deliberate in what it wants to achieve. When designing a costume, one has to think about many different factors such as, what type of production is it, will there be lots of movement, are there quick costume changes. All of these factors are carefully thought about by the costume designer to ensure comfort, ease and correct display of character for the production.

As a group we also went to the British Museum. I was immediately drawn to the exhibition displaying items from central and south America, as I love the culture within these areas of America, especially the culture in Mexico. From seeing this exhibition, I decided to explore Mexico’s culture.

From one of my recent trips to Mexico I visited Frida Kahlo’s ‘Casa Azul’, which showcased her personal belongings, including many of her beautiful garments that had been hidden in her attic for over 50 years. I was inspired by the aesthetics of mexican traditional dress but also wanted to make a functional costume that expresses the witch’s deceptful character. I started researching Mexico’s traditional dress which consists of the ‘Huipil’ and long skirt, which has been worn by indigenous women of Mexico and Central America for centurys. They are made of the sustainable material of cotton, which is important because sustainability is something I wanted to focus on. To create the garments for the production I would want indigenous women to create them, giving them a fair wage for their hard work, which would ultimately help their local community. Embrodered onto the Huipil are depictions of forest plants which reflect where the production is set, in a forest. 

In this project, I wanted to combine traditional and modern culture in mexico. To do this I wanted to encorporate spray-painted elements into my design, which were inspired by the colourful spraypainted murals which covered Mexico City’s streets. Part of the costume is a ‘Sugar Skull’ mask covered in spray-painted flowers. Sugar Skulls are traditionally used to ward off and guard against evil spirits. I wanted to include this in my design to highlight the witch’s deceptfulness as she is in fact the evil in the story. In the tale, it states that “witches have red eyes, and cannot see far”, to show this element of her I wanted to use Mexican Fire Opals as eyes in her mask. These Opals are minned by hand which ultimately means there is low environmental impact when sourcing them.

Better Lives has informed me on the importance of Diversity, Social Responsibility and Sustainability in the fashion industry. From learning about what these key words actually mean, I am now striving to change the way I work from now on, and to change how others work in the fashion industry, to be more inclusive and to listen to the needs of our deteriorating planet.

Sustainability is something close to my heart. As a vegetarian I am very conscious of the impacts my actions have on the environment, not just directly around me but globally. I am very conscious about the effects the fashion industry has on the environment and as a result my closet is approximately 90% second hand (from either vintage shops or charity shops). I was intrigued by the lecture on sustainability and it reinforced in my head the idea that it is our responsibility to consider fashion, not just for its connections as an industry with a huge amount of power and impact, but also as a cultural and societal influencer. We have the power to change what is currently happening! Mankind is exhausting natural resources, without replenishing them causing imbalances in the natural system, which is rapidly deteriorating our Planet. The lecture caused me to think about how I can in my own practice change the way I work to be more sustainable. I aim to be much more conscious in the materials I use. As an illustrator I need to think about up-cycling, re- working and re-cycling old drawings and used paper.

This brings me onto the next key term of Diversity. The lectures in Better Lives discussing diversity has enlightened my practice of fashion illustration. I am striving to illustrate a broad range of people in my work. I want to make minorities feel like they are being represented fairly in the fashion industry. It is encouraging to see that the industry is changing and developing to include everyone, not just size zero, white women. I think the current fashion industry is a very unhealthy representation of the time we live in and does not represent what I stand for. Before better lives I hadn’t even realised that my work wasn’t very diverse. From completing my costume design project, I have researched Mexican culture and read extensively on the life of Frida Kahlo. I found it interesting to read about her disabilities and how she dressed to hide them. I want those who have a disability to feel as if they have just as right to the fashion industry as I, and so feel it important to draw those with disabilities in my fashion illustrations. I loved learning about Mama Cax and how Alexander McQueen (1999) beautifully crafted a lightweight wooden leg for her. I felt a sense of hope upon learning this, however we do not see this enough in the fashion industry and this is something I wish to change!

I really enjoyed the lecture on Cultural Sustainability and found it the most interesting lecture I listened to. The lecture was broken down into four key aspects that make up Cultural Sustainability; Culture, Globalisation, Cultural Diversity and Misrepresentation of Culture. I learnt that Diversity in modern cultures has been caused due to Globalisation, which has allowed the merging of different styles, different ideas and beliefs. I learnt through the example of Marie Antoinette and fashion of the French monarchy from c.1770 and onwards, that the way people dress is intentional to display a certain message (this concept was also discussed in the lecture on Power). When Marie Antoinette became Queen, her people thought she didn’t dress appropriately for a Queen. From these remarks from her people she started dressing much more lavishly, elaborately, that had an ethereal look to her appearance. Her look definitely led the way of court dressing. However, when the French Revolution happened and Napoleon came into power, Fashion changed because Napoleon wanted to demonstrate a new message, to show that there was a change in politics. The Empire Silhouette came into fashion which was derived from antiquity, directly influenced by the politics and democracy of the ancient Greeks. I think it is extremely interesting to see where the ideas behind a certain way of dressing stems from and is definitely something I want to consider in my work.

The term Zeitgeist, meaning ‘the spirit of the time’ helped me understand how designers use what Is going on in a certain period of time to influence their collections. For example, Yves Saint Laurent took inspiration from the Paris Riots and from what was culturally happening to women at the time, such a ‘bra burning’. Yves Saint Laurent was the first designer to bare breasts on the catwalk and the first to make suits for women. Suits were seen as provocative, but again, he took inspiration from what was happening at the time, where women wanted to dress differently from their predecessors and were seeking for equal rights. Trousers were once associated with working class women in factories, but he elevated it to the higher classes by showing it at a couture collection. This makes me, when thinking about my work, want to look at influences from a Mexico and ancient Mexico and modernise it, to make my costume desirable and functional for modern day. 

This brings me onto the next topic of Misrepresentation of Culture. The action to mislead and idealise a culture can become misrepresentation and, in some cases, cultural appropriation. Discussed was an example of a film called ‘The Curse of The Golden Flower’ where traditional Chinese costume was appropriated, the necklines on dresses were showing too much skin and so deemed by some as inappropriate. I want to make sure, when designing my costume, that I am mindful of how I am representing Mexican culture, especially as I am not from that culture. I need to have informed research and reasoning behind my designs.