Xia Qiu

The themes we were given by the make-up breakdown project is fashion mistakes and imperfection. The area I particularly interested in is women’s insecurity caused by skin conditions. For my personal experience, I had struggled with the blemish conditions for years throughout my adolescence. As I become mature, the acne has gone, and my skin has settled into a stable state. However, I feel my insecurity has persisted. Same as many of my friends and my sister, we just constantly worried about our skin are not perfect enough. There is so much external pressure of having the “perfect skin”. We compare our skin to the perfect retouched skin on social media and commercials; therefore, we can never be satisfied. because our goals may not even exist.  In my project, I will use makeup to express these feelings of insecurity and the desire for relief.  

Before my outcome, I did two experiments. In my first experiment, I put a light natural makeup and stick a lot of my hair on the left side of my face with hair spray and gel.  Then, I covered up half of my face with a piece of shimmering fabric.  This is inspired by my personal experience. When my skin condition was bad, I used to cut hairband to cover up the acne on my forehead. Even now, I prefer to let my hair down by instinct rather than tie them up although I don’t have acne anymore.   

The second experiment I did is inspired by some makeup artists who use colorful face paint and sequins not to hide their texture but to enhance those imperfection spots, rather their acnes or freckles. I find that’s a brave and inspiring move. It convinced people to embrace their imperfections. Therefore, I created a look with wild daisy and stick them on my face where I used to have acne.   

For my final design, I want to take things to the extreme. The previous experiment I did is both about my experience with my skin and it looks very direct.  However, I want my final design to be like a satire—-have a sense of humor but also make people think about it. Therefore, I took the fact that in the ’40s and ’50s women used to put a ridiculous amount of powder on their faces in the process of make-up. It’s almost like they are drowning in the powder and swipe it off with a brush to achieve smoother and whiter skin. I found that process is hilarious, and It reflects how much effort women would make for ideally perfect skin.  Although we use more other methods nowadays. the spirit remains the same. Eventually, I created a scene of a cover girl in ’40s in the process of doing her make-up. Her hair is in pin curl which is a hair curling method in the ’40s and covered in a piece of red silk, which contrasts with her face covered in white powder.   

I have attended or watch all the lectures in the last 2 weeks. Now, I have a more comprehensive understanding of the theme of the better life unit, that is, from the three aspects of sustainability, social responsibility, and diversity, to discuss what things can the fashion industry improve to has a positive impact on human living. These lectures cover many topics. In my first blog post, I reflected on two lectures that were provoking and brought a lot of inspiration to me, which also, reshape my vision for my future work.  Nick Almond’s Lecture about the emerging technologies in fashion aroused my great interest in new technology. My project is Make-up break down, and since then I have been brainstorming how the emerging technologies that he mentioned in the lecture can change people’s approach to make-up.    

For example, he mentioned the X-reality technology in the lecture, which can create a mixed reality environment that allows the digital world to intertwine with the physical world. I see a massive potential it has to apply in the make-up and beauty industry.  I can create virtual make-up depending on this technology. In fact, some mobile photograph application like Face tune and B612 has already done something likely.  These applications create filters for different steps of make-up like eye browns, eyeshadows, lipsticks, even contour.     

Other than using the camera that to capture people’s image and add make-up on that, I would like to try to bring virtual makeup into the physical world in my later work. Recently I attended a Digital Learning Lab, which was a workshop on Projection Mapping. I learned to design commands by using a software Mad Mapping to accurately project images and video onto surfaces. One of the experimental objects I used in the workshop was a white 3D printed human head model. After I designed the shape of the projection in Mad Mapping, I can accurately project images or videos on the head model. This means that if that image is designed to a layer of makeup, the makeup can be projected on a human’s face, or even the video, so the makeup can be dynamic. In this way, the virtual makeup will not only stay in the virtual world but also come to the physical world through the projection of light and shadow.  

These are some of my speculative ideas, which I will experiment with later in the class. I still need to explore their feasibility. Maybe there will be other ideas that occur during the experiment.   

During these two weeks, I have been attending all the Better life lecture. Some of the lectures was eye opening, made me reflect on my current lifestyle, and found new possible directions for my work for the next stage.  

Firstly, Nick Almond’s Lecture, Emerging Technologies in Fashion, left a deep impression on me.  It aroused my attention to new technologies. More or less, I had heard about some technologies which connect with fashion before, such as the textile made from the new material—-fungal culture, and the VR and AR technology.  However, I thought these were far away from me. Compared to learning these unfamiliar technologies, I was rather than stay in my comfort zone and shooting traditional films and photographs.   

Nick’s lecture made me realize that in our life, technology is everywhere, new technology is constantly emerging, and these technologies will have an unpredictable impact on the fashion industry, from the production to how it present. In the ever-changing fashion industry, as a content producer, I need to encourage myself to learn about the latest technology, which will be the guarantee that my content will stand out.  Therefore, recently I have been quite a few times to digital learning lab at Lime Grove on the weekend. Through these workshops, I have been learning the software of projection mapping, how to do audiovisual control for installation, and how to establish responsive media experience. I am looking forward to what surprises those technologies will bring to my work.  

The second Lecture I find very provoking is John Lau’s Cultural Sustainability Lecture. He explained the definition of cultural appropriation and appreciation, which happened a lot in the fashion industry, and the difference between them.  He showed a range of examples of both situations, and I think it’s helpful for him analyzing why those happened. This kind of analysis made me reflect on how to avoid cultural appropriation in my later works. After seeing those cased I realized that, sometimes, it hard to tell whether the incident is appropriation or appreciation, especially for people from unrelated cultures.  It’s such a shame to see designers unsuccessfully attempt to pay homage to the culture that inspired them. There are, of course, exceptions to bring up outrage marketing for those who knowingly offend. Furthermore, there are always people offended but some others do not understand. People whose culture is not involved may not sensitive enough to understand why the product or the campaign is offensive to the people whose culture belongs to.   

All in all, most of the lectures exposed me to the shortcomings of the current fashion industry.  There is an urgent need for improvement, from the business model to the production.  Crisis and opportunity always come at the same time, and I am excited about my following work inspired by these themes.