Final project

  This is the final creation of this semester, and I named it “the clothing”, this is actually a piece of clothing that I designed, which inspired by the designer of Comme des Garçons, Rei Kawakubo, the person who redefined the meaning of fashion. What inside this collage is more than a piece of clothing, so I used many advertisement posters from Comme des Garcons, and cut those posters into pieces and put it together as my background, in addition the background is based on three main color, black and white and red, which is the three main colors that Comme des Garcons employed as well. In the center of  the collage, is a dress that I created and drew inspiration from Kawakubo’s artwork, and the dress is made up with a bunch of newspaper that I crumpled for the sake of exhibiting the layer and curve of the dress. At the bottom of the dress is what make the entire piece special, I deployed radio tape as part of the cloth to challenge how people think a “clothing” should be, and those tapes match with I’m attempt to emphasize, twisted, curved, and a sense of layer. Moreover, the duplicated brand name of CDG that I placed in the middle is the finishing touch of the dress, in order to draw people’s attention by exposing the logo in a conspicuous way. The reason that lead me to make this decision is because I have always been a tremendous devotee on fashion, specifically in clothing, it is all about passion, and pure love for it, therefore I finally get a chance to exhibit how I view fashion, also what I think it is. To be honest, I don’t have any idea about what to Do for the final project until the weekend,  though I do got a clue about doing things about fashion. It is still a struggle for me, because the term “fashion” is so broad, like Finkelstein said “There are no definable points of origin for fashion, only moments when certain activities seem more obvious.”(Finkelstein) and I have influenced by so many elements from fashion, thus it is hard for me to make a decision to illustrate what fashion is and how to start it or speak it from what perspective . However, there are many brands that I’m interested in and talked about for the final project, like Greg Lauren, Haider Ackermann, Maison Margiela, of course Comme Des Garcons. Last weekend, I went to Comme Des Garcons store, and met a friend there, so I was talking about the courses that I took this semester, and tell her why I haven’t been here for a long time. In addition, I mentioned that I was struggle about what I’m going to do, and next she told me about the history about Comme des Garcons, despite I knew that Comme des Garcons is known as its twisted and jutting out tailored, but what’s more interesting is I know that Comme des Garcons was also the one who employed flat shoes instead of high heels for their runway show, therefore suddenly I realized though it is significant to producing innovative clothing, but it is more important to producing a meaningful product rather just make it in a good looking shape. I would categories my work as mixed media. Rei Kawakubo is the person who impact me, she has always been a person that break out of the boundaries, and challenge the traditional thinking of anything, like the runways shows I mentioned, the reason why they deployed flat shoes rather than high heels is because Kawakubo intent to challenge the definition of beauty, and break the stereotype thinking of the way that women should follow for the sake of being beautiful, because people used to consider wearing high heels make female looks prettier, but at the same time it is painful for them to wear high heels and walk it for such a long time, as a result, Kawakubo utilized flat shoes for the runway shows, like telling people you can also be beautiful even on Flat Shoes. Another part that is worth mentioning is the top of my art work, this was actually the first ever ad that CDG had, instead of using models as another brands did for promoting, they used two little girls who exposed their braces on their teeth and no make up and visible clothing of the brand was exhibiting. What’s left on the table is the nature of beauty. Nevertheless, the question emerged by asking is this still a fashion ad if it doesn’t show any clothing ? There were doubts and question about whether she is doing things in the “correct” way. Regardless of how people view her, and consider this is weird, she still work in her own way, instead of changing her style in order to adapt to the society and matching public’s preference. Although there are still people in nowadays who can not understand her, and some consider she is a weirdo that just produce some useless thing. People reject things that they never encounter before, and it takes time to digest and stand from different angles in the interest of truly associate with the new object, but what you really should do is keep on doing what you doing now, though you do get criticize or judges from people, the time is yet to come. Moreover, you don’t need to alter your image on the basis of fitting the times, you are the time of yourself, and it is okay to be different. This dress also represent myself, so I did not follow the conventional  idea of what people think a dress should be while I made this dress, and I just simply put what I was thinking, and then this came out. Also, I include how I view fashion in contemporary trend, that’s why the logos are placing in a so obvious way, and I just make a sarcastic expression of some so called “fashion brands”, especially those who just print a logo in front of the clothing, and the others like imitating them, the reason for why they do that is only because of money, but not a deeper meaning of thinking within the pieces. Furthermore, the radio tape is a tool that enable me to thinking out of the box, rather than cutting the newspaper into pieces, I use radio tape to connect with the piece in order to let the tape become part of the clothing itself, which also help me deliver out my wildness in my thoughts . While I was doing the project, I didn’t make it in a traditional good looking shape to make it looks more comfortable, and I just kinda like let it be, as natural as possible. The biggest difference between the first self-portrait and this one is probably how much did I expose myself in the public, because I’m more like an introvert, therefore I sometimes conceal my thoughts in the public, but for this project I convey what I’m truly passionate about, though it has nothing do to my major. Instead of saying what influence me, I would make the question like who influence me, it was actually professor, and help me construct my identity , and be aware of the real me by not thinking too much. Based on what Deborah stated, “The media interprets (and reduces) the world for us with the use of simple narratives.” (Deborah).Personally, I think spectacle is what help people building the stereotype thinking, and define some terms based on the majority’s cognition of something, like telling what people should wear, and what is fashion, and even what beauty is, so people might alter themselves to fit in those categories, because they got kinda like brainwashing rather than thinking on their own. As Berger claimed, “The way we see things is affected by what we know or what we believe”(Berger). For my project, the spectacles are everywhere in our daily life, but it shouldn’t be the standard that we working toward, it could be an guideline, but definitely not a measurement of what should be what. The spectacle are also what restrict people from breaking through the boundaries, because people are influenced by it, and act in a certain way that all the people do. In a word, this dress represent my attitude toward wearing, and how personally I define fashion in my mind, a bohemian.