feedback and notes from tutorials and peers

Visit to the V&A

-Fashioning Masculinities: The Art of Menswear

-Theatre and Performance Gallery

-Fashion Gallery

Artworks that could be used as inspiration for costumes

-Leonora Carrington

-Aubrey Beardsley

-Dan Hillier

-Alphonse Mucha

Fashion and Textile Museum exhibition - Beautiful People: The Boutique in 1960's Counter-Culture

Library interiors from research visits

-Stoke Newington Library

-Bethnal Green Library

-Canada Water Library

-Swiss Cottage Library

-The British Library

Exteriors of libraries I visited on monday

-Stoke Newington Library

-Bethnal Green Library

-Canada Water Library

-Swiss Cottage Library (exterior under construction)

-The British Library

Itinerary for Monday (self-study day)

Research visit to Walden Books in Camden

Initial blast sheet

3. How does this subject area relate to the bigger picture of your own area of expertise? Have you explored similar concepts before? Talk about a project (s) you have done in specialism that is relevant either conceptually or technically. Which mediums, techniques, materials that you have mastered on the course so far could you utilise in your FMP? (200 words)

This subject relates to my own area of expertise because I think it will give me a wide scope for exploring a variety of new making techniques and perfecting existing ones. In terms of techniques I think I could uses from previous projects I think the machine embroidery technique from the Museum project could be utilised. I like the texture the stitches create and how detailed it can be in terms of design. I also think visually the research into gothic architecture could be relevant though the Question of Worth project relates more thematically due to its exploration into the idea of objects with personal history having value. Another reason this project is so interesting to me is because it had a wide range of very different characters coming from a variety of time periods. This will give me the opportunity to explore some more historical sewing techniques and styles as I looked at in my Body Shapes protect. I have a particular interest in historical fashion and I am looking forward to exploring more varied time periods and fashions from more varied locations. As well as these historical characters there are also characters that I can look at that have a more fantastical background, this will allow me to explore some more contemporary designs and silhouettes.

2. Please contextually reference your subject matter. What art, design, cultural, historic references can you look at to gain insight? (650 words)

For this project I want to look at a large variety of subject matters to inspire me. Some things that I plan to use as reference, even briefly, are:

The Fall, Directed by Tarsem Singh

This film is a major source of inspiration for me in many facets of my work. For this project I am planning to look at the creation of the fantasy world in the film and how the costumes fit into that. The costumes designed by Eiko Ishioka are fantastical and beautiful. I particularly like how the costumes in the imagined world have not much historical backing, instead they reference characters more specifically and established tropes that may play into their characterisation.

Tom Phillips’ A Humument: A Treated Victorian Novel

I feel like Tom Phillips’ Gesamtkunstwerk ‘A Humument’ is relevant to my project because it presents an alternative way of storytelling. The treated and painted pages tell an entirely different story to what the book originally said and that changing of meaning is interesting to me. This book also has some very beautiful visual imagery that I could consider taking inspiration from.

V&A Fashion in Detail: World Dress

This book covers a variety of cultural and historical dress from around the world, it showcases the garments in it in very detailed photographs and line drawings so it is easy to get a feeling of both the design and construction of the garments. By using this book as research I can get a fairly well rounded look at some beautiful fashion from around the world so my designs don’t feel too Eurocentric in concept and construction.

Crimson Peak , Directed by Guillermo del Toro

While this film has a very different aesthetic than what I want to portray in my project it is a great example of how a piece of media can have a very specific and well executed visual theme. The theme and clear visual aesthetic of this film permeates every aspect of it, from the incredibly detailed production design to the costumes designed by Kate Hawley. The costumes in this film are excellent at telling us about the characters without saying it explicitly, for example the Sharpe siblings in this film are shown wearing clothing at least a decade out of fashion for the era as a way to show that they haven’t had the money to purchase new and updated outfits and it is also clear in the wear and tear of the garments that though they were once expensive and lush they are now in slight disrepair showing the viewers that they once had money but lost it somehow. While this is eventually explained in the films having it explicitly stated in the costumes before it is mentioned is very nice.

The Library, A World History by James W.P. Campbell and Will Price

This book provides me a wide range of examples of libraries to look at, from libraries in the ancient world to libraries in the electronic age. It covers how the architecture and design of libraries has changed over the centuries and the purpose of each style. This book will allow me to get a varied look at hundreds of libraries across the globe without actually having to go to each of them. This will broaden what I can see of library architecture and see style of it that I would not have been able to see in travelling distance.

The Paintings of Stephen Mackey

From the works of Stephen Mackey I plan to take inspiration from the beautiful and bizarre subject matter of the paintings. I also think his works are relevant because they often tell a story and I am planning on researching alternate ways of storytelling. As well as this Mackey’s paintings have a clear aesthetic that I think could be transferable in this project, they are just the right amount of beautiful and creepy.

1. Please introduce your chosen subject area. What interests you as potential starting points or areas of research? What influenced this choice? (650 words)

I have chosen to base my project on the book ‘The Starless Sea’ by Erin Morgenstern. This is a book following several characters set mostly in an expansive and sprawling underground library, separate from our world. At the time the book is primarily set in the library is in slight disrepair and, as is the natural order of things for the library, ready to be flooded by the sea of honey. I have chosen this book as the basis of my project for two reasons. Firstly this book, at the time of writing this, has no official illustrations, film, or visual media depicting the characters or much of the world. This gives me a great basis to start on as it will only be my own interpretation of the original text that will be influencing my work for this project. The second reason I have chosen this book is simply because I love it!

As a starting point for my research into this I have transcribed every quote in the book that relevantly mentions a character or their clothing/costume and sorted them by character. My next steps are to narrow this down to just a few areas of research about specific characters. Before that though I would like to explore my interpretation of the books world, specifically the library. To do this I plan to visit and record various libraries and places that hold lots of books like bookshops. I would also like to look into alternative ways of recording stories other than being written down in books, this is because the library in ‘The Starless Sea’ holds countless stories but not all of them are recored in bound form. I would like to explore stories held in tapestries, in scrolls, in paint, in performance, and many other methods. I also think it would be helpful for me to visit local vintage or junk shops to find and photograph interesting objects that I could take inspiration from. In the book the library has been around for a long time mostly separate from our society, I think it would be interesting to explore how the people who visited the library across eras have brought things over and how they could have influenced the library itself. The idea of the library as a place created by its visitors and furnished by things that people value from across time is how I would like to present it in this project.

In terms of characters I am interested in costuming I am less interested in the main characters and more drawn towards characters that are slightly more fantastical but maybe have less description about the specifics of what they are wearing and why. For example The Sun and The Moon are characters who appear only briefly but I am really interested in pursuing that as a potential avenue for this project. I think designing them as almost two sides of the same coin could be good, for example using similar constructions methods but with vastly different colour ways and embellishment design.

For gathering inspiration for any character garment I will visit museums to see extant garments so I can find things to be inspired by from a variety of time periods. The inhabitants of the library have no obligation to follow our society’s fashion trends so it could be interesting to explore how styles could have evolved within the library using only the clothes that people enter with or make. For example a garment that has the sleeves of an 1890’s gown but the body of an 1940’s blouse. It would also be helpful to make sure I research international historical fashion as well as just western fashion because the library is an inherently multicultural place, the doors aren’t just in one location they are all over the world and it is important to represent that as best I can.

First-Hand Research Ideas

-Visit libraries near me to photograph for setting ideas and inspiration (maybe draw other visitors)

-Costume/historical fashion museums eg: V&A , The Fashion and Textile Museum, The Museum of London

-Vintage/junk shops to record interesting old objects that could be used as inspiration

-Look into alternative ways of recording stories other than books eg: audio recordings, word of mouth, performance, art, Tom Phillips (artist)

'The son of the fortune-teller walks through the snow

He carries a sword that was crafted by the finest of sword smiths, long before he was born. (The sword's sisters are both lost, one destroyed in fire in order to become something new and the other sunken in the seas and forgotten.)

The sword now rests in a scabbard once worn by an adventurer who perished in an attempt to protect one she loved. Both her sword and her love were lost along with the rest of her story. (For a time songs were sung about this adventurer, but little truth remained within the verses.)

So clothed in history and myth the son of the fortune-teller looks toward a light in the distance.

He thinks he is almost there but he has so far to go.'

Page 315

Inspiration Images

- Hannah Willow, The Leaf Crown, 2018

- Constant montald, la fontana dell'ispirazione, 1907

- Tuesday Riddell, Spring, 2020

Rhyme

-pg474 - The hem of her robes sticky and heavy as she walks away form the sea.

-pg476-7 - Rhyme unties her robes and takes them off. Beneath them she wears the same clothes she wore when she first arrived: her old school uniform with its plaid skirt and white button-down shirt. It did not seem right to wear anything else for the departure despite the fact that it feels like wearing a past life and the shirt is now too small. The honey-soaked shoes will have to suffice.

-pg493 - A young woman in an outgrown school uniform stands on tiptoes, peering in a window.

Katerina Hawkins (Kat)

-pg29 - A bundled figure with a striped hat waved a brightly mittened hand at him and he watches the mismatched colour move over a field of white

-pg392 - The driver’s door opens and a young woman steps out. She wears a bright orange trench coat, too heavy for the almost summer weather. Her hair is cut pixie short and bleached a colourless shade that has not fully committed to being blond. She removes her round sunglasses and looks around.