SPOILER ALERT : If you just want to look at pictures of a finished garment, scroll right down (Not recommended)
So I have been up to a lot of shit man, interning with amazing British Milliner Victoria Grant and doing Uni, working at Zara, and also doing this new non-uni related costume for a competition in New Zealand - World of Wearable Art 2014!
Why did I give myself all this workload? Cause I'm a dumb fuck.
But Victoria was like, JUST SAY YES. Every opportunity that comes your way that gets you creating and developing, fucking do it. So I did, with just over a month before the deadline to go. Also it is rather nice to have something designed and made for myself and not another uni project ya know?
So how did I go about it all. Fuck it was such a blur man, like I'm still recovering, in limbo land right now mentally.
First picking a category from this competition, vast choice I go for 'Kingdoms of the East' though, brainstorm blah blah I decide on Middle East Persian Empire roots with this complex of the modern iranian woman, shit got interesting. Go nervous.. never done something so closely related to myself.
Then started out RESEARCHING, naturally. Going V&A, British Museum, deciding on a colour palette, the idea etc, like I aint ganna go into the details of my work's ideas, I would rather people thought for themselves and let it communicate to them whatever, whether it communicates anything at all?
This piece was like a phoenix rising from the ashes that was inside of a glassed maze, fucking tough man. The design developed through materials, very gradually, as it went on, sticking to the key references in my research. And yeah I just got instagram at the same time right, (@ayyynas) so it became like a thing for me to post up baaare shtos of the same shit, the mess, work in progress, creative madness in visuals so here are pictures of the progression of the piece, like design drawing came in after the first week of making kind of thing. This aint some professional presentation ("no shit, sanya"), this is raw, organic and natural.
Found this raw silk for the bodice, saw how the colours fitted my palette of deep turquoise and black perfectly. Design idea in my head consisted of attached panels, so there is canvas put into the top half of this bodice to support the structure going on top.
How am I ganna recreate those massive thighs like those ancient figurines of iranian women? First started using wadding and sculpting ontop of leggings. Meh results. But totally helped in the 3D visualizing the idea, the design coming to life.
Introducing the DESIGN. Finally, after my tutor gave me advice to get into the sketchbook, don't wing it just cos it ain't uni related, do what you always do, and doing this kind of colour palette design and having it as a final design is kind of a revelation for me in terms of costume design drawings.
So I moved onto diff ways of creating the big thigh effect, breeches with tulle. Problem solving, working with tulle for the first time ever, virginity official gaaawn.
Experimentation, not drawing, seeing it in real! The way to design, man.
Since starting my internship with Victoria Grant, got very accustomed to new hands in different colours, and it went into this project, shit laods of spray paint and dyes and shit my days.
Dyeing and design developments and experimentations, still deciding wtf is this thing ganna be made from and how.
Head piece! A hat, mask, wig, headdress thing. Cousin It, Amy Winehouse, Marge Simspons. Like whatever it is, Got my trusted Stefanie Kemp helping with the make of this hair 'burka', dressed ontop of a buckram structure I created.
After 19 Days of graphing, running, crying, stressing, dyeing, dying, eating crap, not working out, freaking out, missing eastenders, twisted videotapes in the ktichen at work, it fucking came together, with like a week to go until deadline. And I came up with this motherfucker.
I hope I do well in the competition, I don't wanna jinx it. But I got so much out of this, makers involved and myself discovering new ideas and techniques, I gained so much out of this costume and found out about myself. I am capable of doing a fucking hell of a lot and seeing it complete and have a life of its own, every stressful second before means fuck all now.
But this past few months has been so full on, like near the end I had a new uni project to start after jsut finishing the last term, like omdz too much, I
Enjoy this one, it's a heavy topic. Iran, the representation of women, old and new.
Photography: Thang Le
Headpiece: Stefanie Kemp (MUA)
Modelled by: Megan Doyle
No comments:
Post a Comment