Each garment is made of a series of layers/imprints;
The Undergarment – different fabrics will create different effects to the fabric itself and the body. The undergarment is made from a pattern piece; seams are not necessary. The pattern piece becomes a complete garment when the overgarment is added to the body.
The Overgarment - Made from a wrapping technique in either elastic or plaster. This can be put on the body over the undergarment whether this is clipped onto the body and pulled over the body.
The Imprint – this can be two fold; imprint on the body and imprint on the undergarment.
The Written Document – This is a documentation of the garment on the body in medical/scientific table. This has both the documenting of the garment (how it was made, wrap, materials etc.) and the personal experience of the wearer.
*I would like to make up some kits of undergarments plus a series of bands; These will be given out to people and I would document what they do with these bands and fabrics and their body. Essentially this would inform my design development and could even come to being one of the outcomes.
GARMENT(S)
A series of garments will be created through a process that I have developed through my research. This process involves using fabric and pattern pieces in conjunction with wrapping techniques to essentially create garments; these can be wearable garments or non-wearable garments that would inform the design of another garment.
Rules for Designing?
PRESENTATION:
‘Garments’ will be shown, some on and some off the body – more like an art piece that informs other designs. Garments are pre-wrapped and method is described /documented in a photographic /pictorial sequence.
BOOK/FILM/POSTER?
Possibility of a book in conjunction of a poster, that will highlight the research and ties this in with final outcomes.
10% Allocation:
This will most likely be put towards my Book/poster combination or final outcomes. This will be resolved closer to the assessment date.
Through experiments with various people I found out many answers to questions that I was asking myself. I wrapped some people in different ways, and documented materials, processes and experiences by the volunteer for each one.
When being wrapped the key components made that made a person feel dressed were;
Feelings of being dressed within various environments:
Swaddle?
Swaddling a baby; there is similar sensations in wrapping a baby as there are a grown form?
Babies are meant to feel protected, safe and secure through the layers of material that bind their skin. Creating a slight pressure around the baby's body that give them a sense of security which can help adjust to their new environment after birth. It was commonly believed that this was essential for the infants to develop proper posture.
The bed sheet exercise was interesting to see how participants wrapped themselves, responses were very similar; they felt protected and warm compared to other ways of dressing. The layering inherent to wrapping provides a sense of protection.
DID YOU FEEL DRESSED?
‘For me, dressing is essentially about covering up our naked bodies. Nakedness can be linked closely to feelings of vulnerability so when I was wrapped, I was covered up, so consequently I felt dressed. Whether I felt 'Dressed up' is a completely different question but that was something I didn't feel.’ Becky Smith
So many factors would contribute to each person’s idea of being dressed:
A comment that was interesting during fabric experimenting was the difference between a stretch and a weave fabric when wrapping and compressing the body; a stretch felt like it moved and existed with the body, like a second skin, whereas the weave fabrics with more stability existed separately to the body – as if it could not interact properly.
Dictionary.com defines wrap in many different ways..
To Wrap:
Why wrap your body?
As a means of dressing, this way of dressing is a way of protecting the body and protecting the self. It is a shelter from the outside.
Being ‘wrapped up’ in something or being fixated on a certain thing. Could this be the clothing that you wrap around you?
As a relaxant? Or way of healing the body, Keeping alive?
“1.2 Real Clothing
…We might suppose that these two garments recover a single identity at the level of the real garment they are supposed to represent, that the described dress and the photographed dress are united in the actual dress the both refer to. Equivalent, no doubt, but not identical; for just as between image-clothing and written clothing there is a difference in substances and relations, and thus a difference of structure, in the same way, from these two garments to the real one there is a transition to other substances and other relations, thus, the real garments forms a third structure, different from the first two, even if it serves them as model, or more exactly, even if the model which guides the information transmitted by the first two garments belongs to the third structure.”
Looking at “The Fashion System”, specifically chapter 1. Written Clothing, explaining the different garments; the written, the image and the actual garment. I applied this to my research and came out with many different outcomes or ideas dealing with the same ‘garment’
Can it be better than the real thing?
‘units of real clothing, they cannot exist at the level of language , for, as we know, the language is not a tracing of reality’[1]
Can the ‘secondary’ clothing such as a photograph or description be better than the real thing? A sensation or feeling that a unit of clothing could give you could outweigh the excitement that the real clothing gives you?
[1] Barthes, R 1990, ‘Chapter 1. Written Clothing’ The Fashion System, University of California Press, Berkley and Los Angeles. P.4
I have directed my research towards looking at wrapping the body as entire rather than segregated parts. Research has made me focus on mummification a historical reference and swaddling, mixed with experiments with medical wrapping techniques. Through some experiments I have noticed that when wrapping the body, the way most people feel dressed is when there is whole or most of the body being covered.
During the 21st Dynasty, after the viscera were removed the body was stuffed, before the 21st Dynasty they restricted their packing to the head only. Later on the torso was filled, lower back, buttocks and legs and was stopped-up by a linen plug. This was the keep the body looking as real as possible and preserve the shape of the body.
These are just some fun teddy mummies which are nicely padded out...
Looking at body/shape manipulation in fashion,
Comme Des Garcons Bump Collection 1997:
I thought this cartoon was quite cool too:
