Fashion Project
Updated: Jan 23, 2020
We started the 2nd year of Graphic Design with a fashion project. The theme picked for this project was "signs". This theme allowed us to broaden our idea of what a sign could be, from street signage and written signs to the shape of the garment. At first I wanted to create a piece that related to a Portuguese tradition called "caretos". This tradition consists of men getting dressed in red, green and yellow wool garments and going around the village chasing women. I wanted to take this antiquated view of social structure and do an outfit inspired in this tradition but where women are the ones that wear them.
However I discarded this idea, since I'm not from the specific place where this tradition takes place and I felt that I might not fully understand the politics of it. Another idea I had, and ended up being the one executed, was doing a garment that reflects on the inconvenience and nuisance of pop-up ads. I wanted to do an outfit that conveyed a message but also had a comedic aspect to it. These ads are usually extremely sexual towards women and often use unauthorised images of them. This outfit had to not only show the ads but also portray the ridiculousness of these through the overall shape of the outfit. I decided that an oversized suit (normally associated with men and big corporations) would fit the concept the best. The jacket would have a numerous amount of 'blobs' with the ads, acting as leaches that stick onto to you.
I looked and saved a lot of real ads that I would find and then I redesigned them. I wanted the ads to look as flashy as possible. I ended up using same motifs throughout the ads because I wanted them to look like a coherent piece in the end.
After deciding on the graphic and textile part, I had to start thinking on how to print these ads onto the garment. I decided to use heat transfer, however there were some problems with it. My fabric was too dark for light transfer, so I ended up replacing the fabric of the blobs to white fabric.
Bellow are a couple of pictures of the construction process of the final outfit. I think the sewing part went better than expected and I feel like I gained a lot of experience with this exercise. However the 'blobs' didn't end up looking like I first envisioned them. The ones I had were not enough to fill the outfit, so I ended up putting them all on the back of the jacket, to give this idea of "a weight that you carry on your shoulders". I think that despite the set backs, I was able to adapt to my current situation.
During the final show I helped out as a marshal, and beforehand I was part of the trailer team where I was put in charge of filming. I think the show was a huge success and it really opened my mind as to what graphic design can be.
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