05.11.21

After my talk with my tutor I've made some realisations about my work. The theatre set/large accumulation idea takes my work away from the context I want it to be in. I still like the idea of putting different aspects of my projects together as accumulations but smaller and more in the manner of my second year clay pieces, minimal. I've also decided what I want to do with my twine work moving forward. I've began bleaching my long piece ready for dyeing either neon green or neon pink to experiment with how natural material contradicts these synthetic, obnoxious colours. Also I will be creating more wearable cilice-like pieces because the original one I made at the beginning of the year is something I'm extremely happy with but was anxious to start a new one and begin developing. 

I've also began bleaching my hand dyed pieces ready for a second dyeing. I'm liking the energy of the pieces but there is something cliche about them but I'm hoping the second dyeing changes that for me. I've also been thinking about how I can develop them once they are dyed and I think I will go down the construction route as a nod to my 'Ode to Martin' series of works and I would like to test out what I can do with the bias cut. The bias cut has interested me for a while ever since hearing it mentioned by John Galiano in 'S.W.A.L.K' and I want to see how I can push it in my own way away from the context of how it works in relation to the body however I still want to see what I can take from masters of the bias cut like Madeleine Vionnet and Galiano.

Madeleine Vionnet Handkerchief Dress 1919-1920

Madeleine Vionnet
Madeleine Vionnet (1876-1975) was part of a group of creative women who transformed fashion in the early 20th century. That she preferred to identify herself as a dressmaker rather than a designer is a testament to her commitment to the craft. She sought to bring about a cohesion between body and dress, starting her design process on a half-scale mannequin and working with the features of the fabric to value the natural contours of the body. Vionnet was famed for her innovative dressmaking techniques. The aesthetic simplicity of her designs was underpinned by an incredible level of structural complexity, particularly with regard to her original use of the bias cut. This technique required Vionnet to cut, drape and pin fabric onto a wooden doll, working on the round instead of a two-dimensional surface. Her use of bias cutting resulted in designs that fitted the wearer’s body flawlessly, without the need for complex undergarments or corsetry. Her first exploration into the bias technique are said to have been a skirt with a straight-cut back and bias-cut front, and a straight-cut dress with a bias look, finished at the neck with the bias-cut cowl drape. Then came the handkerchief point insert on skirts and at necklines and in 1926 Vionnet launched the first all-bias-cut dress.