Zhishuang

It’s been three weeks since course started, I was isolated in the first week and move to a new home in the second week. The first two weeks seem to be a little confused about what to do, the third week finally slowly into the state. It’s moving a little slowly, but it’s all on schedule. In the past two weeks, I went to the museum twice, and also went to the library of Central Saint Martins in order to find books. Because the dissertation to be written is also related to the history of costume, it is also helpful for me to find relevant materials of the Product Placement project. At present, only vintage blouse project has not fallen behind, both dissertation and Product Placement need to speed up a bit.

The Fashion Museum is home to an outstanding collection of historical fashionable dress. Within this collection are hundreds of fascinating individual fashion stories, a number of which are highlighted in the collection stories gallery at the Fashion Museum.

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1610s undress, it was made for “informal” wear. Aristocratic women wore informal dress at home, as the home was also a public space, for receiving visitors.

This woman’s waistcoat has been embroidered with a design of fanciful birds. The influence of India and China was very important in the 1600s and early 1700s, and the style of embroidery and design motifs show an Eastern sensibility.

Its design may have been influenced by the flamboyant fashions of the Macaronis in the 1770s. Macaronis favoured tight-fitting suits and towering wigs. They were figures of fun, often just returned from the Grand Tour of Italy. Apparently, the name came because they loved everything Italian, including macaroni pasta.

1760s French fashion, with its loose pleats flowing from the shoulders, this style was known as a sack-back or robe a la francaise. Although it grew out of informal wear, by the 1760s the sack-back was the style of choice for formal occasions. This extravagant example, in saffron yellow silk woven with metal thread, is French fashion at its most opulent.

In the past, when I saw historical clothing, I kept saying how beautiful it was. Now NAOMI suggests that we observe where the seams of each garment are cut from, and how they differ from the division of modern clothing. Vintage clothes will have several more patterns than modern versions because they will be more form-fitting.

The following exhibitions were planned when I was still in China and I was going to see them when I came back to London. However, since I will be quarantined for 10 days after arriving in the UK, I have time to see it until now.

【Bags：Inside out】

The exhibition feature some 300 objects ranging from small purses, cosmetic cases, file bags, travel bags and military backpacks, providing a comprehensive review of the development of the bag since the 16th century and its widespread influence in global popular culture. The exhibition will be divided into three sections, exploring the function, status symbol and craftsmanship of the bag, revealing the story of the bag designer and the factory.

I like the style has always been the kind of Bohemian style of free and casual style, and do not like regular things. So the bags I shoot are full of retro design, not modern square ones.

【Alice：Curiouser and Curiouser】

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is the theme of this exhibition, with more than 300 exhibits exploring the birth and development of Alice’s adventures in Wonderland through immersive exhibitions, and reviewing its influence in art, fashion, film and television over the past 150 years.

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The exhibition is surprisingly wonderful, except for its thematic peripatetic aspects. I also saw many famous artists’ works: the Ugly Duchess I saw in the National Portrait Gallery inspired the artist. Disney collaborated with Salvador Dali on a film project titled DESTINO. Dali’s surrealist aesthetic left a lasting impression on the studio. And of course there are many wonderful costumes on display. In addition, Tim Walker’s storytelling photography works derived from the theme of Alice and Iris Van Herpen’s INFINITE dress created by 3D printing technology greatly broadened my horizon. This exhibition is not to be missed!

【china exhibition】

I was going to see Contemporary Ceramic Art from the Middle East， but I walked into the wrong room. When I saw the “special” ceramics, I forgot my original goal.

It seems to be an exhibition about food, but it isn’t. Sometimes we have to sigh ancient craftsmen “naughty”. Since my hometown is in Beijing, the capital city of China, I have also seen many funny antiques in the National Museum. I think China and the West have something in common in this regard. And I am often attracted by this kind of lovely art, maybe my own personality traits also have this funny gene.

The last piece that attracted me was an exquisite work of art made in the way of paper theatre, which showed the story layer upon layer and the superb skill of the craftsmen.

These days are all about finishing what remains to be done. I calculated that in addition to the 4 days of vacation I arranged for myself and the 8 days of traditional culture classes, that’s a total of 12 days. If I had not applied for the EC at that time and the 12 days are devoted to work. I could have completed it by the deadline. However, I had to work all day long without weekwend, which would have been too much for my health. I’m not strong enough to handle it. Fortunately, I have researched a lot of useful information for Creative Research and bought Tyson’s book. I have read all the chapters I am interested in, so it is not difficult for me to complete an in-depth essay.

I spent this week making ruff. Because I also signed up for a course of traditional Chinese culture, I went to other provinces for four days on the weekend. The total production time was 5 days. After finishing, I found that although I spent a lot of time, the effect of the presentation was not very good. One is that it extends a little bit longer along the neck than I expected. Second, it’s not as light and thin as it looks on the design drawings. It’s a little too heavy. So next time I can use single layer of fabric to make it, which can achieve the effect of the design and save a lot of time. Third, when stitching each layer together on the outside, I can stitch only in the middle so that it feels more like the design. My ruff making process is a bit thankless.

The pants here need to reflect on the same problem as the jacket, is also the details of front piece were omitted in the early stage, and then had to make the pattern again, this should be avoided in any case in the future. Leather is also more difficult to sew than ordinary fabric. Although I have done the zipper and the placket of the pants once before, it is still a little challenge for me. I felt he leather belt decoration on front pieces particularly complicated at first, and then I finished it step by step. At that moment, I thought I was quite amazing. The metal decorations of the jacket and trousers were stitched together by hand after I finished the trousers. I searched for this decoration for a long time online, and only the buckle of the belt could be replaced. May 1st to May 4th is the official holiday in China. My family and I went to the seaside for a four-day holiday. Because I have been in the state of no weekend since last year’s Unit 7. Then I calculated that if I kept working on the pants, I could finish them in one week.

Due to the delay of the quarantine, in order to catch up with the progress of Macbeth Gentleman, many details were omitted on the jacket and trousers made of calico, just for the fit of the real model. When I started to make clothes out of fabric, I realized there was still a lot of work to be done. For example, a few strips of fabric need to be added to the sleeve; Adjust the front dart so that the short zippers sits just on the dart to reduce excess creases in the jacket. When I reconsidered these details, I had to draping again, remake lower front piece pattern . This is out of my expectation. In the future，I should finish these details at the early stage and then can save time at later period. Otherwise, you’ll always have to make up for what you owe.

In my tutorial with Kathleen on Tuesday, she gave some suggestions to me. And then I adjusted the pattern accordingly. I told her I wanted to redo the sleeves, and she said it wasn’t a big deal as long as the model could wear them. But my obsessive perfectionism makes me look at that sleeve and struggle. So I went online and found a sleeve pattern that I thought was reasonable, made a new pattern and construct it to see the effect. In addition, the length of the sleeve was adjusted, and finally I was more satisfied.

BEFORE

AFTER

I spent the rest of my time reading Tyson’s book: Critical Theory Today. I want to read the whole book before writing the paper, so that I can have a relatively deep and comprehensive understanding of the object I want to analyze.

All of the holiday time has been devoted to finishing Elisabethan Stay and catching up with making Macbeth Gentleman’s costume. At first, Kathleen suggested that I find a similar pattern to the costume I was going to make, constructing the pattern, and then fitting it on a model. But at that time, I thought that the pattern might be too different from the size of the real model, so I decided to drape directly on the mannequin. To my surprise, I spent a lot of time on draping.

And then I thought about the process. It would be better to draw a rough flat pattern first, and then drape it on the mannequin. This will save a lot of time. This may be the biggest reward for taking a detour. So I bought an adult-size pattern-making ruler for shirts, pants and sleeves, which should improve efficiency making clothes next time. Compared with the shirt and pants, the sleeves spent the most time when draping, always adjusting the shape of the sleeves, and finally I felt satisfied. But when I sew these pieces together, because the sleeve are not properly shaped, the rest of the garment is pulled up into wrinkles, but the overall effect is fine.

The model told me that he found two problems. One was that I need to add some fabric on stomach because he was a little fat. The other one is that the knee is a little bit tight when he bend his leg.

I returned home from quarantine last week and spent a brief time with my family. And then I search some information about the gentleman’s design, but there is not much information about the 11th century setting of the Macbeth. Kathleen suggested that I look for Shakespearean costumes, which is the Tudor period, for reference. The man’s mannequin I bought hasn’t arrived yet, so while I’m waiting, I continue to make Tudor Bodice and Elisabethan Stay.

For creative research, I wanted to write about postcolonial criticism, because it tends to focus on global issues, on similarities and differences between different nations.

Although the colonists had retreated and the lands they had seized had been returned to their original owners, the process of decolonization was largely limited to the departure of troops and officials. What they left behind was a deep-rooted cultural colonization: the political and educational systems, the culture that the colonists instilled in their former colonies, and the culture, morality and even values that devalued their former colonies.

Then there is the so-called neocolonialism, which, while exploiting the cheap labor of developing countries, often destroys their struggling businesses, cultural traditions and ecologies.

As a modern person who has not experienced these histories, we can feel the sharp conflicts between the colonists and the colonized nations only when we see the definitions and interpretations of these terms.

Later, I watched an interview in which a man, unavoidably, set aside these national themes to interpret history through the lens of private memory. When a person looks back on his past, what may remain in his memory are the happy memories of his childhood, which is the place he loved and lived, rather than the Angle of national interests. If it has to be tied to politics, it can be cruel to an individual. These personal memories contain emotional elements that cannot be recorded by historical facts, but can only be reflected through films or literary works. This idea is also an interesting perspective to start. I would like to research further information and watch more movies that have the similar perspective.