Paper Dress

Using mostly printing and pleating, me and Nicola created paper dress based around a Harlot in the 18th century; we found that paper isn't the best material to use for certain shapes, such as the main body of the corset.
The printing was the most tedious part as we had to print the paper twice, firstly with the pink flower pattern, then overlay the blue pattern in-between the pink. We had planned out the main look of the dress, but not any decoration.
I'm really pleased with how it turned out as many hours went into it, but I'd like to try and create the skirt to the dress. I especially like how we combined our ideas together to create the decorations, such as the bows, pleating and borders embellishing the dress.

All of the dress was stuck together using a glue gun as we felt that stitching wouldn't hold up the paper as it was quite heavy, and I think this was the right choice as I feel that it would've fallen apart if we had stitched it.

Vivienne Westwood at the V&A

 I have always liked Vivienne Westwood's designs, and when I saw this I knew I had to research into it. Although I had an idea that it might've been influenced by the 18th century, I had no idea that this was the case when I saw the dress.

"Satin and flocked tulle gown by Vivienne Westwood. Created for Lay Bianca Job-Tyoran to wear to Queen Charlotte's Ball, 1994. Museum no. T14-1997. Given by Lady Bianca Job-Tyoran."

"Vivienne Westwood created this romantic dress for Lady Bianca Job-Tyoran to wear to Queen Charlotte’s Ball in 1994. This élite charity event has effectively taken over the role of court presentations: etiquette demands that women wear white dresses and pearls are considered appropriate jewellery. Vivienne Westwood’s design provided the grand statement that the occasion demands. Inspired by 18th-century rococo motifs, she gave the dress a modern note by shredding the tulle skirt."
(http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O83545/evening-dress-westwood-vivienne/)

V&A - Through The Centuries Clothes

These are some of the photos from around the era of A Rake's Progress; I'm hoping that I can look to these when I need inspiration for designs, both male and female.

The dresses are more patterned than I expected, as I thought they would be more plain expensive materials used.

Costumes from Theatre - V&A

These are some of the Theatre costumes that were upstairs in the V&A. Although none of them are around the era of A Rake's Progress, they may help to see what types of materials are used within Costume to represent different meanings.
The Horse's head was interesting as the way the wire had been used to create the shape of the head and different features.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Set Design Sculptures - V&A

These are some of the set designs that were upstairs in the theatre side of the V&A. Although these aren't really anything to do with Fine Art, I chose to take photos of these for in the future if I decide to do any set designs.
The most interesting of these is the first photo with the girl on a swing above a mirror; none of these had any signs as to where they had come from, but I imagine it was something from a horror.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Underskirt Sketch from the V&A

A quick sketch of a wire underskirt while I was in the V&A; mostly done as a reminder as to upload the photos from the V&A.

Nikki Nye and Amy Flurry

Nikki Nye and Amy Flurry work together to create 3D paper art. Mostly the pair create wigs and 3D paper art of animals, though they recently created some masks shaped as animals as well.

Some of the wigs have been for fashion icons such as Cartier, Vogue, And Elizabeth Taylor.
Although they are for fashion, they seem to have some sort of 18th Century feel to them with the size and style of some of the wigs. 

Private Collection - London

Elizabeth Taylor Collection

Elizabeth Taylor Collection

Cartier Collection
Cartier Collection
Bay Holiday Windows Collection
Bay Holiday Windows Collection

Almost completed paper wig

After another lesson of work, the back of the head is almost complete and the middle parting has been redone; I really didn't like the way I'd curled the paper to make it stand away from the head, so I recreated the middle parting. I also started on creating the curls, carefully so I didn't paper cut myself in the process. I'd like to add some more paper to the parting to emphasise it a little more and then finish off the curls

The front

The back

18th Century Wigs

I found this interesting little website that had a page on 18th century trades, one of them being wig making. Most of the information is about who wore what and how the social standing back then was all about the which wigs you and your servants wore. 

Link: http://www.history.org/history/teaching/wigmkr.cfm

18th Century Wigs

We were tasked with creating a wig of the 18th century in Costume on Friday; I experimented with creating a sort of parting within the middle and then a large beehive sort  back to the hair. I think I could've made the back bigger to allow people to percieve the wig as a harlot's. I based the wig loosely on Emma Hamilton, a famous harlot of the 18th Century.