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Carry:
Handbag
Studio
Based on the three key words of secondary, compromising and removable, this collection displays various items that one would carry in their bag. Each item is sentimental to both myself and most women around the world as they provide support, safety and protection. Being fun and wild these women express themselves with no boundaries. The overall aesthetic and private component to the collection, highlights this notion of my personal life. The ambience reflected freedom, wildness and no limitations, following ‘disruption’s’ conceptual idea of blurred lines between visibility and what is publicly allowed to be displayed.
development
Following on i wanted to continue researching down the track of bags and their relationship to clothing within collections. I stumbled across the Celine 2015 Fall collection, in where handbags have been made into garments (similar to pockets again) and are able to be removed and placed into another context. This idea of location and transformation was a key motif that i enjoyed exploring and was deeply fashioned by, not only that it could act as a bag, a pocket and a garment, but the idea that it was all influenced by the individual wearing it.
Beginning the semester archetype on the two contrasting motifs of form and function i was exposed to the idea that the handbag was the tool in which designers bring together a collaborate a collection. this was evident in my key practitioner of Marni (Spring / Summer 2017 collection), where the designer employs the same dominant material as the clothing to the handbags and creates this illusion that they are built in, similar to large pockets. I was highly influenced by the strong relationship between garment and bag in this collection.
Through a class exercise of purchasing a second hand item in an op shop and the combination of deconstruction, as a designer evaluating my own work, i had become heavily influenced by my key practitioners. Causing myself to develop two prototypes that were based around location, transformation and this underlining provocative and sexual motif. The two prototypes i created were the basis of what was to come following into the future of this studio class, "this top is definitely a mile stone in a positive direction towards my hybrid collection". Playing with the spaces of negative and positive and exposing the not every day skin flesh that most people would intend on revealing to the public, juxtaposing the entire idea of the handbag. An object used to contain personal items from the exterior audience.
Materiality in this context was a large part of how my collection was going to be illuminated to the audience, so when looking into my idea of negative vs positive space and how juxtaposition of the bag was evident, i turned towards transparent PVC. A soft, clear plastic material that would expose every detail of what the bag holds, which was influenced by Maison Margiela in John Galliano's 2015 Fall Ready-To-Wear collection.
Into further research , I planned on looking into transformable bags that were constantly changing locations, Liesbeth Sterkenburgh was a new designer to this area and her archetypes of the 70's Bronx being the main motif her collection in collaboration with Annemarie Sterkon. Their collection, again fashioned the idea of the bag being able to change locations dependant on the individual.
During the mid semester review it was noted that i should alongside the motif of negative vs positive space and revealing the interior substance of the bag, that I looked into what i personally carry in my bag when leaving the house and what a lot of other women place in their bags too. What was discovered in my bag at no particular time of day was the following items: money, tampons, lip balm and condoms. These items were not the ones that you specifically placed in the bag, but where the items that were squashed at the bottom. From here on i was going to construct and design my capsule collection for this semester around these items being exposed to the public, not to feel embarrassed and shy about ordinary items that many women use and live by.
Through the design matrix i was able to create a strong design plan that show cased the main motifs that i wanted to express through my work, that cohesively worked with the desired material of PVC and Cotton. The designs include pockets transforming into bags and bags being able to change location, dependant on the individual wearing the garments. it was evident that the designs were heavily revolved around the idea of them being able to be transformable and being a hybrid garment. Both a bag and a garment. Following this was the development of my capsule collection which can be viewed at the beginning of this page.
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