BEHIND THE CHAOS
As humans have the ability to feel mentally, we often find ourselves having to for whatever reason contain our emotions. From this we form a kind of façade, a mask or shield to hide these emotions from others and thus, our feelings are like the contents in our everyday bottle of water or a jar of jam. It feels like perhaps it’s safer to hold them. This is perhaps a type of anxiety that is probably often ignored and although not all cases become a serious one, it seems that even though in our modern day society, with so many various communicating platforms offered to us, we still find hard to express our true emotions. That is a part of what defines us as individuals and should be something that is living to us. Many people suffer with depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety and drug abuse. Therefore, their life is a form façade; it is a way for them to release all the feelings but also a way to hide them away. With particular emphasis of the frustration of producing the final work of art. The human emotions of ‘bottling up’ or containing our feelings in conjunction with our relationship with shapes and forms that summarises us in our everyday life, like the bottles or jars to the buildings that shelter us, is used to inspire the forms and silhouette. With the mood in mind silhouette is oversized and has neat shapes. The colour palette that inspired my collection is exclusively BLACK, showing the counter balance of depression, meltdown, overload and loss of control, which is also shown by using heavy weight fabrics and light fabrics at the same time.
CUSTOMER PROFILE NAME: VANESSA HONG UNITED KINGDOM AGE: 25 OCCUPATION: STYLE BLOGGER/ CREATIVE DIRECTOR AT THPSHOP.CO
My woman is the principal of daring and different. Her style is pretty minimal and boyish, but perfect for street style. She loves clothes that are oversized in either black, grey or white. The clothes that she owns is not the look anyone can pull off, but it sure does clearly state her aesthetic. Besides the obsession with fashion and clothes, she also has an unhealthy obsession with shoes, especially trainers. She loves brands such as Vetements and Acne. Fresh, clean and effortless look is a must. She is very keen on the detailing as well as the fabrics used by the companies. She is a very active person and loves being outdoors. She is always travelling to places and discovering new things. She is health conscious and hits the gym every four days a week. During her free time, she is always out with friends and family. At home she is always taking care of her skin as it is a must for her, skin care is priorities. Her favourite city other than London is Tokyo, another capital city for fashion. She visits Tokyo every now and then. She loves the food in Tokyo, especially sushi.
PROJECT CONCEPT
The concept of your innermost feelings being visible through facial expression is daunting, considering most people attempt to hide their feelings behind a mask. We often like to hide the way we feel in an effort to appear strong and stable to the rest of the world. But do your true feelings push through this façade? Is it that obvious how you’re really feeling by a slight furrow of the brow or down-turned lip.
The collection and the work, ‘Behind the Chaos’ mirrors the whole spectrum of emotions behind façade. The seclusion, the inner withdrawal, the indifference is shown in the entire project by the use of specific colours and patterns for the silhouette. The theme is also counter-balanced with the weight and the use of two very different kinds of fabrics, all shown in black to portray depression, meltdown, overload and the loss of control.
MOODBOARD
The world can be a bruising place for emotionally sensitive people. A regular day can feel like being covered in biting of a little ant. A natural response is to do whatever works to avoid the pain of believing others have judged, rejected or left you. People who hide their emotions and feelings often suffer from low self-esteem. Or have an inconsistent self-image which shifts depending on their inner emotional climate. Since that can change rapidly if they are prone to mood swings, they may sometimes represent themselves publicly in quite unpredictable ways. It can sometimes feel a little strange to watch someone close to you morph right before your eyes when the phone rings or when someone else comes into the room. It’s also common to feel that they are being hypocritical or fake. You may feel angry if they are so nice or so humble and accommodating to one particular person while they show a less attractive side to you. While it may be tempting to pull off the mask, it’s important to remember that each person has a right to their own thoughts and beliefs. It is important to remember your stuff is yours, and their stuff is theirs, and remain more focused on yourself and your own behaviour. Where a person’s masking does not affect or harm you, it is best to leave it alone; if however a person’s masking does create harm for you (for example, involves either emotional or physical abuse), it is important to get yourself to safety.
In the end, only three things matter: how much you loved, how gently you lied and how
gracefully you let go of things not meant for you.
PROJECT RESEARCH
Project research was done on the basis of things related to façade. The various effects caused by façade such as personality disorder, depression and other related things. The project is mainly about being contained, keeping one’s emotions closed from the rest of the world. The mood reflects a compressing sense throughout the collection. It is the project feelings as the human body supressed under a façade, and in this case the garments. But within this, there is the contradiction of still wanting to express such emotions yet knowing it is perhaps safer closed in. With the mood in mind, the silhouettes play a major role in the project. The silhouette is oversized, voluminous shapes. The oversized silhouette show that the clothes are not appropriately fitted in the body displaying unstable the mind-set of the person. Fabric choices are made dependent on the target market as well as the A/W season. Most importantly the concept of the project, focusing on the closed emotions we have and the façade we form. Two different fabrics, one dense fabric showing closed and contained mind of the person. The second fabric is a very light fabric showing that the person wants to get his emotions out but is too afraid of the outside world, what they might think of him. Colour that has inspired with my collection is BLACK. A very strong colour well suited for the collection showcasing the dark emotions of the person. The colour says a lot about the project and the collection, as I wanted to create a very dense and dark theme to the project.
COLOURBOARD
SILHOUETTE BOARD
DETAIL BOARD
FABRIC BOARD
Neoprene
Organza
DESIGN DEVELOPMENT
FINAL LINE UP