Hope Harding Design identity Sketchbook
Manifesto What is fashion? What does it mean? What does it do? Who does it help? These are the first few questions that come to mind when I’m questioned about fashion and why I have chosen it as my pathway. There are so many needs in this world, so many other jobs and areas I could go into which would probably end up helping more people. So Why Fashion? Well selfish reasons of course, I’d love to say the idea of studying for 7+ years to become a life saving doctor thrilled me but I’m afraid it doesn’t. I study fashion because I love it. I love being able to do something each day that I learn from and can make it completely my own. Being able to say, ‘Yes I made that, Yes I designed that, Yes I created that.’ It’s great! But it’s not all that selfish Fashion is such a influential thing, it reaches and effects everyone, from the mum who feels old and frumpy to the 13 year old boy who is trying to impress his latest crush, we can feel a whole range of emotions simply by what we wear that day. And that’s what I love about it. Over the course of this project I want to be able to interact with people, I want to learn what they like and don’t like about fashion. I think fashion has a bad name, to everyone who loves and works in fashion of course they might not agree, but for all us ‘normal people’ it has a stereotype as this bitchy, over competitive industry. Which can be intimidating. Along side fashion, hand in hand, comes the media. From glossy magazines to trashy TV, the Hollywood idea of perfection is plastered everywhere. How to look, what to wear, where to go on holiday or what hairstyle to have. There is a long checklist we now have to tick off before we can be seen as ok, let alone perfect.
The word ‘perfect’ has come up a lot in my mind when I have been thinking about this project. It fascinates me, the idea that we as humans are constantly striving for more, for better. The idea of a perfect life somewhat baffles me, what is perfect? The idea that we want what we can’t or simply don’t have surely irradiates there ever being something perfect. If we have the typically perfect family, a mum, dad, brother, sister. If we have money, if we have love, success, friendship. Then what is left? If we have everything we could ever want then what more is there to want? I’m sure our minds would invent something. When I was a child I use to love making up stories. I always acted them out in front of my mirror, pretend I was famous or even stranger, pretend I was dying. I realise that sounds pretty messed up for a young girl but my life was perfect, I had a great family who fed me, clothed me and treated me to a life full of everything you could ever want. So I was bored! I wanted a little drama so I would often pretend to my self. Perfection is in the eye of the beholder, and when I first dug into that statement I really agreed with it, but after I made a short video of myself to test out my camera skills, I realised that it’s maybe not so true. Growing up I would hear my parents tell me I am beautiful everyday, and now I’m grown my boyfriend tells me. Does that mean I’m beautiful? If I were to draw or write down the attributes that I think a beautiful person would have I wouldn’t necessarily be drawing or writing myself. If perfection of our selves can only be achieved when we ourselves think we are perfect, well then we may never achieve perfection.
I have been looking into Fashion Film, wanting to create my own I decided to have a play around and see what I could do, so I made a short film of myself, close up shots of my face and body. Whilst I am not a girl who particularly fusses about my weight or wearing lots of makeup, I did find my self feeling uneasy when editing the video I had made. I wanted to share the video on my blog to show what I was thinking about when researching and responding to fashion film’s I had watched, so I wanted an honest representation of a 20 year old girl. But I didn’t want to look fat or pale or have dark circles around my eyes, essentially I didn’t want to look like me! Not because I’m not ok with any of those things about myself, but because I think someone else might not be. Is what other people think of us, more important to us, than what we think of ourselves? Or is that just me? And is it vain? Or just normal? Being a Christian, I believe there is a perfect heaven. I don’t understand it but I believe it is there, and when I think about heaven, well I almost don’t like to. Living in the world we live in I find it difficult to imagine a world where everything was ‘perfect’. Almost like the Stepford wives, I am Nicole Kidman wondering what the heck is going on, knowing not everything can be this perfect. Playing with the idea of changing myself and the way I look is of course somewhat playing God. Now with out being too cringe, God made me the way I am and so in theory I am perfect, of course I am not talking about sin and all that jazz but for now, simply the way I look. So if I know that God loves me and the way I look just as I am and my parents and my boyfriend too then what more do I need? Whether you are a Christian or not almost everyone has people telling them daily their beautiful, compliments thrown at them from friends, family and even strangers. But we still struggle to see it ourselves.
For this project I want to hopefully change the way we look at ourselves, with the help of viewers and writers I will recruit, I want to build a site where people can learn to appreciate them selves and other people, it will be mostly a ‘beauty site’ and whilst I absolutely hate to use that phrase, I am not looking to create a ‘click here to learn how to do winged eye liner’ website but an organic and inspiring place where people can come to shop, blog to an audience or just take a look around and enjoy what other people have to say. I want to create a short introductory film for the website made up of a series of close ups and other footage of a few different people. With the aim to inspire people to love them selves a little more! I want to be interactive with the viewers. I want the viewer to be able to have a say and an input on the content of the website. As well as having writers layout blog posts, tutorials and interviews the viewers will not only be able to respond to the content but also create there own, buy uploading photos and tutorials in response to what it already on the site. Along with involving viewers, I also want to get small up and coming brands involved. Being at university I am surrounded by fellow students trying to get their companies, brands and music careers off the ground, so I would love to dedicate a section of the site to artists and entrepreneurs to show and hopefully sell some of their stuff.
End of Manifesto
Inspirations I have had a lot of thoughts and ideas when thinking about this project, not just what I want to do but most importantly how I want to do it, what I want to say. I want my brand to be ethical, organic and unique, among many other things. Having a natural film or website is very important to me, nothing pretentious, just pure. From genuinely helpful things, like printing on eco friendly paper and encouraging eco friendly brands, to things that have no effect on our world but make it prettier, like organic feeling colour schemes. I have had a look at a few films and sites that I think I could take elements from to create my ‘dream’ brand.
Rock Roll Ride
Stuart Weitzman presents... #RockRollRide for FW14. “Rock Roll Ride” with Poppy Delevingne and Dylan Penn in Julia Restoin Roitfeld’s stunning directorial debut. Enter an enchanting paradise of revved-up boots, racy bombshells and fast cars set to a remix of Lana Del Rey’s “Ride.”
A Single Man
Tom Ford’s first fashion film based on the novel by Christopher Isherwood. The film stars Colin Firth, who portrays, George Falconer, a depressed gay British university professor struggling with the unexpected death of his partner living in Southern California in 1962.
Preserve “America is full of tales waiting to be told. There are beautiful stories hiding in small towns and big cities, on suburban streets and rural roads. Great wisdom lives in the well-worked hands of aging craftspeople and in the eager words of young artisans. Our very history is whispered into the materials they use to make exquisite goods according to timeless standards of quality and care. That is the tradition we aim to preserve. Our goal is to support the America we’ve always known, and the one we haven’t yet met. We hope to achieve this in small but meaningful ways, through the stories we tell, the treasures we share and our genuine desire to give back to those with fewer opportunities but just as much heart and soul as anyone else. We believe that nurturing a better tomorrow upholds the yesterday we cherish, for all of us. PRESERVE is all of us, together, championing the goods, makers and legends that instill meaning inside the moments of our lives. The curios that cozy our homes, the threads that define our silhouettes, the foods that leave our bellies happy, the projects that mean everything to us—we want to share all of this with you; we know we have so much to learn from you. In our ongoing quest for knowledge, these are our PRESERVE passions…”
Love Aesthetics Love Aesthetics is essentially a blog, a blog that does more than just blog. With sections on DIY, Accessories, Beauty, Clothes and much more this blog does it all. The page has an extremely minimalistic look to it, with wite pages and images the blog is very clean cut. I love the mixture of information you can get on this site, from how to paint the perfect manicure and the perfect hair do, to how to entre diy heaven!
BeExposed
BeExposed is an online Magazine and blog I have had the pleasure of writting for. Their clean cut layout of both the website and magazine is beautiful. BeExposed is a new online magazine supporting and promoting emerging creative talent, and this is something I really admire.
Website Along side a short film I want to create a website. The film will be used as a promotion/ advertisement and shown before the website launch and also played automatically when someone clicks on the website. As for the website it’s self, I want it to be interactive. I want the viewer to be able to have a say and an input on the content of the website. As well as having writers layout blog posts, tutorials and interviews the viewers will not only be able to respond to the content but also create there own, buy uploading photos and tutorials. I will of course come across the issue of possible inappropriate content being posted so there will be a screening process where each article or picture posted will be vetted.
Brands
The site will also give viewers the opportunity to come across up and coming brands and be able to explore their sites and buy their products. There would then be a link on the brand page to another page where people can upload photos of them wearing the brand’s garments along side a style tutorial from an in-house stylist in which people can respond to by asking questions etc.
Fonts
For the website's headline font I want something that will reflect the organicness of the brand, something unique and fluid. The 'Good Karma' font I have used for the headlines of this presentation, at the moment, is my favourite.
Colour Scheme A Grey day
Vs an October Fall
Model for Shoot
Serenna
Natural make up with a darker gold eye
Locations for Shoot Twesledown
Shoot Details Date
- 1st weekend of november, 2nd weekend if
needed for re-shoot.
Time
- Day time, as much sun and light as possible as will be shooting under the shade of trees.
P lace
- Tweseledown. Areas include lots of trees,
open feild spaces, hill tops, ponds and lakes.
Clothes
- Big knits, layers, large coats and faux
fur. (Buy and return)
Camera
- DSLR with film capabilities and also my
iphone for contrasting shots.
Shoot Inspirtation
Blog - http://hopeharding.wordpress.com Issuu - https://issuu.com/hopehh Pinterest - http://www.pinterest.com/harding0657/ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/hopehardingdesigns