CLIMATE
A/W 2015 concept insight
climate ‘Climate’ looks for lasting trends, rather than fads. It encourages exploration, freedom, and has an open mind. Looks to the past, present and future, finding inspiration anywhere from the streets, to museums or in nature. Climate is people focused, appreciating personality and quirks.
the forecast Street style 3/4- newcastle 5/6 - london Developing stories 7/10 - industrial rust 11/14 - mossy city 15/16/inspiring following pages -urban canvas 17/22 - sonia delaunay collection inspiration 23 - about 24 - on the street 25 - the V&A 26 - androgynous input 27/28 - the collection Photography 29/32 - shirley baker 33/34 - ben toms 35/36 - kevin sinclair 37/38 - Photographed backgrounds illustration development 39 - about Inspired by 40 - lucy turnbull 41 - sara ligari 42 - judith van den hoek 43 - silke werzinger 44 - Adara Sรกnchez Anguian 45/46 - typography development
Street style NEWCASTLE
3
Newcastle contained grungy, skater vibes with some clean cut smart looks thrown in. Pops of colour amongst beige, black and greys were welcome and generally came in the form of deep rich colours; forest green checks, deep mustard yellow jackets, navy blue dugarees and pops of red.
MY PERSONAL HIGHLIGHTS.
London more adventurous than newcastle, London had more ‘out there’ looks, not just on those particularly interested in fashion, or even on eccentric characters -it just seemed that people were more comfortable experimenting with their look and breaking the mould. I tried to slightly avoid taking pictures right outside of London Fashion Week venues to capture more every day looks. Colours were brighter, whether on a fluffy multi-coloured jacket, bright pink Asics trainers, or a vintage floral zip up jacket! Outfits without much colour featured strong lines and clothing cuts, and interesting fabrics -see the sharp leather look coat.
5
6
Developing stories industrial rust Industrial colour story, both cool and also warm shades reflecting metallic hues. Grungy painted vents from London, and a clean, stylised sculpture from Newcastle’s Civic centre inspired me -similarly industrial and linea but incredibly different in style and purpose.
10
mossy city An earthy colour story, both cool and also warm shades mainly greens and beiges. When looking at Newcastle Civic Centres ‘Tyne God’ sculpture I felt the colours from Berwick beach created a similar story -I liked this as they are such different subjects but both reflect the colours that nature, particularly water, can create.
14
urban canvas a Graffiti inspired colour story, mainly vibrant colours with only a couple of more subtle shades. Focusing on tonal blues as they seemed to be the colour I saw more regularly in Newcastle’s graffiti, the other colours are warmer for a stronger contrast to reflect bold, urban graffiti.
sonia delaunay the ey exhabition
A series of my favourite art works and paintings by Sonia Delaunay. The selection picks up the circular, abstract, colour blocking style of her work through the years, on a number of scales, with attention to different details and using different materials. 17
Delaunay’s work soon transferred into a money making project as well as a passion, this was particularly successful when she developed her skills beyond painting and into textile and fashion. She named her fashion house ‘Simultane’, the exhibition showed a recreation of her shop front which features large samples of her fabrics on moving mechanical rollers in shop windows -very advanced and high tech! I enjoyed seeing Delaunay’s work move from one creative area into another, and her print styles increase in variation.
After visiting a Sonia Delaunay exhibition at the Tate Modern, I decided to incorporate my graffiti based colour trend with her circular style prints that carried her interest from her early work, up to her final few art works. Since Delaunay used bold and contrasting colours I figured this colour trend would be fitting. I have experimented with outlines, contrast and graduating colours.
collection inspiration
Street style
inspired by the v&A
p24
p25
Some inspiration from the streets of London to develop a clothing collection for whistles. highlighting a lot of masculine shapes and oversized tailored clothing cuts with quirky bursts of colour.
a trip to the Victoria and Albert Museum made me look at interesting historical pieces of the male wardrobe from different regions and eras from a different angle. Masculine staples that now look like potential additions to a womans wardrobe. I found it interesting how clothing can change so drastically in status over time, even to the point of crossing gender.
Androgynous input p26
Finally, I decided to look at androgyny; the past, present and future state of it. Looking back at strong females such as Frida Kahlo (a personal idol of mine) -she would sometimes dress as a male in a time when traditional dress was of high importance, just because she wanted to! At a time women were expected to wear dresses, she pushed gender norms without taking it too seriously. Designers such as Jean Paul Gaultier always likes to bring something new to the catwalk. his LBD / tux jacket from the Spring 2015 show effortlessly pushes formalwear of male and female together. Models such as Andreja Pejic are becoming more frequent in the industry, as androgynous, gender neutral figures demanding to be taken seriously. Finally, the Maison Margiela Fall 15 Couture show was a sign to me that androgynous fashion is nothing but on the rise. His show feautured both male and female models with gender neutral styling - males in dresses; and not in a drag way, but in a genuinely undistinguishable way.
23
the capsule collection
A capsule collection for Whistles, looking at oversized silhouettes, a range of skirt and trouser lengths, and the occasional incorporation of Sonia Delaunay inspired print.
I have looked at the inspiration in my previous posts along with the Whistles contemporary brand identification, market and signature styles. I figured Whistles would be a good brand to link my discretely androgynous styles to, as they already experiment with more masculine cuts in their womenswear range such as wide leg, oversized, denim dungarees.
Shirley baker women, children and loitering men The Photography Gallery. since it was shot between 1960 and the early 80’s; The majority of Bakers’ work is black and white, I like this and the obviously older style of the pictures. Baker does however begin to add colour to the photography in a few of her later images, choosing to focus of vibrant pops of one particular colour. One of my favourite things about the collection of images is the focus and inspiration; Baker felt a lot of sympathy towards those living in England who had their homes or local area damaged during the war - with this focus her images give a slightly grungey and bleak mood, but the sense of community shines through strongly. these images reminded me of the importance of the little things that make you smile in a hard time, like a visit from the ice cream man! Angles are generally front on, Baker’s work was mainly for press, so although her photographs have a lot of character, they remain very clear. It seems that Shirley Baker used mainly natural light as she shoots out doors, generally in the streets. clarity of the photo obviously comes before artistic lighting. I really enjoyed this exhibition, baker’s portrayal of people was really interesting; each image seems to tell a story and she captures the people in the images in a way which makes them seem almost familiar. Even the few images which do not feature a person still capture a mark of a person who has been around and show their character.
29
ben toms for orla kiely ss14 After looking at Shirley Bakers press photography from the 60-80’s, I figured I should look at some recent images that are focused on fashion and that would work well with the chosen brand (Whistles) along with the designs I have came up with. I really liked this collection of images by Ben Toms, he linked the retro style of the clothing designs to the photography, the backdrop of wooden panelled woods and furniture shapes reflect the 1965 era as intended. The collection was based upon Suzy Bishop in the film Moonrise Kingdom, a story of two young lovers who flee New England in search of adventure. The images do seem youthful and nostalgic but not so childish to deter the customer base. The pretty, well polished and ‘English rose’ looking model in front of the backdrop of the safari image against the wood panels reminded me a little of Jane from the film ‘Tarzan’, another young woman embracing adventure in a new surrounding! I like the 70’s inspired, neutral colour palette with the addition of small touches of primary colours. Again, the lighting in these images allows for really clear photographs and no shadows. The images are also taken front on, which seems to be wise when trying to capture details and proportions in clothing, then simply rotating the model or items to capture other angles of them.
33
Kevin Sinclair august 2015, vogue mexico I came across this collection of images for Vogue Mexico while researching recent photography in fashion publications. It seems to slightly mix some elements from previous two photographers’ work that I had looked at. These images feel more natural and authentic than those by Ben Toms, and have more movement and a feeling of freedom to them like the images from the Shirley Baker exhibition -which I like. The outdoor location in the streets of Portugal, gives more personality to the shoots than a still background, although means details in the clothing could be missed as the model (Saara Sihvonen) interacts with the city. I personally don’t mind this and feel it allows the clothing to seem like it really belongs to the model and builds a character. The mix of colour and black and white images adds to the free and easy going feel of the photo set, they work well together, maybe because the 70’s inspired colour palette that the stylist focused on is not too garish or in your face. The classic, muted and dusty colours work nicely against the neutral colours in the city behind. These images play more with angles and shadows, the sun shining the the iron gate and casting it’s pattern into the shot is really pretty, as is capturing the highlight of the sun shining through the window and onto the side of Sihvonens’ face. Angles are character focused and subtle, whether from slightly above the model or below, or even just the cut off of the bicycle wheels; it feels more personal and less technical.
35
Photography as background’s for my ‘mock shoots’ I decided to make the most of my city location, in london. inspired by the simple street shots by both fashion photographer kevin sinclair and shirley bakers publication photography, I thought streets give character, and a sense of lifestyle to the muse/model. As my collection is infuenced by androgyny, the streets seem to fit well, neither feminine nor masculine. I looked at interesting older buildings, although some areas are worn and more urban, so the images don’t look too pretty. I really liked the bold primary colours that I saw around, and made me think of the colours that my chosed inspirational photographers had also opted for.
38
illustration development looking at interesting illustrators for inpiration on how to illustrate my own capsule collection. exploration is important, and multiple styles and medias will be used.
Illustration 1A sketchy style of a girl in one of my designs. The rough, hand drawn look of my first illustration was inspired by some of Tracy Turnbull’s work - she seems to have a few styles herself, some more graphic, and others similar to this. As I hoped to try a range of styles I opted for a rustic, uncommon variation. Colour addition is subtle and rough like the outlining.
40
Illustration 2Inspired by Sara Ligari, I looked at her technique for defining shade on the face and focus on graphic outlines. I differed from Ligari in continuing this graphic style and colouring the illustration digitally. Outline created using fine liner, colour was added using photoshop, then finished illustration was dropped onto own photo of a London street.
Illustration 3 Inspired by an illustration by Judith Van Den Hoek, her use of monotone blocking made an interesting style, with a face which had more detail. I feel like the blocking would have worked better if I had been working on a plain background made of one simple colour, which would exagerate a contrast. I quite like this style but it is a shame the image changed so much when scanned in as I used pencil to draw and shade.
42
Illustration 4 My illustration was inspired by Silke Werzinger’s graphic yet obviously hand drawn style. Werzinger generally uses more vibrant and abstract colours in illustrating people, which is something I would like to play around with further in the future when a colour palette has not already been set. I like this slightly dreamy style with a visible mix of digital and had rendered techniques. I thought the stance of the muse was a good opportunity to incorporate the theme of androgyny.
Illustration 5 My 5th illustration was inspired by some of Adara Sánchez Anguiano’s sketchy and messy work. I thought trying a ‘scribbly’ style would make a nice contrast to the graphic styles that I have also looked at. I enjoy illustrating in biro, if i were to do more illustrations in this style I would maybe use red and black pen rather than blue and black on the skin, and put more emphasis on joints.
Identifying climate Exploring an identifying feature to any publication - typography. a neat, readable and clean font was chosen for climate, one which would and could be consistant throughout the whole publication, and fit any story or theme.
I like Rag & Bone’s logo typography because it is clear and easy to read yet still has character. The font looks like it has came from an old typewriter, with unclean edges and even gaps in some lines. The lack of capital letters at the beginning of each word feels effortless, basic and carefree- it fits the urban while understated designs and general branding.
A record by Marina & the Diamons. I liked the type used on the case of the record as it is bold and striking yet looks hand rendered. The font also suits the image of the artist which is crucial. Framing the image of Marina it fits the canvas well. The back of the envelope has the same font as the front, which I think is important, although I do think the smaller chunk of writing could be difficult to read in the typography chosen.
45
‘The World of Interiors’ has a clean, graphic font, I feel it looks classy and not dull. I think the neutral font is appropriate for a magazine which holds a number of interior styles, inspired from a range of sources and eras. When creating my own publication I plan to take inspiration from this font, as what is within a trend publication is sure to change with each issue. A font like that on ‘Oh Comely’ would look great with a really feminine trend, but teamed with a stores on masculine tailoring, it would look mismatched.
Oh Comely has a really sweet and soft typography that looks like it could have been painted in water colour. The fact the colour of the type isn’t a solid colour softens it further, along with the colour choice of a dusty grey. The chosen font is fairly unusual, especially when used as a title of the magazine, but this means the magazine does stand out and potential readers get a feel for the style of the publication before turning to the first page.
Hand rendered font styles. I tried a range of typography style, joined letters, a mixture of capitals and lower case, some more obviously hand written than others. ‘Climate’ is the planned name for my publication, as what is inside each issue would vary and change with current events, weather, inspiring people and stories. This state of change reminded me of climates.
climate 2015 University project philippa crawford