Design

Sunday, 27 October 2013

The Introduction of Harem Pants in Western Fashion by Paul Poiret (Theme: Time)

Art Nouveau  

Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau (New Art) is a decorative style in art found in architecture, art and decorative art,  which started in the 1880's until the 1910's. This style is inspired from  organic motif such as flowers, leaves and nature in general by using curved and flowing lines.It originated in Belgium and France.Art Nouveau can be found even in graphic design, interior design, fashion and textiles, jewellery, furniture and many more. William Morris a British artist and reformer who  is very popular with the Art Nouveau. Morris was the founder of the Art and Craft Movement which is linked with Art Nouveau. 

         Art and Crafts Movement by William Morris 

William Morris Design 

The Art and Crafts Movement started in the 19th century in England which challenged the  Victorian era when a social reform started. Thinkers and social reformers such as John Ruskin together with designer and reformer William Morris founded this movement. During that period there was a rise in consuming manufactured goods and these were produced in mass production which led to poor designs and quality, not showing the skills of the craftsmanship. Morris and Ruskin proposed that the craftsmanship will be revived so beautiful  objects will be produced showing off the skills of these craftsmanship in contrary to the mass production objects. Their aim was to come up with a design that was pleasing and beautiful to all the people and the craftsmanship would have a decent job. 

  

Paul Poiret Fashion Designer

Poiret Design

Paul Poiret a.k.a The King of Fashion in America was a French fashion designer born in 1879 in Paris. Poiret was very modern and came up with innovative designs for women who wanted to feel comfortable and liberated in their clothing. From strict silhouettes and pale colours, Poiret introduced designs exotic designs  inspired form the oriental styles and colours, dramatic and untied dresses.He is  the creator of bohemian-chic and many of the garments seen on the runway nowadays are inspired from him. Apart from clothes, Poiret was the first that had his brand name on cosmetics, perfumes and ornaments. Many of his designs were influenced from art nouveau,  eastern countries and Sergei Diagilhev exotic Ballet Russe. In 1906 he eliminated the corset for women and in 1910 introduced the untied dress similar to a chemise. From 1910-1913 he introduced tunics, harem pants and turban to Western fashion. The materials were  light and flowy,creating a curved silhouette just like art nouveau.

Harem Pants - Time 

Modern Harem pants

The introduction of the harem pants in western fashion was controversial and seen as an attack political and social norms. It was believed that it was an attack on Western values from the Oriental. Poiret designed thhe harem for chic woman who wanted freedom. In relation with the theme of time, the harem pants is still popular nowadays after several years. Originally these pants pants can be worn by both genders especially in the eastern side were always popular and have existed for over 2000 years. Although the harem failed, even in Poiret era, it was still used for women's sportswear. It wasn't until the late 1980's and 90's that were introduced back to the main stream by pop hip-hop singer  MC Hammer who dressed in quirky styles, this time the harem were worn mostly by teenagers. Nowadays harem pants are very in fashion, in 2009 there was the comeback and remained popular till today. By time many fashion designers included them in their collections with various styles and patterns.They can be worn, any time, any season with almost anything for day and night and even in special events.

Sequined Harem

Art Nouveau:

About.com,2013.Art Glossary:Art Nouveau. [online] Available at: < http://painting.about.com/od/artglossarya/g/defartnouveau.htm >
[Accessed 25 October 2013]

Charlotte Jirouesk,1995.The Arts and Craft Movement.[online] Available at: < http://char.txa.cornell.edu/art/decart/artcraft/artcraft.htm >
[Accessed 25 October 2013] 

Tara,.2009,Paul Poiret: The King of Modern Fashion, nothing-elegant.blogspot. com [blog] 29 January.Available at : < http://nothing-elegant.blogspot.com/2009/01/paul-poiret-king-of-modern-fashion.html > 

[Accessed 25 October 2013]

 Eximner.com, 2006-2013. Paul Poiret: The Master of Haute Couture. [online] Available at: < http://www.examiner.com/article/paul-poiret-the-master-of-haute-couture >
[Accessed 25 October 2013]

Yahoo Shine and Lifestyle Network, 2013. The History of Harem Pants.[online] Available at: < http://voices.yahoo.com/the-history-harem-pants-5544233.html >
[Accessed 25 October 2013]

Futurism 

Futurism 

Futurism was founded in Italy in 1909 by the Italian poet and editor Filippo Marinetti. On the 20th of February of the same year, Marinetti published the manifesto of this new modern art on the newspaper 'Le Figaro'. Marinetti in the manifesto expressed the words "time and space died yesterday". Marinetti wanted to discard anything static, and irrelevant art, but celebrate the change that was brought by the industrial revolution. Although Futurism is an expression of movement and speed it was also a destruction of time. During the early 20th century there was the industrial revolution, machines, factories, cities expanding all of these made the life easier and consuming less time. Futurists loved the speed, noise, pollution, machines, technology, speed and movement. The industrial age started to take over to a new modern life. It brought innovative and original art but also in society. Most of the paintings and sculptors expressed movement and dynamics of the natural and man-made forms. Futurism influenced other movements such as Art Deco, Surrealism and Dada amongst other. The French artist Marcel Duchamp adapted the use of modern materials and techniques. 

Fortunato Depero

Fortunati Depero

One of the major futurist Italian artists was Fortunato Depero who was born in 1892, Italy. In 1915 joined the Futurist movement but before from social realism, symbolism till this movement. His inspirations came from Boccioni's sculptures and exhibited a series of drawings. Depero was the first and last Italian Futurist who moved to New York, and during his stay he designed many front covers for glossy magazines such as Vogue, Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, although years passed they are still popular magazines nowadays.His works mostly consisted of paintings and advertisement posters like the Campari advert. In Roverto, Italy there is  an institution dedicated to Futurists works of other artists which contains over 3000 paintings and 7500 manuscripts about Futurism. 

New Futurist Theatre Company Poster, 1924 (Time)

This poster was designed to advertise the opening of the New Futurist Theatre.Although Futurism is about movement and speed, time is an important factor because this movement originated during the industrial revolution and the machine age. Time brought change and revolution. Regarding the poster I assume that it is a robot figure made up from factory chimneys with smoke coming out. It is a diagonal composition with repetitive angular forms that represent the kinetic energy. The number on the body may have different interpretations if it's meaning, it could be the year 2310, maybe Depero was imagining how the futurist world will look like, robots talking, technology at it's best and we will live in a technology world. 

Campari advertisement

Blanchard,D.,2009.'Time and Space Died Yesterday," Futurism at 100. Conterlight's Peculiars, [blog] 30 July. Available at: < http://counterlightsrantsandblather1.blogspot.com/2009/07/beautiful-ideas-that-kill-futurism-at.html > [Accessed 27 October 2013] 

Nicolas Pioch, 2002. Futurism [online ] Available at:< http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/glo/futurism/ >

[Accessed 27 October 2013] 

Fortunato Depero: Bali Plastici ,date unknown, Deparo, Futurism and More [online] Available at: <  http://www.etc.cmu.edu/projects/balli-plastici/learn/ > 

[Accessed 27 October 2013] 

Steampunk Design Inspiration 

After thinking and coming up with different ideas for the visual product I chose to do a women's headpiece as a finalized concept. My aim is to create something original,edgy but fun at the same time.I am also thinking of doing an outfit that matches the headpiece.The theme I chose for this unit is TIME. I found steampunk as a good source of  inspiration for the theme and concept and inspired me for the headpiece. 

The Origins of Steampunk 

Steampunk nowadays is a popular sub-culture, as we can find clothing, shoes, literature and many more related to steampunk which is ispired mostly from the 19th century, the  Victorian era to sum it up it's Victorian science fiction . It all started in the 1970's as a science-fiction sub-genre with fundamental inspirations from authors Jules Verne ( 20,000 Legueas Under the Sea) and H.G Wells ( The Time Machine), these inspired the following century due to steamed power objects and Victorian era settings in their tales and made history with Victorian technology reigns over the modern technology. The development of modern technology and machines started during the Victorian era. 

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne.

During the 19th century, cheap novels called Dime Novels were really popular as their stories were full of melodromatic roamance,adventure. In these novels there were elements of steampunk known as "Edisonades" these were steam creatures. There are a lot of things related with steampunk but there is no evidance from were they got inspired the first sub-genres authors apart from the fact that it is inspired from the Victorian Age ( 1837-1901) . Steampunk predicted that the people and inventors of that time  would be like nowadays controlled by modern technology.

 The term steampunk is a compound word of steam and punk, the steam is a reference to technology and the steam engines that were vital in this industry. It revolutionized every aspect of life because people had work and afforded to consume goods, increase in production, and forming a modern society class of workers and professions and these changes of society are all associated with the Victorian age. The term punk is a reference to the equivalent of the twentieth century punk and the street cultures of both centuries. 

Steampunk Fashion 

Fashion for Men 

Fashion for Women

Steampunk is very vast, some love it for the Victorian period others  for the technology aspect and even other like the aspect. People who love steampunk and follow that type of fashion, they combine clothes accessories inspired from the nineteenth century.It is like a neo-vintage movement because it has that vintage elements yet it appeal to everybody style.People can get fashion ideas from characters or scenes or photographs from the nineteenth century and adapting  according to their taste and style.Mainly to adopt a  steampunk look it  consists of corsets, long ruffled skirts, shirts worn under corsets, big collarss, military jackets, leather, goggles, waist jackets,  and accessories with clocks or engines symbols

Clocks and engine

as seen  seen on necklaces, brooches, top-hats, bracelets, gloves and many more.

Goggles 

Contempory Steampunk 

Nowadays we find many books, art, films and many more related to steampunk, some popular films such as The Hunger Games, Sweeney Todd,Sherlock Holmes, Hugo. Also many artists produced paintings with steampunk theme and inspired many for product

Why it Inspires Me  

This style always fascinated me because it has that vintage element plus it is very unique and original to wear but can be modified in many ways. My visual product is going to be a headpiece inspired from this perios, and the theme Time. Mainly I chose steampunk because it matches perfectly with the theme of time since many of the accessories have the clock symbol or the engine symbol. Apart from the symbols, it was during the Victorian era when the revolution took place and The Machine Age started.People had work, factories were built, many inventions of technology happened such as the telephone, camera and many more. By time everything was changing to a modern and fast life, mass production reached it's peak and people started to produce and buy. For my headpiece I am thinking of adding the steampunk symbols or clocks and engines to represent time and change combined with ruffles and style worn in the Victorian Era

Google Sites,2013.Steampunk History/Origins.[online] Available at: < https://sites.google.com/a/depauw.edu/airships-and-corsets/history-origins >

[Accessed 16 December 2013]

G.D Falksen,2009.Steampunk 101.[online] Available at:< http://www.tor.com/blogs/2009/10/steampunk-101 >

[Accessed 16 December 2013]