(the below is obviously segmented, and all is via
Five Fashion Musings):
'threads of tension'
fashion design is a practice that by its very nature is in a constant state of flux. what is new today will, almost without fail, be passe tomorrow. in the words of Coco Chanel, 'fashion is made to become unfashionable.' in addition to this natural context of flux,
fashion practice has been largely absent from academic texts, and fashion theory has only begun to emerge as a subject worthy of serious study since the 1980s, so as fashion lecturers and students we deal daily with an unknown future as well as in inconsistently documented past. historically within this discipline, Australia has been situated on the periphery of academic activity, with Brisbane playing a very minor role compared to the more established Australian fashion centres of Sydney and Melbourne. while cities such as London and New York have a long tradition of art school and university fashion education, the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) was, in 2002, the first university in Queensland to offer a degree-level program in fashion and the first, in 2005, to extend its specialist fashion training to postgraduate research degrees.
learning to become a fashion designer in Queensland, Australia, presents an entirely different set of opportunities and challenges from those encountered by fashion students in the major European, North American, or Asian cities. while there have been phenomenal changes in Brisbane over the last five years, there are still limited opportunities for fashion students to study the work of contemporary international designers firsthand or to view such costume collections as those housed in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, or the Musee de la Mode et du Textile, Paris.
to some, such shortcomings might appear considerable; however, there can also be an exhilaration in knowing that you are not walking in the footsteps of generations of renowned designers, liberation in finding your own style or in having a blank sheet of paper to draw on.
this paper examines some of the obstacles encountered by first year QUT fashion students as well as some of the innovative teaching methodologies being employed by the QUT fashion team, with particular focus on an introductory first year project titled 'sox'.
the decision to study fashion at university seems for many students to be less of a choice than a compulsion. evidence shows that students are usually drawn to study fashion because they have a 'passion for fashion' - often developed from a much-loved hobby - that sees design less as a form of income generation and more as a fulfilling pastime. this can result in an approach to fashion which is initially focused less on realising a sustainable career than on fulfilling a need to create and to make. whiel this passion is admirable and often produces highly motivated students, it does not, in itself, prepare them for the nature of university study where creative practice is just one part of the whole experience.
despite the growing economic and cultural role that fashion plays within the creative industries, employing millions of people across the glove and contributing to the wealth of many nations,
choosing to study fashion at university can still be seen as a foolish education choice by parents and school careers counselors alike. bright girls are regularly talked out of the idea and boys are encouraged to consider other more 'serious' design disciplines such as architecture or industrial design. although fashion has spawned a truly international industry, extending far beyond the discrete role of the fashion designer and incorporating a multitude of associated areas of employment, from pattern cutting to product development, journalism to PR, styilng to event management, it still struggles to attain acceptance as a serious discipline of study. even within the traditional British art school evironment, fashion design degrees are sometimes referred to derogatively as 'Capuccino Courses' - all foam and little real substance.
fashion departments at universities and art schools have also been largely dominated by female staff and, despite the fact that many of the most celebrated fashion designers are male, fashion students are overwhelmingly female.
gaining a place in any reputable fashion degree program is highly competitive. at QUT, just one in ten applicants receives an offer each year. successful candidates are required to prepare a portfolio of work strong enough to ensure that they make it to the interview stage, at which time they will be tested on their commitment, knowledge, and potential by a panel of fashion lecturers.
while aspring art and design students in the UK are encouraged to develop relevant skills in secondary-level education, which can be built upon in year-long foundation courses, in Australia, and especially in Queensland where university-lvel study in fasion is new, few applicants have any depth in training in design prior to tertiary study. unlike disciplines such as Dance, Visual Art, or Drama, where lecturers can anticipate a good level of skill upon entry to a degree program, we have to look for the potential evidenced in an applicant's portfolio, much of which is often totally untutored work that they have generated themselves in preparation for application. this means that many first year fashion students at QUT, while very passionate about the idea of fashion design, are often very naive about the practice of fashion design, with limited knowledge of the history or cultural context of fashion, and few of the technical skills needed to translate their ideas into three-dimensional products.
all students bring with them individual learning styles and expectations, influenced by their prior experiences of learning and of life; some have excelled at school, others have come to fashion seeking something in which to excel for the first time, some have traveled extensively, while others have never left the state.
fashion design edcuation revolves around a series of tensions: between the head and the hands, the expressive and the analytical; between abstract concepts and three-dimensionsl outcomes; between risk (novelty) and safety (a supportive learning environment).
the capability and understanding required to become a successful creative practitioner within the fashion industry is a complex blend of conceptual, technical, and business skills.
- Suzi Vaughan & Wendy Armstrong, p9
'the mail fashion bias'
since the establishment of the first European fashion houses in the nineteenth century, the male wardrobe has been continually appropriated by the fashion industry to the extent that every masculine garment has made its appearance in the female wardrobe. for the womenswear designer, menswear's generic shapes are easily refitted and restyled to suit the prevailing fashionable silhouette.
yet despite the wealth of inspiration and technique across both male and female clothing, the bias has largely been against menswear, with limited reciprocal benefit. therefore, while womenswear has been continually re-invigorated through a process which appropriates traditional male attire, men's fashion of the modern period has rarely drawn on the techniques and silhouettes of women's fashion.
traditional male clothing culture promotes innovation
within its systems of manufacture and the fabric and construction technologies these systems produce.
taking this dichotomy as a starting point, my practice applies techniques traditionally associated with the production of female fashion to the production of contemporary menswear as a meamsn of examining the connections between issues of design, gender, and technique.
through an exploration of these concepts in my work, i propose to answer the question: how can i use womenswear patternmaking and construction techniques to implement change in menswear design? i endeavour to make work which can provide a new way of thinking about how garments relate to the male body and how these techniques in turn could be utilised to challenge strict binary gender codes perpetuated by menswear and womenswear traditions.
this simplistic concept, which has brought us such cliches as skirts for men, would limit my practice to garments that have no life beyond the theatricality of the catwalk environment.
opposed to this process of menswear design being based within the systems of manufacture that produce it, innovative womenswear designers instinctively develop possibilities of clothing creation through a connection between the hand and the eye, often offering concepts of design inspiration without direct regard for manufacturing. these including: design through draping on live model / dummy; design through sketching; design through styling / remodelling; design through deconstruction / reconstruction.
menswear designers' and manufacturers' determination to 'stick with what they know' up to this point has meant that, despite a two hundred year history, innovation in the way fabric relates to the male body is still in its infancy. by rethinking the basic elements of menswear - the component blocks - and by implementing womenswear techniques within the traditions of the masculine 'system', i am providing a catalyst for a shift in the way designers approach the future of menswear.
- Mark Neighbour, p19
'looking, fashion media & risk culture'
so profoundly has our age invested in the concept of design, in fact, that it is also the latest euphanism for the entity previously known as God.
the existence of a deity is claimed to be evidenced by 'intelligent design'. indeed, while many of us are skeptical about the religious godhead, we nevertheless remain 'creationists' in relation to design. we attribute fabulous powers to designers, including the god-like ability to 'create'.
but no garment is designed ab initio. just as life on earth - and each individual life form - is more convincingly explained by the theory of evolution than by 'intelligent design', so fashion in general and each individual garment is evolutionary, and cannot be explained by the idea of 'design', which in this context is a mystification. thus, garments evolve; they do not spring into the world fully formed as a result of 'creative design.'
- John Hartley, p55
'what is in the name of a fashion designer'
..for Forcault, the author-name functions as a means of classification, grouping together texts, and differentiating them from others. while this seems once more a heavy investment in Romantic ideas of the self, Forcault
rejects the individual as the origin of creation and instead argues that the individual is an effect of a variety of discourses that pre-exist them: language; ideology; ethical systems, and so on.
Forcault intentionally aims at undermining some of the major assumptions that circulate about authorship, particularly the assumption that the simplest way to understand a text is to relate it to the biography of the author and that the author is the guiding inspiration, the 'genius' whose consciousness manipulates his or her material to make it a great work of art.
Forcault establishes four feature of the author as a function of discourse that makes the condition of the author possible, but the most intersting, as it has a relevant application to the fashion discourse, is that authors are objects of appropriation.
- Dr. Tiziana Ferrero-Regis, p75
'Gail Sorronda - New York, Paris, London, Sydney..what's next for Gail Reid?'
..so what advice does she have for the next five years of fashion graduate?
'
work in any capacity in the industry as it may open a door. be resourceful with what you do know. be brave and willing to feel uncomfortable. be honest and discriplined with your work creatively.'
- Kay McMahon, p87
