Idea before second meeting with Sam Chick / After the meeting with Sam Chick

The images show below, are some of the work that the group and I did in preparation for our second meeting with Sam Chick. from previous posts, our nursery rhyme had changed to Little Bow Peep as we felt our original idea was unknown enough for it to become un- relatable. So with our new idea, we started to build up a narrative. We still wanted to keep this idea of the model wondering through the woods looking for her lost sheep, but we wanted to play with a boarder context of the sheep becoming a metaphor, for the constraints of society and the ideologies held for these characters in the context of the illustrations. Therefore the audience are presented with a contradicted ideal of this character from the representation we found in many illustrations. 

 

Here's one the group and I looked at. There is something quite idyllic about these illustrations with a childlike expression, we think the colours represent a candy appearance,  emphasizing the characters oozing innocence, an ideal of children of that day. The detail not only in the setting but also in the clothing. Whereas this image shown below is an idyllic representation of Bo Peep, we want to explore the idea of the psychological, however keeping to key iconography such as the crook and this Victorian style clothing to give the piece context.

Here are photographs of the work we produced for our tutorial with Sam Chick.

 

 

1. From the one image from above we started to look at the style of the Victorian clothing picking out key points of the dress making that we wanted to design in our own dress such as the corset style top and the layering of material at the bottom.  From this I started to source clothing that I found in my loft such as netting material that perhaps we could use as a reference point for our dress layering it with different thickness and colouring.

2. This is some sketches that Christie produced, showing some ideas of how we want the dress to look? We liked the idea of layering material to connect in with the idea of the fantasy element of the nursery rhyme and the style of designers such as Alexander McQueen and Vivienne Westwood. Below are some visual references of the initial styling; however after some talks in the group we thought this high style of clothing would not suit the set, so changed our idea to a short prom style dress but still incorporating key elements. However after originally looking at the style of Victorian clothing, we decided that the style of nursery rhyme suited a more Regency era. Even so the style of both era's are quite similar so it wasn't that much of a change.

 

Last two are just some visual sketches taken from magazines, TV, internet etc that were presented in a sketchbook with annotations of  WHY we liked the look and then we brought that forward to design a dress that had a mixture of key elements we liked. 

 

Some information about the style of Regency clothing. The highlighted areas are key elements about the style of the clothing in each era of this period ……

 

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The exaggerated structure of certain Victorian dress elements was part of an effort by designers to emphasize the popular silhouette of the moment. During the early Victorian decades, voluminous skirts held up with crinolines, and then hoop skirts, were the focal point of the silhouette. To enhance the style without distracting from it, hats were modest in size and design, straw and fabric bonnets being the popular choice. Poke bonnets, which had been worn during the late Regency period, had high, small crowns and brims that grew larger until the 1830s. They had rounded brims, echoing the rounded form of the bell-shaped hoop skirts. In the 1870s, the fashionable silhouette discarded the hoop skirt for a slimmer style. The dresses were extremely tight around the corseted torso and the waist and upper legs. To emphasize the volume in the bustle, women's hats shrank in size. Small hats were perched towards the front of the head, over the forehead. To complement the small hat, women wore their hair in elaborate curls. Some women wore hairpieces called "scalpettes" and "frizzettes" to add to the volume of their hair.

The silhouette changed once again as the Victorian era drew to a close. The shape was essentially an inverted triangle, with a wide-brimmed hat on top, a full upper body with puffed sleeves, no bustle, and a skirt that narrowed at the ankle (the hobble skirt was a fad shortly after the end of the Victorian era).

These are just some mock up of the original clothing ideas. Looked at the material such as netting and lulle to create a sense of theatrical movement.

 

 

 

This image above, shows a bodice top that Christie has. She brought it in, and we discussed if we could adjust or alter the top to fit with our concept?  It is shaped in a love heart design and had soft netting and diamantes. It is nipped in at the waist and would give a modern twist on the traditional clothing we are looking at. However we would have to add sleeves and bone like structure in the body to relate to the time period.  

 

 

 

3. Then we went on to look at props. Originally we were going to construct a woodland/marshland area where the model would be sitting at the table with mismatched items of silverware and cups and saucers etc. The model would be pretending to carve or eat a 'sheep' to play on the idea of loosing her sheep! So these are the original prop page and some items I photographed that fitted in with the original idea.

 

In the 1890s, women's fashion became simpler and less extravagant; both bustles and crinoline fell out of use and dresses were not as tight as before. Corsets were still used but became slightly longer, giving women a slight S-curve silhouette. Skirts took on a trumpet shape, fitting closely over the hip with a wasp-waist cut and flaring just above the knee. High necks and puffed sleeves became popular. Sportswear for women, such as bicycling dresses, tennis dresses, and swimwear became popular. In the 1880s, riding habits had a matching jacket and skirt (without a bustle), a high-collared shirt or chemisette, and a top hat with a veil. Hunting costumes had draped ankle-length skirts worn with boots or gaiters. Clothing worn when out walking had a long jacket and skirt, worn with the bustle, and a small hat or bonnet. Travellers wore long coats like dusters. In the 1870s, uncorseted tea gowns were introduced for informal entertaining at home and steadily grew in popularity. Bustles were used to replace the crinoline to hold the skirts up behind the woman, even for "seaside dresses“ In the 1860s, the skirts became flatter at the front and projected out more behind the woman. Day dresses had wide pagoda sleeves and high necklines with lace or tatted collars. Evening dresses had low necklines and short sleeves, and were worn with short gloves or fingerless lace or crocheted mitts. In the 1840s and 1850s, women's gowns developed narrow and sloping shoulders, low and pointed waists, and bell-shaped skirts. Corsets, an ankle-length chemise-like skirt, and layers of flounced petticoats were worn under the gowns. Day dresses had a solid bodice and evening gowns had a very low neckline and were worn off the shoulder with sheer shawls and opera-length gloves.

 

 

Here are some items that Christie thought would perhaps be useful for our props collection.  Our inspiration was the MAD HATTERS TEA PARTY in Alice in wonderland film. We liked the psychological elements of the whole mismatch of items in this scene which reflected the personality of the character. We also liked the darkened backdrop, Smokey air and the eerie feel created in this frame that we want to bring forward to our set.

4. This is just some rough sketches of some sets I started to design. I know these designs are showing a variety of nursery rhymes but I brought it into our group and we chose some visual elements that perhaps we liked and could work with in our final images from the sketches I had done.

 

We quite liked the idea of building a forest scene bottom right. Liked the idea of turning the idea of the girl being on a top of a hill to her being in the woods lost.

The image above shows an initial sketch up of the set. Not coloured in but it just gave us a rough sketch of what the set could look like.

 

 

A swatch board of potential colours that we could use in our set. We wanted to create layering in the  colour especially in the trees in order to create a realistic tone. In respect to the table we wanted  to create a earthy feel of a props.

 

 

Here are just some notes I took whilst visiting Wickes to investigate potential paint we could use. When we had our set build with Colin  he told us that the paint had to water based as it was not flammable and could be easily washed off. So the investigation still continues......

 

 

This is a actual physical 3D model of the set. The fern stalks represent the trees and the green tuff represents the grassy piece where the table and the model would be sitting at. In the bag there is a small wooden table and a lantern to represent what the image might look like.

 

 

 

Here are just some images of potential makeup and hair. We wanted it to be quite dramatic and edgy and have got a makeup artist who is wants to do it and is able to do the hair as well.

 

After the meeting with Sam Chick.....

 

On the 2nd of march, the group and I, had another meeting with Sam Chick to check up on our progress towards our fashion constructed shoot. The meeting was helpful and helped point us in another direction, which added another perspective towards our work.

Here are some things he discussed with us in the meeting:

•Perhaps  not taking the reference too literal. Maybe only have one item in the background that relates to the piece; don't literally have a model carving away at a piece of meat! - At this point we looked at the work of Good vs Bad Kate editorial spread and the brain in the background as an example of this. 

 

•Hold a casting session to find an appropriate model. Good that we have started to search websites like Model Mayhem to find some models in the local area, but don't use them if they are unreliable. Some really interesting people in uni for example, in fashion that might do it for free. Take details and head shots. Could do another call back with the people we like?

 

•Look at the 18th century oil painting by Jean-Honore Fargonard, titled  'The Swing' . The painting depicts a scene between lovers and the woman's husband. The woman is wearing Bergère hat (shepherdess hat) which is ironic since shepherds are normally associated with virtue because of their living close to nature, uncorrupted by the temptations of the city. We also thought of looking at other pre- raphaelite paintings.

 

•Developing on from this, we began looking at the representation of Marie Antoinette and Barry Lydon who used a lot of backlighting to create a mysterious atmosphere. 

 

•How will the smoke machine be used? Will it be diffused? How will we make the trees or should we build a few 'real' ones and then fake build the rest- need to go and produce a 3D model that we could go down to theatre design.

 

After this meeting, we organised a discussion to define our idea and the direction we wanted to go in. We decided the style we wanted for clothing  and re - developed our set and thought about WHY the model would be in the woods (the narrative of the character?). we also wrote what each member would do for our next meeting together.