My work is created for Today’s fashion with inspiration from both the ideas of Yesterday and visions of Tomorrow. The Portsmouth Anglican Cathedral and its architecture was the source of my initial inspiration, starting my project with the ideas of Yesterday. There are many complicated carvings within the cathedral which led to the development of multiple detailed and delicate motifs within my work. When researching ways to develop my motifs and designs by investigating other, more eccentric, cathedrals; I found the artistic mosaic work of Antonio Gaudí, in which he had designed and manufactured many intricate tiles before smashing them up and rearranging the shards to create complex mosaics with a different pattern to the original tiles. The intricate motifs derived from the cathedral and influenced by Gaudí’s work were used to develop the textiles seen on the undershirt. Antonio Gaudí stated that: “The straight line belongs to men, the curved one to God.”; prompting me to become freer with my garment styles and shapes, introducing more curved and flowing lines rather than those of a tailored garment. This also brought my research to the
smooth minimalist lines of Organic architecture, a part of the Postmodern movement, and into the visions of Tomorrow.
The functional yet artistic nature of postmodern architecture is shown most notably in the futuristic shapes of the MAD Architects’ work in Beijing. Inspired by the movement within their building and the way they seemed to be alive, I strived to create designs which appear to flow and roll but maintained the immovable presence of a building. Intrigued by the way the buildings appeared to have been grown instead of built, with no visible supports or seams, encouraged me to think about how one could create a 3D structural garment that reflects the architecture of these swooping buildings without visible fitting or structure. The main body of my final garment was created from scuba, to mimic the smooth lines, and foam, to create the sweeping shapes. I created each segment of the main body from a continuous shape of foam to maintain the fluidity, yet keep the dominant presence inspired by the organic architecture as well.
LucasJames 