Personal Project: Fashion Show ESSAY
Andrej Bukoven MYP 5 2009/2010 Supervisor: Mgr. Černáková Barbora
Personal Project: Fashion Show Essay – Andrej Bukoven
TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION page 3 DESCRIPTION OF THE PROCESS page 4 Video Fashion Show page 4 Sketches page 4 Model Casting (June – Preparation) page 4 Mini Fair page 4 Model Casting page 5 Special Offer page 5 Model Casting (October) page 6 Finalisation of the Designs page 6 Rehearsal of the Fashion Show page 7 Music Mix page 7 T Shirts page 7 Fashion Show page 7 ANALYSIS page 8 CONCLUSION page 9 BIBLIOGRAPHY page 10 APPENDICES page 11 Appendix 1 – First sketches page 11 Appendix 2 – Model Casting (June – Promotion) page 11 Appendix 3 – Model Casting Questionnaire page 12 Appendix 4 – ‘Do you want to be a diva?’ short movie page 12 Appendix 5 – Model Casting (June – Participants) page 12 Appendix 6 – Model Casting (October – Promotion) page 13 Appendix 7 – Model Casting (October – Participants) page 13 Appendix 8 – Final Designs page 13 Appendix 9 – Fashion Show page 14 Appendix 10 – Fashion Show Music Mix page 14
2 Personal Project: Fashion Show Essay – Andrej Bukoven
INTRODUCTION
Few years go when I got the information about personal project that we need to make to get into the IB Diploma Programme, many ideas were running through my head. In those times, I started to play golf and attend swimming courses, so I found it fabulous to organise golf or swimming tournament. But the mind is always changing, especially in times of being a teenager, and of course your hobbies change. I started to be interested much in the fashion field, and I also started to be aware of many famous designers. Here we approach to the time when there was a deadline for the decision to make – to set my personal project. It was simply, easy and straightforward. Fashion show. That’s what I wanted to do. To show that even a young man as me, can create beautiful pieces of clothes and doesn’t necessarily need to be a graduated fashion designer. To show everybody out there that human ingenuity is never ending and capable to come up with many ideas, creations and designs that can stay here for long generations and always be in style. Something that would never go out of style. On the other I was aware of fact that it wouldn’t be easy and it will need lots of attention, inspiration, management, etc. But I think that’s what makes the project’s soul. My goal is to concentrate on Area of Interaction Human Ingenuity , as I’ve mentioned above, because that gives a true picture of my project goal and is very closely linked to it. I, as a creative person, will create a collection of clothes using the inspiration I get from the environment around me. I will use my ingenuity and imagination to create beautiful pieces of clothes for people that enjoy life. People who want to live freely, radiantly and at the same time have a good sense for fashion. The collection will provide space for the wearer to combine it with anything he/she feels good in. Whether it’s favourite sneakers, skirt, shirt, stilettos, or simple piece of accessory. I want to create collection for everyone, not looking on women’s or men’s measures, weight or age, to show them they can look how they want to, and – very important – to feel good in their outfit. I wanted my fashion show to be special in some way, so together with my supervisor we suggested to make video fashion show. Then on one selected day, the show will be projected in the school – on one of the floors – and also connected with a small coffee bar, where there’ll be served small refreshment for guests, so they can watch the show during drinking a coffee. Something like a vernissage with café. That whole day, me as a designer will be there, available for the guests to answer their questions about my clothes, collection, fashion show, etc. People will enjoy the show more, because the video will possibly repeat several times in loop.
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DESCRIPTION OF THE PROCESS
VIDEO FASHION SHOW Firstly, I started to gain some information how to make the video fashion show. I browsed through the internet to find out whether there has been already some famous fashion designer doing this kind of fashion show. On the official website of magazine Vogue I watched a fashion show of a young designer, Gareth Pugh, because he shot his autumn 2009 collection as a video. The review of the show on the style.com stated: “[...] It did allow for a chance to see the clothes in movement, whipped into aerodynamic shapes on screen by an elemental wind [...]” (Style.com, 2009) which brought me to the idea, that I could also use some special on set effects, like a wind, and so on. Within my personal project, I also want to make model casting for the models that will wear my designs on my fashion show. SKETCHES During third week of April I started working on my designs, and worked on them until the first May week. I sketched as many designs as possible, so in later stage I could have more options to choose within. What I’ve realised is that it is much easier to design clothes for girls than for boys. I’m still continuing to design new clothes and always when I got a new idea for some piece, I try to sketch it roughly somewhere or at least to note it somewhere and later on I drew it properly. MODEL CASTING (J UNE – PREPARATION ) The next step of my personal project was to organize model casting for the models which will present my designs. I’ve prepared first draft of the A4 poster which will serve as an advertisement for the casting. I kept it very simple, with big titles and essential information about the age and height conditions, date, time and place of location. Also I have decided to have the poster in Slovak to catch attention of more people. As a part of the model casting, I needed to prepare a questionnaire to know a little more information including name and surname, age, contact, height, weight, chest size, waist, hips, dress size, shoe size, colour of eyes, colour of hair, their hobbies, and three questions. Week later I’ve pasted up all the posters, on the high school part of building, on every staircase twice, so the commercial for my casting is going to be efficient. The date of the model casting has been set on the 9 th June 2009. MINI FAIR On 4 th June, there has been date set for the Mini Fair for us to present our progress on the personal project. I prepared a very design and stylish presentation of my designs. I scanned few of my designs, edited them on computer and put them together in a short movie entitled: “Do you want to be a diva?” The movie was divided into 3 parts, each one dedicated to one type of diva – Music Diva , Movie Diva and Fashion Diva . I divided those scanned designs into these 3 categories, added effects on the scans so it looks like the camera films the designs. To have some story around this short movie, each diva has got 3 own characteristic features and 3 own characteristic place of presence. I was inspired by the song Diva by Beyoncé (Beyoncé, 2008) which is also used as background music in this short movie. On 4 th June, the day when Mini Fair has been held and in the afternoon we have arranged tables in the school canteen and everybody prepared its own stand on his/her table to present his/her personal project. I did put some of my designs under the glass that’s on the table, and paper announcing my model casting. Then I put there my notebook, opened the movie and set it on the loop playing so I don’t have to press play each time the video ends; also it was played on the full screen. After the mini fair started, people were coming to my stand and asking me about my project. At the end of the mini fair, I’ve realised that I did a mistake that I didn’t wrote there a
4 Personal Project: Fashion Show Essay – Andrej Bukoven fashion show or something like that, because in most of cases, people had mistaken idea I was doing only a model casting, so I had to explain them, what my project was really about. During the mini fair, I turned off the music in my video, since it was very disturbing. There was generally a lot of noise in the canteen, so I tried to be considerate of other people and turned off the sound, so it won’t disturb them and me also. MODEL CASTING (J UNE ) Five days later, June 9 th was the day of my model casting. The casting was starting at 2 p.m., in our home classroom. Together with a help of my classmate Kristína, we rearranged our classroom, to create kind of casting look a like. We’ve moved tables to the sides of the classroom, and created a free space in front of blackboard for making the photos. I’ve also invited Emma from then MYP 5 since she had also personal project about fashion, to help me with a run of the casting, since she has some experience from her modelling career. Also, another friend of mine, Kaja, came to help me. So I had pretty nice jury! In the first 15 minutes, Slávka Blahová from then MYP 5 arrived to my casting, and she also brought along a friend of her from another class. I kindly asked them to fill my questionnaire. There were some difficulties with the sizes of chest, breast, waist, hips and clothes’ size. After fulfilment of the questionnaire I photographed both girls. Firstly the full body, then close up from waist up, close up from chest up, and at last profile close up from chest up. Ten minutes after the girls left, other 2 girls from then MYP 5 arrived, so I did the same process as in case of the first girls. After them, the first male participant of my casting arrived, again from then MYP 5. In case of all people I assigned each one special casting number (girls had prefix number 2 and boys 1). They had to hold this number when they were photographed, so I could match the photo with the number on the questionnaire when I will be choosing my models for the fashion show. Also, in case of each attendant at my casting, there was a problem with their measures. They simply didn’t know it. I asked school caretaker, if he haven’t got a measuring tape, but unfortunately he haven’t got any. I instructed the attendants of my casting to approximately guess their measures. Unfortunately, these five people were the only one to attend my casting. After two hours, I decided to end this casting, since I saw no more people could come, because all of those that could would already arrive. Few days later, I’ve revised my thoughts from the model casting. My feeling from the casting was that I set really high requirements for the attendants. Fifteen years or older, girls have to have more than 170 cm and boys more than 180 cm. Only few of the people actually satisfy this requirement. Originally, my idea was to have a professional casting with real requirements as a model agency. This wasn’t a very wise step. I discussed this issue with my supervisor and we agreed on that I should make another casting with no restrictions for anyone. So I looked again in the calendar and set the date for next casting on 23 rd June. I also made newly designed posters propagating the casting that had no restrictions, but actually totally forgot to print it out due to the many duties in school. Because of this fact I decided to postpone the new casting to the new school year. When I came back to school after summer holidays, I closely thought about the new and final casting I want to make. Since the first casting in June wasn’t very successful, I later on decided to cancel all the height and age requirements that I had. I’ve redesigned the poster announcing the fact there will be a casting. I planned the casting for two dates (Thursday and Friday, October 22 nd and 23 rd ) since some people couldn’t attend one of the dates, for example. So I suppose there is going to be much more people than on the first casting, since this time there are no restrictions plus it’s during two days. SPECIAL OFFER On October 6 th I met Mrs. Mináriková on the staircase and she offered me a special offer, that I could present my designs at the 50 th anniversary of our school together with Emma
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Viskupič, since she also had a Personal Project about a fashion last year. She told me to think it over, but I thought it’s a great opportunity to make my fashion show look really professional! (In this case, I cancelled my introductory idea about doing video fashion show and making it only a normal – yet still professional – fashion show.) Later on the same day, I told my mom about the opportunity that has been offered me and she suggested that I could concentrate myself only on the t shirts in my collections, so the final fashion show is going to be balanced because Emma had only women’s dresses in her collection. I was also confused because I didn’t know where to make the prints on the t shirts, but my mother suddenly screamed that there’s possibility of printing designs in the FaxCopy. So, basically I have developed this great idea that I would buy ordinary, one coloured t shirts in one of the popular but still affordable shops (e.g. H&M, Bershka, Pull&Bear or C&A) and print out my designs in the FaxCopy on these t shirts. I would combine my t shirts with other designer pieces of clothes at the fashion show, so my collection will be presented only as the ‘t shirt collection’. The same week I made price research about the prices of t shirts and printing prices in FaxCopy. They were pretty affordable but my mom will have to be my sponsor. MODEL CASTING (O CTOBER ) Two weeks later, on 22 nd October, was the first day of my two day model casting. Day before the casting, when I was informed that two last lessons are being cancelled because of teacher’s absence, I immediately added information on all posters around the school that the casting is going to start already at 1:25 p.m., which means after the 6 th lesson ends. In total, seven people came today to my casting, from various classes so I was pretty satisfied compared to the first casting in June. Unexpectedly, the next day I’ve fallen ill and wasn’t able to come to school so the only option was to call off my casting. My mom kindly asked my homeroom teacher, Mrs. Gondová to hang on paper on our class (where the casting was supposed to be) that today the casting is called off. I though a long long time to do a compensatory casting another day but what I really think is that it would be worthless, mainly because I will have to again print new poster, paste them up and again spend a lot of time in the school in my free time. Also I think, the majority of people that wanted to came to casting, came. On account of including some models from Emma’s last year’s fashion show and some from my casting I think there’ll be sufficient number of models. From now on, I will start giving my designs their final visual aspect and produce them. FINALISATION OF THE DESIGNS Two weeks later, I finalised two of my designs into printable form (women’s t shirt Yo Yo Yo (Hood That Beat) and men’s Cintas Multicolores ). I started with the men one by creating a colourful stripes in computer (I’ve used Macintosh’s Pages ’09) as they appear in my sketched design. Finalising the Yo Yo Yo (Hood That Beat) t shirt has been little bit harder. Firstly, I insert the scanned design into the Microsoft Word, cut out part with the ‘Yo Yo Yo Hood That Beat’ title and enlarged it onto whole screen. Then I took A4 paper and traced the design on it using felt tips. Later on, I’ve scanned this sheet of paper and imported it again into Pages ’09. Using special Shape Tool, I have outlined every letter to look as much same as the original and filled it with desired colour. This time I did only the A4 format. On November 7 th , I went together with my mom to buy t shirt needed for my fashion show. I bought 3 women t shirts (grey, light pink, turquoise) and 3 men t shirts (black, white, red) from H&M , since they were the best from the point of the view of price, quality and design; and they also have different neckline which is perfect since it won’t be just one type of the t shirt. Also I did another of my design for men, Dance All Night Long . My idea was to have a women drawn on the t shirt, in a ‘Madonna’s favourite pose’ with her hair blowing to the side of the design. I tried to draw it as much times as I could but it was impossible, so I found one great picture from Madonna’s Confessions Tour Book
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(Megaupload, 2009) which served me as the base for the design of this t shirt. Again in Macintosh’s Pages ’09 I outlined the figure on the picture (the advantage of this picture is that it doesn’t show any face) and made 24 versions of the design! I did another designs, fourth and fifth one; called I Am the Party for men and Fresas for women (I painted abstract painting of strawberries). For the Fresas, I scanned the design and adjusted it little bit in Photoshop (brightness, contrast), so it looks fabulously on the t shirt! For the I Am the Party t shirt I needed to search long time for the martini glass which would fit to the design (I needed it to be simple, with one olive in it, without any colourful liquid in it). Then, finally, I found one (Profimedia, 2009) . Then in Macintosh’s Pages ’09 I created the whole design (I’ve used Helvetica Neue Condensed Bold font and the martini glass served me as the letter Y on the end of the word ‘party’) and again made several version of it. REHEARSAL OF THE FASHION SHOW On 13 th November we had the first rehearsal of the fashion show. Three of my models arrived – Emma (3IBDB), Kaja (MYP5) and Denisa (VIII.AO). Also, other girls from my class came, Bianka, Peťa and Lucka Bečvarova. I asked Bianka to be my make up artist for the fashion show since she’s is pretty talented in this area, then I asked Lucka Bečvarova to be my hairstylist because she has been experimenting with her hair a lot and I think she is very talented as well. And then Peťa will be the assistant, she will be helping the girls to change their dresses during the show so it will be much quicker. In the meantime, my models tried the t shirt I’ve bought. Everything was okay and I also realised that printing A4 design on them is enough (for men the A3 format remains). Lucka tried to create some hairstyle; she has also brought her hair iron. I was really satisfied with her job! MUSIC MIX Next day, I searched through my music library containing over 1200 songs and found a great song that would perfectly fit into the fashion show, especially with the beat. It’s from my favourite singer, Justin Timberlake and it’s called FutureSex/LoveSound (Timberlake J., 2006) from his recent album FutureSex/LoveSounds. Using Macintosh’s GarageBand programme I mixed the song into 11 minute version. T-SHIRTS On Monday, 16 th November, I’ve visited FaxCopy at Bajkalská Street and submitted the order on the digital printing on t shirts, and after three days, all t shirts were done and I was absolutely satisfied with the way they’ve been made. The overall design is amazing and the quality is also very good. FASHION SHOW Until the final fashion show on 30 th November, we had two rehearsals at school during which we adjusted the choreography with Emma since we were instructed by the director of the programme, Ms. Hanka Kováčová to have the maximal length of the show 6 minutes. And then, on 30 th November, eight months of hard work concluded into one absolutely fabulous and amazing fashion show held in Slovak National Theatre, with absolutely gorgeous music and stunning designs! Everybody was clapping and praising to our fashion show... Amazing – that’s the word to describe it all.
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ANALYSIS
My inspiration on designs came from different sources around me. Whether it has been TV, internet, music, environment or some dream. As a young man I listen to a big amount of songs and regularly watch music televisions, and as an owner of a dog, I periodically go on strolls. The first step was to plan how the final fashion show is going to look like, although this vision changed throughout the process because of the offer that has been made to me. Looking back on the next step I’ve made, the model casting, I think it was a total mess. Doing casting two times eventually brought me more models, but in conclusion was unneeded (especially the first one with high restriction on height and age). As a designer, I must have some artistic feeling, though someone may say I lack it, it didn’t stop me to design something revolutionary, and maybe even controversial. The inspiration on my t shirt Yo Yo Yo (Hood That Beat) came from the Video Music Awards 2003 performance by Madonna, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Missy Elliott, (Madonna, 2006) during which they have been singing the same sentence. Very closely to it, the t shirt Dance All Night Long is linked since I was inspired by the song Me Against the Music by Britney Spears feat. Madonna (Spears B., 2003) , where they sing the sentence ‘Dance all night long’, but very quickly and not very much recognizably. I connected this sentence with a picture in my head and that was a young woman dancing under the influence of night, with her hair being blown away. Howbeit I didn’t completely redraw this image; the picture on the t shirt is in conclusion expressing the same idea. The t shirt Geometría represents different shapes of this world and something very important in it – the love. The design may appear very simple but it keeps much stronger and deeper meaning. The person wearing this t shirt has to realize, why he or she has chose this design to be worn. I Am the Party t shirt is my desire for the party and statement to it. My life is a party in every sense, in every detail. It’s party even when I don’t realise it because it makes me feel good anytime. And this t shirt is about the life party. The Fresas (meaning ‘strawberries’ in Spanish) is abstract artwork for all of those who like sweet. And I don’t mean only candies but sweet things in your life, little delights which cause you big joy, things that cause you to smile, things that make you laugh and people who make you love. And at the end, the Cintas Multicolores (meaning ‘colourful stripes’ in Spanish), my favourite piece of the collection which I’ve entitled Disco Fever (since the disco reminds me lots and lots of colours which are present in my debut collection), is full of colours – I love colours – and sets the main idea of the collection. To be colourful. From the start I knew I want to make something shiny and colourful since I got a feeling that today’s fashion is absolutely dark and even the bright colours has been transmitted into very dark shades. And I don’t like that. I like things colourful and splashing around. Even in my own wardrobe you wouldn’t find almost any dark pieces of clothing. I wanted people to show they can be colourful everyday, no matter what season or daytime is, since in my opinion bright colours bring light and joy to your life. In my opinion, I have fully achieved the Human Ingenuity Area of Interaction, since I was to create a full t shirt collection only by myself and produce the majority of the fashion show. The last step of my personal project, realizing the fashion show at the 50 th Anniversary of our school has been only a small part of the whole process that took exactly 8 months to realize. If I would have to make this project once again, I would definitely plan everything into a little detail, but already now I know, the complications will come. They are part of every process. Without them, it’s not even a process...
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CONCLUSION
Controversy was the first word that came to my mind when I realized I want to make something connected to fashion. I said to myself: ‘I want to be controversial, no matter how other people will look on that’. Controversial people are being denounced. However, they are still successful. Of course, the first reaction on a boy doing fashion is typical, we all know it. That didn’t stop me at all. I had sophisticated and coherent idea of what my fashion should look like. And I realised it. It took eight months of hard work, money, not sleeping and working at computer long hours to produce something I could be really proud of. It’s called Sven Andreas Disco Fever , and it’s the debut spring/summer 2010 collection of my fashion label Sven Andreas, which is also my stage name. Every single t shirt in my collection has its own story, its meaning and its heritage. I created it like that. When you look at any of my t shirts you should feel some emotion. If that emotion is positive, that’s your t shirt, that’s the one you should wear. When you wear clothes, you should be part of them. Don’t listen to what other people say if they like what you have dressed or not, the important is, if you like it or not. It’s only about you and your soul. Nothing more, nothing less is important. Many people asked whether am I going to sell those t shirt and obviously I will. Because I want to spread love, joy and happiness. Do you think there’s something more important than that?
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Beyoncé, Produced by Bangladesh, Sean Garrett, Beyoncé Knowles (14 November 2008) I Am... Sasha Fierce . [Music CD] Sony BMG Music Entertainment. ‘Gareth Pugh: Fall 2009 Ready-to-Wear’ Available at: http://www.style.com/fashionshows/video/F2009RTW PUGH [Accessed 11 April 2009]. ‘Madonna Confessions Tour Tourbook’ (Updated 14 June 2009) Available at: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=V4MOPA3V [Accessed 7 November 2009]. Madonna (25 September 2006) Remixed & Revisited . [Music CD] Warner Bros. Records. ‘Martini with olive on white background’ (Updated 4 April 2008) Available at: http://www.profimedia.sk/fotografie/martini s olivou na bielom pozadi/0010891363/ [Accessed 12 November 2009]. Spears B., Produced by Christopher Stewart, Penelope Magnet (17 November 2003) In the Zone . [Music CD] Zomba Recording LLC. Timberlake J., Produced by Justin Timberlake, Timbaland, Danja (8 September 2006) FutureSex/LoveSounds . [Music CD] Zomba Recording LLC.
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APPENDICES
Appendix 1 – First sketches
Appendix 2 – Model Casting (June – Promotion)
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Appendix 3 – Model Casting Questionnaire
Appendix 4 – ‘Do you want to be a diva?’ short movie Available for download at: http://young4ever.cc/personalproject/minifair presentation diva.zip (75.5 MB) Appendix 5 – Model Casting (June – Participants)
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Appendix 6 – Model Casting (October – Promotion)
Appendix 7 – Model Casting (October – Participants)
Appendix 8 – Final Designs
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Appendix 9 – Fashion Show (30 th November 2009, Slovak National Theatre, 50 th Anniversary of Spojená škola Novohradská )
Appendix 10 – Fashion Show Music Mix Available for download at: http://young4ever.cc/personalproject/music mix.zip (16.2 MB)
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