design philosophy

• What is my view on design/ what do I think of as good design/ what do I aim to produce?

I believe that good design is subjective, just like beauty. It is all in the eye of the beholder. To me, good design is akin to beautiful design. Something I find visually appealing.. This tends to range from patterns and mixes of fabrics to clothing silhouettes to tiny details that take awhile to notice to interesting ways fabric is manipulated and played with.. My favourite designers include John Galliano and Alexander McQueen for those reasons I stated above..

As for what I aim to produce in my designs, I just want to create something that would be visually appealing to me. While that might sound narcississtic, I don’t know how else to put it. I am my own person and only I will know what I like, visually. With every design I churn out, there will be some that not everyone will like and so be it. I cannot KNOW for sure what someone else is thinking, even  if that person is my bestest friend in the whole wide world.. So, to be safe, I’ll just design for myself and if someone comes along and really enjoys my designs, then I will be happy for being able to share my vision with someone else! 🙂

And I guess there should be another aspect to this.. The sustainability aspect. If it were possible that beautiful designs could be created without harming and/or exploiting fellow beings and with less detrimental effects towards the environment we live in, that would just take the ultimate cake in GOOD DESIGNING.

• What methods do I use- how do I approach design?

Hmmm.. This is a tough one. I actually think I work better with a pencil and paper. I really enjoy the sketching process if I am able to see it in my mind’s eye and translate it onto a page before I do anything else, that would be ideal.

For example, if you asked me to just grab an old skirt and turn it into something else by draping it on a mannequin and playing around, I’d probably die of a heart attack.. Haha! My brain just doesn’t work that way, I guess. 🙂

That was probably why I was slightly stressed out over this current project and how we were encouraged to just go with the flow of things… My going with the flow is leaving my mind blank, putting that pencil to the paper and just drawing whatever flows out of me, but I guess that’s just a different way of interpreting it!

• What materials do I like to work with?

Materials.. I tend to make sure I choose materials that first and foremost, do NOT harm any sentient beings in the process of making it available. As you might’ve read in my previous entries, I’m against any animal products used in my designs and I make it a point to check every fabric and/or garment I buy for animal content in it.. And even if I really LOVE that silk fabric because of the gorgeous print, I will not buy it, because my physical beauty or someone else’s(if they were to wear my designs) is NOWHERE NEAR as important as the number of beings that died to produce it.

Another factor about materials would be whether they are fairtrade fabrics and whether they are organic and environmentally friendly or not. While I am still a Uni student and do not have the income at my disposal, this part is probably a bit more tricky, since such certified fabrics are probably quite a bit more expensive than their counterparts. But I guess if I can splurge and buy myself fairtrade chocolate, I can buy fabrics.. Hahaha! 😀

• What do my designs look like?

Oh wow.. How do I describe that? I feel like my designs are pretty all over the place! Haha~ Here’re a heap of them.. You tell me! 🙂

• Who is the target customer for my designs?

I made this awhile ago, but it’s still relevant to this question. 🙂

So I’ve been wondering recently..

What inspires me?

Looking at my past designs,  I draw inspirations from anything and everything! But it’s usually what I’m really interested in at the moment..

Let’s have some examples from past assignments..

Bayonetta & my hair-inspired swimsuit designs.

Steampunk-inspired pants in First Year.

I realize through these and looking at old visual diaries, that I tend to take a lot of inspiration from really niche subcultures(Steampunk, fRuiTs, Lolita, etc) to video games to comic books to movies to TV shows. I’m probably the BIGGEST geek imaginable, so that’s probably no surprise.. Hehe..

At the moment, my brain has been swirling with military-themed designs because I’ve been obsessing over a few HBO miniseries.. They are Band of Brothers, The Pacific and Generation Kill, all of which have to do with military exploits in human history. And when Dior’s 2010 Pre-Fall WW2-inspired collection came out, I nearly died with love.. Here it is.

HRRGGG.. THE BEAUTY!! ♥

And that is probably why John Galliano is one of my favourite designers of all time. I can see what inspires him and sometimes I feel like we’re inspired by and enjoy romanticising similar things, though he’s probably 12287361273682173times better than I am… :’)

That being said, this subject, on WHAT INSPIRES ME, is actually way too broad for me to pinpoint. I take inspiration from what I’m interested in at the moment and work from there, and seeing as that constantly changes, I can’t really say, can I? 🙂

my favourite

The girl on the right is my absolute FAVOURITE in this book! I love her idea behind her point of fashion and I can actually see if come through in her clothes in a really weird way!

Name: Tomozou
Coat: Second-hand
Camisole: Ten Count
Skirt: handmade
Shoes: bought at an old man’s shop
Point of Fashion: pretending to be Hawaiian
Current Obsession: cocoa

Looking through my fRuiTs book..

Here are a few of my favourite looks! I love how random they all are.. ARGH It’s amazing! And some of them have Points of Fashion, which I find really interesting trying to see if they can show it through their clothes. 🙂

look at the pretty..

Was looking through some magazines for another class and I came across this photoshoot.. It’s frickin’ BEAUTIFUL! OH ME OH MY~ It satiates the tiny Japanophile in me…

And I also had some other ideas in regards to this Neo-Tribalism thing.. The one that is really sticking out in my mind right now is the idea of the Yakuza, the Japanese mafia. Wouldn’t they be considered a Neo-Tribe? I think they fit the description!

Anyway, this is how my mind jumped:

Neo-Tribalism –> Japan –> fRuiTs –> Yakuza –> O-Ren Ishii from Kill Bill –> Geishas

Now check out this BEAUTIFUL photoshoot….

Do they not look like they could be DEADLY-NINJA-GEISHAS who could kill you with a look, but doing their jobs in an extremely beautiful, elegant and sophisticated way?? I don’t condone killing, this is just REALLY REALLY PRETTY…

Can’t remember which magazine it was in, but it was an old one and it belonged to Danni… 🙂

fruity fruity fruit loops!

So I’d been thinking about what appealed to me about Kate’s art and designs and I guess it had a lot to do with the crazy colours and how she seemed to not take things too seriously. Looking at the style she enjoys to put forth in her art, made me think of the Japanese streetfashion that is depicted in FRUITS, so I went and bought myself one of the books to look through.. Also, after I researched a bit on Neo-Tribalism, something Kate seemed to emphasize a lot on, I figured it is really relevant to my inspiration. 

“Neo-Tribalism is a modern sociological phenomenon that has developed in response to civilization, or the modern corporation/state society, wherein smaller social groupings of like-minded or themed communities are formed. These smaller groupings, loosely referred to as tribes, are bound by common practices, values, beliefs or goals, with varying degrees of adherence to traditional tribal practices ranging from the purely aesthetic to the radically orthodox. The key delineating factor of Neo-Tribalism is the commonality that binds the tribe together.” – opendemocracy.net

Having been to Japan before and been quite a Japanophile for a few years, I had made it a point to go to Harajuku in Tokyo when I was visiting there, to take in the people and their clothes as they mingled and/or loitered around the Jingu Bridge just outside the Harajuku JR Line. If seeing all these people, united in a common way of thinking/dressing does not spell out Neo-Tribalism, I don’t know what does…

The stuff in there is AMAZING! I can’t believe some of the combinations these people come up with! Half of them seem to be on acid trips(I mean that in a good way..) when they’re getting dressed or something and i LOVE IT! 😀

Anyway, here are some photos I’m getting from the internets:

Pikachu, strawberries, fur legwarmers.. omg

Even their hair is awesome!!

Look at the colours!!

So, basically, I’d like to work with the idea behind FRUITS streetstyle. This is a definition I found:

“Inititially, a Japanese magazine showcasing Tokyo street fashion that later evolved into a fashion genre all it’s own. Often mistaken for kandee kid ravers, fRuIts are identified by bright colors in hair and clothes, flamboyant to subtle makeup, cutesy inclinations that mimic cartoon or anime characters, and intricate, mismatched clothes that somehow form a coherence in the lack of one. Colorful legwarmers, platform shoes, temporary tattoos of cherries, cat ears, bright wigs, and beaded jewelry are all common in the fRuIts style. There are more female fRuIts than male, however, there are plenty of male fRuIts around in Tokyo Male fRuIts are often less photographed and thus less known than the females; this is mostly due to the fact that the female fRuIts appear more flamboyant and interesting than the males. As opposed to most Tokyo street fashions, fRuIts mostly accumulate their style from themselves and homemade items rather than buying them already made at the stores. This is mostly due to the great emphasis on self-expression through complete randomness. Fruits don’t necessarily have guidelines to follow like other Tokyo street fashions. Instead, the fRuIts style is simple to identify when seen amongst other fashions because it is so unique.” – urbandictionary.com