Fashion As An Art?

There is no question that fashion is an art! Fashion designers often use music and visual art as inspirations for their collections. Many prominent fashion designers went to art schools (Parsons, SCAD, RID) where they were exposed to different works of art and different types of arts other than painting such as sculpture and architecture.

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Art is defined as " the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance." (source). Fashion is categorized based on the quality and production of clothing. It's used a form of expression, and critics are constantly evaluating the aesthetic principles of a designer's collection. My Paper Shift Skirt can definitely be classified as a piece of art because of it's aesthetic appeal to others and how it will be perceived by my fellow classmates based on it's construction and quality.

Inspiration

The Paper Shift Skirt was inspired by the designs of Thierry Mugler and Hussein Chalayan. Both designers are known for using out of the ordinary shapes and designs. Mugler, who worked as the costume designer for several of singer Beyonce's music and her 2009 world tour, incorporated a futuristic design theme while working for the entertainer. He played with shapes and silhouettes (such as the emphasis on the hips) and using a classic and simple color pallette(black, silver, red, gold) instead of using pastels or gender defining colors such as pink or purple.

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Another one of his pieces

I was very inspired by one of Hussein works from and past collection where a model is wearing a dress that has no type of shape to it. 

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I was also inspired by the impact of the miniskirt and minidress on 1960's fashion scene.

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Design/Construction

The design of the Paper Shift Skirt is based on a simple H silhouette, one that does not accentuate curves, but instead creates a clean boxy shape. I chose this type of silhouette because I believe that next big fashion trend will be the return of the straight and simple shapes from the twenties and we will move away from the form fitting, sexy styles that everyone is wearing today.

The skirt is constructed out out paper towel rolls, toilet paper rolls, duct tape, photographer's tape, double sided tape and SOLO plastic cups. The toilet paper and paper towel rolls were ironed to get of the coils and taped together using the duct tape. The extra layers of duct tape were added to create the diamond design on both sides of the skirt and the black photographer's tape was added to further enhance the design. Lastly, the SOLO cups were cut into small pieces and adhered to the skirt using double sided tape.