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PART 4

FASHION STORY:

Interview with Alice from my subculture:

“Hi! My name is Alice and I'm (originally) from Australia! I'm currently studying at Sophia University in Japan, as part of an exchange program, while also freelance modelling on the side! I would say my style is quite heavily influenced by Risa Nakamura.”

“ I tend to stick to pink, black and white for my outfits and adore anything with lace, sheer fabric or fluffy pompoms. My favourite brands include Ehyphen world gallery bonbon (obviously haha), monlily and Onespo. Although, I'm actually in a bit of a transition phase at the moment to be honest! I used to have more of pink, girly style but lately, I've been really into Pheromone Fetish – mixing a more mature style while still keeping it cute and feminine. I'm interested in eventually adding some grungy elements to my style as well! “

“ As there are so many different sub-styles of LARME fashion, I think it'd be quite difficult to define it as one cohesive style here. Take the magazine Zipper for example – it features many different styles, but no one defines them as “Zipper style.” I think the attitude towards LARME is quite similar here. When one refers to LARME, I feel like they are usually talking about the magazine – not just the fashion and makeup but also the overall vibe that comes from the photoshoots and the concept behind them... if that makes any sense? Haha. “

my photoshop:

Video:

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PART 5

i helped out this year 3 who needed my help to pin together a few pieces of a shirt. He was very informative and we discussed what the upcoming years would be like for me.advised me on what i should take for my speciality based on what interests me. We also spoke about what we would both like to do afterwards the course ends.

Knitted a few pieces for another person, the pieces were used for a cuff. I also spoke to this person about their experiences because getting somebody else opinion is always very helpful and helps open up my perspective on things. Cutout a few square pieces of stuffing with a friend for a year 3 that was making a jacket. This year 3 i was speaking to had the same interests in art and style which was interesting, really enjoyed speaking about ideas with this person.

I spent a few days cutting out pattern pieces for various people, from skirts to jackets. i helped another person pin together a few fabric pieces together, this person asked me if i was comfortable sewing them together so i did and everything turned out fine, but the other person i helped was dealing with mesh fabric which was quite hard to handle. 

The same person who asked for my help to knit together the plain pieces asked me to make a few punch card knits for them. Unfortunately i didn't get to take a picture of the samples but it was a geometrical pattern.

Went with a friend that was assigned to someone to buy some shoes, the person was looking for white trainers and white heels. We visited many stores before we found something the year 3 wanted. We then helped this same third year pin together a few pattern pieces.

The next day i helped a third year buy a few accessories that were “sporty” and at the same time we were helping another person buy some boho like accessories (we went in a group of 3).

The next few days were spent cutting out fabric and helping pin together a few pieces. 

The last day was very interesting, i felt like i learned a lot of valuable lessons during this experience, i helped with the fitting a bit but i wish i could've had more to do. Other than that the final show was very exciting to witness. 

Interview:

“so what would you say is ypur best experience during this course?”

“the speciality training ( this person picked knit ), mostly because you get more time to focus on your passion rather than having to change and move about a lot. That and the tutor is able to guide you through the work with more ease. The second best thing is the work experience, i learnt a lot during my stay at my work place and it really prepares you for actual work and helps you during your studies”

“What would you like to do after this?”

“i’m going to see if i can find some work in Italy due to there being more factory jobs and opportunities”

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PART 3

Artists - YURIE SEKIYA 

and  Édouard Bisson

Designer - Angelic pretty

Celebrity influence - Kyary Pamyu Pamyu

This blog entry is based on the subculture fashion. Lolita began in Harajuku, Tokyo in the 1980s when Omotesando and Takeshita-dori, streets in the Harajuku district, were closed to traffic on Sundays. This closure allowed youths to gather in Yoyogi Park and the surrounding streets to listen to rock music performances, shop and simply spend time among other young people. Youths and street performers started appearing in wild, unconventional outfits which gradually developed into recognisable styles such as lolita, gyaru or kogal, decora and ganguro. These styles were catalogued by a street photographer, Shoichi Aoki, in his magazines STREET, started in 1985, and FRUiTS, started in 1997. Photographs from FRUiTS have now been released as a compilation in a book of the same title and toured both Australia and New Zealand as a photography exhibition, allowing Westerners a glimpse of this “grass roots” Japanese street fashion movement.  Lolita fashion was popularised with the establishment of brands such as Baby, The Stars Shine Bright in 1988 and Manifesteange Metamorphose Temps de Fille in 1993. Other brands include Angelic Pretty, Innocent World and Mary Magdalene. While most brands cater to the Japanese market, the advent of Western interest in the lolita subculture has meant that some brands have begun selling to Northern American and other Western countries; some brands such as Metamorphose have developed English-language websites to cater to this interest. Primarily, however, brands still aim their clothing at Japanese girls in their teens to mid-twenties. Stylistic influences for lolita fashion spring from a variety of eras, the most easily recognisable being the Victorian era. The fashion is more akin to children's clothes from this era than adults'; skirts generally fall around knee-length rather than the full floor-length gowns, and the exaggerated wasp-waist corsets are not often worn. Influences are also taken from other eras such as the 1950s and the French Rococo style, but while lolita has a historical look and feel, it is not from any particular period and tends to blend multiple historical looks together for its own individual and recognisable lolita style. The lolita style has since developed into multiple sub-genres, the most notable being gothic lolita (known in Japan as gosurori, a contraction of the phrase 'gothic lolita'). Where traditional lolitas wear pastel colours, embroidered cotton prints and lace, and sometimes carry toys such as porcelain dolls or teddy-bears, the gothic lolita is more likely to wear black lace, monotone black, grey or white dresses, and crosses or crucifixes in a style more akin to Western Goth. However, the main emphasis is still on Victorian styling; it “combines aspects of a Victorian girl's attire with a dark gothic mood.” This style has been popularised by Japanese visual rock bands such as Dir En Grey and Malice Mizer; Mana, the leader of Malice Mizer, has established his own store named Moi-meme-moite, which sells a distinct style known as Elegant Gothic Lolita. Other styles include punk, sweet (with even more pink, baby blue or white and a surfeit of lace) and classic. Some followers of the fashion choose to combine lolita with other popular street fashions, leading to hybrid styles such as cyber-lolita or wa-lolita, where a traditional Japanese aesthetic reflected in the kimono-style garment is combined with the bell-shaped skirt and headdress worn by lolitas, but the most popular styles remain sweet, classic and gothic. While the style could easily be confused with a sexual fetish, due to its namesake the novel 'Lolita' by Vladimir Nabokov, the lolita subculture emphasises modesty and youthfulness, as well as drawing from the Japanese kawaii or 'cute' aesthetic, and is not considered overtly sexual by its followers. Most Japanese lolitas are not even aware of the original source from which the fashion's name was drawn, although the Gothic Lolita Bible, a popular magazine for those interested in the culture of lolita, encourages the reading of that novel. One of the more unusual aspects of modern-day Japanese society, at least to Western eyes, is the prevalence and even acceptance of the 'Lolita complex' or lolicon, where middle-aged men are attracted to young girls and often seek out pornographic manga (comic books) which is readily available at bookstores and train station kiosks. While there are hints of the 'Lolita complex' evident in lolita fashion, the young women who adopt and wear lolita are not catering to middle aged men's pornographic fetishes, but to their own desires to be 'cute' and non-sexual. In fact, some lolitas state that one of the attractions to the lolita subculture is the lack of sexualisation in the fashion. In a society where the rise of “sexy beauty” has resulted in clothing such as miniskirts and shirts which emphasise the breasts, as well as breast enhancement and other cosmetic surgeries, lolita is seen as a reversion to demure clothing which allows women to dress for themselves, rather than for the attention of men. Whether lolita is a fashion or a subculture is a matter of some discussion among followers. Many women wear the style only on weekends and for concerts, possibly as a form of escape from their more prosaic everyday lives and of course, simply because it's 'cute'. Other women say that lolita is a lifestyle, and even when not wearing the clothes, they try to incorporate the lolita ethos into their everyday lives. Momoko, a character from the novel Shimotsuma Monogatari ('A Shimotsuma Story', translated into English and published as Kamikaze Girls) by lolita novelist Novala Takemoto, expresses the wish that she could live in the carefree, whimsical and hedonistic Rococo era. No matter whether a lolita wears the style simply as a fashion or sees it as a lifestyle, the culture of lolita is an escape to a fantasy world free of pressures of modern-day society and adulthood. While Japanese women of today have wider societal roles than those of their mothers, they are still expected to enter employment only until marriage and childbirth, and while employed they are generally placed in lower roles than men. It is still common for a young woman to be employed as a greeter or elevator girl at a department store, or as the “office lady” asked to make tea and photocopy documents at a corporation. Additionally, Japanese culture emphasises the importance of motherhood as a “sacred mission” and discourages women from pursuing a career as it distracts her from her main task of motherhood and running the family home. Thus girls and women who wear lolita are rejecting the societal expectation of low-importance careers and homemaking in favour of a fantasy in which they can “fulfill their own sense of princess-like aesthetic beauty” and avoid growing up in a more mundane world. This rejection of societal norms by lolitas reflects the rise in Japanese society of young people, especially women, known as 'parasite singles'. Millions of young Japanese are choosing to stay living with their parents into their twenties and even thirties, working for a living but spending their income on material items and refusing to get married or have children. Lolita fashion is expensive; items from brand stores range from one hundred to five hundred dollars, and a full outfit may cost as much as a thousand dollars. The fashion began in the eighties, reflecting the affluence of Japanese society created by the 'Bubble Economy'.

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Cake, 2014. oil on board. I loved working on this painting so much. Doing a whole series of paintings, sculptures, and mixed media pieces inspired by 18th century decadence is so much fun. My search for ornate gold frames never ceases and I’ve garnered quite a collection. Now all’s I have to do is fill them :)

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BURBERRY

There was a lot of brown tones and burgundy this year, sheer and lace dress with camisoles seem to be in style in quite a lot of stores. There wasn't much ruffles, print or metallic like fabrics in this store but the decor was like many of the other high end stores.

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LIBERTY

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STELLA MCCARTNEY

Grey, black and marine blue were the key colours in this store. Along with animal print (particularly swans) and ruffles. We also found more camisole sheer dresses. There was this particular smell in this store too which was quite appealing and a gentleman that was happy to answer any of our questions.

Also Actress Millie Bobby Brown (stranger things) was seen wearing the top left jumper.

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Urban Outfitters

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Alexander McQueen Spring/Summer 2017 details

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