Introduction to my FMP "Fashion Language- Communicating trough clothing"

I perceive clothing a fashion through visual language. Often the first thing that it noticed about a person what they are wearing and what it suggests about their identity. Behind each piece of there are many different visual, cultural and social connotations. For example, certain colours provoke a certain mood and have many different associations, certain skirt lengths can suggest different levels of sexualzation and items of clothing or even details can define an era in history.  In this project I plan to unpick the codes of clothing and accessorise that I find highly symbolic and translate the inner messages that I find this into design concepts. I will not only look at clothing which is considered ‘fashionable’. I am also very interested in subcultures, uniforms, religious clothing and dress codes for example. I want to research their origins, purpose and how they are viewed by society.

I will analyse the outfits of ordinary people on the street. I question their motives behind what they have chosen to wear and what it says to me about them as person, like their social background, interests and taste.

I am also very interested in the personal style of friends, family and people that know. Certain items of clothing can also be symbolic of different areas of a persons life and I will explore that. 

My initial inspiration stemmed from the Isabella Blow: Fashion Galore exhibition at Somerset House. I was deeply moved and inspired by how Blows Clothes felt like an embodiment of her personality, almost as if she was alive within them. Blow used a wide variety of profound cultural and historical references and influences in her choice of clothes. 

I was also inspired by the Club to Catwalk exhibition because of the way it showed how the bold experimental style of 1980’s Club-kids was created by combining connotations of different subcultures styles, cultures and genders. For example, elements of punk such as leather jackets, tartan and skintight  jeans were combined with historical or exotic dress and modern art references. 

Since developing an interest for fashion in my mid-teens, I have always be hugely inspired by street style photography and blogs. I was always far more interested in what people on the street were wearing than what the catwalks dictated was in fashion. At the time my favourite blogs were Facehunter  (www.facehunter.org), The Sartorialist (www.thesartorialist.com) and Style East (styleeast.blogspot.co.uk), but now I have developed a taste for street style which is less about looking stylish and hip and more about personal self expression. I feel more inspired by what ordinary people on the street are wearing as I feel it is a lot fresher and more instinctive. I now follow a blog call Styles Standards (stylesstandards.tumblr.com) which is pictures of interesting people shot by somebody on their iPhone, and look at gritter street style books such as Nylon Global Style (Photos of ordinary young people taken across the world) and Fresh Fruits (Photos of Japanese Street fashion), which also interview the people photographed on what they are wearing and how in reflects their interests and personality. 


Of Course I also always taking my own street style photos wherever and whenever I see somebody who's style inspires me, people from all walks of life too. I have decided to use these photos as a starting point and pick them apart to try and analyse what interests me about their clothing and what it suggests to me.