Homeless Beth

I saw a girl that I thought was wearing a very interesting outfit of tracksuit bottoms, odd blue and white trainers, a white vest, an orange blanket draped over her and a black handbag clutched under her arm. From a distance I though she was dressed like that to make a fashion statement. I walked up towards her with the intention of asking her if I could take her photo. When I approached her she said to me 'My name's Beth, I'm homeless'. None the less I still politely asked her if I could take her photo, as I thought she had good style, regardless of the fact that she was homeless. I thought the fact that she was homeless made what she was wearing more endearing, and it made me think about the possible stories behind what she was wearing and how they related to her life. Like why was she wearing odd shoes for intense? And where did the orange blanket come from?

I gave her £1, she said she needed money to get a room at a homeless shelter,  after I took her photo and wished her the best. She told me that she had been homeless for 9 years and was only 24. 

The phrase "My name's Beth I'm homeless" really stuck with me. I thought the fact that she introduced herself as being homeless showed that she felt it was a big part of her identity.
I wanted to take this phrase further through my project so I wrote it out in a bold, messy, yet childish and colourful typography to potentially use a statement in a design or print. 
I was also really inspired by Beth's voluminous silhouette with its layering a draping, and the bold colours in her outfit. I traced her out in black pen, paying attention to the shapes and folded textures in her blanket and coloured her in using Pro-Markers to emphasise the bold colours. I deliberately drew her quite rough to enhance the gritty theme. I may also use this illustration as a design reference by referring to the shapes and colours or I might even include the illustration in a print.

I used the shapes and folds as a starting point for some designs. I started off by tracing the shapes and experimented with the placement of the body. I tried not to just focus on dresses but also experiment with jackets, skirts and tops to see if this concept worked on a diverse range of garments. I am planning to draw out some more refined versions of these rough designs. I will keep them all bright orange, not only as a reference to the original source of inspiration, but also because it is often seen as an 'ugly', aggressive colour associated with utility and I think it would be an interesting contrast to see it on draped designs.