Tudor Day Out

Methods on How Goth's Dress

My friend used to dress in Gothic clothes when she was a teenager. The style for her was influenced by her taste in music and friends. Even though she is still into the same music, her dress sense has changed now that she is an adult, and has become more casual - which suggests that age can effect the way someone dresses.

She wore mostly black, which is the stereotypical colour for a Goth to wear. However, she wore block colours with her outfits, and was usually colour coordinated.

She also wore accessories such as stud belts, crucifix necklaces and big black boots.

This full dress is completely black. It's not very casual, so she would of worn it on special occasions or going out. It is made of lace and velvet which are girly materials, however the colour black makes it anti-girly and more dark. This shows that being a female Goth, you still want to be feminine but not happy-girly by wearing  a rainbow colours all mixed together - even though there is an exception of wearing one colour with the black.

                           

              

 There is also usually a 'death' relation to the design of Goth clothing. For instance, this dress my friend is wearing includes skulls, with a black and white colour scheme. The skull looks broken and full of spider webs, suggesting more Gothic stereotypes of creepiness.

I tried out some hand painting of the skull with acrylic paint.

I then decided to paint it on an old dress, which I had found in a charity shop and adjusted slightly about a year ago (the adjusting failed so I didn't mind painting on it).

I decided to try and make it a bit personal by having the swirls make out the movement of water and also create a swan swimming. This is personal to me as I have recently visited many lakes for my art project.

I really like the Goth style, and I'll probably look more into the subject, as the method of dressing as a Goth is amazing; a range of materials, block colours and busy designs incorporating skulls and flowers.

Feminism

Safety-pin Jacket

The Safety-pin jacket (1978) created by american artist Mark Mahall (1949-1978).

" Mahall's glistening meditation on pattern and texture, created by sticking a commercial vinyl bomber jacket with thousands of brass safety pins, could also be read as golden armour for a modern day hero, or a gentler, wearable-art version of Punk fashion."

I got this from the same book as the hand painted coat. This jacket links well with the punk movement, as like said in the description it's a "wearable-art version of Punk fashion", as the safety pins are an unusual object to use in normal clothing but isn't unheard of in some punk clothing. Also, the fact that it is a bomber jacket links to punk, as it suggests the wearer is rebellious.

This jacket reminds me of Leigh Bowery's Levi Strauss & Co jacket, which she customised with gold hair pins. Therefore, I can imagine the weight of the safety pin jacket to be very heavy too.

I find the direction of the safety pins very interesting as it creates a wave of textures, which can not be copied.

The method used in this jacket to show the wearers personality, individuality or role, is how the safety pins are used to create rough textures, reflecting on how the punk wearer wishes to be unique and against being normal.

I decided to try and imitate the textures that could be created on fabric using safety pins, and it worked out OK. However, I had to use seven boxes  of safety pins and the process took awhile, so now I have any idea of how long and expensive making that jacket would of been.

I managed to create quite a lot of texture though using the safety pins.

I also placed it on my shoulder to see how it lays on the body. I noticed from doing this, that the safety pins on the top of the shoulder sticks out.

Denim Jacket

Here what I've done to my jacket. There's only a little decoration as I've only done a few things over the summer, but if this had been around for quite a few years it would be a lot more decorated and busy.

My Motorbike Jacket

So from learning about the motorbike jackets from my dad, I've decide to try and make my own basing it on what I've been doing over the holidays.

I've got hold of an old denim jacket, which I'm most likely going to cut the sleeves off; it's the most typical style for a bikers jacket.

I will then hand paint 'A2 Textiles' on the back, as that is the title of the blog.

The jacket will be decorated with hand painting, embroidery and photos on transfer paper, to shown what I've been up to. By doing this, it will show my personality a little from showing people what I do in my free time: art homework, archery, etc.

Motorcycle Jackets

My dad was telling me the other day that when he was younger, many motorcyclists including himself would customise a denim or their motorbike jackets with badges to show where they have been (concerts and stuff) and what they are into. Apparently, they would also put a heading or title of some sort on the back which would present either them as an individual, their favourite band or singer, or their motorbike group. My dad says that his jacket had 'Ozzy Osbourne' on the back of it.

Unfortunately, we weren't able to find any pictures of the jacket, but I managed to find similar stuff on the internet.

 My dad told me that wearing the jacket helped start conversation, as other bikers would look at your jacket and realise you went to a certain concert or that you're interested in the same thing.

It's typical for the customised jackets to have the main heading or title on the back and in large compared to other writing.

The jacket can have sleeves or no sleeves, depending on what the individual prefers. However the most popular style is to have no sleeves - could be the sign of being rebellious.

The jacket above is punk based, therefore has a raggedy appearance to it. However, it seems extremely personal as it has many badges, and also a signature.

The jacket is also very scruffy and worn, and my dad told me that bikers wanted the jacket to look old as they didn't want it to be new and clean looking. He said that sometimes they would of tried to scruff it up by driving over it, or dragging it across the floor when ridding.

It's badges like this they would of collected when they went to concerts and places.

Blitz Jackets

Hand Painted = Personal

Whilst looking though a book of artists in fashion, I came across a hand painted coat by Nina Vivian Huryn. The coat is called 'Water Lilies, Fish and Sleeping Skeleton',1989, with the design hand painted on to silk.

"To Huryn, skeletons represent humans in their most elemental form. On this jacket, they seem to occupy a dreamlike landscape, resting sinuously underwater alongside the water lilies."

I believe that hand painting is a very personal method to use to portray the artists individual style. This is because time, thought and effort is put into the piece.


The coat doesn't fit my title of how fashion and costume portrays personality, individuality and roles perfectly, but does show the artists thoughts towards humans, almost portraying her personality. What influenced her to think like this? Why did she want to create something quite grim yet peaceful? Why did she use coppery colours?

I tried to do some hand painting myself off a section of her jacket. It doesn't show the same effect as I used acrylic on poly-cotton, whereas she painted on silk and probably with proper fabric paints. Hers is rather metallic showing a strong use of light and dark, and also representing the reflectiveness of the water. I tried to capture a similar tone to hers by using water to wash the colour out in places.

I'm going to try out some more hand painting later and also try and incorporate someone's or my own personality, individuality or role.

Vivienne Westwood and Punk