Fashion Design Commons^™

The Language Of Fashion: Communication, Conceptual Clothing, And The Runway Performance, Jarred Johnson

Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Scholars have long neglected the study of fashion as anything other than a socioeconomic and cultural phenomena that reflects the more substantial political and historical zeitgeist of a time period. This study takes up Gilles Lipovetsky’s plea for a “theoretical facelift” of the study of fashion. Using an original theoretical framework that delineates the communicative structures of fashion as fabric, drape, and accessory, this work analyzes the conceptual meaning of runway performances by designers Alexander McQueen and Marc Jacobs. Though conceptual fashion shows are often described as spectacles intended to stir up a label’s recognition and ultimately bolster ...

Full Issue, The Anthology

The Anthology

This is the entirety of the 2013 Winthrop Anthology issue.

Full Issue, The Anthology

The Anthology

This is the entirety of the 2014 Winthrop Anthology issue.

Fashioning Desire At B. Altman & Co.: Ethics And Consumer Culture In Early Department Stores, Tessa Maffucci

All Graduate Works by Year: Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

We live in an age of fast fashion. Clothing is produced in greater volumes than ever before and the lifecycle of each garment keeps getting shorter and shorter. Many items are manufactured to be worn only one time and then thrown away—as disposable as a cup of coffee. There is much to be learned about our current fashion ecosystem by looking into the past. Beyond the garments themselves we must understand the larger historical and sociological context in which these articles of clothing were produced. How does the shopping environment shape the buying habits and fashion trends of an ...

Full Issue, The Anthology

The Anthology

This is the entirety of the 2015 Winthrop Anthology issue.

2016 Look Book, Rhode Island School Of Design

Collection (annual runway show) 2007-Present

Debut supplemental publication found inside the Program distributed at the event. The official Collection 2016 Look Book showcasing one complete ensemble from each senior's collection.

2016 Program Booklet, Rhode Island School Of Design

Collection (annual runway show) 2007-Present

Official Collection 2016 Program distributed at the event.

Reconstructing A National Silhouette: Avant-Garde Fashion And Perceptions Of The Japanese Body, Jon Dominick Querolo

College of William & Mary Undergraduate Honors Theses

We present our identities, both wittingly and unwittingly, through the aesthetic choices we make in regards to our bodies. Adorning the body through fashion represents a genuine solution to a paradox of basic human needs: to express individuality and conform to a larger group or society. Three designers in particular, Rei Kawakubo, Issey Miyake and Yohji Yamamoto, fostered the recognition of Japanese fashion in Paris in the 1970s by shattering industry conventions. The success of these three designers has consequently tied their heritage to their work and its impact on the global stage. Using Rei Kawakubo as a case study ...

Risd Cabaret 1987-2000 Retrospective Poster, Agnieszka Taborska, Bill Newkirk

RISD Cabaret 1987-2000 Retrospective

No abstract provided.

Risd Cabaret 1987-2000 Retrospective Program, Agnieszka Taborska, Bill Newkirk

RISD Cabaret 1987-2000 Retrospective

No abstract provided.

Fusion: Fashion + Architecture, Kurt Nelson 6404488, Zach Butler, Julien Nguyen

Undergraduate Research Symposium

The field of fashion often looks to architecture for inspiration, sometimes construing canonical buildings as starting points for apparel designs. This approach, however, merely takes the creative architectural design process at face value. Instead, what design innovations might be produced if fashion design were to absorb the integral logics of architecture?

We began looking at traditional scale differences between the two fields, and how this shift could be reflected in the design and construction of garments. Wood became our starting point because of its pervasiveness in construction and tangible growth over time. This organic pattern of growth, which makes wood ...

Patterns In Nature, Katelynn M. Weger Ms

Undergraduate Research Symposium

The purpose of this study was to explore how personal aesthetics and interruptions of nature’s spirals could be incorporated through the development of a Fall/Winter women’s clothing collection for a designer brand. Research was developed on spirals in nature and the equality found in the human body’s radical movement relevant to the golden rule. The spiral pattern in nature can be found in the make up of pedals found on a flower, which allows the plant to direct water to the roots in order for it to survive. The spiral in nature can also be found ...

Through Google-Colored Glass(Es): Design, Emotion, Class, And Wearables As Commodity And Control, Safiya Umoja Noble, Sarah T. Roberts

Media Studies Publications

This chapter discusses the implications of wearable technologies like Google Glass that function as a tool for occupying, commodifying, and profiting from the bio- logical, psychological, and emotional data of its wearers and those who fall within its gaze. We argue that Google Glass privileges an imaginary of unbridled exploration and intrusion into the physical and emotional space of others. Glass’s recognizable esthetic and outward-facing camera has elicited intense emotional response, partic- ularly when “exploration” has taken place in areas of San Francisco occupied by residents who were finding themselves priced out or evicted from their homes to make ...

C Reverse For Care, José Luis Chardiet

Senior Projects Spring 2016

José Chardiet

April 2016

C Reverse for Care is organized in a five part care cycle: Wash, Rinse, Spin, Dry, and Wear. The piece is a study in reversibility. It is an effort to learn, to understand what it means to care, and an effort to try to achieve reciprocal balance in any relationship, whether it is with a family member, a partner, or a friend.

The staging is designed for circular movement, suggesting a cycle that is repeated after completion. The spacial structure of the piece is based on the shape of the white ginger lily, the national flower ...

Recognizing The Parallels Between Fashion And Art: The Designs Of Elsa Schiaparelli, Yves Saint Laurent And Rei Kawakubo, Alexa S. Runsdorf

Senior Projects Spring 2016

My project explores the parallels and overlaps between the worlds of fashion and art through surveying the designs of Elsa Schiaparelli, Yves Saint Laurent and Rei Kawakubo.

Adornment And Modesty A Symbiotic Relationship Between Surface Design And Social Behavior, Hawa Stwodah

Theses and Dissertations

The impulse to beautifying clothing through acts of adornments or embellishments is an innate characteristic of humans. The added decorative details are used for identification and visual communication by the wearer and comprehension and visual appreciation by the viewer.

This thesis investigates the recent attention to female modesty, labeled as the Modesty Movement--the community that has developed around the apparel segment of the Movement and the framework of the behavior encompassing the participants within Movement. Additionally, the thesis focuses on adornment through the lens of textile/surface design (embellishment) specific to the Greater Middle East and the northern provinces of ...

3rd Place: "Who Wore What When: A Literary Collection On The History Of Costume And Fashion", Manon Wogahn

John and Margaret Class Student Book Collection Contest

This is Manon Wogahn's submission essay, annotated bibliography, and annotated wishlist for the 206 John and Margaret Class Student Book Collection Contest, which won third place.

Manon is a sophomore at Chapman University, majoring in Art History.

The Development Of The Designer Children's Wear Industry, 1920-1969, Jennifer Farley Gordon

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research investigates the development of the children's ready-to-wear industry between 1920 and 1969 from the point-of-view of industry insiders, including significant manufacturers, designers, and trade journalists. The goal of this study was to analyze an idea proposed by industry designer Robert Love during the mid-1960s. Love believed that the first two phases of the evolution of the children's wear industry were (1) the establishment of large children's ready-to-wear manufacturing firms; and (2) the growth in influence of children's wear specialist designers during the 1950s and 1960s. This study draws from the history of children's ...

Work It: A Study In Fashion Photography Portraiture, Dominic J. Iudiciani

Honors Research Projects

Fashion is a device with which the perception of one’s appearance is manipulated. It is a device that is used across all cultures to identify, symbolize, isolate, and appropriate. It is figuratively and literally woven into the fabric of humankind as a whole. Fashion has the ability to reinforce gender or create dissonance within it through androgynous silhouettes. It can express strength and confidence or emphasize vulnerability.

Through this study, the use of specific studio lighting techniques accentuates design elements of a highly curated collection of avant-garde, 21^st century garments. Drape, texture, form, and luster are but a ...

Historical Accuracy In Costume Design: Experiences And Perceptions Of Broadway Costume Designers, Sara Jablon

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to systematically explore one aspect of costume design, the role of historical accuracy in American theater, according to contemporary Broadway costume designers. Using the grounded theory methodology, this study investigated the characteristics Broadway costume designers believe are essential for historical accuracy in costume design; the significance they place on historical accuracy for the success of the costume design; and how they approach and incorporate history into their costume designs of historically set productions. Sixteen Broadway costume designers were interviewed for this study. Based on the analysis of interview responses and guided by Hillestad's ...