Focus Statement By Brad Smith

Draft 1 – 02/07/09

The exploration of SAT 1 was successful in refining my initial work brief

that I composed. The work brief outlined my desires to explore burlesque

and circus costumes/garments that were to be constructed of found and

recycled materials and objects. It combined my passions of The

Environment and performance, to create many full and partial garments. I

found from my exploration that I now want to focus on burlesque recycled

garments, as I have a stronger attention towards burlesque than circus.

Continuing from my work brief, my passions lie in the environment and

performance. The garments I have chosen as the final potential solutions

both reflect my original intentions and, quite simply… I really like them. I

feel they best convey aspects of my personality, as well as show of my

ideas and thoughts about the environment and performance.

Potential solution 1 – The white dress

Constructed mainly from a plastic coated foam, the white dress and the

looping effect I’ve created is visually appealing and effective in showing

how the material can be used. I purchased the material in a large roll from

‘Reverse Art Truck’, after it had been collected from industry waste. The

material is very effective in the playful nature of burlesque, as it creates

flowing loops for the skirt, and strong, constructed line in the top. The

halterneck top that was designed in my original is classy, yet has a feel of

the 1950’s style of burlesque. The creation of a repousse’ medallion that

is added to the centre of the garment will break up the dominating colour

of white. I will also create weight in the back of the garment to balance

out that of the rear and the breasts.

I chose this garment to be a potential solution as I believe it is fun, playful

and has a strong sensuality about it that would fall into the category of

burlesque. The type of person who would wear this garment would be a

‘diamonds are a girls best friend’ cabaret performer. This garment would

be placed centre stage of a big Broadway show.

I will explore the possibility to refine the dress through its construction

solely of stationary. So far, the dress has been roughly stapled together

and the trial belt had its loops created with a hole punch. I think I can

further extend this idea to include tacks, split pins, rulers and of course,

scissors to construct the garment. A problem I ran into during Unit 3 was

the durability and strength of the staples. I think I could upgrade the

stapler to an industrial stapler, and add strength to the joins through hole

punching and weaving through a band. The refinement of this

construction process will heavily assist my sub goals outlined in the

original work brief (alternative materials and therefore, alternative

construction processes), and will make for a stronger finished artwork.

The garments aesthetic qualities are strong. It has strong line that

accentuates the feminine figure, as well as a beautiful line on the top that

frames the breasts – an important part of burlesque. It is weighted

towards the back which creates balance both visually and physically

between the rear and the breasts. The nature of the material creates a

glow about it because of the dull shine that is in the plastic. The form of

the dress complements the female silhouette, and the texture of the dress

appears smooth, almost silky because of the plastics shine. There is a

repetitious pattern in the skirt through the loops. The proportion of the

skirt is much heavier than the top, but this draws attention to the breasts

and face/hair. I aim to refine the feminine figure by strengthening the line

that goes into the hips, and to further strengthen and improve the

aesthetic qualities listed above to create a stronger final piece of artwork.

Potential Solution 2 – The Aluminum Corset with fishnets.

The aluminum corset was the first idea I came up with, and I explored the

potential of the garment throughout Unit 3. Still, it remains one of my

strongest designs and I want to refine it as one of my final garments. I

explored the joining and riveting of cans throughout the design process. I

found that the crumpling and crushing of cans gives a deeper range of

texture and pattern over slicing the ends of and flatting out to create a

smooth pattern. I aim to continue with the thicker crushed aluminum

cans, and find a stronger joining process.

The garment strongly reflects my initial work brief. There is an addition of

a comment of consumerism in today’s society as the cans are of

recognisable brands such as coca cola, Carlton Draught and Melbourne

Bitters. I can achieve my desired look through the brands listed above

because of their predominant red and gold coloring. I can also add

touches of green through Victoria Bitters cans if needed.

During the trials, I ran into the problem with strength of the joins. I heavily

explored pop-riveting, which in most cases was successful but due to the

thick nature of the crushed cans the joints soon gave way, and could not

be flexed back and forwards to long. I will have to explore possibly

flattening down even further the cans while still maintaining the crumpled

look I want. I will also have to draft a pattern and experiment how I can

create a flush join between each can. I will add the addition of folded

aluminium to the top of the garment.

The rubber fishnets were reasonably succesfull in my trials. They were

joined through the holes with little bows of rubber. The bows had some-

what of a classic, girly feel to them yet they were sensual enough to be

sexy. It also added a playfull nature to the already fun garment. I could

run into a problem with trying to fit them to the shape of legs, but I feel

this is a problem easily fixed.

I absolutely love the texture the crumpled cans create on the corset. The

crumpled cans also add to the effect that they’ve been used and tossed

away. The cans natural shine also aids to the glitz and glamour of

burlesque, and with the highly textured surface the can is covered in

highlights and lowlights over the entire garment. Pattern and rhythm are

created through the repetitious use of cans, and the repeating of the pop

rivet joints. The constructed industrial feel of the garment is softened

through the line created to accentuate the female form. The base of the

corset slightly covers the crotch, while still showing the entire leg to the

hip. It also is constructed to accentuate the hips and breasts.

I will use my trials in the design process as a base point for my final

garment, The Aluminum Corset.

Potential Solution 3 – The label dress.

The Label Dress is the garment that best connects my Work Brief with my

potential solutions. The dress is constructed of a plant labels (A plastic

material) that are from our families wholesale nursery. Discontinued plant

lines are left with literally thousands of the plastic labels that are stored

for a year and then thrown into the recycle or waste bins. The dress

addresses several points that I outlined in my work brief. Firstly, it is

constructed from a recycled material. Secondly the style of garment, a

short dress, is drawn from inspirations in the era of burlesque and lastly it

makes a direct link between my personal life, art and my passion for the

environment.

In Unit 3, I mostly trialed my garment with the ‘Camellia Tsaii’ label which

is predominantly green. I found that using the green colouring as the

dominant colour in the dress made for a more interesting and substantial

link between the environment and the garment. A complementing white

thread was used to make pattern over the labels.

The soft purples and whites in the label ‘Luculia Fragrant Cloud’ looked

stunning when layed over each other. Although I did not trial a sheet onto

an umbrella I previously had a thought about, the pattern I created was

lovely and complemented the outfit.

To resolve the garment’s colours scheme, I would like to draft together a

dress in the same pattern with ‘Camellia Vulcan’, mostly red, or with a

Hebe which is a highly textured pattern of green leaves against red/pink

flowers. It would also be interesting to see the potential a white label such

as ‘Camellia Lovelight’ could have in the potential solution.

My trials of free formed sewing were successful and I discovered the effect

of leaving the thread behind to let it dangle had on the garment. I think

this could be used effectively, particularly in the parasol.

To further resolve the garment, I want to finalise a pattern and cut for the

dress, as well as discover a free-form sewing design that I can sew into

the dress to add a layer of subtle elegance that can only be seen close up.

Similar to the other garments, I will create soft line to draw attention to

the feminine figure, as well as explore and refine the use of colour in the

garment through trials of different labels.

Selection of potential solutions;

A problem I ran into with the selecting my potential solutions was that I

had too many to choose from! I really explored too many ideas, so I listed

all of my favorites onto one page so I could compare and contrast them

against each other. From that, I could see the potential each potential

solution had in realising what was originally outlined in my work brief. I

chose 3 full garments, 1 partial garment and a handful of techniques. I

took into consideration the constrants of time, skill and availability of

materials.

Presentation of garments

The presentation of the garments will be important to the final ideas in my

garments. Keeping in line with the ideas behind burlesque, I want to have

the garments presented on a mannequin with their accompanying image

behind them. The image will have a real life model, complete will full

burlesque hair and make-up and accompanying prop. For example, the

white dress will have the model singing into an old-school microphone. I

want to have them either mounted or suspended behind the mannequin

so the audience can see the type of person who would have worn the

garment back in the era where burlesque was most predominant.