Women VS. Communism in Albania
I am researching how differently were women treated during communism. I think that women during communism were treated with more respect and more equally since everyone was considered an asset to the communist party. However, that wasn’t always the case. The government wanted them to believe that they were equal for their benefits. I am planning to create a garment and an ad campaign (propaganda), to show how women felt on the inside, outside. The garment will be a mix of styles feminine and masculine to express the idea of equality.
Moodboard
Process:
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- This was my design inspiration for my silhouette. They are Albanian women in the military. I really like this photo because it shows how proud they were to serve our county.
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- I started by designing the military outfit first. The colors that I was thinking of using in the beginning were mostly red and army green to portray the idea of communism but than I relooked at what I wanted to represent and express and I didn’t think that my piece should be screaming communism.
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- I wanted my design to look clean and minimal. As an artist I enjoy focusing on details. I really enjoy when people look at my work and take their time to look at little details and try to make connections. By using the clear vinyl on top I wanted to show how women really were, they were “packaged” to feel equal when they actually weren’t.
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- When I was brainstorming I remembered that flowers symbolize different things. I choose to use daisies since they are a very common flower in Albania. I did some research after to find out what they symbolized and understand more about them and I found out they symbolized femininity, innocence, fertility in women and also purity.
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- To make the pockets that would hold the flowers Tamar suggested that I used an iron so the two pieces of clear vinyl would stick together. I think that it worked great because the flowers were very fragile and if I would have used any other method than they would probably would get crushed.
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- This is the end result of how the flowers looked after I was done.
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- I started experimenting with the pattern even though I have never made patterns I wish that I wouldn’t directly cut the fabric that I was going to use for the final piece. However, thankfully I didn’t cut anything smaller or larger and everything fit perfectly.
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- Here was the first part that I cut out. The mannequins really helped me visualize how it would look on the body and wether I was going the right direction.
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- After cutting and hand stitching it together to see how it looked and also to try it on and see if it fit.
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- I cut out the pants too and that was the most challenging part. However, when I was done I was so happy and they fit perfectly. (just the length had to be altered)
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- After gad stitching and hot gluing the pants. I decided not to use a zipper because I didn’t think that the area would be visible.
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- I also decided to make a mask. I used thread to make it a bit see-through and also a bit hard to open your eyes because the thread could easily go into the eyes. I wanted to show that women weren’t able to see the reality clearly and even if they tried to see than that reality would hurt them or the government would take care of them so they would rather keep their eyes closed.
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- Here I was experimenting with the way that the fabric flows and how it reacts with the light.
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- This is my final piece. I am very happy with the way it turned out. I think it clearly expresses the message that I want to show. I wanted to show the the past has affected the present by the modern colors and vibe of the photo but keeping the silhouette “old school”. With the posture I wanted to reflect a strong women trying to untie her hand to take control of the situation because that is what women are doing in Albania.
*I still haven’t finished making changes to my research paper.
