Final Paper Topic choices

1. Yohji Yamamoto Wedding Dress (1999, Spring collection)

The designer was inspired by the old black-and-white picture of woman being helped wearing an enormously large crinoline. I chose this dress as one of my final paper theme options because I see the actual connection between the usage and functionality of spring steel structures in 21st century, and the way Yohji interpreted into his wedding dresses (one of the dresses also included long zippers that could be unzipped along the steels) got the most of my attention. The cage structure is inspired by Fibonacci sequence and such structure can be seen in almost all designers’ work.

2. 

Alexander McQueen (Dress no.13, Spring/Summer 1999)

This is a White cotton muslin spray-painted in front of the audience with black and yellow colors with the under-layer of another white synthetic tulle. This dress represents not just the unique kind of garment, but also provides the demonstration of a dress as a piece of instant art performance of model Shalom Harlow being sprayed by two robots from two sides. It is related to me and my perspective of creating fashion because of my passion for movement. I personally consider the presentation of the garment to be as important as the garment itself.  McQueen was one of the fashion designers who turned his collection into performances. The spraying performance of the white muslin dress represents aggression and agony in some sort of way. I would like to explore the meaning beneath this dress and McQueen’s reasons to present it in this particular both magnificent and terrifying way.

3. 

Hubert de Givenchy black dress of Audrey Hepburn (1961)

The dress was made exclusively made for actress Audrey Hepburn specially for the film “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”.The dress is known as the most iconic little black dress of twntieth century. The model itself represents black Italian satin sheath evening gown.Has no sleeves, floor-length  with distinctive cut-out décolleté and slightly gathered at the waist with Givenchy label located on a waistband of the inside of the dress. The dress attracted me a long time ago when I first watched “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”, and made me think of that “iconic” simplicity that it brought to the world after the movie release, since eventually it became one of the essentials of every women’s wardrobe. Even accessories (pearl strings and elbow-length gloves) became an inseparable part of the dress. I would like to analyze that importance between the right choice of fabrics, accessories for the garment, what exactly it takes to create a perfect and elegant mix that everybody would find appealing.