Creative Piece
1968, 400 women striking opposition
to restriction.
A gathering of bras, of girdles,
Of high heels, of makeup,
Laying useless and discarded amongst the other rubbish.
1969, words spoken for the first time
in several powerful voices.
A call for the end to a pointless tradition
Of harm to women, to their bodies,
A call for proper health care, a call for freedom.
1970, 10,000 feet striking the pavement
an emblem of power, of ultimate resistance,
Signs, heads, fists, held high.
A decade of gathered strength, of anger revolutionized
Skirts ripped, and pants sewn.
Lipsticks discarded,
Standards of beauty pushed towards a new dawn.
Essay
For our final studio project, Mila, Liz and I began brainstorming first what skills we all shared and what we were interested in making. Mila and I are both photography majors, but Mila loves fashion design and working with her hands, and Liz is a fashion design major. I’m primarily interested in only photography, and Mila shares that interest, so we wanted to include some photography in our final piece as well. In our original planning, we decided to focus on a thrift shop in New York City, and create garments based on the aesthetic, original time period, and feel of the clothes there. We decided to focus on Monk Vintage, near Washington Square Park. We selected this store because of its eclectic feel, and the history behind it – in the 60s, the location was still a thrift store, one called Reminiscence (Monk even had a photo hanging of the store front in the 60s). We also felt that the area the store was in was significant to the freedom and feel of the time period – New York, and the village especially, allowed a certain kind of artistic and personal freedom that no other area did. Though the store itself didn’t exist during the time period, the clothes in it did – and that allows people today to appreciate that sense of freedom and style today.
As we got farther into planning for the backdrop of our shop window, we wanted something more interesting than just general imagery. We got interested in Betty Friedan, and started looking into the Women’s Strike for Equality, and the movement of second wave feminism that occurred in the late 60s in New York City. We decided to attempt to memorialize both the feeling and style we already had planned on as a basis, but to include memorial of the march into our piece – and to contextualize how new fashion and style in the late 60s and early 70s gave women (and people in general) a sense of new freedom and control over their bodies and personal sense of self and independence. We also want to include a bit of symbolism about New York City during the late 60’s-70s, how it was different here from anywhere else, and how the city allowed people – especially artists – to express themselves and gave a sense of newfound creative freedom. In order to create the feel that we want for the backdrop, we’re planning on creating a multi-media collage of images – repressive media material such as ads targeted towards women, slogans, poetry, etc., from the 50s and early 60s, and then create a collage/hanging that in a way is engulfed, or over powered, by our own photos of the women wearing our garments. We’re hoping this will give the viewer a sense of freedom and wildness that wasn’t considered “appropriate” for women in the 50s, but that women in the 70s (after the march), were able to embrace, in their style in particular.
After we settled on a concept, we began making a mood board based on looks and patterns from the late 60s-early 70s. We visited the garment district, decided on making pants and a dress out of patterns similar to what we had found in our research. After that, we constructed the two garments (Mila taught me how to cut patterns and her and Liz did the sewing on machines). After making the garments, we decided to base our project on the look of a shop window. We wanted to capture the essence of the time period, and incorporate all our pieces into a cohesive installation, and we felt this would be the best way to accomplish all of that. To make the window, we purchased a sheet of plastic, and PBC pipes to cut into a frame to hold the window up. I also worked on planning a shoot for the garments, so that we can hang the themed photos on the backdrop of the window. For the shoot, we wanted to create a conceptual sense of freedom and independence that new fashion provided women in the early 70s as second wave feminism was gaining popularity. I wanted the shoot to contrast modern women and setting against the time period we were focusing on. We ended up shooting in MacDougal Alley, which was very picturesque, historic, and fairly empty of people and cars. The shoot attempted to capture both the symbolism of the garments we had created, and the feeling of the time period – one of a new independence, genuineness, and freedom. I also wanted to include some direct symbolism from the march, so I took some shots of the models with the iconic fist in the air pose that many used during the march. I also took some shots of a “bra burning”, since that was a big symbol during the time of liberation of women through fashion and style. Though some of the photos are more editorial to showcase the garments, I wanted the bulk of it to feel genuine, real, and full of feeling.
We’re planning to print the photos and hang them as part of our backdrop behind the clothing. We’re hoping that in the shop window, they create a feeling of nostalgia, and teach the viewer about fashion and style during the time period we’re focusing on – as well as memorialize the clothing itself and what style encapsulated during that time (and how the store itself captures that).
We wanted to make use of all our individual strengths, and in the end this project was able to do that – mine in planning and conceptualizing the photo shoot, Liz and Mila’s in fashion design and construction, and Mila’s in constructing larger scale art pieces and sets. I also learned a lot during the process about fashion design (previously I knew nothing about cutting patterns, the process of making a garment, or fashion construction), and about making larger items, which I’d also never done before. I was happy I was able to incorporate photography into our project as well, because that’s something I feel has been lacking from my semester. I think overall, we worked well together as a team, and I’m happy with what we’re coming up and bringing into fruition with thus far.
