Project Introduction:
For the bridge 2 project, we were asked to make a garment base on our own identity. We did an observation on ourselves and went to David Bowie’s exhibition to get inspiration.
The costume that I choose to analyze from the David Bowie’s exhibition is the one that I saw when I first walk into the museum. It is very jaw-dropping clothing that includes both modern element and full of his personality. The dress is custom-made for David Bowie, and a Japanese designer called Kansai Yamamoto does it. In the exhibition, the description for this piece has mentioned what David Bowie’s opinion on this costume. He states that “the costume is everything he wanted… outrageous, provocative, and unbelievably hot to wear under the light.” From the way how he gives his thoughts on this clothing, I could tell that it is what he wants the clothes to be like and it matches his identity a lot in a different way. This costume also influences Bowie a lot on the way of how he looks at the Japanese culture and performance in the early 1970s. This is a “Tokyo Pop” bodysuit with replica shoes, and this specific style is worn by him when he was in Aladdin Sane tour. The bodysuit is a black base with symmetry white line on top of it. From the research that I did online, I found out that when he wore this bodysuit on his tour, he needs people to carry him up to the stage because he could not even move when wearing this piece of clothing.
Toyko Pop Bodysuit:
I also read a book which is written by Joanne Entwistle, and I am inspired by one of his quote in the book, The Dressed Body. When I make the garment, I consider both David Bowie’s exhibition and the text from The Dressed Body. The quote that I use from that book is, “How we look at ourselves and style ourselves could reflect how much that we are affected by the pressure that our society has given us.” This quote reflects my identity of how I act in the society, and how I look is affected by others. But since I moved to New York, I start to be myself and show my own identity through my appearance. For example, I start to wear more bright and colorful color clothes and even something that has the combination of different fabric. These are my consideration of the clothing that I make after doing the self-observation and all the inspiration that I have.
Process:
For this garment that I made, I choose to use muslin as my fabric because it fits my identity a lot and also how people viewpoint on me. Muslin is a piece of fabric that could not easily look through from far away but as you look closer and more carefully, you would find out that it is pretty easy to look over. This is one of the reasons why I choose to use this fabric because the feature of this fabric matches my identity very well. Usually, when I go to a new group, from people’s first impression, they will think I am a person who is hard to get close with from the first time they see me. But when they start to spend more time with me, they usually would find out that I am a easy going person. This is just like the muslin fabric when people see that fabric from a further distance, they think it is not transparent, but if they look closer, they would see that it is not that hard to look through. The other detail that I make on purpose in the T-shirt that I made is that I sew my two sleeves differently. On one sleeve, you could not see the seam, but you could see the stitching on the other sleeve. This is a symbol of my personality. I want to show that I have two sides, one is very outgoing, and the other is more shy. In my everyday life, when I am with my friend, I like to talk a lot. But if I am in a group that I am not familiar with, I will not speak as much, and I will start doing an observation on everyone in the group to see who is the one that I would like to befriend with. There is another reason why I choose black muslin with green thread because black is a color that I think represent a feeling of clean and straightforward. I like to make the place I am living neat and clean, and I also like to decorate my apartment in a very simple but stylish way. This color reflects my personality a lot. I use green thread because it pops out from the dark feeling in the black shirt that symbolizes my identity, which I like to do something challenging in my life.
Garment:
Image:
For my final documentation, I went to MOMA to get inspiration. I found one photo that was taken by Paul Mpagi Sepuya attracts me the most. The position in this photo is facing backward to the viewer and how he takes the selfie is also using an angle that it is not usual. I get inspired by this photo because I am the person who likes to do challenging things and doesn’t like to live in my own comfort zone. And this photo’s position reflects that feeling a lot. The photographer also chooses to let his background more casual without putting the full black backdrop. This casual feeling is also a reflection of my identity which I would give myself a little break to be looser once in a while.
Untittled by Paul Mpagi Sepuya:
Final Documentation:
