Shakers/ Philosophy Design Project

The Shakers were a group of religious believers who had a very firm and easily recognizable design philosophy. They believe in Form after function and that everything they designed should have a purpose before it was made elaborate. Although it was not the intention at the time, these designs had a kind of simple, clean beauty about which makes them highly desirable even today.

Our Project was based around the strong shakers philosophy and we were to come up with our own philosophy on how we design, dress and style an outfit. I loved this topic from the word go as my design style is prominent. My designs always have a sense of playfulness, of childhood fun and a sense of disappearing into the fantastical and i wanted this project to be the embodiment of all that i feel about fashion and life.

My Philosophy:

I will always be without limits,

I always disreguard the box,

I am personal and impractical,

I am Technicoulour, not black

and white,

I am fantasy,

I am your childhood

Fairytales,

I am couture and art,

and nothing else...

I looked at some of the most difficult items of clothing to wear in the fashion industry such as the corset, the crinoline and ruffles. I used PVC, chiffon and metal bars in my final design to uphold the impracticality element of my philosophy and i used balloons, carousel horses and gem stones to elude to the childhood fantasy element. In my theme boards and research i used images and references from my own youth to make the design more personal which i believe fashion should always be. To me everything you own and wear and design should have a part of yourself within it.

I spent some time looking at a crinoline in the making as my housemate was building one for her costume course, which i found really helpful as its easier to design something once you know how it fits together and works. I also took apart a corset to see if using just the boning from inside would work in my design.

I really loved my final design as i thought it brought together every element that i wanted it to and it appealed to every part of my personality. It was in short, the ultimate fantasy dress.