New Textiles Project

This morning in textiles class we were assigned something new; we must construct a wearable item with a social, political, intellectual, or philosophical message. I realized that I would probably work more politically, so I thought about what issues were important to me, and most issues that I focus on with my political views and thoughts about this world have to do with the environment. I thought about issues such as ecological conservation--particularly the oceans and rainforests, pollution, animal rights, deforestation, the ozone, etc. I decided that pollution unified most of these, so I thought about going off that for my main idea. I thought some more and thought about sealife getting mangled in discarded fishing nets, trash strewn about the beach and found tangled in seaweed (which is fish food--who wants to eat trash??)...and I felt that this would be the strongest presentation. Below are some images that inspired me, and may hopefully shock you, also check out these links:











I was so inspired by this project and idea I began sketching immediately, and I came up with something that I think is workable. The dress design consists of three different parts:

1) Upper third (shoulders-chest-upper back): Fish design. The straps would be made from a sheer fabric to emulate fins, and the chest and upper back area will look like scales. Is th e wearer the fish stuck in the net?

2) Mid-section (stomach-mid back): The main fabric will be dyed to represent polluted water. Above that will be the matrix of the fishing net. Woven/sewn into the fishing net will be objects such as:
Non-Biodegradable Trash
Sealife
Sea shells
Driftwood
Soda rings (if I can even find these--they stopped making them because this was such an issue)

3) Skirt: I want to felt seaweed to create a fringe for the skirt. I would use green wool. I might sew a few objects to unify it with the mid-section...that and you see trash stuck in seaweed washed up on the beach all the time...GROSS!




Above are my sketches and ideas explained pictorally. I also came up with an idea of bottle cap fasteners for the back of the dress. I thought more about why I am drawing an octopus holding eyeballs--as if he wrenched our eyeballs out of our faces because we as the human race are failing to realize and see how we are destroying our oceans...so why should we have eyes if we can't even see the obvious trash in this octopus' home?? I also thought more about my idea of reversed environments by photographing jellyfish flying through our everyday environments...we killed their water...so where do they go?? Perhaps they are forced to adapt to our world or they are migrating elsewhere when their home is no longer a great place to live--like a mass jellyfish exodus. This is an idea that I am still working with, probably have more solutions to find, but I feel that I am definitely on to something.

Now, back to the loom.