Friday, May 18, 2012

Meager

I preparation for my 6 hour Art Practical Exam, I photographed my friend Chanel Meager. The framing kind of sucks, but I quite like them.








Sunday, May 13, 2012

LOOKBOOK

While doing some 'research' for my PAT, this site right here was reccomended to me:

www.lookbook.nu





If you are a girl, and even if you are a boy, you will most probably either unashamedly love this website or at least be guiltily interested in it.

With the tagline: COLLECTIVE FASHION CONSCIOUSNESS, LOOKBOOK is an online community that showcases (according to their website) "member-uploaded street-style photography", which basically just means people take photos of themselves in whatever fashion tickles their fancy that day and puts it on the internet for the rest of the world to laugh at or draw inspiration from.

With obscure, unrelated photo titles like "I can't see your love anymore..." and "Fancy a cocktail by miuccia?" LOOKBOOK is the best place to find photography and fashion from everyday people and, depending on who you are, draw inspiration from it.

Personally I found it very useful - finding mainstream and alternative fashion from real people all over the world.

One girl in particular who I found interesting was Thelma Malna, a 17 year old from Finland whose photos mainly consisted of her in various black clothing and red lipstick on the floor with a very bright flash.  







Friday, May 11, 2012

Her



Say hello to the joys of compulsory drawings!

This one, who I like to think of as 'her', was done with oil pastels and a little bit of turps.
My original intention was to draw a perfect Barbie stereotype, but unfortunately, between my younger sister and my mom, our total of 7 Barbies and 1 Ken lay in pieces on the workshop table.

So then I made up some symbolism.
Her lack of arms represents how models and those involved in the fashion industry are only valued for their bodies and are, effectively, "armless", and her lack of head represents... well... lack of thinking (I guess).

Ironically enough, while I was carting 'her' around school with me, I recieved a number of comments.
Not on my drawing skills, but rather on the attractiveness of her legs.
"That lady has nice legs. I wish I had legs like that."
"But... she's a Barbie."
"Well, she has really nice legs."
"But... she has no arms or head..."
"But she has nice legs."

It is because of people who think like you that I am doing this project this term.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Alternative Beauty?

In preparation for my upcoming 18-hour PAT, I researched alternative beauty, and discovered an amazing number of subcultures, and people who live them every day.


According to Wikipedia, 

"Alternative fashion is an umbrella term encompassing a plethora of styles that have one major thing in common - they, at least at one time, stood apart from mainstream commercial fashion. The term has long been associated with the fashions of specific subcultures (e.g.: emo, scene, Goth subculture, Hip hop, industrial, Cyberpunk, etc.), however it is not limited to this application. In general alternative, or 'alt,' fashion does not conform to style trends of the times that have widespread popularity.” 

And I quite like that definition, because it was the first one I found that had no hint of pretense or arrogance in it, an attitude I find commonly accompanies those who apply alternative fashion.


Some helpful and interesting alternative blogs I found: 

www.dirtyflaws.com







Alternative fashion generally lays down a challenge to accepted norms, and is often intentionally adopted to display a break from the beliefs of popular culture.
I like that.