Case study 1: Brain bug

Brain Bug Performance
Designer and Choreographer: Marvin Gaye Chetwynd
Narration & Ideas:
The story presents a sacrifice feeding ritual of a giant Brain Bug prop. The prop is inspired from the Starship Troopers movie. The performers are acting like smallers bugs who bow to the big mother bug. From other point of view, the story also could be interpreted as a love story. The Giant Bug, which is suffering from lack of attention and love because it's ugly and scary, has now found love and is merrying one of the performers. The movement of the Brain Bug  and the peformer in the dress is symbolising their wedding ritual. At the end of the story the performers is eaten by the Brain Bug and the performer are celebratin the successful end of the ritual.
As our contribution to the performers, we decided as the end to grab another victim from the audience who also to be eaten by the bug. Most of additional victims were kids(some of them scared and other - excited) because it's easier to put them in the front whole of the bug.

Here's a video mixture of three of our performances in Nottingham Contemporary:

Costumes and Budget:

The biggest part of the costumes were the white bodysuits which I already described in the costume making techniques, some of the also got upper vest in brighter color like orange and purple.
There were also 2 costumes different from the other. Othe of them was made, because of the body spahe of one the performance who was really big so we created the baggy costume which I also showed in the techniques section. The other different costume was bright like the upper vest and is was for the performer inside the bug who was moving it during the performance. Part of it was the visible moustache/front legs of the bug which was moving.

I couldn't find that typeof body suits on the internet so I asked in a shop and the price for that type of bodysuit is around 4-6 pound. The price of a ready mixed paint is 10,99 (available here) but it can be enough for more than 20 costume. So that also makes eround 5 quid per a costume.

Questionnaire Results:

The costumes are proven to have worked very good in the performance and to maximise the effect of an costume. They are characterized by the audience as "Original", "Interesting","Unusual, unique", etc.
Color is among the weakest tools of impact and people have chosen "the it represents the story" as a most noticable aspect. Also the way costume reveal the movement of the dancer is chosen from many people as the strongest tools of impact.

Questionnaires: Brain Bug and The Green Room

During my practice period in Marvin Gaye Chetwynd I also managed to complete questionnaire about both Green Room and Brain Bug performances. Here are questions which I asked the audience:

1. Which part of the performance had the most impact on you? Give your own answer:

……………………………………………………........

2. Which of the following aspects of the production were the strongest? Please these in order staring with the strongest 1, 2,..,4 (weakest).

- Choreography

- Costumes

- The diversity among various movies, music genres,ect

- The final product/ the performance as a whole

3. What is your opinion about the costumes for the show?

………………………………………………...............

4. What was the role of the costumes in the performance? Choose from: explains the story, adding different aspect of art to the show,  illustrates one of the already used ideas, etc, or add an own answer.
…………………………………………………….........

5. Do you think the costumes worked well in the performance? / Do you think the effect of costumes was maximized?

…………………………………………………….........

6. Which was the most noticeable costume in the performance for you ?
………………………………………………………......

7. Which was the most effective element of it? (order them with numbers starting from the strongest)
- color
- patterns
- the way it reveal the movements/ figures of the dancer
- the way it explains the story

8. Do you think the costumes would have different impact if its color was different?

…………………………………………………………...

9. Do you think the costume would have different impact if it was worn by different type of body?

……………………………………………………………

Aim of the questionnaire:
 The questions are developed in order to test the impact of the costumes on the audience. The answers will be compared to the conclusions made on internet on the impact of the clothes of the explored designers and what is the difference between the impact of a photo session and a live art performance. The conclusions of the questionnaries will be written in the 2 case studies which I will described in the next posts.

Flock FlockFlock - alternative couture designer

Paper made dress

Flock FlockFlock is one of the designers participating in the Subway project.
Jennifer Henry (as her real name is) is a Las Vegas designer experimenting with materials to create extravagant gowns. Celophane and paper are the most often used couture for her costumes.
Her project are released in collaboraton with many photographers, filmmakers and other professionals. An often part of Flock FlockFlock projects are part of fundrising campaigns.

Dress made of fashion bags.

Some great audience reactions could be gathered from the social networks. Jennifer's work is highly rated among observers. The most noticeable aspects of her work are the final products (including the photosessions), the colors and the designs.
For my work, Flock Flockflock would build a great reflection because of the great amount of different styles, models, shapes, etc. That Las Vegas artist presents an art work of beauty and glamour often released with very limited financial resources. 

Ref:
Kristen Peterson, 2013. Jennifer Henry Brings cellophane couture to P3studio [online] Las Vegas: Weekly. Available at: http://www.lasvegasweekly.com/ae/fine-art/2013/mar/21/jennifer-henry-brings-cellophane-couture-p3-studio/ [Accessed 29/03/2014]
Sarah Feldberg, 2012. Designer Jennifer Henry is the bag whisperer [online] Las Vegas: Weekly. Available at: http://www.lasvegasweekly.com/news/2012/sep/06/bag-whisperer-jennifer-henry/#/0
Shane O'Neal,2013 [digital image]. Facebook. Available at:https://m.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10200732443346826&id=1634222739&set=a.4510810541717.165229.1634222739&source=43 [Accessed 01/05/14]
Oscar Picazo, 2013 [digital image]. Weekly. Available at: http://www.lasvegasweekly.com/ae/fine-art/2013/mar/21/jennifer-henry-brings-cellophane-couture-p3-studio/

Subway Project

     
            Subway created a very interesting advertising campaign as a contest presented on the New York fashion week were young designers were inspired to created dresses for the red carpet made of promotional items used in the Subway restaurants. Napkins, sandwich wrapper, salad bowls, etc were among the used materials. The models were quite technical and well developed in terms of silhouettes, details and color combinations which wasn't that much improved in the State of Dress project for example.
            Another well developed aspects were the comfort and the sexuality which are noticable about the dresses. The shapes are following the forms of the female body and most of the reveal great part of the legs and decolletage.

Analysing that campaign from a commercial point of view (as I already have a degree in Advertising), I was really impressed from the chosen approach. Combining fast food restaurant with fashion and skinny sillhlouettes is perfect way to distuingish your brand from the others, because usually fast food is being associated with unhealthy food regime and overweight. Therefore, theoretically this campaign looks simply ideal.

Surprisingly, while trying to analyse these costumes' impact on the audience by reading facebook comment on facebook, I noticed the opposite. Great part of the people share their negative opinion about the campaign and do not consider it as creative. Some support the idea of traditional campaigns including giving food or sponsoring the poor, other state that that project is waste of time and garbage. The biggest problem mentioned is the skinny look of the models and the bad example they give to young girls.

On the other hand, the possitive comment appreciate the idea of being creative in a different way and capture attention without wasting millions of money.
The great variety of negative comment could be often seen because of the opportunities which recently provides the social media. However, quite often the presence of so many critics is a prove of a noticeable and affective campaign, so I do believe Subway have made a great job while illustrating how DIY costumes could stand on the red carpet as shiny, lustrous and glorious next to the multimillion high level fashion.

References:
Admin, 2010.

Recycled packing material dresses seen at Project Subway Fashion Show[online]. n.d., Eco Friend. Available at: http://www.ecofriend.com/recycled-packing-material-dresses-seen-at-project-subway-fashion-show.html [Accessed 27/03/2014]

Lisa Lacy, 2013. Subway goes high fashion with #SubwayProject [online]. n.d.,  Clickz. Available at:  http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/2294190/subway-goes-high-fashion-with-projectsubway

Sadie Whitelocks, 2013. Who ate all the foot-long subs? The catwalk collection (that we won't be wearing next season) made from hundreds of Subway wrappers [online]. n.d. Daily Mail. Available at:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2419112/Subway-wrapper-dresses-appear-NYFW-collection-competition.html

Inspiration : Robin Barcus Slonina - State of Dress

Robin Barcus Slonina is an american contemporary artist from Chicago. Her most popular project "State of dress" aims to create dress installations made from alternative items. Each dress is representing a different American state and is made of one indigenous or typical  object. This artist is presenting some really aletrnative ideas. Objects of her inspiration are most often everyday objects, but the most extraordinary part of her work are the dresses made of plants. Among the art pieces are pinecorn dress (Maine), corn dress (Minnesota) and Pairie grass dress (Iowa). The strenght of her ideas is in illustrating the dresses in photographs, using appropriate backgrounds.

Garbage Dress representing New York - inspired by a massive garbage strike when the artist visited New York for first time.

Nevada Poker Chips dress

This dress made of poker chips also took part of the Slonina's Exhibition. 99 cents Only dress shop exhibit presented dressses made for only less than a dollar which was sponcored by 99c Only Shops. Among the dresses presented on this exhibition at Atomin Todd Gallery in Las Vegas in 2008 were the Feather Duster Dress, the Sponge Dress, Beach ball dress and the Wiffle Ball Wedding Gown.

References:

Anon., 201. Robin Barcus Slonina. Wikipedia [online]. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Barcus_Slonina [Accessed 24/03/2014]

 Robin Barcus Slonina, 2009. Blogger [online] Available at: http://www.stateofdress.blogspot.co.uk/2009/07/states-of-dress-new-york.html [Accessed 24/03/2014]

Robin Barcus Slonina, 2008. Blogger [online] Available at: www.stateofdress.blogspot.co.uk/2008/06/finished-dollar-store-dresses.html
 Robin Barcus Slonina, 2008. Blogger [online] Available at: http://www.stateofdress.blogspot.co.uk/2008/10/states-of-dress-nevada.html [Accessed 24/03/2014]

Strictly Come Dancing : Exploring the dances

           As a part of the costume designer profession is to cover a great knowledge of styles, applicable specifics for the required costumes, ect. When I saw  the names of the dances (Argetine tango, Paso Doble,  Viennese Waltz and Quickstep), I realised that the number of associations which primary occured in the mind wasn't enough. For that reason, I decided to do a short research about those types of dances in order to gain some initial understanding for future project. So I draw a sketch of typical silhouettes of costumes for 3 of those 4 dances (I'll explain later why didn't include the forth one) without any details, just to point out some characteristics.

             Argentine tango is a dance with an arguable origin. The female costume for this dance usuallly consists of one-part dress and its typical lenght is around the knees. There are often used some asymmetrical forms as you can notice from the drawing - with one sholder, one sleeve, one part of the skirt with shorter lenght. Although the one side of the dress could be quite short, the other part of the figure most other stays covered and is not made of transperant matherial.
               For Paso Doble (the right drawing) could be used both one and two parts female costumes. The dance is typical for Spanish bullfight which reflect on the costume colors - red, black and gold are oftenly used. Unlike the Argentine tango, here the dresses could be quite sexual with uncovered tummy button. Also horizontal stripes are often used and hair accessories. The length of the dresses is usually very long.
The male costumes for both dance balanced with the female one - most often using similar colors or similar elements.

The Viennese Waltz and Quick step are very similar in terms of costume characteristics. Both the male and female costumes look like outfits for a official dinner, not necessarily using similar colors and almost never similar elements. The dresses are from one part, always very long and broad.Possible additions could be added to the sleeves or also scarves.