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This project’s intention challenges the standards of taste through vulgarity, by looking into an unconventional material within textiles, this being glass.
Originally the vulgar has negative connotations, which make it a difficult term for use in examining fashion objectively. However, my definition of the vulgar has many positive qualities. It is based upon wealth, brand-new products, yet also products that become too popular, something unnatural or people using it to try to be something that they are not. It has reference to exposing body parts, overemphasising detail, scale or shape, and requires confidence to wear or own. Vulgarity is important to a fashion system. It is often the way that new fashions are introduced, bringing excitement and change to the fashion system.
Through my design development I have photographed the textures, colours and shadows of glass perfume bottles. I have responded to these through mark making, view finders and creating digital photoshop designs, allowing myself to exploit the properties of glass through drawing techniques. During this process, I began focusing on the surface reflections from the glass bottles. This idea then developed further using textile led processes such as knit, print, quilting, glass fusing and hand embellishment. This is when my designs began to transform into textile swatches.
In the end, quilting was used as key process because it allows the fabric to capture more reflections. I had specifically chosen to work with satin, not only because it was a strong competitor for sublimation printing, but also because the properties of this material enhance the reflections to be seen.
Alongside my quilted outcomes, I have also created knitted swatches using wire and tinsel as key materials as they share some common properties with glass such as reflection and rigidity.
