My fascination with what lies beneath the sea was first sparked on a deep-sea diving trip I took with my Dad on my 14th birthday. Swimming amongst three meter manta-rays, pods of dolphins gliding so peacefully past me, schools of yellow-faced angelfish, white-tip reef sharks and a countless variety of vividly coloured tropical fish emerging from the extensive range of textured corals- still remains my most distinct and precious memory. The colours were surreal, it was an underwater paradise! I couldn’t get my head around the beautiful, undisturbed scene I was within, feeling almost as though I was in another world.
 |
| http://meganoliviahurst.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/hussein-chalayans-transforming-garments.html Hussein Chalayan, May 2013 |
I intend to explore fashion that isn’t simply inspired by cliched images of marine life, but has invested much further into the theme than simple fish-printed designs and coral inspired colour palettes; designers whose work is more deeply inspired by marine biodiversity; that have their own individual and creative response to the theme. I first thought of this as I read about the avant-garde designer Hussein Chalayan who created a dress which was formed of clear bubbles and resembled giant fish eggs. It is this unusual take that certain designers have on the idea of marine life that I feel will have the greatest influence on my own work. The Rodarte fall/winter 2008 collection is another perfect example of designers that gain inspiration from the complex beauty and graceful movements of exotic fish. As they pair their stunning, ethereal layered dresses with inspiration from the Siamese fighting fish, the designers have clearly looked ‘outside the box’ to put together an incredible collection that reflects individuality and creativity.
 |
| Ernst Haeckel |
 |
| Ernst Haeckel |
I shall be using an investigative approach to develop a personal study of ‘Marine Inspired Fashion’. This will include research from appropriate primary and secondary sources; reflecting both historical and contemporary influences and inspiration that have clear links with my own work and that of others. Alongside this, I also intend to put together a number of in-depth designer studies that I feel are most influential to my chosen area of study. I will be able to develop exciting new skills and techniques and by refining my ideas as I go along; these designers helping me to influence my own direction and approach to ultimately enable me to create original designs of my own.
I intend to study designers that I feel directly relate to my topic. These include the textiles based sculptor Rowan Mersh, who uses unorthodox materials and objects to create unusual, abstract structured pieces; Lebanese fashion designer Elie Saab, creator of enchanting textured pieces through the use of a variety of different fabric manipulation techniques and decorative components, the high fashion label ‘Marchesa’ which focuses on intricate detailing and explores a variety of unusual techniques and Greek fashion designer, Mary Katranzou, as she creates digitalized marine inspired prints into stunning silk garments.
 |
| Thomas Heatherwick, 'B of the Bang', Manchester, Sculpture |
The artist Rowan Mersh, describes his work as a “self indulgent gamble; my sculptures are meant to brush aside the pre-existing notions and commercial contexts through which fabric is perceived”. The textile based sculptor first fascinated me through his use of unorthodox materials and high-stretch fabric to piece together eye-catching bold designs that are often infused with marine-life features. He thinks outside of the box and as a result his work represents beautiful, ingenious works of art, this is why I have chosen to study Mersh. He states that his pieces are not to be classified as “sculptural fashion items” but freestanding sculptures. His work almost devours the human form, as they are so bold and complex- “the bodies on which they hang are merely props in his installations or photographic documentations; they are architectural elements intended to create scale and movement” Despite Mersh specializing in sculpture and art, to me he is undeniably a style innovator. His heavily sculptured designs have allowed me to understand and acknowledge the more structured side of fashion design. For instance, when responding to Mersh’s ‘red-chandelier’ piece, the endless possibilities in which wire can be used to create a particular formation or structure of a garment, came flooding through my mind.
Similar to Mersh, I discovered an architect/sculptor called Thomas Heatherwick, who also goes against orthodoxy and the conventional. They both share an interest in pushing concepts and materials about as far as they can go. For example, on reading an article about his creations in a Guardian article, I came upon a piece that Heatherwick designed for the opening of the Commonwealth Games in Manchester. The piece was a sea-urchin like sculpture called ‘B of the Bang’ and it stood 20 storeys high (56 meters). In addition to this, Heatherwick also created another sculpture that was made entirely of 5,000 aluminium tubes. Moreover, his style and ideology reminded me a lot of Mersh and I thought this was very inspiring as they go against the normal and challenge the typical purposes of certain materials and objects to bring new meaning to them.
Thinking back to the 18th century, where dresses were created by embedding wire into the under skirt to give huge volume to the dress and emphasizing the waist, a wire-corset highlighted the female figure. However, Mersh has made me realize that wire can be used not only on the interior of a garment but also on the exterior. In creating my response to the red-chandelier, I began to think how effective it would be to have such an explosive, bold structured feature attached to a garment. Perhaps even having the wire pieces attached vertically to the skirt of a dress, representing the same sea-urchin like design. Or simply the wire pieces could be wrapped around the body in a less obvious, understated way. Alongside this, I have also found an interest in the artists’ most commonly used technique- the insertion of unconventional objects in tubular weft knit fabrics to create really quirky and unique effects. He has previously worked with items including toothpicks, CDs and vinyls to produce textured effects, these quite often resembling marine inspired structures (see image on the right for example, which appears at first sight to be a chain of seashells wrapped around the body). Therefore, I thought it would be really interesting if I was to take on the same open-minded approach and do my own experimentations working with unusual objects that I would not normally think to use in my work. Inserting plastic hoops into a piece of old stockinet, for instance, was surprisingly effective and produced a very unique design that reminded me of the long extended tentacles of a jellyfish; by hanging this from a tree and watching it move with the breeze, I then got a better idea of how a tentacle would move through the water.
 |
| My response to Mersh's piece: |
 |
| Rowan Mersh, 'External Tumour', Series 2 |
Another reason I find Mersh such a relevant and inspiring artist is that he gains a majority of his inspiration from marine life. As he states, a majority of his work “examines aspects within my own environment that shapes me”. As he focuses on his past memories, including his upbringing at the seaside town of Bournemouth. Each of Mersh’s designs are in fact inspired by a memory or image; photography and drawing lying at the heart of the creative process. He actually mentions that he once sent a group of friends out to Barbados to photograph some brain coral to help inspire his work. Moreover, this reminded me how important it is to gain inspiration and ideas from primary sources.
In fact, like Mersh, I too have grown up living in a number of seaside locations. A majority of my childhood memories include deep sea diving, snorkelling and visits to hot Australian beaches. From this, I have gained a lot of inspiration and ideas from natural sources found from within the marine environment. I recently took a trip to Newquay Aquarium, where I photographed, sketched and closely observed a huge variety of sea creatures swimming amongst strikingly beautiful corals, seaweeds and anemones. Seeing for myself these creatures within their natural habitats, I paid particular attention to how their bodies moved through the water, how they swan and most significantly, the colours, textures and patterns of their fin’s, body’s, tentacles, shell’s…
My trip to newquay aquarium from aprilmccullin
Following this visit, I got to thinking of designers that experiment with the huge variation of different textures and the exquisite detailing of many marine creatures. I therefore, was led to study the Lebanese fashion designer Elie Saab, whom I have admired for many years. He is renowned for playing around with textures and has an eye for intricate detailing. His commonly used techniques include pleating, ruffling, soldering, couching and structuring to create extremely feminine designs. Saab magnifies femininity by working with fine materials and delicate embroideries of outstanding quality. I chose to focus my attention on his Spring/Summer 2012 collection which consisted of designs that varied from short tulip dresses to full-length gowns that draped across the body perfectly and float through the air almost like an elegant fish swimming through the water. The collection features delicate, 60’s inspired necklines, beautiful and intricate beading and sequin detailing that shimmers and reflects light, as if made from tiny water droplets or fish scales. In addition to this, I noticed the designer ensured his collection was kept within a colour palette of pastel tones with the occasional burst of scarlet, greatly resembling some kind of brightly coloured coral reef.
When responding to some of his work I became more and more aware of his most commonly used techniques. These include a wide variety of different fabric manipulation and decorative techniques such as ruffling, couching, beading and soldering. Whilst watching a catwalk display of his Spring/Summer 2012 collection, one of his most eye-catching pieces was the deep scarlet red full-length dress that appeared to have a heavily layered and textured surface. I couldn’t quite work out how Saab had created such a thing. This then got me thinking of all the different, possible techniques that he could have used. I recorded the many ideas that I came up with and have chosen to revisit these as I develop my own design ideas.
From here, I chose another one of Saab’s pieces that I thought to have the most marine-inspiration. It was a pale blue design that was completely covered with carefully applied beading, sequins and silver couching. This inspired me to focus on the more decorative side of fashion design as opposed to the Mersh-like structured side of fashion design. After closely looking into the detailing of his work, I found that this dress in particular was created using couching and free machine embroidery. I then decided to respond to this piece by experimenting with both of these techniques. Saab’s blue dress appeared to be made with a lightweight flowy fabric with a slight sheen to it, such as a polyester-satin. When responding, I then thought to use the same polyester-satin to get a better understanding of how he created such a piece. I noticed that the embroidery designs on the skirt of this particular dress were very neatly done. The shape and precise spacing between each embroidered motif appears to have been created using either a large industrial embroidery machine or computer generated designs that have then been transferred onto the fabric itself. Furthermore, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to respond to Saab’s piece by experimenting with a few similar techniques. I thought to base all of my experimentations on a piece of red seaweed I found washed up on the beach recently as a similar motif was used in some of Saab’s pieces that I deconstructed, for example, his full-length red dress, made with a sheer fabric, and covered with these textural embroidered designs.
To begin, I decided to experiment with free-machine embroidery to create a seaweed design onto a thin white netting, backed with some dissolvable fabric. Then, with a deep red thread, I was able to create a really effective, eye-catching motif. However, I thought this was much too time consuming and would be the wrong technique to use if I was to create a full gown covered in these patterns, which Saab has successfully managed to do. Therefore, chose to further explore the technique of machine-embroidery. By using a more varied selection of fabrics and threads such as 100% silk organza, polyester-crystal-organza and both delicate embroidery threads with a slight sheen and the normal polyester threads, I was able to get a better understanding of the different effects that could be achieved with such a technique. I began by drafting some simplistic design ideas onto a piece of paper, with inspiration from some different seaweed pieces (see image on left; taken at Newquay Aquarium). Choosing my favourite two, I re-designed these drawings onto a computer program, called ‘Techsoft’. This was quite complicated at first, however with practice I was able to effectively make the most of this program. The designs were then saved onto a memory stick and sent to the embroidery machine which enabled my drawing to be sewn into the polyester crystal-organza. I loved this technique, as the finished product was very professional and the time spent on the creation of each individual motif was surprisingly little. Moreover, I thought this was a much more appropriate way of putting together these designs and would be ideal if I wanted to create multiple designs at one time. However, I found it has inspired me to become more creative in my drawing. I found, the more interesting and detailed the design was, the more effective and striking the embroidery would look. It also reiterated how technology has changed over the recent years as traditionally, embroidery would have been done by hand and would have been impossible for me to experiment with such a broad range of different fabrics and designs as the process would have been far too time consuming.
To begin, I decided to experiment with free-machine embroidery to create a seaweed design onto a thin white netting, backed with some dissolvable fabric. Then, with a deep red thread, I was able to create a really effective, eye-catching motif. However, I thought this was much too time consuming and would be the wrong technique to use if I was to create a full gown covered in these patterns, which Saab has successfully managed to do. Therefore, chose to further explore the technique of machine-embroidery. By using a more varied selection of fabrics and threads such as 100% silk organza, polyester-crystal-organza and both delicate embroidery threads with a slight sheen and the normal polyester threads, I was able to get a better understanding of the different effects that could be achieved with such a technique. I began by drafting some simplistic design ideas onto a piece of paper, with inspiration from some different seaweed pieces (see image on left; taken at Newquay Aquarium). Choosing my favourite two, I re-designed these drawings onto a computer program, called ‘Techsoft’. This was quite complicated at first, however with practice I was able to effectively make the most of this program. The designs were then saved onto a memory stick and sent to the embroidery machine which enabled my drawing to be sewn into the polyester crystal-organza. I loved this technique, as the finished product was very professional and the time spent on the creation of each individual motif was surprisingly little. Moreover, I thought this was a much more appropriate way of putting together these designs and would be ideal if I wanted to create multiple designs at one time. However, I found it has inspired me to become more creative in my drawing. I found, the more interesting and detailed the design was, the more effective and striking the embroidery would look. It also reiterated how technology has changed over the recent years as traditionally, embroidery would have been done by hand and would have been impossible for me to experiment with such a broad range of different fabrics and designs as the process would have been far too time consuming.
Ultimately, as technology has advanced, so has the way of fashion design. It has utilized computer aided design (CAD) and changed the way that some designers create their clothes. For instance, advanced technology has enabled virtual garment fittings, virtual models, digitally made patterns and even changed some of the traditional sewing techniques. Hence, how I created embroidered designs using digital hardware and software, and not using the sewing machine by hand, like they would have done if it wasn’t for the emergence of such advanced technology. To prove my point, I later chose to do the same seaweed design but instead of using the machine embroidery- which I experimented with before, I did it with freehand machine embroidery. As predicted though, this proved to take a huge amount of time and didn’t have that clean-cut, professional appearance given from the machine embroidery.
Marchesa is another designer fashion label that I have admired for many years. The designs usually follow a certain ‘theme’ for example, in previous collections, Marchesa has gained inspiration from many different sources, to include, traditional portraiture, the colours of India, 17t Century Romanticism and much more. However, the designers (Georgina Chapman and Karen Craig) are usually referred to as ‘the noted eccentric European style icons’. My reason for studying Marchesa was purely because the designs are so characteristic and fascinating and I felt that the structural and decorative techniques used, for their 2012 Collection in particular, appears almost as though it was inspired by marine life. The designers boldly experiment was contrasting textures and colours, techniques and shapes to create stunning pieces that constantly impress.
 |
| The red dress by Marchesa, Fall 2012 Collection |
I went on to respond to a beautiful red evening gown; which had a full red satin skirt with pleats at the waist for additional volume, and a sleeved top half which was completely covered in three-dimensional flowers. Following this, I experimented with pleating and re-creating the full skirt effect. I went on to design a three-dimensional flower,(which looked almost like pieces of leaf seaweed) similar to the ones shown on the red Marchesa dress as I became intrigued as to how they may have been created. I decided to work with freehand machine embroidery as I was quite confident with the technique, as I had by then, worked with it frequently. This also provided me with a lovely textured effect, which wouldn’t have been achieved if I had used fabric. Moreover, I sewed individual petals using dissolvable fabric and, once they were soaked in water, I wrapped them around some pencils and let them dry in the shape of the curve (this giving my flower it’s three-dimensional effect). Finally, I sewed the edges down in layers, onto a sheer polyester satin; ensuring the attention wasn’t taken away from the detail of the flower by the background.
Overall, I really loved this piece as I think the three-dimensional effect really helped to bring the dress and flowers ‘alive’. It is extremely eye-catching and looks almost as though the flowers were real and delicately placed onto the piece. This then led me into thinking about structural techniques that are used by designers to bring a garment to ‘life’. Therefore, I began thinking back to the sculpturists’, Mersh and Heatherwick, and their unorthodox, audacious designs, and how their ideas could be incorporated into a fashion garment. After brainstorming these thoughts and ideas, I came across an evening dress from Marchesa’s 2011 collection. It was a striking design that looked almost like three-dimensional barnacles, or the spines on a sea urchin, with the fabric formed in origami-like pinnacles. It also had heavy, uneven layers of fabric as the skirt which seemingly, is a trademark Marchesa technique as many of their designs feature a dramatic, full-body skirt. As a response to this fascinating piece, I attempted silk dying and folding the fabric in the style of traditional origami. Surprisingly, this finished effect was extremely effective, and I was very pleased. Moreover, I learnt that Marchesa incorporates such a wide range of different techniques into their work, these vary from the elaborate and intricate detailing, to the bold and outrageous structural techniques.
My study into Marchesa encouraged me to explore this structural side of fashion design and various three-dimensional techniques. Learning that I definitely wanted to design something that was bold, outgoing and brings colour and texture to life; reflecting the often complex beauty found amongst the corals, seaweeds and fish species. Consequently, I went on to closely analyse the shell of a giant oyster that I found displayed on a trip I took to ‘The Royal Albert Memorial Museum’. The intricate detailing and hundred-plus layers of the shell reminding me of the heavily textured and layered fabric manipulation technique which is often used by designers Marchesa and the iconic Alexander McQueen. The effect of this is very dense and thick with texture; it involves hundreds of fabric strips ruffled side-by-side and deliberately made to fray at the edges. I went on to experiment with this particular technique using a huge variety of fabrics, including polyester crystal organza, rayon, cotton, silk and many more. Additionally, I varied the width of the fabric strips and experimented with different directions used to sew the strips on, all of which giving a very different effect. Many other high fashion labels such as Dior and Givenchy also used a similar technique and they all look quite different depending on the type, width and length of the fabric used.
 |
| Close-up of the heat-set pleat technique By Mario Fortuny, 1916 |
 |
| Model Lilian Gish in a Fortuny dress |
a very similar structure to the hooped ‘tentacle-like’ practical response I created for my study into Rowan Mersh. Like Mersh, Issey Miyake also used rather unorthodox materials to incorporate into a wearable garment. His use of vents, hoses and clips for instance, were recycled into surprisingly striking, beautiful fashion pieces.
I chose to later explore this garment-pleating technique for myself as I felt the very appealing and unique effect of the pleats reminded me a lot of water ripples or the texture found in a lot of seashells or anemones that I have seen previously. However, I chose to take a slight risk and attempt to create a similar effect of pleats that are held like a memory into the fabric, much like the processes used by Fortuny and Miyake, but instead of a heat-pressing, I used a metal tube and tightly wrapped the fabric around it, using a shibori technique, and secured it in place using elastic bands, I then placed it into a pot of boiling water. After twenty minutes of simmering on high heat, I unravelled it and let it dry. The pleats where I had placed the bands and folds were left in the fabric and the finished effect was very similar to that of Miyake’s ever-famous garment-pleating technique. From here, I then decided to try and combine both the Marchesa ruffling technique and this heat-set pleat technique. In doing so, the piece I created closely resembled the texture and form of seaweed. I sewed the strips of ‘heat-set’ pleated polyester silk in a very messy, random pattern and to increase the movement of the fabric I placed a few pleats in whilst sewing along the tops. On further research, I later discovered that this pleating technique wasn’t only used by designers Fortuny and Miyake, but it has actually been used by a huge range of highstreet and high-fashion labels in their garments; for example, ‘H and M’, ‘Versace’, ‘Zara’ and ‘Dior’ all incorporate the timeless, effective technique into their collections, season after season. Consequently, I had a huge variety of sources to look into for inspiration.
Using all of the previously mentioned designers and artists, I went on to drawing and creating samples for my final piece ideas. Having acquired an extensive range of new skills and techniques from studying and responding to such influential and talented designers. I sketched 5 design ideas, all of which were heavily inspired by primary sources, for example, the ‘Atlantic Trumpet’ shell, an oyster shell, limpets, red coral, sea foam and the movement of water. I also gained a lot of inspiration from the artists/designers I studied and their techniques, methods and styles. I was absolutely certain that I wanted to create a wearable garment, especially as Mersh, Saab, Marchesa, Miyake, and McQueen all focused on creating fashion garments. My initial thoughts were to create a product that either reflected the natural formation of sea creature, for instance, like Mersh and Heatherwick, I thought of using a sea urchin as my main source of inspiration. I considered using silk and silk dye to resemble the vivid colours of an urchin, and the three-dimensional ‘spines’ could be created using the Marchesa-inspired origami style fabric folds. Another idea I had was to use the heat-set pleating technique that is used by Miyake. However, after experimenting a little further with silk dyes to reflect the beautiful, detailed colours of a tropical fish, I decided this would aesthetically work better. This idea reminded me of a catwalk show I saw by the designer ‘Rodarte’ a few years ago. This particular collection was based on the ‘Siamese Fighting Fish’. The designers closely looked into the shape of their tail and fins, the way they gracefully moved through the water, and their stunning natural colour, because, the beauty of the Siamese Fighting Fish is that they are all different in appearance, unlike many other fish species.
With this Rodarte collection in mind, I decided to base my first design on the Siamese Fighting Fish. I used Shibori technique, inspired by Miyake and silk dyes to colour the fabric (100% silk), after it had been heated. This was quite a difficult task as it wasn’t clear how the dye would appear and be absorbed because it was still wet from the boiling, and tied up tightly around the metal rod. However, once the fabric had dried I was very pleased with the finished effect. The colour palette I had originally hoped to have- pale pink, yellow, orange and red, was achieved and this reflected the colours of a beautiful coral reef as well as the beautiful colours of a Fighting Fish.
With this Rodarte collection in mind, I decided to base my first design on the Siamese Fighting Fish. I used Shibori technique, inspired by Miyake and silk dyes to colour the fabric (100% silk), after it had been heated. This was quite a difficult task as it wasn’t clear how the dye would appear and be absorbed because it was still wet from the boiling, and tied up tightly around the metal rod. However, once the fabric had dried I was very pleased with the finished effect. The colour palette I had originally hoped to have- pale pink, yellow, orange and red, was achieved and this reflected the colours of a beautiful coral reef as well as the beautiful colours of a Fighting Fish.
This dress design was something that I thought up of after my ‘Design Idea 1’. Which was a silk dyed, heat-pleated, layered dress made to resemble an ‘Atlantic Trumpet’ seashell, basing this dress design on the colour, form and texture of the shell. However, on further thought, I decided I wanted to make a shorter shift dress and hence, why I rethought my design and came up with the idea of basing it on the colour palette of a coral reef and Fighting Fish.
My second design is also inspired by a coral reef; I wanted to design another short shift dress that also reflected the colours of the reef, but more so the texture of the coral. I chose to use the ‘ruffle’ technique that I developed whilst responding to the work of Marchesa. I particularly liked that this technique worked well with an extensive range of fabrics and this therefore wouldn’t limit me when it came to choosing my fabrics. Using a similar colour palette to my first dress design, I chose to work with pale pinks, hot pinks and red. This process was extremely time consuming and as I continued adding more and more strips of fabric, the dress became quite heavy as it was very dense with fabric. Therefore, it became rather fiddly and difficult to move around when sewing. Consequently, I made the decision to only add this effect to the bottom half of my dress and not continue it all the way to the top. Overall though, I was pleased that I made this choice as I was then able to recreate a more coral-like shape.
In conclusion I have been extremely pleased with my chosen theme. The underwater scene is so full of inspirational things, varying from the textures, shapes, movement and colours of an endless range of species. I looked at a huge variety of marine creatures, to include urchins, limpets and a variety of coral, shells, seaweed and fish species. With a focus on their movement underwater, their textures, colours and form and the ways in which these can be incorporated into fashion garments. I found that many of my favourite designers, both high street and haute couture, all gain inspiration from marine life and now I am able to understand exactly why. I have developed such an extensive range of new techniques and skills, many of which, I was able to incorporate into my two final dress’.
