Journey

After weeks and weeks of working on this project, I would like to say that all of it was worth it.
I would have never thought of the beautiful outcomes that a topic such as Fashion during the World War II could result in.
I would like to thank all my teachers who have guided me in every step of the project. They inspired me to push my boundaries and do better. 
There were a lot of ups and downs that I came across, but they only taught me to keep moving forward and be more creative with my work.
This whole journey was a wonderful experience.
Thank you for giving me such an opportunity to expand my horizons.
XOXO

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Remains of the War

I never paid attention to the actual words that describe my whole theme- World War.
So this time i started out keeping these 2 words in my mind. I began exploring and doodling things that i could relate war with- weapons, fire, remains, ashes were a few of them.

Exploring the theme

   

Giving a look of markings on a map

This is where i decided to print out a a map of the world in different sizes and burn their edges. That'll look like the remains from the war.

I did burn my finger for a milli- second while doing so. LOL. 

Burning little maps printed on strips

As you can see, I wanted to give a look of maps and markings in this swatch. So I went ahead and covered the head of the pins with some net fabric and pinned them onto the burnt maps that i pasted onto thermocol.

And here is the final outcome!

See you!

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V for Victory

The Victory campaign was popularised by Winston Churchill in 1941. He upheld his fingers in the form of "V".
This "V" was used on so many things, from jewellery to packaging.

Source: www.ashbyinteriors.co.uk 

I decided to do something using the "v" sign. I cut out sunboard first. painted it black. Then i tried bending wires in V shape. 

But none of them looked too good.

Then I recalled about the ban on silk during the war. I remember reading that new man made fabrics such as nylon were created at the time which were cheaper and of good quality too.

Thats when I cut up some old stocking and started pasting them in V- shape, 

But it felt like I wasn't doing any justice to such a stretchable fabric. So I thought about it and gave myself some break. 

The next day I woke up and all of a sudden my brain told me to use pins to hold it down and stretch the fabric! Thank you brain.

I cut up a 15x15 cm piece of thermocol, Covered it with a black fabric, and started pinning down the stockings fabric. And yes, i pinned it in a way that it looked like the alphabet "V".

Exploring the V- Sign

Stretchable fabric

I'm very happy about this swatch. And I hope you like it too!

V- from stretched fabric

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Helmets and pins

Since I loved this picture with these helmets covered with rope, I have decided to replicate this but on a smaller scale.

I first thought of what I could use to get a hemispherical shape.

The idea of using table tennis balls struck my head. So I went out and bought a pack of five tennis- balls.

Next i decided to cut them in half and paint them black.

I had a net fabric lying around in my house. I got hold of it and covered the half cut black balls.

I decided to place them together surrounded by smaller hemispherical objects. I used board pins in green and white colour to do so.

And here it is. 

Untill next time!

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Air Planes in a smokey sky

Finally my exploration with planes has come together. I drew, cut, paste, paint a lot of little planes. And I guess all that work was worth it.

            

I decided to make the background from black shiny fabric. I pasted it with creases still on it.

The planes that I've made are cut and attached by slits. A total of 3 parts make the plane. I spray painted them gold to give a bit of luster amidst all the black and grey ashes.

And Voila!

This is the final result!

HOPE YOU LIKE IT!

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Gold planes

Pretty and messy are two words i would like to use to describe the swatch making process. My hands are covered in gold spray paint and frayed away black threads. But i don't mind a little gold on my hands.

Im attempting to make a swatch inspired by the fighter planes in the sky filled with grey black smoke. 

Im done making miniature paper planes.

Painting in the process

                                 

Ive cut and pasted the black satin onto the sheet in a 15x15 cm box. For smokey effect, ive burnt a sheet of paper to form ashes.

Burning paper to form ashes

All thats left to do bow is to compile everything together. 

I really hope my teachers like it.

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Adding a little flare

 Observing the skirts worn by the women during the war, and I came to a conclusion that pleats, especially big box pleats were loved by them.

               

Source: glamourdaze.com

Exploration

So I took inspiration from these skirts and decided to create something on my own using these box pleats.

I also noticed the use of large buttons. So I went ahead and combined the two.

Beige and Army green: the most used colours of the time

 And this is the final outcome. 

Gold buttons add metallic touch

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Explorations

Its 11.50 pm right now. And creative juices are flowing. I decided to start exploring with the shapes and figures.
Here's what I've come up with till now.
         
                  
 More stuff coming very soon! 

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Threads

I'm surprised at how many possible outcomes can be achieved from the criss cross or check pattern!
I'm back again with a new swatch/exploration. As silk was banned during the war, I decided to use silk. It's like an homage. 
In this one, I started out by cutting rough strips of beige-gold silk fabric. then i began layering them in a check pattern. The layers by themselves looked pretty. 
But it still needed a little punch of texture.
So I went ahead and placed grey coloured thread in a randon manner, but still making sure that it looked like check pattern. 
And here it is, a quick but pretty looking swatch!

XOXO
See you!

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Random placements

I have decided to take the criss cross pattern one step ahead. While i was exploring the possibilities of the materials that could be used, I tried making some sort of arrangement using toothpicks too.
And surprisingly, I liked that. I began placing them first, in a neat organised manner, and then randomly.
I then decided to go with the random organisation, because placing them neatly felt, well, too predictable.

Explorations using toothpicks

I liked the idea of layering this one with tissue paper as well. 

I finally decided to bring it all together. And since my whole life has become a war zone + fashion street, I decided to paint over this swatch with a camouflage effect. 

And Voila, Here is the outcome!

Camouflage print

See you in the next post! 

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Criss cross Update

Hi! 

I hope you remember what I was upto with the last exploration. I was playing with the criss cross pattern from ropes and then layering it with tissue paper.

Well I finally painted that. I used deep rust-brown colour. And on the embossed rope areas, i dabbed some mustard yellow paint using cotton. I'm in love with this.

This is the end result of the texture that i came up with.

See you very soon!

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What the swatch?

Hi guys! So you know now, that my theme is World War and the essence is the silhouettes and the colour scheme. But do you know what really inspired me to choose this essence? Well, it was the texture found on the helmets of the soldiers. It truly left me awestruck. The design in itself was so attractive that I didnt have any second thoughts about chosing this as an inspiration.

One lazy day, when I was busy doing everything interesting I could possibly do, I was reminded that I had to make swatches for my project. And the first reaction I gave was literally "What? Noo!!"

But you know, it wasn't all that bad. I instantly decided to make my first swatch inspired by the trendy helmets. So there I was, with sunboard,  a pair of scissors and all the ropes which I could possibly ask for, from my mom. After using these ropes for my swatch, I felt like something was missing, and this could only be changed by a layer of tissue paper over it. So, tee hee. A layer of tissue paper which gave it a more realistic look. Now, all that was left was some colour. Using nuetral shades (which totally match my theme) I gave the final touch and felt like I actually

had the helmet right infront of me! So this was the journey of making my first swatch and it was full of hardwork and fevicol! xD

Yayy me!
Catch you later guys!

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Criss and Cross: Texture play

Hi again!

While going through the images taken during World War II, I came across this one.

Source: segundaguerra.net
And this really gave me some good ideas. I love the net made from ropes that covers the helmets of the soldiers. I immediately started doodling what I thought I could do with such texture.
 Here is some of the work that i came up with while trying to recreate this texture :)

I used whatever material I had at hand to create different patterns and textures using mainly criss-cross pattern.

Ropes used to create pattern layered with tissue paper

I'm still working on this one. Will be posting really soon!

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Chit Chat

Hi,

I wanted to simply talk in this post about how my experience has been so far with my research and creating a visual diary from it.
I'm glad I chose the topic of World War 2 and the Fashion of that time. The more I get to know about the little details, the more it attracts me. 
Ive always been drawn to simple shapes and neutral colours. And this time period was a perfect mixture of both of those. Strong shoulders, cinched waists and A- line skirts. Oh I love these all. 

We may think that just because the war was on, people must have always stayed in their home, scared, doors and windows shut. But that wasnt the case. Instead clothing became a way of escaping the rough times. It gave the people hope and something to look forward to. It almost gave a sense of motivation.
Designers contributed to this in a grand manner. With newer, more sleek and sharp designs, they kept people on their toes. The common woman was always on a lookout for newer styles that she could wear. A huge change in a woman's wardrobe was the addition of trousers. She now wore trousers and went to work in factories. This gave her more and more freedom.






Today we call this war period inspired fashion as Military style. There is no doubt about the fact that it is seen on the runways almost every season. All great designers love to get inspired by the strong sillhouettes and earthy colours, and celebrities are often seen sporting the military style on the red carpet as well as on the streets.




I hope you enjoyed this little chit-chat.
See you soon.

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Stockings Alert

As we all now know, war time meant shortage of raw materials.
One such material was silk.

SILK

Silk was needed for making of parachutes, and other war related items.

Hence this period saw the creations of materials that were completely new to the world. 

SYNTHETIC MATERIALS were extensively used from now on. One such material that I came across was- Viscose. It was patented in 1892. Later it came to be known as Rayon.

It was widely used by designers as a substitute for silk.

Another such material was NYLON. Making stockings from nylon was very easy and economical.

From my visual diary: Stockings

It was surprising to know that these stockings were being purchased by women at a rate of 500 million pairs a year. Thats a lot of stockings!

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Mood Board

Creating a mood board

Graphic designers, interior designers, industrial designers, photographers and other creative artists use mood boards to visually illustrate the style they wish to pursue.

Creating mood boards in a digital form may be easier and quicker, especially when it comes to collaboration or modification of projects.
Here I have shown a mood board that I have created using Adobe Photoshp CS 5.1.
The board depicts a mood of war as well as the mood of fashion during the war.

 During the Second World War about a third of the population of Britain were entitled to wear uniform. Although no women fought on the front line, they worked alongside servicemen in stations and offices around Britain, as well as further afield. 
I found out that women started wearing more pants and jumpsuits to ensure more freedom to move about as they now had to work in factories and fields. 

When we think of wars, the mood that we think of is gloomy. 
But i hope that knowing about the clothing and fashion world of the war time was interesting

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Getting inspired

What is an inspiration board?

An inspiration or vision board is simply a collection of words, phrases and pictures that represent your overall goals, or a visual representation of something you want to achieve.

Inspiration boards are not just collections of images and things – they are curated with a specific purpose in mind and they come in every imaginable shape, size, and medium.

In simple words,

Inspiration Boards = details, colors, textures, specifics.

Here is an inspiration board that I came up with, while researching on fashions during World War 2.

This board is created using Adobe Photoshop CS 5.1

The focus is mostly on the flaring silhouettes.

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Colours of the Time

After doing research and getting to know about the fashions of the time of the World War II, I have come up with a colour board that depicts the colours of the period (1939-1945).
 This board has been created on Adobe Photoshop CS5.1 

Neutrals and deep green dominate the colour palette

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The Incorporated Society : Promoting Fashion and creating luxury Couture

The war time was a difficult period for the clothing industry. 

The supply did not meet the demand.
To promote the British fashion and textile industry and create luxury couture to sell abroad for the war effort,
Incorporated Society of London 
Fashion Designers (also known as IncSoc, Inc Soc and ISFLD), a membership organisation was founded in 1942.

Peter Russell dinner gown, produced during wartime for IncSoc and photographed by the Ministry of Information to promote the idea that utility could be incorporated into couture.

 It aimed to build the relationship between government and fashion industry and represent the interests of London 

couturiers. The organisation continued after the war and 
sought to present itself as an alternative to the revived 
Paris couture industry.

The design studio of Norman Hartnell

Here's a video that explains and shows some designs 
created by Inc Soc.

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UILITY CLOTHING

WHAT IS UTILITY CLOTHING?

An increased demand for uniforms put a lot of pressure on Britain's textile and clothing industries during the War. Both raw materials and labour had to be directed away from civilian production to ensure that the demand could be met for uniforms and the many other military uses of fabric. Even the armed forces themselves were affected by 
shortages.

Hence, The Utility Clothing Scheme was a rationing 

scheme introduced in the United Kingdon during World War 

II.

Utility clothing covered a range of dresses, coats, jackets, 

trousers, shirts, socks, gloves and shoes. They were 

produced for men, women and children.



I found the idea of Utility clothing quite interesting and 

wanted to research on, and study more about it.

I found the colour palettes and silhouttes very attractive.

This scheme changed the way that clothes the were made 

earlier, forever.

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