Interface: concept and context as strategies for innovative fashion design and communication: an analysis from the perspective of the conceptual fashion design practitioner

Abstract

This practice-led PhD proposes alternative practices in a research and design context that explore the intersection of fashion, fine art and performance methodology and practice. The project exposes and documents the emergence and development of conceptual and experimental fashion and interdisciplinary practice at the edges of the fashion discipline. The research provides new insights into the way fashion designers can work conceptually and how their work might be perceived differently, dependent on contexts of presentation. It investigates how the concept behind the design and the context of presentation affect these readings for both the viewer and the wearer. It uncovers the emotional and experiential factors of fashion and exposes how we experience and respond to clothing/fashion in a variety of contexts. The thesis draws attention to the lack of specific identification given to conceptual thinking in fashion design as an outcome within its own right and proposes new applications and approaches to this practice. The research methodology developed within the practice extends the potential of communicating body related concepts to wearers and viewers through the medium of clothing worn on the body and can be applied in part or whole across a range disciplines. The thesis synthesises a body of knowledge to inform practitioners of conceptual fashion and reveals the complexity of communication between designer, wearer and viewer of conceptual fashion in specific contexts. The researcher has designed collections of concept-based work, which are not driven by market constraints, trends and seasons but by concepts and processes. These collections have been tested and analysed in a variety of contexts and written up as three major case studies. The process of design developed within this research focuses on the body, movement and behaviour; through experimentation and testing it reaffirms the emphasis on the creative process allowing for consideration of context as fundamental to the communication of embodied concepts. It is argued that it is necessary for fashion designers to review the way in which they design for specific contexts such as dance, exhibition and areas of fashion promotion and communication. This requires a different approach that pays attention to both concept and context at the point of inception.

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