12 Sketches

1930s Elsa Schiaparelli; Miuccia Prada today

Schiaparelli initiates her eclectic fashion house by absconding from her aristocratic milieu while Miuccia Prada debut through her grandfathers established luggage company. Despite half a century of opposing circumstances, Elsa Schiaparelli and Miuccia Prada share a delight in subverting contemporary notions of taste, beauty, glamour and femininity. The two iconic designers interprets similar themes in their work with a different approach. I wanted to explore the changing notion of a womans place; the difference in the popularity of femenism and its influence. In the 1930s, it was a continuation from the dawn of womens independence. However, femenism was underdeveloped and minor in popularity and awareness due to the Great Depression. While the sense of style and individuality in woman's fashion did not vanish entirely, there was a move toward more feminine and ladylike women's clothing to return to women their femininity without giving up the gains that were won in the 1920s. In the workforce, women continue to increasingly take on jobs; most which restricts them to passive roles in accordance to misogynist conventions of their day. They saw themselves as powerless in the world outside of their homes, as chicks or birds (colloquail term used in US and UK referring to women) submissively employed on their typewriters. Using Schiaparellis surrealistic practices such as displacement, playing with scale, and blurring the boundary of what is usually seen as simply poultry. Starting out with a image of a hen on a typewriter, I play with it and twist it to structure an unalike cut. The series progresses from how I see a womans place is in the 1930s to how this is seen today. A new way of seeing a womans place is modifiying activities or environments to suit the female identity. No longer are we birds out of place, stiffled by a masculine society but one which is accepting of an increasing gender representation. In todays context, women flaunt their femininity, ostensibly in their choice of apparel. Schiaparelli used her signature shocking pink in her designs as a reminder and celebration of the ultra female; a statement to show women deserve independence from prejudice without in taking part in activities. Likened to Miuccia Pradas understanding of women through observing fashion and developing fashion. It is a constant battle with the nature of women to take importance in beautifying ourselves. We are aggressive and driven; we are violent; we take blows in the name of fashion. Hence, I decided to use women boxing as a perspective of a womans place today through the resemblance between a boxers attitude and women concerning fashion and beauty.

Changing norms, using pink for a colour on boxing gloves.

 This was a more tongue in cheek approach towards the idea of chickens. With relation to the clich riddle, Why did the chicken cross the road? Pants, two trails of yellow down each side to resemble the double yellow lines at the side of the road.

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Back

Patches made of fabric custom printed boxing cards. Similar to Schiaparellis dress with patches of flower seed packets. Unconventional shapes, defying what we deem as ugly, unappealing.

Skirt, outline of a boxing belt made into a pattern print.

Skirt, attached pieces of leather in the colours of a bruise.

Converting Schiaparellis ladies in the park into a scene of two women boxers upclose with embellished headgear. With regards to the trompe loeil and tartan trend. The robe pants (divided tennis skirt), a forerunner of shorts designed by Schiaparelli for tennis player, Lili Alvarez. Swing shorts, print of punching bags and high heeled shoes juxataposed onto tartan background.

Works Cited
"Elsa Schiaparelli: Dress (2009.300.146)". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000. Retrieved from http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/2009.300.146 Dilys E. Blum, Shocking! The Art and Fashion of Elsa Schiaparelli (Philadelphia: The Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2003), p.140. Kalman-Lamb. N, Hitting Like A Girl*: Why Im Not Celebrating the Inclusion of Womens Boxing in the London Olympics, (August 2012). http://lefthookjournal.wordpress.com/2012/08/01/hitting-like-a-girl-why-im-not-celebrating-the-inclusion-of-womens-boxing-in-the-londonolympics/ Skirting the issue: womens boxing and enforced femininity, (January 2010). Fitandfeminist. Retrieved from http://fitandfeminist.wordpress.com/2012/01/25/skirting-the-issue-womens-boxing-and-enforced-femininity/