Beauty Is The Brutalist
Fashion design project
Beauty and the Beast is one of my favourite (Disney) fairy tales. However as you get older you realize the darkness of the tale, of an oppressed woman named Beauty, trapped in an abusive relationship with a Beast who detains her in his castle against her will. I wanted to return to this fairy tale as the basis for a couture collection presenting the reality of the fairy tale.
I wanted to explore various textures and the constraints of a garment and include the psychology of its wearer. Just as Beauty the character, the epitome of an exemplary woman, is objectified in both the story and in reality, I wanted the clothes to evoke the feeling of suppression and objectification.
The collection is composed of two parts, first using the glass case of the enchanted rose as the inspiration. I thought of keeping Beauty under the microscope, pressing her flesh into a glass dress illustrating her being kept captive against her will. She would not be able to sit of move freely without being helped out of her constraining costume by her oppressor. The pressed flowers that are integrated into the glass dress represent not only the roses in the story, but the victorian tradition of pressing flowers to retain their youthful beauty forever in time.
The final stage of this project is to illustrate the oppressive nature of her confining fortress by employing the stark shapes of Brutalist architecture, and drear grey concrete colours. I chose heavy layers of wool to be the material to keep the structure of the designs, but to also represent the false comfort of her castle as a wool sweater can create warmth and security for its wearer, when wearing too much of it one can get very hot and sweaty very quickly, bringing its wearer to feel suffocating and claustrophobic.
I wanted to explore various textures and the constraints of a garment and include the psychology of its wearer. Just as Beauty the character, the epitome of an exemplary woman, is objectified in both the story and in reality, I wanted the clothes to evoke the feeling of suppression and objectification.
The collection is composed of two parts, first using the glass case of the enchanted rose as the inspiration. I thought of keeping Beauty under the microscope, pressing her flesh into a glass dress illustrating her being kept captive against her will. She would not be able to sit of move freely without being helped out of her constraining costume by her oppressor. The pressed flowers that are integrated into the glass dress represent not only the roses in the story, but the victorian tradition of pressing flowers to retain their youthful beauty forever in time.
The final stage of this project is to illustrate the oppressive nature of her confining fortress by employing the stark shapes of Brutalist architecture, and drear grey concrete colours. I chose heavy layers of wool to be the material to keep the structure of the designs, but to also represent the false comfort of her castle as a wool sweater can create warmth and security for its wearer, when wearing too much of it one can get very hot and sweaty very quickly, bringing its wearer to feel suffocating and claustrophobic.