To Die For - Exploring the ideas and inspirations behind student designs
“My main concept was survival. I loved working on this project this project as I have been able to relate it to my personal experience. I could relate to this as when I was four I was in a house fire and when I was eleven I was hit by a car. In both cases the fire and ambulance services said I was not expected to live. It has made me appreciate life and determined to make the most of what I have. I have studied the survivors of disasters and tragic accidents. The t shirt was customised by distorting the fabric with holes, rips and burns to symbolise the person who has been hurt and the jacket symbolises protection. There are medals on the back to represent the pride we should have in the emergency services, like the bravery medals from 9/11. I have made medals and decorations and also included three medals I bought in the fleamarket on the College trip to Paris in March.” Jade Anderson
“I researched genocide and the Holocaust. Influenced by John Boyne’s book and the film, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, I made a reversible jacket, contrasting prison camp uniform with striped pyjamas, covered in calico figures, used to represent faceless death, which I positioned hanging off the jacket. The reverse features the Arbeit macht frei motto from the gates of Auschwitz which lied to the prisoners that work made them free. I decorated it with triangles and symbols used on the concentration camp uniforms to denote the different groups of prisoners in the camps, for instance the yellow star was for Jews; the green triangle for criminals; red triangle for political prisoners; blue triangle for immigrants.” James Line
“I based my design on people that are important to me, using photographs of celebrations with family and friends. I used these to customise a leather jacket that belonged to my late Granddad, so it was all about love and remembering the good times. The photos were copied on transfer paper, backed on calico, embroidered and sewn together. To connect with the pictures I am also concealing things that belong to the people in the photographs underneath the fabric, for example, rosary beads for my Nan who is very religious and buttons for my Mum who likes sewing. They are sewn under butter muslin backed on calico so that you just get the impression of the object.” Charlotte Browne
“I looked at other cultures where death was not something to fear but more a celebratory thing, particularly the Day of the Dead festival in Mexico. My design was influenced by the life and work of Mexican artist, Freda Carlo. I really liked the idea of flowers and vines that I had seen in one picture in my research. Bodies decompose into the ground and then flowers and vines grow in the soil they fertilised. The marigold is the flower of the dead and Mexicans decorate altars in their homes with them. They make skulls from papier-mâché and candies which they put the name of the relatives they want to remember on. They then eat them at the festival and go to grave for family picnics. As it is a festival I created a built up collar piece, using skulls and added petals. I put generic names for mother, father etc in Spanish on the skulls on the front, but none on the back, where I have made a tree of life, as these represent ancestors whose names are lost.” Tom Dzedzej
“I wanted to base my design on aging as our real clothes are our skin. To help me explore the texture of aging skin and see how my appearance would change, I enlisted the help of Zoe Briggs, who is studying the foundation degree in Make-up Artistry and Special Make-upEffects. She spent an hour and half using liquid latex to dramatically age one half of my face. I have taken pictures of my Nanna and used transfers of the photographs of her skin and hands. I have used these patterns and textures to make a jacket and leggings in wrinkly leather and a basque body suit. This has been really interesting creatively and I have learnt a lot from using materials I wouldn’t normally work with, such as leather.” Jade Hannam
“My design is about celebrating a happy life. My initial idea was to use calico for the base but I decided to use newspaper backed with thin white fabric as it has an everyday purpose and I wanted to express the good things in everyday living. I got over the bad news by using spray paint and adding smiley faces. Colour and flowers were used to represent happiness and I found some really bright fabric and then made flowers with felt and newspaper for the bodice.” Sarah Zareeen
Click here to see images of research and design details and work in progress