Pump Up The Volume, Bring Down the Mood

Currently I am diving head first into all of my artistic and design pursuits being that it is now my senior year of college. I am quite lucky because I have my own studio space for my senior art thesis. My thesis is fashion based sculptures, photography, and sculpture installations.

For my second project I really wanted to create a fashion piece that was volumetric in form, with a sinister element thrown into the mix. It was also important that I encorporated the use of line in my design.



The process of constructing this was very much a challenge involving time, patience, and experimentation in materials. Overall, it was a great learning process. The first land mine I had to get through was the neck piece. I wanted a neck piece that was stiff yet one size fits all. To achieve this, I had made a pattern for the neck piece, cut the shape out, sewed it together and finally slipped a strip of poster board that was the same size as the neck piece. The board gives this piece stiffness and some flexability while maintaing the shape of a perfect circle.



After creating the neck piece I put together a basic tube/ pencil skirt created out of black cotton fabric. I kept it simple because my design was minimalist. The skirt was simple to make. Drape it, pin it, add some darts, then put in a zipper.

Finally, and most difficult, were the fabric strips that stretch from the neck piece into the bottom hem of the skirt. Making each individual strip took up more time and fabric than I had thought. Luckily, I was prepared for just about anything. After making each strip I machine sewed them into the bottom of the neck piece. Shortly after I installed strips of poster board of the same size into my black fabric strips. After installing each piece, I hand sewed it into the hem of the skirt. The poster board is what makes this piece come to life. It flares out just enough to achieve the high volume that I had wanted. Without it, my strips would be very droopy with no volume at all.



During the process of making this I really learned poster board is a great medium to work with for the kind of designs I want to bring to life. As a designer and artist, I believe I can say that this is my best work by far.

After creating this wonderful piece, I needed to find a model to photograph it on, not to mention a great idea for a shoot. Luckily, my fashion forward friend Tanya Salamanca was the perfect size and was more than eager to model for me.

My idea behind the shoot was to have simple white set so that way the scenery did not compete with the fashion piece. I decided to shoot it in my apartment on campus because it looks like a stereotypical studio, which I love. I took down my posters and moved some furniture to expose a blank wall. As I was photographing my model, I was really going through a creative block. I am so used to photographing locations and things that are not a black fashion piece up against a white background.
Luckily, as I kept taking pictures, my ideas started to develop. My friend and model Tanya began to experiment with the forms and shapes the dress can take on during our photo shoot, which was genius. By manipulating the strips she created very high fashion tangled looks, which helped me in search of a more direct vision for the shoot.



Soon after I began changing shutter speeds to record time in one image. I also wanted to create a ghost effect, something I use quite frequently as a photographer. The theme of the shoot deals with the passage of time and the manipulation of forms, while keeping a very macabre dominatrix and haunting atmosphere.