Pixilated Invasion

Doing my senior art thesis has been quite a challenge because I have endless ideas with limited time. For a while now I have been toying around the concept of pixils and how I can create a computer pixil inspired design. Pixels basically are these little squares of color that make up an image, so I really took off with this repetition of these structured shapes and morphed them into a high contrast fashion piece. I wanted to make fabric "pixels" that would come together to make a bold outfit.



What I love is that the outfit is very three dimensional, and offers much movement. When the wind blows these fabric strips the dress takes on a brand new shape, similar to how pixils move around to create new colors, shapes, and images. What I believe is the strongest design factor of the dress is my bold color contrast between the black strips and the electric green strips, giving this dress a sci-fi color element.



The dress was quite simple to make, but very time consuming. I had to make each individual strip, sew it, iron it, fold it inside out, iron it again, pin it on the form, and finally sew each of them onto the "bones" of the outfit. Though I had many all nighters in the studio, I am pleased with the end product. My only critique of the piece is that it is a little bit on the short side, and I don't really agree with how I executed the neck line.



Finally, I had the photoshoot, which was a blast. The concept of the shoot was to show off this sculptural outfit in a futuristic setting with a lot of sharp angles and industrial materials. I found the perfect location for the shoot, which was at the base of a water towar near my school. The location had such an ovewhelming presence, almost as if I was on an entirely different planet. It was a pleasure to shoot at such a location.



In the end, the shoot went really well. My model, Joy Kelsh, a friend of mine and an excellent artist, really took direction well, and really understood the concept of not only the shoot, but the dress as well.