MARIE CLARE JONES

21 February - 7 March 2019

This project was part of the Speculative Design Unit / MA Fashion Futures

Exploring the relationship between fashion and power through the signals of dress, manner and etiquette.

For this challenge I looked at our obsession with celebrity, celebrities and their influence on every aspects of our lives today.

The speculative list of prospective candidates for the 2020 US elections contains many ‘celebrity’ names including Kanye West, Oprah Winfrey and George Clooney. Whilst it’s unlikely that any of these will actually stand for election it appears people would prefer a celebrity or a ‘known’ name as their political leader than an actual politician. This was evident in the 2016 election when Hilary Clinton (an experienced, career politician) lost to Donald Trump (a businessman/reality TV star with no political experience).It appears that image and fame is everything and knowledge, talent and experience stand for nothing.

Focusing on the above I initially imagined a world where David Bowie has been voted the most influential celebrity of all time, due to his capacity for curating his image and his profound and meaningful lyrics. Plus he always looked ACAF! As a result of this all the celebrity political leaders in the world think that if they dress like him and speak his words they too will be ACAF. The first prototype video was titled ‘Poli-Wood discusses world issues” and takes a speculative look at what this might look like.

Reflecting on the feedback I received, I considered where I wanted to take this project. What was I actually trying to say?

The result was a second video titled ‘Starman saves the world… again’, in which David Bowie (Starman) returns to earth to spread love, understanding and enlightenment (and just a little fashion sense). This scenario imagines David Bowie visiting earth from heaven and inhabiting the bodies of political leaders around the world, changing their clothes and also their rhetoric on global issues. 

References

Bowie, D. (1971) Five Years. Canada: RCA Limited.

Bowie, D. (1971) Oh! You Pretty Things. Canada: RCA Limited

Bowie, D. (1971) Rock ’n’ Roll Suicide. Canada: RCA Limited.

Bowie, D. (1971) Starman. Canada: RCA Limited.

Bowie, D. (1974) Future Legend. New York: RCA Records.

Bowie, D. (1974) Rebel Rebel. New York: RCA Records.

Bowie, D. (1976) Station to Station. London: RCA Records.

Bowie, D. (2013) I'd Rather Be High. Poland: Sony Music Entertainment.

Broaches, V. and Marsh, G (eds.) (2013) David Bowie Is. London: V&A Publishing. pp. 50, 57, 58, 64, 76, 88, 219, 246.

Getty Images. (2012) Tilda Swinton. Available here (Accessed/downloaded: 3 March 2019).

Getty Images. (2016) Lady Gaga. Available here (Accessed/downloaded: 3 March 2019).

ITV/Rex/Shutterstock. (2001) Boy George. Available here (Accessed/downloaded: 3 March 2019).

Jessie Blaser(no date) Should celebrities stay out of politics?. Available here (Accessed: 21 February 2019).

Mudde, C. (2018) Celebrity politicians are a sign of our political decline. Available here (Accessed: 21 February 2019).

O'Neill, T. (1974) David Bowie at the time of the Diamond Dogs Tour. [Photograph]. London: V&A Publishing.

Regan, K. (1974) David Bowie at the time of the Diamond Dogs Tour. [Photograph]. London: V&A Publishing.

Rock, M. (1973) David Bowie photographed for the Pin Ups album [Photograph]. London: V&A Publishing.

Rock, M. (1974) David Bowie Life on Mars Video. [Photograph]. London: V&A Publishing.

Salway, D. (2016) David Bowie Knitted Doll. Available here (Accessed/downloaded: 3 March 2019).

Scott, E. (2017) Why celebrities wade into politics and why people listen to them - even conservatives. Available here (Accessed: 21 February 2019).

Sukita, M. (1972) David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust [Photograph]. London: V&A Publishing.

Vogue Paris. (Date Unknown) Kate Moss. Available here (Accessed/downloaded: 3 March 2019).

7 March - 18 April 2019

This project was part of the Speculative Design Unit / MA Fashion Futures

Exploring the changing nature and function of gender in twenty-first century society.

For this second Speculative Design Challenge I chose to research into gender neutral clothing. In recent years many fast fashion retailers have introduced so called ‘gender neutral’ collections. However, on investigation these would seem to be little more than T-shirts and sweats, which are marketed to both male and female consumers.

The critique of these collections is that they are boring, masc-centered and lack femininity. It appears that to be truly gender neutral, a collection should contain both masculine and feminine elements. The aim being to break the rules and paradigms regarding masculine and feminine ideologies. Various fashion brands and designers were investigated to ascertain if and how, these criteria were being met within the current fashion system.

My initial thought was to look at the possibilities of combining masculine and feminine elements within one item and what that might look like. At this point I chose a stiletto shoe and a man’s brogue as I felt these were strong signifiers of femininity and masculinity, and using procreate, photoshop and a morphing programme conducted a few experiments. I was not happy with the results and was unsure at this point of the direction I should take next.

Reflecting on the feedback received at the half way stage of the project I decided to abandon the shoe idea and act upon one of the comments I received regarding fit.Various methods of looking at the differences between mens and women bodies led me to consider the widely held beliefs on the ‘ideal’ body shapes for men and women, which eventually led me to the gender stereotyped dolls - Barbie and Ken™ (Mattel, Inc). Here I imagined a world were they were no longer tied to their stereotypes.

References

Escobar, S. (2018) 27 of Marilyn Monroe's Most Beautiful Quotes on Love, Life and Stardom. Available here (Accessed:10 March 2019).

Flugel, J.C. (1930) The Great Masculine Renunciation and its Causes in Purdy, D. (ed) (2004) The Rise of Fashion. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Jones, M. (2017) The Pros & Cons of the rise of Gender Neutral clothing with this Gender Neutral Clothing Guide. Available here (Accessed: 7 March 2019).

Kaiser, S B. (1997) The Social Psychology of Clothing. 2nd edn. New York: Fairchild Publications. 

Madsen, A C. (2018) Is The Fashion Industry Really Committed to the Eradication of Gender-Specific Dressing . Available here (Accessed: 8 March 2019).

Menkes, S. (2018) Gender Neutrality Becomes Fashion Reality. Available here:(Accessed: 8 March 2019).

Pond, M. (1985) Shoes Never Lie. New York: Berkley Books. 

pintrest.co.uk

vogue.co.uk

Wylie, J. (2018) What fashion needs to understand about being gender neutral. Available here (Accessed: 7 March 2019).

18 April - 2 May 2019

This project was part of the Speculative Design Unit / MA Fashion Futures

Exploring the power of branding and digital technology, and how it defines etiquette, identity and drives rapid ‘normalisation’ of ideas, behaviours and objects.

For this third challenge I looked at the effect of the internet on identity with particular reference to young women. Starting with Lil Miquela (a ‘fake’ influencer with 1.6 M followers on Instagram), I questioned how she differed from a ‘real’ influencer such as Kim Kardashian as both appeared highly manufactured albeit in different ways. I was struck by how similar the body images were to the stereotypical one of Barbie discussed in challenge #2 and I questioned the effect these images were having on young women today.

Inspired by the lyrics of Doll Parts by Hole (1994) I created several collages which questioned issues surrounding image, identity and power in relation to the female body.

As an initial prototype I created an ‘Instagram Identity Kit’ in which the most defining body parts from top influencers such as Kim Kardashian, Rihanna and Arianna Grande were deconstructed and reconstructed to create the ultimate Instagram identity.

This led to a final piece which was a game titled Doll Partz in which children as young as six could learn, through putting together different body parts of top influencers, how to create the perfect online identity. In addition to the body parts, the game featured designer outfits which were to be only used once in true Instagram post style! Authenticity was enhanced by it being an ‘Official’ Instagram product and which had the official endorsement from North West (the 5 year old daughter of Km Kardashian and Kanye West).

The game was presented as if it were for sale on Amazon and included pictures of very young girls playing with the game and concluded with customer reviews discussing the importance of young girls acquiring a strong Instagram following in order to feel validated as a female in our society and on social media.

References

Hole (1994) Doll Parts [Video, CD]. Europe: DGC.

Wills, K. (2019) Meet Lil Miquela: the AI influencer taking over Instagram. Available here: (Accessed: 29 May 2019).

2 May - 16 May 2019

This project was part of the Speculative Design Unit / MA Fashion Futures.

Exploring how science and technology translates into design and impacts on how, why and where we experience fashion.

Inspired by the article A Designer will grow Alexander McQueen’s skin in a lab to use for leather bags and jackets (Bain 2016), in which Tina Gorjanc uses Alexander McQueen’s DNA to grow his skin, complete with tattoos to make into fashion accessories. On conducting some research I discovered that Ancestry Kits were Amazon’s top selling gift during the holiday season 2017 (Anders, 2017). These kits were bought to trace ancestry and origins within families but also as paternity tests. The fact that these kits were so easy to obtain and people appeared to be extremely willing to send their DNA to a lab (where they had no idea what or how it would be used afterwards), led me to question how DNA could be used in a commercial venture.

Combining this with a continuing fascination with the Kardashians and Kylie Jenner in particular, who had recently been declared the world’s youngest billionaire at the age of 21, I speculated as to how Kylie could create K-DNA kits which she now sells thought her website Kylie Cosmetics. See Kylie Jenner’s Launching Something New and It’s not a Lip Product (opposite).

I then created a timeline which documents DNA, The Kardashians and The Konsequences culminating in the creation of 2 further spoof articles where children sue their parents for irresponsible use of K-DNA Kits whilst pregnant. 

This project raised many questions such as, who owns our DNA? Should/could DNA be for sale? How will DNA be used in the future, for good or evil?

References

Anders, M. (2017) DNA Ancestry Test Kits Are Hot Holiday Gifts Despite Privacy Concerns From Some. Available here: (Accessed: 2 June 2019).

Bain, M. (2016) A designer will grow Alexander McQueen’s skin in a lab to use for leather bags and jackets. Available here: (Accessed: 29 May 2019).

Britton, D. (2019) Makeup artist shows you how to become Kylie Jenner’s baby. Available here:(Accessed: 2 June 2019).

Dworkin-McDaniel(2019) Boy Sues Parents For Giving Him “Longest Name Ever”. Available here: (Accessed: 2 June 2019).

Hoffman, B. (2018) Kylie Jenner’s Baby Has Cotton Plastic Surgery. Available here: (Accessed: 2 June 2019).

Jordan, A. (2019) Kylie Jenner’s Launching Something New and It’s Not a Lip Product. Available here: (Accessed: 2 June 2019).

Kyliecosemetics.com

legendoll.com

Neate, R. (2019) Kylie Jenner’s makeup makes her the world’s youngest billionaire. Available here: (Accessed: 2 June 2019).

Nussbaum, R. (2017) Kylie Jenner’s Second Kylie Cosmetics Koko Collection Is on the Way. Available here: (Accessed: 2 June 2019).

Robin, M. (2018) Kris Jenner Is Launching a Kris x Kylie Cosmetics Collection on Mother’s Day. Available here: (Accessed: 2 June 2019).

Rosenstein, J. (2018) Kylie Jenner Just Announced a Kylie Cosmetics Weather Collection Inspired By Her Daughter Stormi. Available here: (Accessed: 2 June 2019).

Ruffo, J. (2017) Kim Kardashian Reveals the Inspiration Behind Her Kylie Cosmetics Lip Kit Collaboration. Available here:(Accessed: 2 June 2019).

Teenager Sues His Parents For $250,000 For Naming Him GayLord (2019) Available here: (Accessed: 2 June 2019).

17 May - 30 May 2019

This project was part of the Speculative Design Unit / MA Fashion Futures.

Exploring the role of luxury in a changing world and the relationship between consumption and status.

I approached this challenge by attempting to define what could be considered luxury in the 21st century. Debating issues such ‘a space to live’, ‘education’, ‘time’ and even ‘water’, all of which could be defined as basic human rights, however due to the possible impact of climate change and the spread of global poverty could indeed be a luxury for many.

I eventually decided on ‘creativity’ as I made the assumption that this could potentially be a luxury in the future due to the act of doing something creative by hand, being hijacked by technology. In addition I decided to look at subcultures as a possible route to grounding ‘creativity as a luxury’ in popular culture.

After much research I planned to create a spoof news item in which TIVS and TECHS battle it out in fights reminiscent of those between subcultures in the past. At the halfway stage however, it was clear that this idea wasn’t convincing and after some reflection I realised that it was my original assumption about creativity which was the problem. 

Deciding that the way to move forward was to conduct some research for myself, I conducted an experiment instead of giving a presentation ( See video opposite). Giving my classmates 3 minutes to make something with their hands out of Play-Doh (Hasbro ™®), they were then asked to photograph it in a creative manner, and finally complete a short survey on Survey Monkey.

Overall the results showed that this group enjoyed the experience of being creative in doing something by hand and in this instance it was considered a luxury. However in the future the preference was to be able to be creative both with and without the aid of technology.

References

Brown, G. (2010) Mods & Rockers: The Origins and Era of a British Scene. Shropshire, England: Independent Music Press.

Buzz, Buzz, Buzz: Jonathan Richman (1997).

Capper, A. (ed.) (2008) Skins & Punks: Gavin Watson Lost Archives 1978-1985. London: Vice.

Carver, C. (no date) Why It’s Important to be Creative. Available here: (Accessed; 2 June 2019).

Charry, D. (ed.)(2011) Power of Making: The Importance of being skilled. London: V&A Publishing and The Craft Council.

dictionary.com

How technology is boosting your creativity (no date). Available here: (Accessed: 2 June 2019).

Human Creativity: is it threatened by the evolution of technology? (2018) Available here: (Accessed: 2 June 2019).

Ingram, J. (2018) Redefining creativity: is tech killing the imagination. Available here: (Accessed: 2 June 2019).

Is technology making us less creative? (no date). Available here: (Accessed: 2 June 2019).

Perry, G. (2016) Are computers killing off craft? Not a chance. Available here: (Accessed: 2 June 2019).

Roe, B. (2012) Why is creativity important in everyday life? Available here: (Accessed: 2 June 2019)

Strauss, V. (2012) Beware the quick tech fix when… Available here:(Accessed: 2 June 2019).

Varghese, S. and LePrince-Ringuet, D. (2018) Technology is changing what it means to be creative - here’s how. Available here: (Accessed: 2 June 2019).

14 February 2019 - 21st February 2019

This project was part of the Speculative Design Unit / MA Fashion Futures.

This project functioned as an introduction to the Speculative Design Unit in which futures thinking is utilised to create four imagined scenarios. Using various drivers, the brief was to imagine future ‘worlds’ viewed through the lenses of culture, society, environment and politics. 

The project was combined with an introduction to the Digital Learning Lab and the resulting narratives were to be presented through an appropriate medium.

‘Grayson Perry is challenging all UAL students to design his Chancellor’s robes for graduation’.

Submission date 1 March 2019

For the third year Grayson Perry has invited students from across UAL to design inspiring alternatives to the traditional black robes which he will wear during the 2019 graduation ceremony.

Grayson’s brief was to design an eye-catching design with strong colours and a bit of shine! Comfort was a major consideration and attention should be drawn to his best assets (his legs). Most importantly to consider that ‘I am a man yet I like to look like a female’.

For this challenge I wanted to bring in an element of sustainability to my design and make it from rejected (old, used) garments. The tag line was ‘Nothing about this outfit is new’.

References

Business of Fashion & McKinsey Company (2018) The State of Fashion 2019. Available here: (Accessed: 7/1/19).

WRAP(2016) Textiles Market Situation Report. Available here: (Accessed; 12.1.19).

5 April 2019

“Projecting personal identities through fashion in times of economic and ecological uncertainty.”

Foreign Investment, International Artist Collective.

This was an interactive live art performance inspired by the fashion catwalks focusing on self-expression, making and performance. The event was led by artists Alma Tischlerwood and Rose Cronin. My role in the project was as maker and model.

The artists worked with 4 students from MA Fashion Futures at London College of Fashion to upcycle waste and discarded materials into a fashion collection. The aim being to challenge the issues surrounding fast fashion, self identity, mass consumption and the global fashion manufacturing system. The artists used the highly charged political and divisive issues surrounding Britain’s current exit of the European Union as the focus.

Two days where spent at the Forest Recycling Project in Leyton where the team used a variety of materials and waste products to make 11 outfits for the fashion show. The event took place in a disused Morrisons supermarket in Leyton on the evening of 5th April. In addition to the catwalk show there was a lively panel talk in which the panelists gave their views on Brexit, education, waste and consumerism. 

Panelists

Tamara Cincik - Founder of Fashion Roundtable

Andrew Wagland - Owner of local business, Wagland Textiles

Hannah Ford - Walthamstow based artist and founder of art collective Invisible Numbers.

 Professor John Wood - Goldsmiths fellow, writer and member of 1970’s cult band Deaf School.

The event was the first of a range of cultural events organised by London College of Fashion in partnership with Waltham Forest Council for London Borough of Culture 2019 under the “Making for Change:Waltham Forest” project led by Dr Francesco Mazzarella.

MA Fashion Futures 2018/2019 Final Project

‘The Story of Clothes: A Lesson in Fashion and Sustainability for Primary School Children’ is situated in a framework of fashion and sustainability which focuses on extending the life of clothes, this study sits within a body of research that examines fashion consumer attitudes and practices around clothing use and disposal within social, cultural and environmental contexts.

Overview

This lesson is aimed at getting Primary School children thinking about their clothes: where they come from and what happens to them when no longer wanted. It is set within a local context to enable the children to relate the practices of consumption and disposal of clothing within their own communities and environment, to the wider issues surrounding fashion and the environment.

It places children at the core of learning experiences, with lesson resources that are designed to engage, inspire and challenge.

It creates links with other subjects, as it integrates with the wider curriculum.

The processes involved aim to develop skills in team working and collaboration, research and observation, documentation, and Art & Design. Learning outcomes include critical analysis, cognitive development, and increased creative and imaginative awareness.

The Toolkit

1) Slide presentation introducing the topic by way of discussing the researcher’s route to a career as a fashion designer.

2) A second slide presentation which introduces the children to where clothes come from, how they are designed, where they are made and where they are sold. It discusses the consequences of throwing clothes away and offers alternatives.

3) An animated film that tells the story of a denim jacket. Starting with where it was made, it moves through the multiple owners this jacket could have had, ending with imaginative scenarios depicting what its future could entail.

Using creativity and imagination the pupils will move through a range of activities, which can be undertaken sequentially or individually. Designed as group work, the activities aim to develop knowledge of how clothes change over time, how clothes are made and how they can be disposed of when no longer wanted.