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Conceptual Fashion: Design, Practice and Process.

Ms. Jane Morley



























A Practice-Led Masters by Research Degree
Faculty of Creative Industries
Queensland University of Technology
Discipline: Fashion
Year of Submission: 2013
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Key Words

Conceptual fashion
Conceptual art
Fashion design
Design process
Fashion practice
Design system
Practice-led
Hussein Chalayan
Rei Kawakubo
Comme des Garons
Issey Miyake
Yohji Yamamoto
Martin Margiela
Viktor & Rolf
Ann Demuelmeester
Junya Watanabe
Sol LeWitt
Joseph Kosuth
Lucy Lippard











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Abstract

While Conceptual fashion design practices have been a pervasive influence in fashion
since the early 1980s, there is little academic analysis that might explain how they are
distinct from conventional fashion design practices. In addition, fashion practitioners
have not historically contributed to fashion research. As a result, contemporary
fashion practitioners have difficulty setting critical contexts and expanding their creative
work as there is little relevant literature available from practitioner perspectives. This
project uses practice-led research to develop a discourse for understanding
Conceptual fashion design process and how it relates to more conventional fashion
design practices. In this exegesis I use Conceptual art as a lens to expand
understandings of Conceptual fashion and my own creative practice. This analysis
demonstrates that there are valuable connections to be drawn between Conceptual art
and Conceptual fashion practice. In particular, these connections reveal the
differences between the way Conceptual and more conventional fashion designers
relate to the conceptual and the visual in their design process. This exploration
demonstrates that while fashion is a visual field, Conceptual fashion designers produce
a more intellectual type of fashion that uses the visual to communicate ideas that
question the nature of fashion. I explore the relevance of these ideas through
application and experimentation in my creative practice projects by drawing from
systems and rules identified in the work of early Conceptual artists and contemporary
Conceptual fashion designers.














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Table of Contents
....................................... Page
Keywords 02
Abstract... 03
Table of contents.. 04
Table of figures. 05
Statement of original authorship.. 06
Acknowledgements.. 07
Introduction. 09
Research Approach: Methodology and Rationale 12
Contextual Review: 17
I. Conventional Fashion 17
II. Conceptual Fashion.. 22
Comparative Analysis:. 29
I. Art as idea/ fashion as idea.. 32
II. Fashion challenging the conventions of fashion.. 40
III. Fashion dematerialised and demystified. 51
IV. Reflections... 60
Creative Practice: System-based creative processes 62
I. Creative Practice Project 1: three-sixty (2011) 65
i. Developing the design system 66
ii. Developing new working methods.. 70
iii. Reflections. 72
II. Creative Practice Project 2: in the round (2011-2012).. 73
i. Developing the design system . 74
ii. Developing new working methods.. 77
iii. Developing construction and fabrication methods.. 85
iv. Colour selection and surface decoration.. 90
v. Reflections.. 92
Conclusion. 94
References. 98






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Table of figures
Figure 1 Hussein Chalayan Spring Summer 2011 collection, Sakoku... 34
Figure 2 Hussein Chalayan Autumn Winter 2000 collection, Afterwords... 35
Figure 3 Comme des Garons Spring Summer 1997 Lumps and Bumps collection. 36
Figure 4 Yohji Yamamoto Autumn Winter 1984 catalogue..... 42
Figure 5 Yohji Yamamoto Spring Summer 1983 collection.... 44
Figure 6 Issey Miyake Pleats Please garment, Zig Zag..... 48
Figure 7 Issey Miyake A-POC Spring Summer collection 1999.. 50
Figure 8 Viktor & Rolf on strike flier, Autumn Winter 1996-7.... 53
Figure 9 Viktor & Rolf Spring Summer 1997 campaign poster for Le Parfum..... 54
Figure 10 Maison Martin Margiela Semi-couture garments (1996). 57
Figure 11 Maison Martin Margiela Spring Summer 2002 shirt 59
Figure 12 A design and flat drawings from creative practice project, three-sixty . 65
Figure 13 Junya Watanabe Autumn Winter 1998 collection... 67
Figure 14 Ann Demeulemeesters Spring Summer 1999 collection. 68
Figure 15 Maison Martin Margielas Spring Summer 1990 collection 69
Figure 16 Working drawings for three-sixty. 71
Figure 17 Hussein Chalayan Autumn Winter 2000 collection, Afterwords 72
Figure 18 Methods of cutting and slashing circles (in-the-round)... 74
Figure 19 Issey Miyake project 132 5.. 77
Figure 20 Initial working diagram (in-the-round).. 78
Figure 21 Initial calico experimentation (in-the-round). 78
Figure 22 Initial diagrams for style one and three (in-the-round). 79
Figure 23 Flat patterns in calico for style one, two, three and four (in-the-round).. 80
Figure 24 Development work for style one (in-the-round) 80
Figure 25 Development work for style five (in-the-round). 81
Figure 26 Development work for style six (in-the-round).. 82
Figure 27 Line drawings of flat patterns for style six and seven (in-the-round).. 83
Figure 28 Style six and seven flat and on the mannequin (in-the-round)... 83
Figure 29 Line drawings of flat patterns for style four and eight (in-the-round)..... 84
Figure 30 Style four and eight flat and on the mannequin (in-the-round).. 84
Figure 31 Style two flat pattern shape and construction lines (in-the-round).... 87
Figure 32 Style three flat construction lines and seaming (in-the-round)...... 87
Figure 33 Style eight laser cutting pieces and fusing (in-the-round).. 88
Figure 34 Style six technical drawings and full scale garment (in-the-round)... 89
Figure 35 Patterns in the Landscape: the notebooks of Philip Hughes. 91
Figure 36 Laser cutting applications (in-the-round).... 91
Figure 37 Final garments for in-the-round... 93

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Statement of original authorship

The work contained in this thesis has not been previously submitted to meet
requirements for an award at this or any other higher education institution. To
the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously
published or written by another person except where due reference is made.

Signature ___________________

Date ___________________



























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Acknowledgements

This project has only been possible with the immense support I have received from my
friends, family, supervisors and colleagues, and I would like to offer my sincere thanks
for all the time, brainpower, good humour and kindness they have bestowed on me.

I would like to thank Kathleen Horton (principal supervisor) and Dr Grant Stevens
(associate supervisor) for their patience and flexibility in working with my not-always-
conventional approach; for their intelligent insights as they gently, but purposefull y
guided me through the project; and for their friendship and advice throughout.

I would like to offer deep gratitude to my parents, Brian and Diane Morley, who have
always offered me unconditional support and encouragement in everything I do. In
addition, to my sister, Katherine Morley, who has always had both comfort and good
advice to offer me as I meet new challenges. I am especially thankful to my mother for
her unwavering enthusiasm to talk about my project, help iron out kinks in my
argument, and act as a precious sounding board for new ideas thank you.

My colleagues at QUT Fashion have also been invaluable supporters cheering me on
throughout my study and I thank you all whole-heartedly. Special thanks must go to
Kay McMahon and Dean Brough who share my office-space and have travelled on the
rollercoaster of postgraduate study with me everyday their constant encouragement
has meant so much to me.

I also want to thank all my loyal and thoughtful friends for not deleting my phone
number despite my disappearing for months on end your smiles, laughter, kind
words and insistence that I occasionally get out of the house have been essential to
this project thank you.


















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Introduction

While Conceptual fashion has been a pervasive influence in fashion since the early
1980s, it has not been thoroughly explored or defined in academic literature or industry
critique. Therefore, although many fashion designers, such as Martin Margiela, Rei
Kawakubo and Hussein Chalayan, among many others, are widely regarded as
Conceptual fashion designers, there are no tangible understandings available to
explain what defines Conceptual fashion design practice. In fact, fashion design and
construction practices are seldom analysed in the existing body of Fashion Studies
research. Furthermore, very few fashion practitioners have historically contributed to
fashion research and, consequently, critical understandings of contemporary fashion
design practices, such as Conceptual fashion, are underdeveloped. This creates
challenges for fashion practitioners trying to set critical contexts for their work, as there
are many complex questions faced by practitioners that are not addressed in the
current literature. For example, in my own practice I am driven by questions about how
I conduct design research and how I use it in the design process. While the limited
research available suggests that these questions could be effectively explored through
Conceptual fashion design practice, the lack of critical discourse in this area meant I
was unable to determine what relationship my own creative practice had to those of
recognised Conceptual fashion practitioners. As an emerging practitioner, this led me
to ask the research questions How can I gain a deeper understanding of
Conceptual fashion design practice? and How can I understand the critical contexts
and processes of my own creative practice?.

The basis for this project began a number of years ago while I was studying overseas
and recognised that there are diverse approaches to designing fashion, some more
conventional, and others more conceptually-driven. Although I had already
completed a fashion design qualification in Australia, the Australian course had
focused on conventional, widely accepted commercial practices rather than innovative
design and construction. In contrast, during my study at Polimoda in Florence, my
understanding of fashion design practice expanded because I was able to observe and
experience new conceptually-driven ways of approaching design that did not fit the
conventional framework I had been taught. However, as there are very few resources
available to enable fashion practitioners to critically engage with more experimental
fashion practices, it was very difficult for me to effectively analyse these different
approaches, understand how my own approach related to them, and expand my
creative practice methods.
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While in Florence, I studied the conceptually-driven practices of my fellow fashion
design students and their experiences of the fashion industry to try and develop
deeper understandings about my own practice. I further built on these experiences by
working in a variety of commercial fashion environments: an internship with New York-
based luxury fashion label, Marc Jacobs; design work with Australian mass market
company, Colorado; and design work with Australian luxury label, Easton Pearson.
These years working with brands that use predominantly conventional commercial
fashion practices also highlighted the differences between conventional and more
conceptually-driven fashion practices. However, I found a clear distinction between
these Conventional and Conceptual practices hard to define as not only was there
diversity within each paradigm, but also many Conventional and Conceptual practices
demonstrated similarities: for example, the stages of garment sampling, manufacture,
sale and consumption.

This project aims to analyse Conceptual fashion practice and explore the tensions
between conceptually-driven and more conventional fashion practices with the key
goal of developing deeper understandings about my own creative process. In addition
to expanding existing discourse, a key contribution of this project is the exploration of
these fashion practices from a practitioner-perspective through two interwoven strands.
Firstly, in the Contextual Review I develop a context for my practice by reviewing
existing Conceptual fashion discourse, and then in the Comparative Analysis I use
Conceptual art as a lens to analyse the work of Conceptual fashion practitioners. In
this analysis I examine relationships between three key characteristics of Conceptual
art as defined by Joseph Kosuth, Sol LeWitt and Lucy Lippard; my own creative
practice; and those of other contemporary fashion designers such as Hussein
Chalayan, Issey Miyake and Martin Margiela. Through this process I seek to unpack
the various meanings that the word Conceptual implies when it is applied to innovative
contemporary design practice. Specifically, I explore the relationship between the
conceptual and the visual in fashion to more clearly articulate the complex
considerations for Conceptual fashion design practitioners. Secondly, in the Creative
Practice section I test the relevance of the ideas explored in the Contextual Review
and Comparative Analysis by applying and experimenting with them in my own
creative practice projects in a studio-based inquiry. My design practice throughout this
project evolves as a process that is at times methodical, and at times illogical, with key
similarities to some Conceptual art practices of the 1960s. To expand my creative
practice, I explore the similarities between my own system-based creative process
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and those of Conceptual artists, such as Sol LeWitt. Equipped with a deeper
understanding of my own creative process, I am then able to relate it to the practices of
well known Conceptual fashion designers, such as Hussein Chalayan and Issey
Miyake.

This project is comprised of a written exegesis and a body of creative work that are
both equally weighted at fifty percent. Both the theoretical and practical elements of
this project suggest that despite obvious differences between Conceptual fashion and
Conceptual art there are valuable parallels to be made between the two fields.
Although comparing them directly is a relatively rudimentary way to explore fashion
practice, it is necessary due to the lack of existing critical discourse currently available
in Fashion Studies. In this project, I argue that Conceptual art characteristics as
defined by Conceptual artists and critics are useful to understand and explore common
characteristics of Conceptual fashion design practice particularly how the conceptual
relates to the visual. In addition, I argue that Conceptual art creative processes and
practices are useful to develop more explicit understandings about methods and
approaches used in Conceptual fashion design. This project makes a key contribution
to fashion practice research by examining the differences between how Conventional
and Conceptual fashion designers engage with the conceptual and the visual when
translating their ideas into designs and how this relates to my own design practice.
This is an important contribution to new knowledge because it demonstrates how
contemporary fashion designers can relate their practices to Conventional fashion,
Conceptual fashion and Conceptual art from a practical, studio-based perspective as
well as theoretical perspectives. This approach effectively helped me to develop a
critical context for my practice as well as establish future creative directions. It also
contributes to the field of fashion research, not only because of the specific findings I
present, but also because it provides new ways of analysing fashion practice
specifically, fashion design research and the translation of ideas into designs.









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Research Approach:
Methodology and Rationale

This is a practice-led research project that responds to questions emerging from my
creative practice. In addition, this project uses my creative practice to test new ideas.
These are essential qualities of practice-led research as defined by a number of
researchers. For example, Bradley Haseman and Dan Mafe (2009, p. 217) argue that:

practice-led research is a process of inquiry driven by the
opportunities, challenges and needs afforded by the creative
practitioner/researcher. It is a research strategy specifically designed
to investigate the contingencies of practice by seeking to discipline,
throughout the duration of the study, the ongoing emergence of
problem formulation, methods selection, professional and critical
contexts, expressive forms of knowledge representation and finally the
benefit of the research to stakeholders.

Haseman and Mafe (2009, p. 217) argue that in practice-led research, the research
question and methods evolve and emerge as the project develops. In Visualising
Research : A Guide for Postgraduate Students in Art and Design, Gray and Malins
(2004, p. 72) also argue for flexible and adaptable methods, suggesting that
methodology for creative practitioners should use multiple method approaches that are
custom-built for each research project so that they are responsive and suited to the
needs of their dynamic, shifting practice. Many researchers argue that these
methodologies need to be bespoke for each project, reflective and designed to explore
complexity and emergent ideas (Gray & Malins, 2004; Haseman & Mafe, 2009), and
most essentially, driven by the creative practice of the researcher (Gray & Malins,
2004; Hamilton & Jaaniste, 2009; Haseman, 2007; Haseman & Mafe, 2009).
Throughout this project, the research design and methods have been refined
constantly to embrace the messy, emergent and reflexive characteristics that Haseman
and Mafe (2009) argue are essential to this research paradigm. Practice has driven
this research inquiry at all stages with theory passed through my creative practice to
facilitate a more constructive comparison between Conceptual art and Conceptual
fashion design practice.

Using a practice-led approach has been important to support a key aim of this project:
to contribute to practitioner-focused research in Fashion Studies. Unlike more
established academic disciplines such as visual art, where practitioners can refer to a
large body of research that critically engages with creative practice, there is very little
published academic research on fashion practice. Although fashion has a long history
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of production and is a well-established cultural and industrial field, it is still in its infancy
as an academic discipline. Historically, fashion designers rarely analysed their work
academically. Consequently, Fashion Studies has emerged in the last few decades
as a complex blend of conceptual frameworks and methods from diverse areas such
as anthropology, sociology, literature, cultural studies, art history, economics, design
studies, history and more (Skov & Riegels Melchior, 2010). While this interdisciplinary
body of research successfully brought fashion into academia, fashion continues to sit
on the margins because it has not yet produced clear, fashion-specific research
approaches (Kawamura, 2011, p. 1). Using and modifying more traditional
methodologies from other more established academic disciplines has been a popular
tactic to ensure fashion research gains academic credibility (Finn, 2010). However, it
has also alienated practitioners from conducting research, as their complex and messy
explorations do not always fit within these traditional academic frameworks.

The lack of relevant literature available on fashion practice has been a significant
factor in shaping the way I conduct this research project. Many researchers and
practitioners claim there are large gaps in fashion research (Skov & Riegels Melchior,
2010) especially in the area of fashion practice (Bugg, 2009; Finn, 2010; Griffiths,
2000). For example, Ian Griffiths (2000) in The Invisible Man expresses his
frustration at the almost non-existent practitioner-authored academic fashion research
and lack of research from a designers perspective. While Fashion Studies has
become a stronger research area since this publication, fashion practitioners are still
without clear representation and guidance in the field. Sandy Black, editor of the 2009
founded Berg journal, Fashion Practice, highlights that there is still a critical need for
more research discussing fashion practice, stating that: Although design disciplines
are evolving, there is need for a greater level of activity and recognition of design-led
research in the fashion and clothing sector (Black, 2010, p. 6).

Fashion researcher Angela Finn (2010, p.3) argues that without a tradition of academic
publication, much of the tacit knowledge wrapped up in past and present fashion
design practice is unavailable to contemporary researchers. Finn argues that because
this knowledge is not made explicit in fashion literature, it is difficult for fashion
practitioner-researchers to develop a literature review that effectively surveys the field
and demonstrates established ideas of rigor. For example, without a history of
academic discussion about fashion design there is very little fashion design practice
terminology. In addition, the limited terms in use tend to have blurred or have multiple
meanings because they have been used in different contexts by different groups and
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have become increasingly fractured over time. The terms Conceptual fashion,
commercial fashion and conventional fashion are prime examples of this. This lack of
critical discourse and terminology leaves fashion practice researchers with the problem
of building a credible base for their research inquiry while unraveling this unwritten
knowledge.

To address this problem, I use Conceptual art as a lens to investigate Conceptual
fashion practices and expand the available discourse. Conducting a comparative
analysis between two clearly distinct fields is quite a rudimentary method of analysis
and, as a result, the findings are quite broad. However, I found this interdisciplinary
lens helped bridge the significant gaps in knowledge relating to fashion practice. Gray
and Malins acknowledge the challenges of exploring relatively unchartered waters in
creative practice research arguing that:

because practice-based research in Art and Design is in
development and is investigating new areas of research, Contextual
Reviews (for PhD at least) are by necessity wide ranging they are
trying to map continents so that more local terrain can be located and
understood in relation to them. For the moment, this kind of breadth is
necessary, but does have its disadvantages namely lack of depth...
Until there is a coherent and detailed set of documented research and
practice in an area this will be an ongoing problem and will present a
constant dilemmaa balance must be struck. However, our ability to
visualize, to think holistically and synthetically, to make connections
and develop relationships between ideas are great strengths to apply
in contextual understanding. (2004, p. 52)

In spite of my broad findings, this comparative analysis has given me new connections,
ideas and approaches for understanding Conceptual fashion as well as a deeper
understanding of my personal creative practice. While there is no neat translation
between Conceptual art and Conceptual fashion, my study of Conceptual art helps me
to articulate tacit or encoded knowledge wrapped up in the research and design
process of my own creative practice. This more explicit understanding of my practice
then informs my analysis of Conceptual fashion practice.

To develop a context for using art theory in this project and to analyse the similarities
between Conceptual art and fashion, I draw from a diverse array of sources from the
broader field of fashion. To gain a more in-depth understanding of Conceptual fashion
that goes beyond existing academic fashion research, I explore the breath of available
sources from the fashion industry, such as journalists, critics, and practitioners as well
as published academics. In addition, to ensure my research gives these diverse
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sources equal weight and credibility, I adopt an approach inspired by bricolage
methodology. Researchers Denzin and Lincoln (2000, p. 6) describe bricolage stating:

The researcher-as-bricoleur-theorist works between and within
competing and overlapping perspectives and paradigms The
product of the interpretive bricoleurs labor is a complex, quiltlike
bricolage, a reflexive collage or montage-- a set of fluid,
interconnected images and representations. This interpretive structure
is like a quilt, a performance text, a sequence of representations
connecting the parts to the whole.

Athough I have endeavoured to acknowledge the intricacies and indiosyncracies of the
ideas and creative practices examined in this project, I recognise that in creating
meaningful connections and understandings about fashion practices I have in many
ways flattened or over-simplified them. Methodology researcher John Law (2004, p.
6) argues for research that embodies a kaleidoscope of impressions and textures
and method that reflects and refracts a world that in important ways cannot be fully
understood as a specific set of determinate processes. While I have conducted my
inquiry with Laws ideas in mind, my bid to map continents (Gray & Malins, 2004, p.
52) in the relatively unexplored field of fashion practice has necessarily resulted in my
silencing many facets of the practices studied. In this sense, I acknowledge that this
research project is just the beginning of a conversation to which complexity and depth
could be added with further research.

When analysing my research sources I aim to embrace the complexity inherent in a
practice-led research inquiry that addresses such wide research gaps. Haseman and
Mafe (2009, p. 217) argue that cop[ing] with the messy research project requires
practice-led researchers to have an understanding of not only emergence but its
constituting condition of complexity. To this end, throughout this project I have been
guided by Cornings (1998) description of complexity where the unique combined
properties (synergies) that arise in each case, are vastly more important than the
commonalities. For example, Conceptual art and Conceptual fashion have similarities
and differences and comparing them is not a neat and clear-cut process. However, my
use of the highly critiqued area of Conceptual art as a lens to gain a better
understanding of Conceptual fashion design practice is a rational approach I have
adopted after my analysis of fashion discourse identified many valuable connections
between the two fields. Similarly, in using a broad range of sources from different
areas of fashion, I seek to explore, not only similarities, but the possible intersections,
contradictions and new perspectives to be gained. This approach has enabled me to
draw comparisons between diverse fields, sources and practitioners with an
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exploratory focus that in many ways raises more questions than it answers. However,
despite this, the project and the methods employed have effectively deepened my
knowledge and understanding of both Conceptual fashion design practices and my
own creative practice.

Creative practice has been a vitally important method for helping me understand
possible intersections and connections between Conceptual art and Conceptual
fashion. For example, I have expanded my own design research and design process
by drawing on the practices of early Conceptual artists, such as Sol LeWitt, On Kawara
and Roman Opalka. Specifically, as I read literature about Conceptual art, I tested the
emerging relationships to my own rules and system-based creative process through
sketching, model making, pattern and construction experimentation, toiling and making
garments. Studying the ideas and processes of Conceptual artists through studio
experimentation helped me develop and test new creative practice methods that have
even more direct parallels with Conceptual art characteristics and practices. My
creative work involved a constant dialogue between theory and practice as I moved
back-and-forth between reading, sketching and toiling to develop my designs as well
as construction and fabrication methods for the garments. Through this process I
developed two creative practice projects: three-sixty, which consists of working
sketches, model making, design sketches and flat technical drawings for six outfits,
and in-the-round, which consists of extensive pattern and construction
experimentation, toiling and eight finished garments. This practice-led project has
helped me to expand my practice, find similarities with Conceptual art practices and
also identify parallels between my own practice and those of Conceptual and
Conventional fashion designers. Exploring these parallels has also resulted in more
useful connections between Conceptual art and Conceptual fashion in a broader
context to expand understandings about Conceptual and Conventional fashion design
research and design processes.









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Contextual Review:
Conceptual fashion discourse and Conceptual art as a lens for
exploration

I. Conventional Fashion

To effectively explore conceptually-driven fashion design practices, the norms of
conventional fashion design practice first need to be made more explicit. In my work
experience as a fashion designer, I learnt that within both conventional and Conceptual
fashion design paradigms, practices vary enormously and boundaries between the two
paradigms are often blurred. However, for the purposes of expanding understandings
about Conceptual industrial fashion design practice I have identified some common
characteristics of what I will call Conventional fashion design practice.

Fashion is an industry that generally revolves around cyclic imitation and the diffusion
of ideas; however, the point at which this cycle initiates has shifted over time. Early
theorists, such as Georg Simmel (1904), argue for what has been termed the trickle-
down theory in which higher social classes adopt a social pattern that is then adopted
by the class immediately below (Miller, McIntyre & Mantrala, 1993, p.153) with this
process repeating until the pattern eventually filters to the masses. Simmel argues that
the elite initiates a fashion and, when the mass imitates it in an effort to obliterate the
external distinctions of class, abandons it for a newer mode a process that quickens
with the increase of wealth (1957 [1904], p. 541). In contemporary society, due to
increased social mobility, fashion has become increasingly democratised with
Kawamura (2005, p.78) identifying that the diffusion of fashion has become more
difficult to study because the creation of fashion has become less centralised.
However, while the point at which trends originate has become more diverse,
consumers continue to adopt trends or social patterns based on images or people they
aspire to emulate. For example, Keller (2009) argues that elite luxury fashion brand
imagery includes both a vision of the idealised brand user, and a personality or
association attached to the brand itself. Therefore, the influences dictating the
characteristics of the idealised brand user and the resulting trends may have
expanded, but the nature of trends and their rise and fall remains the same. Simmel
explains the nature of trends arguing that:


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The distinctiveness which in the early stages of a set fashion assures for it a
certain distribution is destroyed as the fashion spreads, and as this element
wanes, the fashion also is bound to die fashion includes a peculiar attraction
of limitation, the attraction of a simultaneous beginning and end, the charm of
novelty coupled to that of transitoriness (1957 [1904],p. 547).

Fashion brands are positioned at a variety of levels in the market, with some brands,
especially luxury brands, being positioned as elite innovators who initiate trends, while
other brands are positioned progressively lower down the chain of innovation. These
brands generally imitate the patterns of the elite brands at varying speeds depending
on their positioning in the market and the aspirations of their consumer.

Depending on the level of the market and price-point a fashion company is working at,
the steps in the design development and production process can vary in focus and
execution. In my experience as a designer, this generally corresponds directly with the
level of innovation versus mimicry. Despite this diversity, there is value in identifying
an overall framework that conventional commercial designers generally follow.
Fashion researcher, Yuniwara Kawamura (2004, p. 74-75) defines what she terms the
production process of ready-made clothes as she compares ready-made and
custom-made clothing in her book, The Japanese Fashion Revolution in Paris. By
ready-made, Kawamura refers to garments which have been made in standard sizes
designed for either smaller niche markets or the broader mass market. She is
referencing clothing that is bought off-the-rack rather than clothing that is bespoke for
an individual client. Kawamura argues that there are seven basic steps for
conventional ready-to-wear clothing that I have summarised as follows:

1. Fabrics- the designer sources material for the garments.
2. Design- the designer develops appropriate styles for the fabric through
techniques such as sketching and generally creates a visual presentation
indicating the mood of the collection.
3. Draping/ Drafting/ Patternmaking- the designer or other staff develop the
sketches into three-dimensional garments through draping on a mannequin or
other means. This process results in a paper garment pattern which will then
be used to cut and sew the first garment sample.
4. Sample- cutting and sample sewing- the production staff use the patterns to
cut the fabric and make sample garments with the designers instructing and
advising any changes to be made.
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5. Making production patterns and grading- the production staff make any
necessary changes to the patterns and develop a pattern in every size for
each garment to use for mass production in the factory.
6. Writing specifications and drawing flat sketches- the assistant designer
draws up specification sheets that instruct factory sewers how to construct and
finish the garments.
7. Mass production- the designers liaise with the factory to ensure the mass
produced garments are the same as the sample made in the designers
workroom.

Kawamuras identification of a chain of processes is useful to a degree; however, it is
important to acknowledge that this oversimplifies the fashion industry as well as
fashion practices that change constantly to meet evolving consumer needs. The
fashion industry is an intricate system of production and consumption and the diverse
and innovative ways that fashion practitioners navigate this system is not adequately
captured in this rigid set of processes. However, as I do not have the space in this
exegesis to engage in a detailed critique of Kawamuras description, I would simply like
to point out a crucial oversight in her list that informs my project directly. This oversight
can be identified clearly when Kamawura argues that there are no technical
differences between the processes of luxury ready-to-wear and lower priced mass
market ready-to-wear companies apart from the quality of the fabric and the technical
skill of the seamstresses (2004, p. 75). From my work experience with luxury and
mass market fashion companies, I argue that there are noticeable differences in at
least one step that Kawamura has very pointedly not included in her model: namely
Research. I also argue that if one must choose a first stage in design development
then Research is a more accurate starting point. I would describe this stage as:

Research- the designers gather information and inspiration relevant to their
market level and consumer and develop ideas that they use to inform and lead
their design process.

The diversity of Conventional fashion practices is much more obvious if the research
stage is analysed in depth. For example, the type of research collected during this
phase and how it is used in the design process is directly influenced by the level of the
market at which the fashion brand is positioned and this affects all the subsequent
development processes.

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The research process is important for designers operating at all levels of the market;
however, the type of research they conduct and how they use the information in the
design process differs substantially. From my observations, both the design team at
mass market brand Colorado and luxury fashion designer Marc Jacobs generally work
within Kawamuras model for ready-made clothing design. However, the research
conducted by these designers has a completely different focus and influences their
fabric sourcing, design and sample making process in vastly different ways. For
example, when I worked as an Assistant Designer at Colorado in 2006, they were
positioned towards the bottom of the innovation cycle targeting a conservative mass
market consumer who desired contemporary rather than fashion-forward garments.
The designers at Colorado would research trends in fabric, colour and silhouette that
had ceased to be new on the catwalk and had already been translated by more
fashion-forward middle and mass market fashion brands. Colorado designers would
draw from these trends and dilute them to suit a mass market price-point and lifestyle.
The Colorado design team still informed their design process with research; however,
this took the form of trend forecasting to help them decide which moods or aspects of
other designers work to imitate and adapt in their own collections. This process is
often termed product development rather than design, as the Colorado team would
begin the design process with existing styles from past seasons and adapt them to
reflect the new trends for each season.

In contrast, Marc Jacobs is viewed as an innovative fashion leader who initiates rather
than imitates trends. As a result, despite working within a similar Conventional fashion
framework to the Colorado design team, Jacobs does not follow trend forecasting or
other catwalk designers and instead conducts extensive research to develop new
creative directions for each season. From my observations in the season that I
interned for the brand, much of his research was based on visual inspiration and
references as he collected and studied vintage garments, old magazines, and,
historical costume and imagery among other things. Jacobs used this research to
develop a unique perspective or visual mood for the collection by juxtaposing these
stylistic and cultural references from the past and present in innovative and unusual
ways. I suggest this research influences his evolving ideas of femininity, desirability,
fashionability and beauty and therefore leads the design process influencing the
fabrication, colour, silhouette, construction and marketing of his collections. He
appeared to develop his designs primarily from a visual perspective and secondarily
from a construction perspective, drawing sketches for his patternmakers and
seamstresses to execute in three-dimensional prototypes for his revision and approval.
21
Exploring Marc Jacobs practice through a Conventional fashion design framework
demonstrates that Conventional practices do not necessarily preclude innovative
fashion forward design. The relevance of the comparison between Colorado and
Jacobs is that it highlights a common approach to both the idea and significance of
research and design processes across both luxury and mass market practices. I would
suggest that most commonly, the designers working in both these markets work
primarily with visual imagery and sensory qualities to achieve the common goal of
creating desirable, fashionable or beautiful clothing through their research and design
development process. By this I do not mean to insinuate that the designers do not
read literature or take into consideration popular culture or other political or societal
influences when doing research for their designs. Rather my point is that in the
process of translating their research into designs, their research is used to determine
the right visual or sensory qualities for their products to appeal to their specific
consumers. While these designers may use these visual or sensory qualities to
communicate a variety of messages to the consumer; I suggest that these messages
are generally communicated to position the clothing as a desirable object of beauty or
consumer-driven notions of what is on-trend.

I contend that in the context of fashion design process, the emphasis on the visual is
paramount. This translation of the visual into the visual, or the translation of visual
research into the visual qualities of fashion objects, may well define Conventional
fashion at all levels of the market. However, the question of how Conceptual fashion
design process relates to this context is much less self-explanatory. In this project, I
question whether Conceptual fashion design process could be more accurately
described as ideas into the visual investigating how Conceptual fashion designers
work with research and ideas to develop the visual qualities of their garments. While
many argue that Conceptual fashion is not commercial, I explore the notion that these
fashion objects are still desirable to niche consumers for the very fact that the
designers move beyond conventional ideas of beauty or fashionability to communicate
self-reflexive ideas through the visual qualities of their work. This in turn leads to
broader questions that have driven my project namely how research may inform less
conventional design processes and how Conceptual fashion design processes may
differ from more Conventional design processes. The research phase I previously
identified, in which ideas are translated into a design process to determine the visual
qualities of garments, is relevant to my own practice and underdeveloped in academic
research. As a result, to gain a deeper understanding of my own research and design
process, I explore the research phase of Conceptual fashion designers.
22
I. Conceptual Fashion

Conceptual fashion has been widely recognised since the early 1980s; however,
researchers have not yet effectively developed an explicit understanding of the term or
highlighted common tendencies or frameworks around Conceptual fashion design
practices. Consequently, this analysis discusses existing literature surrounding
Conceptual fashion and supplements these academic and industry sources with
insights from Conceptual fashion designers themselves. This approach attempts to
highlight similarities, contradictions and emerging ideas across the field of fashion to
gain a deeper understanding of the meaning implied within the term Conceptual
fashion.

Fashion journalist and critic Susannah Frankel (2009) addresses the difficulties of
distinguishing Conceptual fashion from Conventional fashion in her essay The birth,
death and re-birth of conceptual fashion, written for the book Maison Martin Margiela.
Frankel agrees that ideas underpin the work of Conceptual fashion but argues that this
is also the case for Conventional fashion asking:

Isnt the word concept ultimately just a synonym for idea? And, if
so, doesnt any major fashion brand from Ralph Lauren the label that
gave the world lifestyle to Marc Jacobs where the concept is that
there is no concept come under its umbrella? (2009)

Frankel goes on to explore the ideas behind Maison Martin Margielas collections
arguing that each Margiela main line collection springs from its own concept and that
more often than not it is very simple: a study of white aged to yellow, an exploration
of the back over the front of clothing, or the scaling up of womens garments to a mens
Italian size 78. However, I argue that concepts such as these are far from simple, as
they communicate complex questions about the norms of fashion that are more
intellectual than the ideas communicated by Ralph Laurens sportswear or Marc
Jacobs vintage-inspired collections. I agree with Frankel that Conventional fashion
design is also underpinned by ideas; however, I argue that Frankel is using concept
and Conceptual as if they are interchangeable and in the context of Conceptual and
Conventional fashion, I argue that they are not.

Fashion authors Franois Baudot (1997) and Hazel Clark (2011) both argue that
Conceptual fashion has similarities to, or has been influenced by, the Conceptual art
movement because of its tendency to question norms. In the introduction to her book
of photographs exploring the work of Conceptual fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto,
23
Baudot (1997) explains that the term Conceptual when applied to fashion designers of
the early 1980s referred back to the conceptual art of the sixties, whose
practitioners sought to replace the work of art itself with the idea underlying it, the
project of its gestation, the analysis of its concept and its effects (p. 6). Similarly, in
the book Fashion and Art (2012), fashion researcher Hazel Clark contributes a chapter
relating Conceptual fashion to Conceptual art, arguing that conceptual fashion had the
ground prepared for it by conceptual art (p. 67). Clark maintains that ...conceptual art
practices identified the primacy of ideas over appearance, self-reflection over
resolution, innovation and experimentation, and statements that posed questions but
that rarely provided clear answers claiming this as a clear influence on Conceptual
fashion (2012, p. 67). She defines Japanese designers, Issey Miyake, Yohji
Yamamoto, and Rei Kawakubo as Conceptual fashion designers because together
and apart these designers questioned the conventions of fashion- what it was, what it
looked like, how it felt on the body, how it was displayed and sold, and moreover,
where it originated (2012, p. 68). Similarly, Baudot compares Yamamotos practice to
those of artists from the Conceptual and Arte Povera art movements because he was
one of a small number who tried to break away from a fossilized conception of what
clothes were (1997, p. 8).

While Baudots analysis is limited to the practice of Yohji Yamamoto, Clark goes
beyond the Japanese designers to explore the Antwerp Six as Conceptual fashion
designers due to their ability to question fashion conventions and bring attention to
social patterns and fixations (2012, p. 69-70). Clarks research draws some specific,
valuable parallels between Conceptual fashion and Conceptual art practices. However,
the connections that Clark draws are extremely broad and do not address the diversity
of practices within either Conceptual art or Conceptual fashion. Clark essentially
condenses all the Conceptual fashion practices into a more-or-less cohesive group
exploring little of the research and design process and drawing a schematic picture of
Conceptual fashion design practice that provides little understanding of how it differs
from more Conventional fashion practices.

While most fashion academics, journalists and practitioners agree that Conceptual
fashion is defined by self-reflexivity, many argue that a key distinction between
Conceptual and Conventional fashion is commerciality. For example, Susannah
Frankel (2009) argues that Conceptual fashion came to be known as fashion design
that had become such an intellectual endeavour that it lost its primary purpose of being
consumed and worn. Frankel (2009) claims that the term Conceptual in fashion
24
sprang up in the 1980s to imply that a garment was thoughtful and provocative
even, in reaction to the deluge of strong-shouldered, violently colored, mindlessly
status-driven dress codes of the day. She goes on to argue that by the mid-nineties,
conceptual fashion meant clothing that was driven by an idea to the point where its
function which is always that it must be worn was lost. And that for years now it
has been weighed down by negative associations, denoting clothing that one feels
should be appreciated its clever, its challenging but that, to be honest, one doesnt
actually like all that much let alone want to wear. Frankel quotes Maison Martin
Margiela to support her statement, If some designers will is to be labeled
intellectual its probably to give their work a more respectable aspect, to bring it closer
to art and as far as possible from its original purpose, that is to put clothes on peoples
bodies (2009, n.p).

However, the statements of Frankel and Maison Margiela make a broad assumption
that fashion has historically had a close relationship with utility, and I argue that this
may be a case of interchanging the idea of fashion with clothing, which are often two
quite different concepts. Philosopher Lars Svendsen also argues that fashion
designers have aspired to be recognised as artists since the beginning of haute
couture circa 1860 (2006, p. 90) and that the conceptual clothes that emerged in the
1980s are the clearest example of this urge (2006, p. 91). However, Svendsen argues
that these clothes are not without function, but that they function symbolically rather
than as utilitarian garments. He proposes that this is not simply clothing-as-art, but
instead demonstrates an investment in cultural capital and branding by distancing
fashion from the commercial market. He explains that, Fashion has always found itself
in a space between art and capital, where it has often embraced the cultural side in
order to tone down its financial side (Svendsen 2006: 93). Svendsens argument
suggests a paradoxical position where Conceptual fashion designers distance
themselves from commercial markets to increase their branding and therefore their
commercial potential.

Fashion researcher Angela McRobbie (1998) also claims Conceptual fashion is
distinguished from other more conventional fashion practices through its close
relationship to fine art practices; however, unlike Svendsens paradox, she claims it
maintains relative independence from commercial considerations. In her book, British
Fashion Design: Rag Trade or Image Industry? McRobbie (1998) briefly proposes a
definition of Conceptual fashion in an educational context as she attempts to describe
the different types of fashion practices taught to British students before they enter the
25
industry. McRobbie (1998, p. 46-48) does this by defining three different types of
fashion design taught in British fashion design colleges:

managerial fashion, integrating design skills with business and marketing to
prepare graduates for a broad portfolio of commercial fashion-related jobs;

professional fashion, developing creative design skills, in-depth technical skills
and focusing on making clothes that people will wear rather than clothing that
represents new ideas; and

ideas fashion or conceptual fashion, maintaining a strong connection with fine
art and prioritising creative experimentation and innovation without the
pressure of business-related concerns.

McRobbie claims Conceptual fashion is largely taught without a strong emphasis on
commercial concerns and instead revolves around innovative ideas. However, this
assertion is problematic.

Svendsens argument gains strength from the comments of celebrated Conceptual
fashion designer, Hussein Chalayan, who claims commerciality was a key element of
his education. Central Saint Martins has a strong reputation for producing Conceptual
fashion designers, and Hussein Chalayan contradicts McRobbie by describing his
experience there:

Central Saint Martins was a proper art institution, fashion just
happened to be one of its departments. It was a fantastic place in
which to understand the body in a cultural context. We were like body
artists, but we also had to learn how to make our clothes sell (Aspen,
2010, p.13).

However, while Chalayans comments challenge McRobbies claims that Conceptual
fashion education and practice exist relatively free from the pressure of commercial
ideals, his comments do support claims that Conceptual fashion maintains a close
relationship to art. In fact, the suggestion that Conceptual fashion has a closer
relationship to art than other types of more conventional fashion is a recurring theme.
What is less clear is exactly what makes Conceptual fashion closer to art than
Conventional fashion practices and how these tensions sit within larger debates about
the relationship between fashion, art and commerciality in contemporary culture.

26
In her book Voyage on the North Sea: Art in the Age of the Post-Medium Condition,
Rosalind Krauss goes beyond defining the relationship between fashion and art to
question if any aesthetic fields are distinct in a postmodern commercial world. Krauss
(1999, p. 56) explores the idea that aesthetic fields have become more entwined with
commodification through philosopher Frederic Jamesons characterization of
postmodernity as the total saturation of cultural space by the image. Jameson
argues that in postmodern culture, everything leisure related, including shopping, is
experienced as aesthetic, and this not only puts into question the concept of aesthetic
autonomy, but has made actual aesthetic spheres obsolete (Krauss,1999, p. 56). As a
result, while most Conceptual fashion practitioners claim they are not artists,
postmodern paradigms have brought fashion and art closer than ever before.

My research of the art-fashion debate demonstrates that opinions are divided, with
some claiming fashion can be art, while others seek to maintain a clear distinction
between the two fields. The fact that many designers argue for separate fields
suggests that this may be crucial to their identity as fashion designers; however, what
is pertinent to this debate is the role commerciality plays in their arguments for
maintaining or breaking down this separation. For example, fashion researcher
Yuniwara Kawamura (2004, p.140) claims that Conceptual fashion designer Rei
Kawakubo is considered an artist rather than a designer. However, Kawakubo herself
disagrees because of the commercial aspects of her design practice. Kawakubo
explains, Fashion is not art. (Menkes,1998, p.20). Ive always said Im not an artist.
For me, fashion design is a business. (Sims, 2004: 123 as cited in English, 2011:77).
In contrast, Conceptual fashion designer Hussein Chalayan argues that in
contemporary culture commerciality unifies rather than divides art and fashion arguing:

Fashion, because its industrial, is perceived as not having the same
value as art but you can argue that art is now industrial, as well. Its
part of a money market, certainly, so I dont really see what the
difference is any more. If you are doing a dress that is informed by
good ideas or is an amazing thing then its as much a piece of art as
somebodys painting or somebodys installation, I think (Frankel, 2011,
p. 23).

Chalayans statement relates to Jamesons argument that all cultural fields, such as
fashion and art, are unified by the fact that they are aestheticised and commodified.
However, Chalayan also suggests that it is not a fashion practices commerciality that
separates or links it to art, but whether it is underpinned by good ideas.

27
Chalayans argument that art is also a commercial practice is supported by Conceptual
artist Victor Burgins declaration in 1988 that even Conceptual art, which began with
ideals of anti-commodification, had failed to avoid commerciality. Burgin states that:

The original conceptual art is a failed avant-gardeamongst the ruins of its
Utopian program, the desire to resist commodification and assimilation to a
history of styles. The new conceptualism is the mirror image of the old
nothing but commodity, nothing but style (as cited in Godfrey, 1998, p. 386).

While Conceptual art initially sought to avoid commodification and prioritise the idea
by not making traditional art objects, by 1973, art critic Lucy Lippard noted that the
most influential conceptualists were being represented by prestigious galleries and
selling their non-traditional work for large sums of money (Lippard, 1997, p. xxi). The
fact that even the idealistic Conceptual art movement became a commercial enterprise
supports Chalyans argument that both art and fashion are commercial practices and
that it is therefore a prioritization of ideas that brings fashion and art closer together. In
particular, this suggests that Conceptual fashion is seen as being closer to art than
Conventional fashion, not because of a lack of commerciality, but rather because the
designers shape their creative works in a way akin to artists. This further upholds
Baudot and Clarks claim that Conceptual fashion is similar to Conceptual art because
it functions to question the norms of the field.

Nathalie Khan also argues that the type of ideas that inform creative works determine
whether something is design or art claiming that what helps define Margielas work as
art rather than design is that it offers reflexive commentary upon the very fashion
industry of which he is a part (2000, p. 123). While Conceptual fashion house Maison
Martin Margiela disagrees that their practice is art rather than fashion (Derycke & Van
De Veire, 1999, p. 12; Miglietti, 2006, p. 71), critical discourse seems to agree that
Conceptual fashion is closer to art because of the more intellectual and self-reflexive
ideas that are explored and communicated through the sensory qualities of the
garments. Kay Durland Spilker and Sharon Sadako Takeda (2007) also believe the
ability to reflect ideas about social norms and identity through sensory qualities of the
garments is a key aspect of Conceptual fashion that demonstrates its close
relationship to art. In their book, Breaking the Mode, Spilker and Takeda claim that A
conceptual approach blurs the line between fashion and the fine arts.arguing that:


28
A number of contemporary fashion designers take a conceptual
approach in their work. With strategies similar to that of the fine artist,
they examine conventional notions for origins- the how and why of
the rules of fashion then proceed to invalidate the rules with
insidiously subtle or outrageously radical garments so firmly couched
in tradition that the designers subversions are truly startling. In
rejecting the formulaic use of media and technique, they have
established new aesthetic principles of fashion in construction,
materials, form, and ultimately, in the concept or meaning of clothes to
the designer, wearer, and audience (2007, p. 15).

Spilker and Takeda support their statement with photos of garments that demonstrate
what they argue is a Conceptual approach, because the designers have questioned
the rules of fashion through innovative uses of construction, material, form and
concept. They explore how these garments function symbolically for example, how
their visual qualities challenge gender or established conventions of dressing. As
these garments have been designed to go beyond communicating consumer ideals
such as beauty and trend, Spilker and Takedas work further supports the argument
that Conceptual fashion is similar to Conceptual art in terms of the self-reflexivity.

Therefore, despite the on-going and somewhat circular debates about the relationship
between art, fashion and commerciality, Conceptual fashion is frequently identified as
having a closer relationship to art than Conventional fashion practices because it
frequently makes references to the cultural field of fashion. While there are some
intricacies to this argument, the shorthand version is that Conceptual fashion is more
explicitly charged with meaning than Conventional fashion because Conceptual
designers engage in self-reflective practice that challenges the conventions of fashion.
Both Conventional and Conceptual fashion are visual and both often focus on ideas of
beauty, ugliness or just the idea of trends or fashion itself. However, the ideas
underpinning Conventional fashion (across all sectors of the market) are more likely to
be focused around the established notions of beauty and trends according to the
market. This is not to say that the work of Conceptual fashion designers is not
beautiful, but raises the question that perhaps visual beauty is not the primary driving
force or end goal of Conceptual fashion practices. What is less clear following this
analysis is exactly how these self-reflexive ideas are translated through the design
process in Conceptual fashion design practice. This relates clearly to the fashion
research phase I identified in the Contextual Review. As a result, in the following
analysis I explore the ideas and creative process of early Conceptual artists and
Conceptual fashion designers to expand understandings about the Conceptual fashion
research phase.

29
Comparative Analysis:
Conceptual art and Conceptual fashion

In this comparative analysis I explore parallels between Conceptual art and
Conceptual fashion. Through this analysis I aim to set critical contexts for my own
research and design process as well as expanding the discourse of Conceptual
fashion practice.

While the term Conceptual was first applied to art in the late 1950s and early 1960s
(Newman & Bird, 1999, p. 3), Conceptual art was not in general use until 1967
(Godfrey, 1998, p. 6). Arguably, early forms of Conceptual art pre-date this; for
example, Marcel Duchamp and his readymades most famously the urinal that he
presented as art in 1917 entitled Fountain (Godfrey, 1998, p. 6). However, in his book,
Conceptual Art, Tony Godfrey (1998, p. 7) argues that, ...the issues were most fully
developed and theorized by a generation of artists that emerged in the late 1960s,
whose work must lie at the heart of any study of Conceptual art. In Rewriting
Conceptual Art, Bird and Newman (1993, p. 3) claim that, in general, the shift enacted
through Conceptual art opened one important pathway for the analysis of all visual
signs and meanings which now constitute the broad field of visual culture. They also
claim that a key shift revolved around the idea that Conceptual art proposed an
informed and critically active audience who were expected to work in order to fully
engage with the objects, texts, installations (1993, p. 6). In addition, Conceptual art
was a clear departure from previous art movements because the focus was not on the
physical nature or visual qualities of the artworks themself, but rather on the idea
underpinning the work.

Before Conceptual art, modernist art theorists and practitioners sought to define art
through what critic Clement Greenberg termed medium-specificity the testing and
questioning of the established norms to determine what is unique and irreducible to a
specific medium (Costello, 2007, p.95). For example, Greenberg encouraged the
gradual removal of properties from each art medium, such as painting, until only a few
qualities remained to define the essence of that medium (Matravers, 2007, p. 19-20).
However, ironically, these attempts to define clear boundaries between mediums led to
a context in which the boundaries began to collapse. Consequently, as Conceptual art
grew, many artists insisted that art should be considered as a unified whole rather than
as distinct self-contained art mediums. Explaining the birth of Conceptual art, Rosalind
30
Krauss (1999, p. 10) argues that if modernism was probing painting for its essence
for what made it specific as a medium that logic taken to its extreme had turned
painting inside out and had emptied it into the generic category of Art: art-at-large, or
art-in-general. Krauss (1999, p.20) argues that due to the influence of Conceptual art
and particularly the work of artist Marcel Broodthaers we now inhabit a post-medium
age.

The move to a post-medium age based on the tension between the specific and the
general can be traced to some of the earliest formulations of the Conceptual art
movement. For example, in his 1969 essay, Art After Philosophy, artist Joseph
Kosuth, who is often recognised as one of the movements founders, advocated for
art-in-general arguing that if one is questioning the nature of painting, one cannot be
questioning the nature of art. Thats because the word art is general and the word
painting is specific (quoted in Krauss,1999, p.10). In a definition of Conceptual art
from 1998, Godfrey expands on this key idea arguing that:
Conceptual art is not about forms or materials, but about ideas and
meanings. It cannot be defined in terms of any medium or style, but
rather by the way it questions what art is. In particular, Conceptual art
challenges the traditional status of the art object as unique, collectable
or saleable. Because the work does not take a traditional form it
demands a more active response from the viewer, indeed it could be
argued that the Conceptual work of art only truly exists in the viewers
mental participation (p. 4).

This suggests that Conceptual art cannot be categorised by a series of cohesive
working methods or a visually cohesive style, but rather by its emphasis on self-
reflexive ideas.

Key characteristics of Conceptual art have been widely debated making it difficult to
determine which characteristics to apply to the study of Conceptual fashion design.
However, in this analysis I refer to three characteristics of Conceptual art defined by
practitioners Sol Le Witt, Joseph Kosuth and critic and curator, Lucy Lippard. These
are summarised by Godfrey (1998, p. 142) as follows:

Le Witts notion that the concept behind the work actually constitutes
the art;
Kosuths description of an inquiry into the foundations of the concept
art;
Lippards notion of the dematerialization of the art object (though some
artists have preferred the word demystification to dematerialization).
31
While these three definitions imply an inherent complexity in the field of Conceptual art,
a common theme is the primacy that Conceptual artists placed on ideas rather than the
physical characteristics of the creative works themselves (including the extent to which
the idea itself was the work). Following this, the main objective of my analysis is to
explore the ways in which the practices of Conceptual fashion designers also exhibit a
conscious prioritising of the idea and how these ideas work to question the field of
fashion. To do this I examine the work of several key conceptual designers including
Hussein Chalayan, Rei Kawakubo, Yohji Yamamoto, Issey Miyake, Viktor & Rolf and
Martin Margiela to explore how their practices may align with these three
characteristics. While acknowledging the disparity between cultural fields of fashion
and art, and the historical disjuncture underpinning this comparison, as I will show,
valuable insights can be drawn through this form of comparison. Indeed, as my
analysis demonstrates, all three of these tendencies can be identified in the
contemporary practices of major Conceptual fashion designers. This finding in turn
leads me to new insights as to how Conceptual fashion designers translate their
research ideas through the design process and how my own practice reflects similar
approaches to prioritising ideas so that they shape the visual qualities of my designs.




















32
I. Art as Idea/ Fashion as Idea

The artist Sol LeWitt argues that it is the concept or idea underpinning an artwork
rather than the physical artwork itself that constitutes the art (Godfrey, 1998, p. 142).
LeWitt is perhaps most accurately described as a proto-conceptualist (Costello, 2007,
p. 104; Osborne, 1999, p. 53) rather than a purist; however, through his publications,
Paragraphs on Conceptual Art (1967) and Sentences on Conceptual Art (1969), he is
widely regarded as an influential figure in the development of Conceptual Art (Costello,
2007, p. 104). In Paragraphs, LeWitt argues that ideas behind an artwork should be
given precedence over the physical artifact itself because the idea becomes the
machine that makes the art. He insists that a Conceptual artist should execute an idea
blindly and mechanically putting themselves at the service of that idea rather than
forcing their own aesthetic judgements or ego into the artwork (Costello, 2007, p.104-
105). LeWitt explains that Tampering with an idea by amending it, for example in the
light of the way its execution looks, always compromises the integrity of the work and
may be merely an expression of the artists willfulness or egotism (Costello, 2007, p.
105-106). Leaving aside the ideological nature of his critique of the artistic ego, the
value of LeWitts statements to my research project is the way in which they so
explicitly pitch the conceptual against the visual or the aesthetic. Consequently, they
helped me to explore if Conceptual fashion design practices are driven by ideas rather
than how the final creative work looks.

Hussein Chalayans creative works suggest that his practice is driven by concepts and
ideas more than the visual qualities of his fashion objects, and consequently, he is
widely perceived as one of fashions foremost intellectuals. Critic Sarah Mower
(2011) claims that Chalayan could not be explained or categorised in the same way as
any of the designers before him (p. 36), describing his work throughout the 1990s as
uncomfortable, astonishing, poignant, political and impenetrable (p. 37). Chalayan
was born in Cyprus but moved to England at a young age and the cultural dislocation
he feels as he identifies with these two nationalities is threaded throughout his
practice. In addition to cross-cultural and cross-time themes, Chalayan is also well
known for integrating and exploring new technology in his collections. Susannah
Frankel argues that the stories and ideas surrounding Chalayans collections drive his
practice (2011, p.16) and that in his eyes, the concept is of equal or greater importance
than the clothing he creates (2001, p. 64). Chalayan supports this saying, I
sometimes dont like calling myself a fashion person I really do think I am an ideas
person (Frankel, 2001, p. 68), my work is about ideas, really. My starting-point isnt
33
always the woman. Its the idea (Irvine, 2001 as cited in Quinn, 2003, p. 121).
Chalayans tendency to design garments primarily as idea-vehicles rather than
conventional fashion objects is further supported by fashion researcher Bradley Quinn
who states that:

...the point of Chalayans departure from conventional fashion was his
use of clothing as a site of exploration, and his designs were created
as expressions of concepts rather than as garments made with only
functionality in mind. As a result, Chalayans collections are
characterised by a heightened sense of meaning, an allusion to a
more intense experience somewhere else, or the promise of a richer,
wider horizon to be found (Quinn, 2002, p. 46 as cited in Bugg, 2009,
p. 14).

While Quinn does not articulate what defines this horizon as richer than those
provided by Conventional fashion, I suggest that he refers to the ability of garments to
deliver more than conventional ideals of beauty and fashionability the ability to
appeal to the intellect on a deeper level.

Chalayans design process further demonstrates that his practice is driven by ideas
because the exploration and communication of his research concepts appear to
determine the visual qualities of his work. For example, in his Spring Summer 2011
collection, Sakoku, Chalayan uses his research into Japanese cultural heritage and the
impact of natural disasters, such as earthquakes and tsunamis to lead the design
process. In one section of this collection, Haiku, I argue that Chalayans research
directly determines the visual properties of the garments demonstrating a conceptually-
based rather than visually-based design method. Chalayan drapes chiffon to form the
characters of the Japanese word sonzaisuru which means to exist (Frankel 2011:17)
showing that his research directly determines the position of the fabric drapes and
overall garment design (Figure 1). In this example, Chalayan still has to make some
aesthetic decisions, such as fabric choice, garment type, and technique for draping the
fabric. However, this is on the whole an unconventional approach to fashion design,
as rather than visualising a garment and then setting out to produce it, the design
process revolves around translating a research concept or idea so that it shapes the
final designs.

34
Figure 1: Hussein Chalayans Spring Summer 2011 collection, Sakoku, in which the fabric of
this dress is draped to form the Japanese word sonzaisuru (Frankel, 2011, p. 11).

Chalayans Autumn Winter 2000 collection, Afterwords also uses similar methods of
idea-driven design. I suggest that this collection uses a function-led design idea that
shapes the visual qualities of the garments through a dialogue between design and
construction with the functionality significantly shaping the visual characteristics of
the garments. For example, the concept behind Chalayans Afterwords collection is
the journey of refugees and so he imagined scenarios in which people are required to
flee carrying what they are able (King, 2011, p. 9-10). He translated this research
concept into the idea of designing a lounge room of furniture that transforms into
garments and accessories to be carried away at a moments notice. For example, in
one section of the collection show, four models entered the stage wearing only
neutral-toned shifts, they occupied themselves with the sitting room chairs and within
minutes had transformed the chair covers into dresses after which the chairs were
folded into suitcases (King, 2011, p. 9) (Figure 2). Chalayans idea dictates that the
four dresses must function as both dresses and chair covers. Consequently, while
Chalayan would have made many aesthetic decisions, I argue that the negotiation
between the dual functions of each dress would have strongly led the design process.
In other words, without the dual functions related to this idea, that each dress must
function as both cover and dress, it is unlikely that Chalayan would have come up with
the same designs. This further supports my argument that Chalayans design process
is primarily driven by the exploration of research and ideas rather than the goal of
creating a traditional fashion object as in Conventional practices.
35




Figure 2: Hussein Chalayans Autumn Winter 2000 collection, Afterwords, in which chair covers
were transformed into dresses (King, 2011, p. 9).
Similarly, I argue that Comme des Garons designer, Rei Kawakubos practice is
driven by the exploration and communication of ideas rather than the creation of
conventionally beautiful fashion objects. Kawakubo is widely acknowledged as a key
founder and driver of the Conceptual fashion movement. Born in Tokyo, Kawakubo
studied the history of aesthetics at Keio University rather than fashion design. After
working in advertising, Kawakubo began her brand Comme des Garons, or, like the
boys (Menkes, 2009). After success in Japan, Kawakubo launched her clothing in
Paris in 1981 with fellow Conceptual designer Yohji Yamamoto causing great uproar
because the clothing worked against the prevailing ideals of beauty and fashionability
(English, 2011, p. 38). Kawakubo explains her desire to create new ideas of beauty
rather than following convention saying, I want to see things differently to search for
beauty. I want to find something nobody has ever found... It is meaningless to create
something predictable (Hirakawa,1990, p. 24 as cited in Kawamura, 2004, p. 137).
Fashion historian Caroline Evans analyses the unconventional ideas of beauty
Kawakubo presents in her famous lumps and bumps Spring Summer 1997 collection,
Dress Becomes Body Becomes Dress, arguing that it did not engage with the
everyday language of the fashion body (2002/2003) (Figure 3) . This collection
contained clothing padded with goose down to distort the body and present
36
unconventional images of women. Evans describes the ideas communicated through
the collection ...as paradigmatic postmodern representations of a body which
oscillates endlessly between subject- and object-hood (2002/2003). These garments
did not reflect conventional ideas of beauty and this was highlighted by the actions of
both Vogue and Elle magazine who attempted to bring the garments closer to
conventional ideals by photographing the collection without the padding that was so
key to communicating Kawakubos ideas. This suggests that like Chalayan, Kawakubo
is primarily motivated to create clothing as a vehicle for her research and ideas rather
than as an expression of conventional beauty or on-trend fashionability.

Figure 3: Comme des Garons Spring Summer 1997 Lumps and Bumps collection where
padding created distorted figures (www.firstview.com).



37
However, while Chalayan and Kawakubos practices are both idea-driven, Kawakubos
design process to translate her research into designs is very different to Chalayans. I
argue that Kawakubos role in the Comme des Garons design process has more in
common with that of Conceptual artist John Baldessari than with other fashion
designers. For example, rather than using conventional design sketches or draping,
Kawakubo allows her patternmaking team to translate her abstract ideas into form.
Kawakubos role in the design process demonstrates parallels with Baldessaris
position as the creative impresario or composer of his work, such as The
Commissioned Paintings (1969-1970) (Godfrey, 1998, p.138). In this work, rather than
executing the paintings himself, Baldessari commissioned fourteen painters from
country fairs to paint a photo from a series of photographs he took of a hand pointing
at things. Although the painters completed the work in their own style and their names
were displayed on the canvases, the work was attributed to Baldessari positioning
the paintings as documentation of the idea-as-art rather than artworks themselves
(Godfrey, 1998, p.138). Similarly, Kawakubo formulates an idea or concept and
instructs her patternmakers to execute her idea as closely as possible but with their
own unique approach. It is common for fashion production workers, such as
patternmakers, to have some creative input towards the designs as they translate the
sketches of a fashion designer. However, like Baldessari, Kawakubo assumes the role
of composer or director and gives her patternmakers a much more active and creative
role in developing the final fashion objects. This suggest that like Baldessari,
Kawakubo sees Conceptual fashion as being defined by the ideas behind it rather than
the physicality of the fashion object produced.

Kawakubo has developed a collaborative Conceptual approach by replacing
conventional design sketches with abstract concepts presented to her production
team. Describing her process Kawakubo explains:

With all collections, I start abstractly...I try to find two to three disparate
themes, and think about the techniques to express them not in a
straight way. This is always the longest part of the process (English,
2011, p.74)

After establishing her themes for the collection she communicates them to her team
and challenges them to develop the garments physical characteristics that express her
ideas. A patternmaker from her team describes the process in greater detail saying:

Once she gave us a piece of crumpled paper and said she wanted a
pattern for a garment that would have something of that quality.
Another time she didnt produce anything, but talked about a pattern
38
for a coat that would have the qualities of a pillowcase that was in the
process of being pulled inside-out. She didnt want that exact shape,
of course, but the essence of that moment in transition, of half inside,
half out. (Sudjic, 1990, p. 34 as cited in Kawamura, 2004, p. 145)

Researcher Yuniwara Kawamura (2004, p. 146) interviewed one of Kawakubos team
who further explained that each patternmaker would devise garment prototypes they
felt best embodied Kawakubos ideas. These prototypes were presented to Kawakubo
who would select those that best matched her ideas and request any changes.
Kawakubo did not train as a fashion designer and unlike Hussein Chalayan, who holds
an uncanny ability to visualize complicated flat paper patterns in three dimensions
(Lowthorpe, 2011, p. 260) she does not have the expert construction knowledge of
some of her peers. However, despite this she is viewed by many as one of the most
creative and influential forces in contemporary fashion design. Without Conventional
fashion design training and in-depth construction knowledge, Kawakubo has
developed an unconventional, but extremely innovative research and design process
for Conceptual fashion design. Like Chalayan, her practice revolves around ideas that
are communicated through her fashion designs, even though they use very different
design processes to translate their ideas.

In summary, although Conceptual fashion designers are more committed to producing
a traditional enduring physical artifact than Conceptual artists, my research shows that
ideas still fundamentally drive their design processes. For example, LeWitts
statements on Conceptual art relate to Conceptual fashion designers Hussein
Chalayan and Rei Kawakubo as they both begin their creative process with the
exploration of research concepts that determine the direction for their final creative
works. In contrast, Conventional fashion designers generally begin the research and
design process with a pre-conceived visual aesthetic or direction for their work. Many
Conceptual artists directly privileged ideas over physical form by reducing their work to
language-based statements, diagrams or temporary installations. Artists Sol LeWitt
and Lawrence Weiner did not feel it was essential to make their works as traditional
enduring physical artifacts, and instead, often sold typed statements or certificates of
the idea behind their work, sometimes accompanied by a diagram (Godfrey, 1998).
While fashion designers create many catwalk pieces that are not necessarily widely
adopted or practical to wear, they still generally produce a final garment. As
researcher Hazel Clark (2012, p. 74) states, while conceptual fashion can conceivably
exist without the production of an object, to date that has not tended to be the case,
also noting that the high-profile Conceptual fashion designers she explores in the
article, ...continue to produce technically, as well as conceptually, sophisticated
39
garments. I argue that Conceptual fashion designers may be more inclined to produce
physical works as their ideas may be most clearly communicated by interactions
between their designs and the body. From this perspective, making the physical
garment does not indicate that Conceptual fashion designers are driven by the
conventions of producing a traditional enduring fashion object, but that their garments
are primarily made as vehicles to communicate their ideas rather than objects of
conventional beauty to be admired.
Relating LeWitts ideas to Chalayan and Kawakubos practices highlights their
common tendency to operate outside a Conventional fashion paradigm by primarily
designing idea-vehicles rather than visually desirable, conventional fashion objects.
While my research demonstrates that both Chalayan and Kawakubo primarily design
to explore and communicate ideas, their design processes and methods for translating
research into designs is remarkably different from each other. This suggests further
similarities between Conceptual fashion and Conceptual art, as Conceptual art was not
defined by specific working methods or a cohesive visual style, but by a clear
emphasis on exploring the nature of art and perception.





















40
II. Fashion challenging the conventions of fashion

The artist Joseph Kosuth argues that the purest definition of Conceptual art would
be that it is inquiry into the foundation of the concept art, as it has come to mean
(Godfrey, 1998, p. 134). In 1969 Kosuth insisted that being an artist now means to
question the nature of art (Krauss, 1999, p.10) and the value of an artist should be
measured by how much they question (Godfrey, 1998, p. 134). Kosuth did not produce
traditional art objects but advocated a language-based form of Conceptual art that
some other artists viewed as tedious and self-indulgent branding it as Theoretical art
(Godfrey, 1998, p. 14). Although Kosuths statements about Conceptual art refer
primarily to language-based art rather than physical artifacts, I found them useful to
explore how Conceptual fashion designers convey self-reflexive ideas that question
their field. In much the same way as Conceptual artists questioned the very nature of
art, its conventions, its rules and its contexts, these fashion designers question aspects
of fashion, such as aesthetic qualities, materials, construction, meaning and display.
In addition to these aspects, Conceptual fashion designers also question how fashion
interacts with the body and shapes identity. Philosopher Lars Svendsen (2006) argues
that we look to the body for identity and therefore also seek it from clothing. He
attributes our drive to find identity in our clothing to an ongoing dialogue in which body
shape influences fashion and our perception of the body is influenced by the prevailing
fashions of the time (2006, p. 76). Given, therefore, that the nature of fashion is tied
so closely to identity, it is not surprising that Conceptual fashion designers often
explore the range of relationships between the body, identity, self and fashion, thus not
only questioning the fashion object, but also how we communicate through and
engage with fashionable dress.

There are established conventions about how fashion communicates and many of
these were famously explored by philosopher Roland Barthes in his book, The Fashion
System (1967). Kawamura argues that Barthes Fashion system would be more
accurately described as a clothing system that teaches us the conventions of what
clothing should look like and how we should wear it in different social contexts. As she
explains:

There are assumptions about what Western clothes are supposed to
look like. We have learned from socialization that a shirt usually has
two sleeves or a pair of pants has two legs. Similarly, there are rules
that we take for granted as far as dressing is concerned (Kawamura,
2004, p. 8)

41
In addition, the fundamental properties of clothing itself, the rules of clothing act as
symbols that communicate various messages to other people linked to aspects of our
identity, such as gender, social status and even political ideology. For example, dress
has historically been very important to communicate social and political messages and
this is clearly demonstrated through Louis XVIs tight regulations on fashion in France.
These regulations dictated all aspects of clothing, from the amount of fabric used, to
the type of braid or buttons used, to distinguish rank and social standing (Kawamura,
2004, p. 30). Consequently, during the French Revolution, clothing was used to
communicate personal views and alliances with the working class or elite (Kawamura,
2004, p. 31-32). In addition, clothing can communicate messages specific to an
occasion, for example, formal black clothing worn at a funeral to communicate
mourning and respect, or a white wedding dress in Western culture to denote purity. In
this sense, the conventions of clothing can be viewed as visual communication or a
language, and therefore, to question these conventions is to question the very nature
of clothing and fashion.

Conceptual fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto has questioned the Western fashion-
system and in the words of dress historian, Alexis Romano (2011, p. 109),
uprooted and broke clothing conventions and codes, rethinking established ideas of
beauty, age, gender and the body. Yamamoto is considered to be one of the key
catalysts of the Conceptual fashion movement along with Rei Kawakubo, with whom
he debuted in Paris in 1981. He was born in Tokyo and after studying law completed a
fashion qualification from Bunka (Baudot, 1997, p. 9). Yamamoto was raised by his
poor, hardworking seamstress mother and this informed his creation of stronger, more
functional womens clothing (Figure 4), as explained in his comments, I dont know
any woman who doesnt work this completely formulated my outlook on women
(Shoji, 2005 as cited in English, 2011, p.70). Yamamoto has continued to challenge
many ideals of the traditional Western fashion system. For example, he challenges
conventional ideas of femininity and masculinity, by using androgynous shapes that
dont contour the body; barriers between high and low fashion, by using
unconventional fabrication, construction and decoration; and blurring boundaries of
old and new, by imbuing his clothing with a patina of age.

42
Figure 4: Yamamotos Autumn Winter 1984 catalogue demonstrates his more active and
utilitarian image of women and fashion (Jones, 2011, p. 141).


Yohji Yamamoto also broke traditional conventions by questioning what garments are
meant to look like as illustrated by journalist Sally Brampton (1983) in a review of
Yamamotos Spring/Summer 1983 collection:

...there were armholes that bore no relation to the line of the
shoulders, trousers that were neither trousers nor skirts but some new
mutant jackets that seemed to be half finished with some major part
completely missing. They defied convention as they defied the shape
of the human body (as cited in English, 2011, p. 39).

In addition, Yamamoto challenged the way traditional gender norms are communicated
through clothing and the essence of fashion as a system of constant change and
renewal. For example, womens fashion in the early 1980s was predominantly tight
fitting and glamorous, but Yamamotos garments presented femininity in the
revolutionary guise of baggy, asymmetrical, androgynous garments. Franois Baudot
(1997) claims that Yamamoto broke away from fossilised ideas of clothing by
disrupting the codes by which clothes made their appeal; by rethinking the glamorous
signals sent out by their external appearance; by redefining their relationship with the
43
male or female body; and ultimately by radically reinterpreting the respective
contributions of beauty and ugliness, past and future, memory and modernity.
Yamamoto also questioned the fashion ideals of perfection and constant renewal by
using unconventionally heavy, strong fabrics and designing garments that look pre-
aged. Yamamoto explains his desire to question these fashion norms stating:

My starting point was that I wanted to protect a humans body
actually hiding womens bodies. This is about sexuality, about
protecting it. From the very beginning of my career, I was not sure that
I would become a so-called fashion designer. It sounded very light-
fashion designer. When I think about the image of a fashion designer
I have to think about trend. I have to think about whats new, whats
next, what kind of feeling consumers want. Its too busy for me. So,
from the beginning, I wanted to protect the clothing itself from fashion,
and at the same time protect the womans body from something,
maybe from mens eyes or a cold wind. I wanted people to keep on
wearing my clothing for at least 10 years or more, so I requested the
fabric maker to make a very strong, tough finish. It is very close to
designing army clothing. they live forever (Salazar, 2011b, p. 82)



Curator Ligaya Salazar argues that Yamamotos ... garments seem to be in direct
opposition to what the industry stands for: they possess a timelessness that means the
consumer does not need to buy every season, and they obliterate a particular body
image instead of enforcing it (Salazar, 2011a, p. 48). While the fabric strength and
weight Yamamoto uses is partially responsible for this, it is also the worn aesthetic he
presents to the consumer. Fashion researcher Bonnie English (2011, p. 38-43) argues
that by showing collections that are ripped, torn, uneven and asymmetrical,
Yamamotos clothing both defied existing codes of haute couture and broke down
sartorial conventions of high fashion. This not only questions how we as consumers
project our identity and status with clothing, but further undermines traditional
definitions of fashion. For example, Barthes (1967) developed a method for identifying
when fashion is present by analysing the replacement of wardrobe items, arguing
that:

Fashion is sustained by certain producer groups in order to precipitate
the renewal of clothing, which would be too slow if it depended on
wear and tear aloneif the garment is replaced as soon as it is worn
out, there is no Fashionif the garment is worn beyond its natural
replacement time, there is pauperization if a person buys more than
he wears, there is Fashion, and the more the rhythm of purchase
exceeds the rhythm of dilapidation, the stronger the submission to
Fashion. (1967, p. 297-298)

44
By presenting new garments to consumers which appear old and well worn,
Yamamoto questions the fundamental ways in which fashion is both produced and
consumed, encouraging consumers to wear garments across seasons in his bid to
escape the fashion trend cycle (Figure 5).




Figure 5: Yamamoto commonly pre-aged his clothing as demonstrated in his Spring Summer
1983 collection which included distressed cotton tunics and trousers (Salazar, 2011a, p. 49).

On the surface, Yamamotos research and design process may appear similar to more
Conventional practices because it draws quite heavily on visual and sensory
references. However, I argue that unlike these more Conventional practitioners,
Yamamoto uses these references to convey ideas that question the conventions of
fashion. In addition, it is not just the visual nature of these references that Yamamoto
draws on, but what they symbolise and communicate. Yamamotos work is influenced
by both Western and Japanese garment traditions, historical detailing and
construction. In addition, other key visual and conceptual inspirations evident in
Yamamotos work are the Japanese aesthetic of wabi-sab, which embraces
imperfection, impermanence and incompletion, and photographer August Sanders
book of 1920s and 1930s portraits, People of the Twentieth Century (Salazar, 2011a,
p. 23). Yamamoto draws from wabi-sabi and one of his favourite Sanders portraits of
45
a casually dressed gypsy to highlight and question narrow Western norms and
traditions surrounding perfection by striving for the perfect imperfection, or the
individuality of a garment. These influences can be seen in Yamamotos use of worn
and pre-washed fabric and in his unorthodox way of constructing each garment. As
Salazar explains:

More understated means of imbuing his creations with this sense of
imperfection can be seen in the internal construction of Yamamotos
garments. Not a single piece of his is totally symmetrical, whether its a
matter of the back and front being different lengths, two shoulders
having entirely different shapes or aspects of the garments
construction being revealed on the outside (2011a, p. 23).

Yamamoto personally translates these ideas into designs by draping on a mannequin
and closely manages their development into final sample garments. Salazar describes
the process saying:

He used to work from drawings but for years now he has been working
directly with the fabric on a stand... Each garment goes through a
succession of changes and adjustments until it is ready for a pattern to
be made. Subsequently, further steps are added between the
construction of the toile and the final garment fitting, with Yamamoto
involved at every stage (2011a, p. 34).


Unlike Conventional designers, I argue that Yamamoto transforms visual and sensory
references into a series of symbols that are used in specific ways to communicate very
specific concepts. These symbols are used to explore and communicate the deeper
ideas and meanings behind his work rather than to create conventionally beautiful or
on-trend fashion garments as is the norm in Conventional design practices. While I
argue that Yamamotos creative works are therefore primarily idea-vehicles rather than
conventional fashion objects, it is more difficult to separate the idea and the visual in
Conceptual fashion than in Conceptual art. For example, language-based Conceptual
art is a clear example of this separation; however, in Conceptual fashion the distinction
is more subtle. However, the comments of Yamamoto himself demonstrate this
juncture between the visual style of the fashion objects he creates as idea-vehicles,
and his personal aesthetic which I suggest he refers to as typical Yohji. For example,
Yamamoto describes viewing his own retrospective exhibition saying:

I always want to go against something, some trend or some
movement. So as an archive, there are so many outfits, so many
creations, which are not Yohji. They are a kind of journalistic criticism,
so they are not typically Yohji. So when this kind of twisted idea of
46
clothing is put in the exhibition hall, I feel very embarrassed (Salazar,
2011b, p. 89).

With this statement I argue that Yamamoto infers that his clothes are intended as
conversation or critique rather than conventionally beautiful fashion objects to be
admired. This does not mean that the garments themselves are not beautiful, only that
for Yamamoto, beauty is not their primary function and their visual qualities are
determined by what he wants to say rather than what he wants to see. This suggests
that as a consequence, a Conceptual fashion designers archived body of work may
not serve to communicate their personal tastes or aesthetic, but instead provide a sort
of documentation of the history of their ideas and any comments they have had about
fashion.

Like those of Yamamoto, the creative works of Conceptual fashion designer, Issey
Miyake, also demonstrate a critically based exploration of his ideas about fashion.
Miyake could be seen as the early founder of Conceptual fashion as he paved the way
for Conceptual designers Yamamoto and Kawakubo to bring their work to Paris. Born
in Hiroshima, Miyake grew up in devastated postwar Japan and after graduating from
Tokyos Tama Art University in graphic design, he moved to Paris in 1965 to study at
the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture (Chands, 1999, p.150). After his training,
Miyake became an apprentice to Guy Laroche and then an assistant at Givenchy
(Jouve, 1997, p.11) before starting his own brand. Although he gained traditional
Western training, Miyake wanted to find a new way of making fashion explaining that
The Western tradition in clothing seemed to me to be too rigid. I wanted to create
things that could be free, both mentally and physically (Jouve,1997, p. 11). Although
Miyakes design practice challenges the Western fashion system by referencing his
Japanese heritage, he has always maintained that he does not want to evoke
Japanese culture with his clothing but to be between cultures (OBrien, 1993, p. 23
as cited in Kawamura, 2004, p. 96). Miyake explains what drives his exploration and
remaking of Western and Eastern traditional fashion practices in his statement, I
believe in questioning (Callaway, 1988). However, it is important to note that many of
Miyakes most unconventional design projects are designed to be accessible to a wide
range of consumers despite the intellectual way in which they question fashion.


Fashion researcher Djurdja Bartlett argues that Miyake has drawn from the restrained
traditions of Japanese clothing to deconstruct the traditionally complex fashion of the
West, giving new meanings to the clothing he produces (Bartlett, 2000, p. 224). Marie-
47
Andre Jouve (1997) highlights how Miyakes approach differs to Western design
approaches that take a sensual approach to the female body arguing that he sees
the body as a reed, a neutral flexible thing, in the tradition of the kimono (16).
However, Miyakes comments suggest that the sculptural and oversized shapes he
often uses are more to do with accessibility and the consumer experience than
adhering to Japanese traditions:

I want women to be able to wear my clothes in the kitchen, when
theyre pregnant... My clothes are for the young, the old, the short, the
tall. Theyre ageless you see?
(Frankel, 2001, p. 48)

It is this combination of daring sculptural shapes and consumer accessibility that has
come to define some of Miyakes most innovative projects along with his strong drive to
use technology to revolutionise fashion practice. Miyake reflects this continual
challenge to the fashion system saying:

our society is poised to make dramatic changes based upon
developments in science and technology. Will fashion be able to afford
to keep the same old methodology?
(Lee, 2005, p. 59)


Miyake questions conventional fashion practices by using innovative applications of
technology, traditional techniques and forward-thinking design that often work to
enhance the experience of consumers. He sees technology as a way to revive rather
than replace tradition and craftsmanship. This is highlighted in his comments that
the joint power of technology and manual work enables us to revive the warmth of
the human hand, in other words, to come close to the value inherent in artisanal work
(Sato, 1998, p. 55). This approach is demonstrated in Miyakes iconic project, Pleats
Please, developed in collaboration with Dai Fujiwara, who became Creative Director of
Issey Miyake in 2006. To develop this range, Miyake designed a new method of
clothing production using fusing technology and combined it with the simple body-
skimming shapes from his Japanese heritage and a contemporary design aesthetic.
Pleats Please emerged from Miyakes desire to develop a universally accessible
fashion product, the blue jeans of the twenty-first century. The resulting range is easy-
care, easily packaged, relatively affordable and accessible (Bartlett, 2000, p.227;
Frankel, 2001, p. 50), and despite the clothings sculptural, vaguely cubist shapes, the
permanent pleats result in stretchable garments that easily cocoon and adapt to
diverse body shapes (Spilker & Takeda, 2007, p.18) (Figure 6). Like Yamamoto,
Miyake questions the fashion trend cycle by maintaining a range of enduring classic
48
styles in the Pleats Please range while adding some new styles to the collection each
season. While pleated fabric is traditionally set in shape and then cut so that it can be
sewn together, for Pleats Please Miyake reversed these processes. By first making the
garments between two-and-a-half and three times their final size, folding and sewing
the pleats in place, and finally permanently heat setting the pleats, Miyake was able to
keep the pleats straight (Sato, 1998, p.23) and achieve a level of malleability in the
garments despite their abstract shapes. Pleats Please resulted in garments that adapt
to the body of the wearer rather than imposing a pre-defined shape on the body. This
fundamentally challenges traditional Western garment design and construction, which
has often been developed to sculpt the body into current ideals of beauty rather than
accommodating the natural shape of the body.



Figure 6: Irving Penn Photograph of Miyakes Pleats Please garment, Zig Zag, (Callaway,1988).

Miyakes research and design process is led by his ideas to revolutionise conventional
construction, production and function, and his practice is therefore primarily driven by
the exploration of ideas rather than the conventions of on-trend fashion objects. For
example, Miyakes Columbe dress demonstrates his desire to develop unconventional
design, construction and production methods as well as new ways of dressing. For
example, Miyake produced the Columbe dress in 1991 with a technique that eliminated
sewing by using a single piece of fabric, cutting a hole for the head, and using press-
studs to both fasten and decorate the style (Bartlett, 2000, p. 226). Miyake traditionally
translated ideas such as these where there is an explicit dialogue between design and
construction with his own hands, as he explains, I create by wrapping a piece of fabric
49
around myself. Its a process of manual labor. My clothes are born out of the
movement of my hands and body (Tsurumoto,1983, p. 103 as cited in Kawamura,
2004, p.147). However, as the complexity of his projects has increased with the
application and development of new technology, Miyake has often collaborated with
design partners and experts outside of fashion.

In a significant departure from Conventional fashion practices, Miyakes practice is
often driven by his desire to solve big-picture problems and engage consumers in new
ways. For example, A-POC, a project from Miyakes long term exploration, A Piece of
Cloth, proposes a radically different way of designing, producing and engaging with
fashion in response to Fujiwara and Miyakes ideas about where the future of fashion
needs to head in terms of garment production, sustainability and consumer
engagement. Dai Fujiwara has stated that A-POC was inspired by a need for
designers to become more accountable for the way their garments are made the
environmental damage that is done and the amount of waste created (Benjamin,
2009). Through A-POC, Miyake and Fujiwara insist that the clothing be made from a
single piece of fabric that fully clothes the body (Kawamura, 2004, p. 134). This
addresses the environmental concerns of fabric waste by referencing one of Miyakes
long-standing inspirations, the Kimono which produces no waste as it is cut entirely
from rectangles of fabric that fit into the textile width. Using this approach, Miyake
fundamentally questions the way garments are designed and constructed in traditional
Western fashion.

In addition, A-POC questions modern trends in fashion to outsource production
overseas to countries with cheap labour and to exclude consumers from the creative
design process. A-POC challenges Conventional fashion practices by developing both
knitted and woven garments from a tube of fabric that requires lower levels of labour to
be manufactured into garments with the consumer playing a vital role. For example,
in the knitted garments sewing is eliminated completely because the machine knits a
tube that contains several garments that are then cut by the consumer (Rissanen)
(Figure 7). Many of the woven A-POC garments also require little sewing, reducing
labour costs and avoiding the need to use cheaper factories overseas where it may be
hard to ensure ethical manufacturing. A-POC also fulfils Miyakes long-term goal to
involve the consumer in the design and production process where he claims ... he
does only half of the work and that the wearer must contribute the other half (Bartlett,
2000, p.227).

50


Figure 7: Miyakes A-POC Spring Summer collection 1999
(http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?object_id=100361).

Using Kosuths statements to analyse Yamamoto and Miyakes practices highlights
that both their design processes are driven by ideas that question fashion. Both
Yamamoto and Miyake fundamentally challenge Western and Japanese fashion by
questioning norms regarding gender, high and low culture, accessibility, beauty and
perfection with their unconventional sculptural shapes, fabrication, and finishing.
However, while Miyake and Yamamoto both explore ideas that question fashion, the
way they translate these ideas in the design process is very different. I argue that
Miyakes design process is governed by a desire to innovate the function and
construction of fashion, to embrace technology and increase consumer engagement.
In contrast, my research shows that in Yamamotos design process he translates his
research ideas into visual and sensory references that work as symbols. This further
supports the idea that Conceptual fashion, like Conceptual art, is not about specific
techniques or cohesive visual qualities, but about communicating deeper meaning in
particular, ideas that question the norms of fashion.





51
III. Fashion Dematerialised and Demystified
In the late 1960s, art critic Lucy Lippard emphasised the dematerialization of the art
object as a defining factor of Conceptual art (Godfrey, 1998, p. 14). Lucy Lippard and
John Chandler famously argue in The Dematerialization of Art (1968) that ...during
the 1960s the anti-intellectual, emotional/intuitive process of art-making characteristic
of the last two decades have begun to give way to an ultra-conceptual art that
emphasizes the thinking process almost exclusively (as cited in Matravers, 2007,
p.18). They suggest that this shift in emphasis was inspiring a dematerialisation of art,
in particular, the idea of art as a physical object and believed this trend may result in
the obsolescence of the art objects altogether. Derek Matravers (2007, p. 25) argues
that there is a link between Conceptual artists desire to dematerialise the art object
and distance themselves from modernism and traditional conceptions of art by
avoiding commodification. However, dematerialisation also relates to Conceptual arts
aim to shift traditional passive viewers of art into active thinkers by positioning artifacts
as signifiers. For example, artist Allan Kaprows observed that in Conceptual works,
the viewer had in fact become the object while the work presented by the artist
became like a canvas (Godfrey, 2006, p.143). Lippard and Chandler argue that art
objects are signifiers that have the ability to function as a language:

When works of art, like words, are signs that convey ideas, they are
not things in themselves but symbols or representatives of things.
Such a work is a medium rather than an end in itself or art-as-art (as
cited in Morgan, 1996, p.16)

Lippard and Chandler suggest that Conceptual art is more about the symbolic
function of the medium rather than the artifacts or things in themselves (Morgan,
1996, p. 16).

In contrast to early Conceptual artists, fashion designers Viktor & Rolf and Maison
Martin Margiela openly work within a commercial paradigm; however, they do
consistently use their clothing, brand, and identity as signifiers. In response to the
common tendency in Conceptual art to view the idea as the art and the physical artifact
as documentation of the idea, Lucy Lippard and John Chandler argue that in an act of
dematerialisation, the artifacts functioning to communicate the ideas behind them
became signs rather than things. This idea is useful to explore the practices of Viktor
& Rolf and Maison Martin Margiela and the way they question the fashion object and
the role of the fashion designer or brand. This is particularly so as both have at times
critiqued aspects of the commercial paradigm in which they operate. Fashion
52
researcher Jessica Bugg argues that, both Viktor & Rolf and Margiela
have...challenged the catwalk and used it as a space to confront or explore the
capitalist values of fashion (2009, p.13). However, in spite of this, these designers
openly participate in the fashion system that they question and produce clothing for
commercial sale. Consequently, I argue that their fashion objects demonstrate similar
techniques of dematerialisation to Conceptual artists through their function as signs.
However, these techniques are not as strict an attempt to avoid commodification as in
Conceptual art practices, but instead communicate Viktor & Rolfs ideas that critique
the fashion system.

I argue that Viktor & Rolf consistently use visual symbols in their practice to
communicate ideas in ways that intentionally echo the dematerialisation techniques of
early Conceptual art practices. Born in Holland, Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren are
seen as new, young, fresh faces of Conceptual fashion, having studied at the Arnhem
Academy of Art and Design before moving to Paris in 1992. In their early career they
skirted the boundaries of art and fashion practice until they experimented with couture
in 1997 before moving to ready-to-wear in 2000. Despite making a clear shift towards
the field of fashion, the design duo still maintain close ties to art, often engaging with
fashion as a form of critical inquiry steeped in irony. For example, in Viktor& Rolfs
Autumn/ Winter 1996-1997 collection the designers made no clothes at all and instead
sent fliers to the fashion editors saying Viktor & Rolf on strike and distributed posters
around the streets of Paris (Figure 8). Fashion researcher Caroline Evans (2003)
claims that:

Such tactics suggested that the designers were well aware that
fashion is the ultimate product that emphasises consumption at the
expense of production, making the latter invisible in classically Marxist
fashion. Viktor & Rolf managed simultaneously to critique the industry
and its spectacle yet to be a part of them in an ironic and knowing way
(p. 83).

I argue that this work shares strong similarities with Conceptual artist Robert Barrys
1969 show held at the Art & Project Gallery in Amsterdam which consisted of a sign on
the closed front door that read during the exhibition the gallery will be closed
(Godfrey, 1996, p. 164). It is difficult to distinguish whether this work by Viktor & Rolf
was most strongly motivated by their lack of financial capital at the time, their drive to
critique fashion, or ironically, their desire to build a media profile. However, the design
duo continue to create these paradoxical positions where they become the very
phenomenon they critique as they explore the role of fashion branding.

53



Figure 8: Viktor & Rolf on strike flier, Autumn Winter 1996-7 (Evans, 2003, p. 83).

Viktor & Rolf also provoked consumers to consider the emptiness of fashion branding
and media hype in 1997 when they presented small maquettes of a catwalk
spectacular in an Amsterdam gallery and launched a Viktor & Rolf perfume in a
limited edition of 250 bottles. While Viktor & Rolf developed a full marketing campaign
for the perfume (Figure 9), the bottles were empty (Evans, 2003, p. 83). By selling
every bottle at 200 pounds each, they provided an ironic symbol of a brand-obsessed
era (Menkes, 2003). Evans (2003, p. 85) describes this aspect of Viktor & Rolfs
practice as a nod to ...undercut any notion of resistance to the spectacle by
acknowledging that cultural producers and consumers today can be seduced and
entranced by the spectacle even as they understand that they are being manipulated
by it. I argue that this further highlights that Conceptual fashion, while not necessarily
being commercial in the conventional sense, appeals to a niche consumer who wants
to engage with products that stimulate them on an intellectual as well as visual and
sensory level. Viktor & Rolfs work demonstrates that this consumer is willing to
consume products that are not things in themselves but signs that communicate the
designers ideas.


54


Figure 9: Viktor & Rolf Spring Summer 1997 poster for their perfume launched at the Torch
Gallery in Amsterdam, November 1996 (Evans, 2003, p. 82).

Similarly, when Viktor & Rolfs performance as designers and their spectacular shows
became the crux of their creative practice, their clothing became signifiers of their
ideas rather than creative works in themselves. As Rolf states, For us really the show
is the performance, that is the real work. Those ten minutes is our work and the clothes
are like actors in a play (Martin, 2008). Rolfs comments suggest that their clothes are
symbols or signs used to communicate a larger idea or narrative. The narrative of
Viktor & Rolfs work changes each season but they generally work to critique various
aspects of the fashion system and consumerism. In addition, a recurring theme
threaded throughout much of their work relates to the role of the fashion designer. In a
break with tradition, Viktor & Rolf have often appeared in their own fashion shows
dressed like the models with a full face of black makeup for their 2001 Black Hole
collection, tap dancing to Singing in the Rain in 2001, and dressing and undressing in
front of the audience to launch their menswear line, Monsieur (Chang, 2010;
Lowthorpe, 2001; Menkes, 2003). In this sense, I argue that Viktor & Rolfs work can
be seen as a performance with the clothing becoming documentation of their work
rather than being positioned as the creative outcomes. Fashion journalist Rebecca
Lowthorpe (2001) agrees that Viktor & Rolfs work is performance-based explaining of
their Autumn/ Winter 2001-2002 Black Hole collection:

55
When Viktor and Rolf appeared to take their bows, blacked-up like the
models, it brought the house down. Never before had it been made so
clear that the clothes weren't the performance. The performance was
Viktor and Rolf.

English argues that by positioning themselves this way Viktor & Rolf were ironically
challenging the notion that sartorial status was defined not by the clothing but by
association with the image of the designer (2011, p. 157). This further supports the
argument that Viktor & Rolfs practice is driven by ideas and their physical artifacts are
positioned as signifiers rather than creative works in themselves.

Viktor & Rolf are driven by a desire to communicate ideas and shift their consumers
from passive to active through their performances. Olivier Saillard, fashion curator at
Muse de la Mode et du Textile in Paris, explains the key inventiveness of Viktor &
Rolfs practice as ...how you can read their work. It is a hall of mirrors reflecting the
world (Menkes, 2003). Viktor Horsting also explains their motivations saying, I hope
that we inspire people with the work that we do, give them something beautiful but
something that makes them think and that touches them emotionally (Martin, 2008).
This comment demonstrates parallels between the aspirations of Viktor & Rolf and
those of Conceptual artists in terms of cultivating an active viewer, or in the case of
fashion, an active consumer. In addition, this statement further demonstrates the
difficulty of distinguishing the idea from the visual in fashion with Horsting citing
beauty as a key concern of their practice. However, it is important to note that Viktor &
Rolfs idea of beauty is likely to differ substantially from those of more Conventional
practitioners.

In their design process, Viktor & Rolf may seem to further blur distinctions between
Conventional visually-driven and Conceptual ideas-driven fashion by drawing on visual
references to create their designs. For example, Richard Martin relates Viktor & Rolfs
design process, in which ideas are translated into designs by patchworking together
symbols, to the Visual Arts practice of collage:

Viktor & Rolf used pre-existing fragments as the collage medium to
create new clothing. . The effect is to see a new order emerging
from the familiar pieces of old style (Martin, 1999, p.113).

Similar techniques of collage or pastiche are commonly used in Conventional fashion
practices. However, unlike Conventional practitioners, Viktor & Rolf use these visual
references as symbols or signifies that are cobbled together to communicate their
ideas and critique fashion rather than to create a conventionally beautiful or on-trend
fashion object.
56
While many Conceptual artists dematerialise or demystifiy the art object by erasing it
entirely, I suggest that Maison Martin Margiela demystifies the fashion object by
displacing or distorting the physical qualities of the objects produced so that they
becomes signifiers of ideas-as-fashion. Martin Margiela is seen by many as the
defining Conceptual fashion designer of the 1990s. Born in Belgium and trained at the
Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, he graduated just a year before the famous
Antwerp Six designers emerged from the same course. After working as a freelance
designer for luxury labels, such as Jean Paul Gaultier, he launched his own label in
1989. However, it is not what we know about Margiela, but what we dont know about
him that defines his practice, as he has famously cultivated the status of the
anonymous designer. He worked as the creative director for major fashion brand
Herms between 1997 and 2003 and left his own brand, Maison Martin Margiela, in
2002 when it was purchased by fashion company, Diesel. It is interesting to note that
the work his house Maison Martin Margiela produces in his literal absence continues to
attract critical acclaim.
Maison Martin Margiela is particularly well known for practices of deconstruction or le
destroy. While deconstruction is not actually a destructive technique, some of the
ideas communicated by Margielas use of deconstruction could be related to the
Erased De Kooning Drawing of 1953. This artwork was created before Conceptual art
gained momentum; however, while Rauschenbergs early work was influenced by
Abstract Expressionism (Godfrey, 1998, p.63), this work demonstrates a clear shift
towards art-as-idea rather than art as a thing in itself and could therefore be framed as
a significant precursor to Conceptual art. In this work, Robert Rauschenberg requested
a drawing from fellow artist Willem de Kooning so that he could make an artwork in
reverse by rubbing it out. Godfrey (1998, p. 63-64) argues that this work asks the
question Could an act of apparent destruction be creative too?. Similarly, in
Margielas practice, destruction becomes a process of analytical creation (Martin &
Koda 1993, p. 94 as cited in Gill,1998, p. 27) and a method through which to demystify
fashion. The idea of deconstruction in fashion is explored by Bradley Quinn in his
book, The Architecture of Fashion (2003). Quinn explains the power of deconstruction
to demystify designed objects by exposing the structure and inner workings of the
garment or buildings form. For example, fashion deconstruction can be used to
communicate the construction history of a garment defying traditional fashion design
practices that aim to erase the previous experience of the garment (Quinn, 2003, p.
229) and reinforce the perfection and newness of the fashion object.
57
Fashion researcher Alison Gill explores Margielas use of these deconstruction
techniques as a critique of the fashion system. Gill (1998) argues that:

His dresses are made from mis-matched fabrics, lining-silks with
jerseys, and one can see the inside mechanics of the dress
structuredarts, facings, and zippers. Or old jackets have been re-cut,
tacked, sewn and re-detailed, their seams and darts reversed and
exposed to the outside. Accepting that a seamstress or tailor performs
a certain labor of outfitting bodies and giving them an enclothed
form, a labor stitched inside as the secrets of a finished garment, a
secret that is kept by the garment itself as it performs seamlessly,
Margiela literally brings these secrets to its surface (p. 27).

Margielas creative works have often worked to capture and communicate the process
of creating fashion. For example, in Margielas1996 semi-couture collection he made
basic garments that looked like the fabric and form of a tailors dummy to turn the
wearer into a mannequin (English, 2011, p. 135-6). He then added fabric in the guise
of half draped, unfinished garments to the mannequin garments, such as one front
side of a silk top or a quarter of a skirt to mimic the process of developing fashion
garments (Figure 10). This could be interpreted as an attempt to provoke the viewer to
question the ideal of perfection that prevails in fashion. However, Gill (1998) argues
that fashion deconstruction techniques like this offer a deeper critique of fashion
because:
visibility is given to the simultaneous bidirectionality of the labor that
the garment-maker and clothes performi.e., the garment-maker is
simultaneously forming and deforming, constructing and destroying,
making and undoing clothes. This bidirectional labor continues in
dressing and wearing clothes, as clothes figure and disfigure the body,
compose and decompose (p.28).


Figure 10: Margielas Semi-couture garments (Derycke & Van de Veire, 1999, p.285-286).
58
I argue that Maison Margiela also dematerialises the fashion object, not by erasing the
object entirely, but by creating non-traditional fashion objects that both question
fashion norms of perfection and beauty and encourage consumers to be active and
think about the ideas behind the work rather than simply enjoying their visual qualities.
Maison Margiela does this by distorting the features of garments so that they cease to
function as traditional fashion objects. For example, in Spring/ Summer 2000 and
Autumn/ Winter 2001 Margiela made a number of garments in size 74 and 78, so large
they would only fit giants in a conventional sense. While this could be interpreted as a
technique to question fashions standardization of the body, I argue this technique
transforms the garments into signifiers of the idea-asfashion rather than positioning
them as the creative works themselves in the minds of consumers. In this instance,
because the garments are too large to function as conventional fashion objects, they
encourage consumers to stop viewing them as the end-product and contemplate what
they represent. In another example of this technique, Maison Margiela made garments
from unwearable materials, such as the Autumn/Winter 1989-90 collection featuring a
waistcoat from wire and broken plates.

Martin Margiela has also worked to dematerialise himself, the creator, in a bid to erase
traditional fashion branding tools, such as a charismatic designer, logo, and garment
labelling. Luxury fashion is traditionally about two key symbols a brand with logo
and trademarks, and the profile and identity of the creative founding designer (Troy,
2002, p. 26). Traditionally, these symbols have imbued fashion objects with a sense of
authenticity through the identity, tastes and indiosyncracies of the founding designer
(Kapferer & Bastien, 2009). This phenomenon of identity transfer or symbolic
handwriting that marks the brands products is frequently called the griffe. Barbara
Vinken defines the term in Fashion Zeitgeist (2004, p.81) saying, the griffe, is the sign
of the house, guarantees original authorial authenticity. It stands as the signature to
uniqueness, the inspiration and the ability of particular individuals. Margiela attempts
to undermine the griffe by dematerialising the fashion branding of Maison Martin
Margiela, including logos and signage, and his own identity as the designer. He
refused to distribute photographs, insisted that the collections are the team effort of
Maison Margiela (English, 2011, p.131-132), and traditionally only answered interviews
by fax. Interestingly, all the questions are answered in the first person plural from all
those who work at Maison Margiela (Debo & Loppa, 2010, p. 499; Frankel, 2001, p.
34).

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Margiela also extended this process of dematerialisation to the clothing labels. Instead
of marking the clothes with his brand and identity, the labels are empty except for
numbers indicating the type of clothing the only key visible branding signifiers being
the four white stitches that attach the label to the garment (Figure 11). Ironically, these
seemingly empty gestures have become symbols of the mythical designer, Martin
Margiela, giving an enhanced exclusivity to his clothing. As Maison Margiela openly
admits it is a commercial business, I argue that these techniques are not intended to
avoid commodification or critique the commercial nature of the field as in Conceptual
art. Instead, I argue that these are a self-reflexive comment on industry conventions
which question what makes a garment fashion the tangible object, or the intangible,
or in a broader sense, what constitutes fashion the fashion object itself, the aura
lent to the fashion object by the designer or brands profile, or the designers ideas that
are communicated through the clothing-as-signifier.




Figure 11: The labels on Margiela garments are distinguished by numbers as seen in this Spring
Summer 2002 shirt (Maison Martin Margiela, 2009).




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Using Lippard and Chandlers idea of artifact-as-signifier to examine Viktor & Rolf and
Maison Margielas practices highlights a common tendency to dematerialise or
demystify the fashion object in order to communicate their ideas and activate
consumers to question the conventions of fashion. This tendency positions their
practices outside a Conventional fashion paradigm where the clothing is seen as the
final creative outcome and is generally designed to be an object of visual beauty or
fashionability. Although Viktor & Rolf and Maison Margiela both have different
approaches to dematerialisation and fashion design in general, both design practices
are frequently driven by ideas that critique the conventions of fashion rather than the
creation of a conventional fashion object. This again points to parallels with Conceptual
art which was not categorised by cohesive creative processes or visual qualities, but
by a tendency to prioritise ideas through creative practice in order to activate viewers
to question the field.

IV. Reflections

This comparative analysis highlights how Conceptual fashion design practices differ
from more Conventional fashion practices by relating them to key characteristics of
early Conceptual art. The analysis suggests that a key characteristic defining
Conceptual fashion practices is that the research and design process is driven by the
exploration and communication of critical ideas pertaining to the field of fashion rather
than the creation of garments that conform to accepted notions of beauty or on-trend
fashionability. However, while Conceptual fashion designers are driven by this
common tendency, the way each designer translates the conceptual through a material
design process are very different from each other. This suggests similarities with
Conceptual art practices which were not able to be defined by cohesive visual
qualities, mediums or techniques used, but by an emphasis on the critical ideas that
underpinned the work rather than the artifacts themselves. In both Conceptual art and
Conceptual fashion, these ideas often work to question the field and activate the
viewer or consumer to think rather than simply enjoy the physical qualities of the art or
fashion object. I suggest that all six of the designers, Hussein Chalayan, Rei
Kawakubo, Yohji Yamamoto, Issey Miyake, Viktor & Rolf and Martin Margiela, share
the common tendency with Conceptual artists to make self-reflexivity the primary
motivation driving their design process. This distinguishes Conceptual fashion design
practice from more Conventional fashion practices that often begin with a
preconceived aesthetic or visual direction for the garments and are generally geared
61
towards developing fashion objects that conform to conventional ideals of beauty and
respond to trends.

While many of the Conceptual fashion design processes demonstrate very different
approaches for translating research into designs, there are some similarities. For
example, Hussein Chalayan and Issey Miyake both demonstrate similar approaches to
some of their creative works where the design process is led by ideas relating to
function or construction parameters that stem from their research. In addition, Yohji
Yamamoto and Viktor & Rolf both demonstrate design processes in which visual
references are transformed into symbols that communicate the self-reflexivity of their
practices. In contrast, other fashion designers demonstrate their own unique design
processes, such as Rei Kawakubo and her collaborative design approach that
positions her patternmakers as translators for her ideas. However, her collaborative
design approach does share some parallels with the collaborative nature of Maison
Martin Margiela.

To extend this analysis, I seek to further explore the Conceptual art and Conceptual
fashion creative processes that relate to my own design research and design process.
I aim to expand my understanding of my own practice and develop new stimulus and
directions for future creative projects. This comparative analysis has set critical
contexts for my work because like these Conceptual artists and designers, my creative
practice is also primarily driven by research and exploration of ideas relating to fashion
design process rather than pre-conceived visual qualities and the goal of creating a
conventionally beautiful fashion object. More specifically, I suggest that my design
process is most similar to Hussein Chalayan and Issey Miyakes as my ideas are often
linked to function or restrictions I have set for the construction of the garments. This
also relates to many Conceptual artists, such as On Kawara and Roman Opalka, and
other Conceptual fashion designers, such as Martin Margiela, Junya Watanabe and
Ann Demeulemeester. In my creative practice I seek to explore more specific
relationships between these artists, designers and my own research and design
process while developing a more explicit understanding of my working methods.






62
Creative Practice

Throughout this project I have identified and experimented with a new approach to my
design research and design process that is based on developing mechanical,
systematic processes or design rules. These systems and rules are translations of my
research concepts and drive my design process. My system-based approach is
primarily driven by the exploration of ideas rather than any preconceived ideas for the
visual qualities of my creative works relating to conventional ideas of beauty or trends.
As a result, I suggest that this aspect of my practice is more closely related to
Conceptual fashion practices than Conventional fashion practices. Through this more
detailed analysis of design process and my studio-based inquiry, I explore similarities
between my own practices and those of early Conceptual artists, and Conceptual
fashion designers, Hussein Chalayan, Issey Miyake, Martin Margiela, Junya Watanabe
and Ann Demuelemeester to further develop critical contexts for my work.

I first recognised similarities between my practice and those of early Conceptual artists
while reading about Conceptual artist, Sol LeWitt. As previously discussed, LeWitt is
widely regarded as an influential figure in the development of Conceptual art through
his publications, Paragraphs on Conceptual Art (1967) and Sentences on Conceptual
Art (1969) (Costello, 2007, p. 104). Peter Osborne (1999, p. 52) summarises
Paragraphs on Conceptual Art as:

a distillation of the immanent logic of an object-producing , though
not object-based, practice which evolved primarily, through the
exploration of the effects of self-regulating series and systems of rules
for decision-making about the production of objects out of preformed
materials.

I feel a particular affinity with LeWitts statement in Paragraphs that the idea becomes
the machine that makes the art. This statement in many ways describes a key aim of
my creative practice to create new ideas or systems for each project that drive me
to explore new methods and approaches for designing and constructing fashion
garments. I have adopted this approach in an attempt to escape from the cycle of
Conventional fashion design where change is adopted for changes sake, to satisfy the
constantly shifting desires of consumers. During my time working in a Conventional
fashion paradigm, I found it difficult and unsatisfying to engage creatively with
preconceived ideas relating to creating beautiful, on-trend collections. Admittedly, I
have not worked as a designer at the highest luxury level of Conventional fashion and I
believe this would present more opportunities for challenging and innovative research
63
and design development. However, regardless of the additional creative potential
gained by working at a higher price-point, I felt that to remain stimulated in my practice
as a fashion designer, I needed to find some deeper and perhaps more intellectual
ways to connect with and create fashion. From this perspective, I explore and
question both my own research and design process and simultaneously, the very idea
of fashion what fashion is, how ideas about fashion are conceived and how these
ideas translate into the design of garments.

In my own practice I am at times systematic and at times random and illogical. As a
result, I also feel a strong affinity with LeWitts claim that Conceptual art is irrational
and in some cases illogical because ideas are discovered through intuition and often
do not develop in a logical order (Costello, 2007, p. 104-105). While I now recognise
that I have worked with design-systems before this project, in the past I have used
them to develop initial ideas and then altered the creative outcomes to conform to my
pre-conceived aesthetic ideas relating to prevailing visions of beauty or fashionability.
I suggest that using this approach sits somewhere between Conceptual and
Conventional approaches, as the design research process is quite intellectual and
driven by ideas to create a system and find new creative directions through
experimentation; however, the design development process is primarily focused on
creating a conventional fashion object of physical beauty. The garments may, like
Conceptual fashion garments, communicate some of the deeper, more intellectual
ideas from my research process; however, they would most certainly lose their ability
to question fashion norms because they would have been tampered with to reflect
these same norms. As a result, in this research project, I was particularly intrigued by
LeWitts suggestion that once a Conceptual artist had an idea, they should execute the
idea blindly and mechanically putting themselves at the service of that idea rather
than forcing their own aesthetic judgments or ego into the artwork (Costello, 2007,
p.104-105). This position inspired me to test what would happen in the studio if I
adopted a more rigid approach to my design-systems. Therefore, paradoxically, while I
was effectively choosing to adopt a more rigid set of design constraints, the value of
this model was in fact that it liberated me from a professional design process that I had
felt was a creative straightjacket.




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It must be pointed out that when LeWitt adopted his position in the context of 1960s
American Art scene, its value to his art practice was also crucial, but for slightly
different reasons. LeWitt believed that using a machine-like process was the best way
to avoid subjectivity and preserve the purity of the idea. As Isabelle Graw (2006, p.
129) explains, LeWitt was reacting against Abstract Expressionism when he attempted
to remove emotion, subjectivity and expression from the art making process with his
production-aesthetic systematic approach. However, Graw (2006, p. 128) also
argues that although LeWitt saw the fundamental choice of a system, which then
made decisions, as guaranteeing avoidance or subjectivity and personal expression,
the systems are, equally, results of personal selection, which may display personal
preference, or resonate with existential necessities. This paradox within LeWitts
position echoes similar tensions in my own practice: objective/ subjective; intellectual/
emotional; illogical/ logical; systematic/random; Conceptual/ Conventional. When I
used system-based methods in my own creative practice, the research underpinning
each project formed an idea that functioned as a machine that helped me determine
the overall garment designs. However, there was still a large degree of subjective,
creative in-put, for example, to develop the idea-machine itself as well as the
parameters, such as the materials and construction methods I used. Acknowledging
these tensions I was still motivated to work more faithfully within design-systems and
to resist as LeWitt suggests, Tampering with an idea by amending it, for example in
the light of the way its execution looks (Costello, 2007, p. 105-106). In this way, my
project actively explored the relationship between the conceptual and the visual as it
operates in fashion, thus contributing to the articulation of a very complex set of
considerations for designers working in the field of Conceptual fashion design practice.

In this research project I worked on two creative projects, three-sixty and in-the-round,
that are both developed using a system-based approach. These projects are
characterised by a methodical and systematic approach; however, like the work of
Conceptual artist Sol LeWitt, I found they were still informed by intuitive and illogical
connections and ideas that emerged as my creative work developed. Each project
worked with a different design-system and required the development of new working
methods that I will describe to highlight potential connections and similarities with
Conceptual art and Conceptual fashion practices.




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I. Creative Practice Project 1: three-sixty (2011)

Three-sixty was the creative practice that began this research project as it highlighted
similarities between my working methods and those of Conceptual artists, such as Sol
LeWitt. The project consists of working drawings, sketches and flat technical drawings
for six full outfits that were designed using what I describe as a design-system to lead
the design process (Figure 12). The similarity between my own creative practice and
those of early Conceptual artists of the 1960s led me to question if other fashion
designers would also share similarities with their work and ideas. As a result, I sought
to explore Conceptual fashion through the lens of Conceptual art. As my highly logical,
systematic and diagrammatic work in this project related to Conceptual artists, such as
LeWitt, who did not make traditional art objects, I decided to emphasise the ideas
underpinning three-sixty by not creating traditional fashion objects from my drawings
and sketches. Because the viewer can only engage with my three-sixty designs on an
intellectual level, this project demonstrates how fashion designs can relate to ideas of
dematerialisation and cultivating an active, thinking viewer. This also works to question
the norms of how fashion is experienced and consumed.


Figure 12: A finished design and flat drawings from three-sixty.


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i. Developing the design system

Three-sixty began with a research concept which I then translated into a design-
system that led the design process. In three-sixty, the design-system took the form of a
single rule:

all garments must appear exactly the same from all perspectives front, sides
and back

I developed this rule from the idea of designing garments to create the same view from
multiple perspectives and based my design research on mathematically-inspired
design, Einsteins theory of relativity, and the perception of time and reality. To make
a garment that is symmetrical on all sides but fits the body, and is different on all sides,
may seem an impossible task. However, to solve this problem, I started by determining
that the garment shapes and finishes should be the same on all sides but that by
unbuttoning, unzipping or tying certain elements, the garments could be worn in a way
that fits the body. My decision to solve the problem in this way demonstrates my
subjective and creative decision making around the design-system as there were
certainly other ways I could have approached the problems created by this rule. In
three-sixty I was able to draw from some preconceived ideas about the types of
clothing I might like to design. However, within the tight constraints of the design-
system I had set for myself, I needed to revise my ideas constantly in a reflective
process between the practicalities of clothing the body while maintaining identical
pattern pieces. This effectively prevented me from being able to tamper with the
designs so that they adhered to fashion norms and trends.

To expand the critical contexts for my work and further understand its relationship to
Conceptual fashion design practice, I analysed Conceptual fashion designers to
identify any similar approaches in their work. I found that Conceptual fashion designer
Junya Watanabe explores ideas that question fashion conventions through a similar
system-based design process. Watanabe explains:

Last season my starting point when designing the collection was to
get away from a normal clothing pattern making. The garment was a
cloth that was wrapped around the body. But I needed something to
hang the material from. It could have been anything, a pencil! But wire
was the best solution (Petronio, 1998, p.7 as cited in Kawamura, 2004,
p.102). (Figure 13)


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Figure 13: Junya Watanabes Autumn Winter 1998 collection that used single pieces of fabric
supported by wire to make unconventional garments (www.firstview.com).

In her Spring Summer 1999 collection, Belgian Conceptual fashion designer, Ann
Demuelemeester also uses a similar system or rules-based approach to challenge
traditional patternmaking. She asked herself the question, how can I make a
collection from a painters canvas? (Figure 14) and claims the ideas were born from
what she calls Zero Base- to set aside the repertoire of traditional patterns and to
confront herself with the essence of a garment: A piece of material which you can wrap
around yourself (Derycke & Van De Veire, 1999, p. 118). Like the six Conceptual
designers analysed in the Comparative Analysis, both Junya Watanabe and Ann
Demeulemeester demonstrate through their problem-based systematic approach that
they are primarily driven by the need to explore more intellectual ideas that question
rather than by ideas relating to conventional beauty or trends. Their design processes
are clearly driven by their research and ideas rather than from preconceived ideas
about the visual qualities of their work.


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Figure 14: Ann Demeulemeesters Spring Summer 1999 collection in which single pieces of
fabric were wrapped around the body to create garments (Derycke & Van de Veire,1999, p.117)

Some of the collections produced by fashion house Maison Martin Margiela also
demonstrate processes that relate to my approach of developing a design-system from
a rule. For example, in Margielas Spring/Summer 1990 collection he uses an
approach that I suggest could be phrased as the rule:

Each wearable garment will be made using a single oversized garment made
in size 74-78.

In response to this restriction, Maison Margiela creates an evening dress from a giant
mans undershirt singlet that is the height of a person. This undershirt is draped on a
female mannequin and contained within a sheer nylon long-sleeve T-shirt to create a
long dress (Figure 15). The final garment is a striking evening gown that shows little
resemblance to the giant mans singlet used to create it. There are conceivably a
number of ways to design around this rule and the solution of the sheer shirt to contain
the oversized garment is just one possible outcome. However, I suggest that without
the rule dictating the use of giant garments, it is unlikely Margiela would have draped
this same dress. I relate this to three-sixty because I would never have developed the
garments I designed in this project without the stimulus of the design-system.
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Figure 15: Maison Martin Margielas Spring Summer 1990 collection featured a giant undershirt
draped to create a dress (Derycke & Van de Veire, 1999, p. 226-227).

As my analysis demonstrates, similar approaches to my system-based research and
design process can be identified in the work of Conceptual fashion designers Junya
Watanabe, Ann Demeulemeester and Maison Martin Margiela. I argue that these
significant parallels were only able to be identified after expanding my research
process to more sincerely comply with the assertion of Conceptual artist Sol LeWitt,
that ideas should not be tampered with. I suggest that this is due to the fact that
when I did not tamper with my ideas, the intellectual aspects underpinning my work
were more effectively translated and communicated through my final designs, and as
my previous analysis demonstrates, this is a defining characteristic of Conceptual
fashion. As a result, it is not surprising that this key shift in my research and design
process uncovered more direct similarities with Conceptual fashion designers than
when I was working with a more hybrid Conventional/ Conceptual approach.






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ii. Developing new working methods

The design-system for three-sixty required me to develop a new working method that
engaged in a dialogue between design and construction a reflective back and forth
between abstract idea and form, imagination and practicality. Previously I had
designed by focusing on the visual properties of the garments through sketching, and
had only considered the construction in terms of how best to re-create my design so
that it reflected my sketch. To develop a dialogue between design and construction, I
needed to build new working methods that moved between 2D and 3D
experimentation. I needed these new methods because the system-based approach
that I adopted questioned both the visual qualities and the fundamental aspects of
traditional fashion construction norms. In the first stages of each garment design, I
would bounce my ideas between design and construction by making numerous rough
sketches and diagrams (Figure 16). I would then test these ideas with 3D paper
models to ensure each design would work on the body. Using this process, I would
move back and forth between sketching and 3D modeling numerous times before
finalising each design. Three-sixty was the first project in which I translated an
intellectual idea into a design-system that drove the design process without my
tampering with the visual characteristics. It was also the first design project in which I
created a reflective dialogue between design and construction or function. In addition,
this back and forth between design and function took each of my initial design ideas in
radically different directions from the initial preconceived design ideas I had when I
began sketching. With this system-based approach, I was pleased to find that true to
Sol LeWitts statements, I was able to in many ways bypass my ego by not
tampering with the idea.
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Figure 16: Working drawings for three-sixty.

I argue that my exploration of these working methods that engage with both design
and construction is relevant to the broader field of Conceptual fashion design practice
as similar methods appear in the practices of other designers, such as Conceptual
fashion designer Hussein Chalayan. Hussein Chalayan uses a similar design process
that creates a dialogue between design and construction or function in his
Autumn/Winter 2000 collection, Afterwords. As previously discussed, this collection
explored the hardships experienced by refugees and Chalayan determined that four of
the dresses would also function as chair covers that could be transformed and worn. I
suggest that the single rule he develops to lead the design process is similar to my rule
in three-sixty. For example, in Afterwords, the rule could be interpreted as:

Each unique dress will transform to create a chair cover.

While there is no literature explaining Chalayans actual design process for this
collection, I suggest that to successfully achieve the two functions, dress and chair
cover, Chalayan would have needed to use methods that create a dialogue between
design and construction (Figure 17). I suggest that in Chalayans design process, as in
three-sixty, the requirements of the garment functions or characteristics would have led
the design process and heavily determined the visual characteristics of the final
designs. It is important to note that it is was only after engaging with the ideas of
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Conceptual artist Sol LeWitt that I was moved to develop these new dialogic working
methods. The fact that after adopting this approach I have been able to identify new
parallels with Conceptual fashion designers suggests that working methods that work
with both the visual and construction aspects of garments enables a clearer
communication of ideas and the ability to engage with more intellectual ideas that
fundamentally question fashion norms on all levels.


Figure 17: Hussein Chalayan Autumn Winter 2000 collection, Afterwords (Violette, 2011)

iii. Reflections

Before the project, three-sixty, I did not have an explicit understanding of my research
and design process, and I suggest that because I was using a hybrid Conceptual/
Conventional approach, I had difficulty relating my practice and working methods to
those of other fashion designers both Conceptual and Conventional. However, after
reflecting on Conceptual art theory and specifically integrating Sol LeWitts idea into
my practice, I have been able to analyse Conceptual fashion practices and find a
number of connections with my own approach of creating design-systems and working
methods that create a dialogue between design and construction or function. This
more explicit knowledge I have of my own practice, as well as the new information I
have gained about Conceptual art and Conceptual fashion practices, led me to
develop a more complex design-system for my next creative practice project, in-the-
round.
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II. Creative Practice Project 2: in-the-round (2011-2012)

After developing my symmetrical garments for three-sixty I wanted to continue working
with the idea of design-systems and explore how they might relate to Conceptual art
practices. While in-the-round related to three-sixty because it explored symmetry and
unconventional garment construction, the primary link was the driving force of a
design-system. As in three-sixty, I began developing a design system based on
adapting unconventional shapes and garments features to a conventional body. While
in three-sixty I had simply explored symmetry, in this project, inspired by LeWitt and
other artists, I wanted to work with a more restrictive system and I therefore selected a
basic shape and explored its relationship to the body. I chose a circle as it provided a
canvas that is the same in all directions, allowing an extensive exploration of
symmetry, geometry and the body. From the basic canvas of a circle, I wanted to
develop a system of strict rules to work within, while still trying to develop completely
different and individual looking garments. I called the project, in-the-round and the
original rules were as follows:

in-the-round
i. the garment must be cut from a circle
ii. the fabric may be cut
iii. the fabric must remain in one piece

At this stage, the rules set a design-system that provided a set of restrictions for my
experimentation with shape and form. The first rule dictated the basic canvas as a
circle. I selected a circle with 160cm diametre for the logical reason that when the
circle was folded in half- as it would need to be to create garments- the length was
long enough to clothe the body. The second rule dictated that I could cut the fabric as I
experimented with shape; however, the third rule dictated that I could not cut a piece of
the circle off entirely as the circle must remain intact. As demonstrated in Figure 18,
this meant that my only options were to make cut lines into the edges but not through
the circle or make slash line cuts inside the circle that did not extend to the edges of
the circle.
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Figure 18: Two options for the types of cuts and slashes that could be made in the circle.
In the first stage of this creative practice project, these restrictions forced me to work
outside traditional patternmaking and drove my design process ensuring I could not
draw on pre-conceived ideas or dictate how the final garments would look based on
conventional ideas of beauty or fashionability. Similarly to my design-system in three-
sixty, this freed me to work completely independently of trends. While I thought that
these rules only related to my shape experimentation on half scale mannequins, in
stage two I began to translate these half scale prototypes into full scale garments. In
this translation process, I was surprised to find these rules also began to influence the
construction details and fabric choices as well. To address the evolving needs of the
project as I moved to stage two, I also added additional rules during the design
process. I argue that this project has a number of key similarities with early
Conceptual art and Conceptual fashion design practices and to further demonstrate
the relevance of my creative practice research and the context surrounding my practice
I will highlight these parallels in my analysis.

i. Developing the design system

In addition to reading about Sol LeWitts ideas and practice, I read about the creative
processes of Conceptual artists Lawrence Weiner, On Kawara and Roman Opalka.
Their practices influenced the development of the system of rules for in the round. A
key influence in the development of my design method for this project was Lawrence
Weiners Declaration of Intent (1968):



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The artist may construct the piece.
The piece may be fabricated.
The piece need not be built.
Each being equal and consistent with the intent of the artist, the decision as to
condition rests with the receiver upon the occasion of receivership.
(Alberro,1998, p.124)

It was not the meaning of Weiners declaration, but his use of short instructive
statements that intrigued me as I began to explore other artists who developed
systems or rules in their practice. For example, On Kawaras date paintings
demonstrate a creative process bound by a very strict system of rules. Tony Godfrey
explains that On Kawaras date paintings were prepared with four or five layers of paint
to remove any form of individual expression through a perfect surface. They were
monochromatic works consisting of the date of the day the work was made, and while
On Kawara allowed himself to produce up to three works each day, as part of the
system of rules, he was bound to destroy any that were not complete by midnight. In
addition, the system dictated that each work must be packaged for sale in a box
containing a page from that days newspaper (Godfrey, 1996, p.156). Artist Roman
Opalka showed a similar dedication to rules-based, systematically produced works in
his practice of painting numbers from one towards infinity. In 1965, Opalka began
painting white numbers on a black background and his system dictated that he would
add one percent extra white paint to the background with each subsequent work so
that eventually he would reach white-on-white works (Godfrey, 1996, p. 156). Opalka
continued faithfully to this system of rules until his death in 2011, at which point he had
reached the five millions. It was with these practices in mind that I developed the initial
rules for in-the-round.

By adopting an increasingly rigid system-based design process with similarities to
Conceptual art practices, I argue that my previously hybrid Conventional/ Conceptual
practice developed even further parallels with Conceptual fashion practices. For
example, I began to see that Conceptual fashion designer Issey Miyake works with
complex design problems with similarities to my design-system of rules. For example,
earlier in this analysis I explored Miyakes Columbe dress made from a single piece of
fabric with a hole for the head and press-studs to both fasten and decorate the style
and eliminate sewing (Bartlett, 2000, p. 226). While Miyake may not visualise his
research and design process in this way, I suggest that he designs around a set of
rules or parameters he has set himself. For example:
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i. the garment must use a single piece of cloth
ii. the garment may not use stitching of any kind
iii. decoration will be added to the garment through means of function and
construction

I argue that Miyakes project A-POC, or A Piece of Cloth, can also be conceptualised in
a similar way. As previously examined, A-POC was designed to respond to Miyake
and his collaborator Fujiwara ideas about how fashion needed to reduce environmental
impacts by eliminating waste, maintain local manufacture by developing innovative
production methods that require little labour, and engage consumers by giving them
input into the design and production process. The parameters could be interpreted as:


i. the clothing must be produced from a single piece of cloth
ii. the clothing must eliminate or use minimal stitching
iii. the final designs must be determined by the end user
iv. multiple designs must be possible from the same piece of cloth


Miyake continues to demonstrate a practice governed by complex parameters, for
example, in his latest design project, 132 5 (Figure 19) described on the Issey Miyake
website:

132 5. ISSEY MIYAKE", developed by Issey Miyake and his Reality
Lab team, is both a new label and a new evolution of "A Piece Of
Cloth". The process by which the clothing is made is groundbreaking,
using a mathematical algorithm: first, a variety of three-dimensional
shapes are conceived in collaboration with a computer scientist; then,
these shapes are folded into two dimensional forms with pre-set
cutting lines that determine their finished shape; and finally, they are
heat-pressed, to yield folded shirts, skirts, dresses etc. These clothes
are significant not only for the process by which they were made but
because they are also made using recycled PET products, sometimes
in combination with other recycled fibers. 132 5. ISSEY MIYAKE" is
Miyake's new creative challenge based on the ideas of "Regeneration
and Re-creation" and a continuation of his perpetual search for new
ways by which to make "clothes that bring joy and happiness to
wearers (www.isseymiyake.com).

I suggest that like my project in-the-round, the rules of 132 5 could be conceptualised
as:


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i. the clothing must be produced from a single piece of cloth
ii. the cloth must be made from recycled material
iii. the clothing must use no stitching
iv. the designs must fold into an origami design

Figure 19: Issey Miyakes project 132 5 in which flat origami shapes unfold into garments
(www.isseymiyake.com).

Similarly, like the working methods I developed for my project three-sixty and those
used by Hussein Chalayans Afterwords collection featuring his chair-cover dresses, I
suggest that Issey Miyake would most likely need to use working methods that create a
dialogue between design and construction. Because in-the-round uses a more
complex system of rules than three-sixty, I found that I needed to develop new working
methods that enabled me to more actively experiment with innovative construction.

ii. Developing new working methods

Throughout in-the-round I used some similar methods to my first project, three-sixty;
however, due to the complexity of the design-system for in-the-round, I needed to do
more of my problem-solving in 3D. In addition, unlike three-sixty, I went beyond
developing sketches and flat technical drawings as the final works and realised the
designs in full scale to be worn on the body. Translating my designs from designs into
garments required additional phases of design and problem-solving relating to
fabrication and construction.

I began in-the-round with similar working methods to three-sixty using sketches and
diagrams supported with small 3D mock-ups to test my ideas. However, I quickly
78
realised that to effectively work with this more complex design-system, a significant
part of the design process would need to happen in 3D on a half scale mannequin. In
my first design, inspired by the diagram-based work of Sol LeWitt, I spent a great deal
of time working out a complex and intricate design on paper (Figure 20). However,
when I made this style in calico it did not function as a wearable garment and was not
at all as I had visualised it. I realised that I had tried to achieve too much complex
problem solving before becoming familiar with the basics of conceptualising a 3D
shape from a single circle of fabric (Figure 21).


Figure 20: The initial complex diagram.



Figure 21: The initial calico experimentation.

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Before I could approach more complex designs, I first needed to start simply and think
about the basic and obvious ways I could convert this fabric circle into a wearable form
(Figure 22).

Figure 22: Initial diagrams for style one and three.

I slashed into the fabric so I could mould it to the body but always kept the single
piece of fabric intact. I was really happy with how the styles looked as flat patterns, as
the slash lines created striking shapes that shared some of the same visual aesthetic
qualities of the Conceptual art diagrams and pieces I had been studying. This was an
unexpected correlation considering I was consciously working with similar ideas to
Conceptual artists but had not even considered that the visual aspects of my work may
contain similarities. I felt this process was successful because the patterns I created
were so far removed from conventional fashion patternmaking that I could view them
as objects in their own right. These patterns, like the final garments, became signifiers
that communicated my ideas about patternmaking and the body and I enjoyed how
foreign they seemed in a fashion context (Figure 23).




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Figure 23: Flat patterns in calico for style one, two, three and four.

My design process for the more simple shapes was quite linear and moved from 2D to
3D development. For example, to develop styles one to four, I made diagrams of the
initial design ideas, roughly tested my ideas in small 3D paper or fabric models, refined
them through sketching, and then tested and further refined them on the half scale
mannequin (Figure 24).

Figure 24: Development work for style one.

These simpler styles were fundamental to the success of the project as they laid the
groundwork for all other styles by showing me different ways I could manipulate the
circle either with the centre becoming the neckline or becoming the hem. However,
the styles became progressively more complicated as I stretched the boundaries of the
new knowledge I had about transforming the circles into wearable forms as I tried to
develop a completely unique garment with each progressive style. As I expanded my
knowledge of the capabilities of the circle and its relationship with the body, I
experimented with different ideas for sleeves, necklines and silhouettes. To refine
these more complicated styles, I found I needed to move back and forth between
making diagrams, making small 3D mock-ups and testing the designs on the
mannequin.
81

Until this point, my final designs reflected those that I sketched fairly faithfully;
however, this changed with the development of style five and six as they were radically
different to the initial diagrams. For these styles, I made a diagram and mocked-up
one design idea, but they failed to work as planned when tested on a mannequin.
However, when I put these failed patterns back on the mannequin and experimented
freely, I found a completely different way to use the existing shape to produce a
different design. This was quite a different process to some of the other styles, for
while the initial sketching phase was necessary to develop the pattern shape, it was
working on the mannequin that produced the final design. This highlighted to me that
even when working within a design-system, there may be multiple methods or
techniques possible to answer the brief at different stages of the project.

Style five and six not only showed me how to use a new approach where the final
design deviated from my initial sketch, but also created new design opportunities by
using overlapping fabric layers. Until this point, all edges of my designs had met
another edge and there were no overlapping layers. In contrast, because I had not
worked style five out with a diagram beforehand, to turn the abstract piece of fabric into
a garment I needed to overlap layers of the fabric (Figure 25).















Figure 25: Development work for style five where overlapping layers were used for the first time.

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Although this seems like a simple step, it opened up a world of possibilities and
potential design innovations. This process led me to experiment with overlapping
layers and crossing layers from the front to the back. With style number six I worked
this way again, by taking a slashed circle pattern that had failed to translate
successfully from the sketch to the mannequin and used it in an entirely different way
to drape a new style on the mannequin. This style was extremely complicated with
many overlapping layers that would have been impossible for me to visualise when
working from a diagram or sketch (Figure 26).

Figure 26: Development work for style six where a major component of the design work was
done on the mannequin resulting in a more complex style.

As a result, I decided that this too could be a valuable way of working. Essentially I
was creating an even tighter set of restrictions or rules by slashing the circle of fabric
and then developing a new design unrelated to the thought process that went into
creating the slash positions in the first place. I had initially started the design process
through thoughtful analysis and placement of the slash lines in relation to the body
legs, arms and head. However, I now considered moving forward with random slash
lines not informed by critical thinking and then moving into 3D designing on the
mannequin. This also resulted in my exploring the idea of mutations.

Because I had achieved such positive results from working on the mannequin rather
than sketching, I wondered if I might be able to transform some of the existing styles I
83
had developed by working with them on the mannequin in different ways. I began with
style seven by taking style six with all its overlapping layers and thinking about how I
could transform it. I began by shrinking the circle of fabric from 160cm in diameter to
140cm in diameter which changed the proportion substantially. I then experimented
with draping the pattern piece on the mannequin to see if the layers could be
rearranged in a new way. I added two extra slash design lines to the style (Figure 27)
and successfully arranged it into a design that looks remarkably different to style six
(Figure 28). I determined that this could be a useful strategy for future creative
projects where I could build on previous work by reassembling them in new ways.

Figure 27: Line drawings of the flat patterns for style six and seven show the similarities.

Figure 28: Style six and seven flat and on the mannequin.
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I experimented with another technique when designing style eight in which I slashed
the fabric repeatedly to change the way the garment sat on the body. I developed style
eight using the basic shape idea of style four. In this process, I actually drew a new
pattern piece rather than using the pattern from style four, but used a very similar
positioning of the slash lines. Rather than developing the intricate slash lines on the
body, I developed them in a diagram, transferred them to the fabric and then
developed a prototype on the half scale mannequin (Figure 29). I was very happy with
the result, as the shape and overall look of the style was dramatically different to style
two despite their similarities in silhouette (Figure 30).


Figure 29: Line drawings of the flat patterns for style four and eight show the similarities
between the main slash lines to create the neckline and the sleeves.

Figure 30: Style four and eight flat and on the mannequin (the final line drawing (figure 29) and
the development work (figure 30) for style four are different as the neckline was changed to a
straight opening in the final stages of development).
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I felt this method met my design aims of working without concrete pre-conceived ideas
about the visual qualities of my designs and working with a design process that
embraces unexpected results and works outside conventional fashion norms. I
determined that my strategy for style 8 could also be a useful strategy for future
creative work, and while I could have experimented with it endlessly, I wanted to
analyse how my designs changed and developed as I translated them from half scale
prototype, to full scale garment, so moved on to begin the construction process.

iii. Developing construction and fabrication methods

In this second phase, I needed to take the prototypes I had developed beyond rough
experiments and translate them to full scale, wearable garments. This section is
difficult to explain in a linear fashion as many of the decisions were happening
simultaneously. As a result, I will discuss the construction challenges and decisions
first and then follow with the fabric and colour choices, as this most closely mirrors the
way I approached the process. However, at some points this may make my
description appear disjointed as I am forced to reference colour before I have fully
explained my process for this. I had to problem-solve so I could adhere to the design
rules I had set, but also work within the parameters of garment construction, such as
fabric width and finishing. I had tested all my larger 3D work on a half scale
mannequin which had been a useful experimentation method; however, with this
method I had been able to work with a single piece of fabric to complete each design.
In contrast, when translating the designs into full scale, I needed to add seaming to fit
the pattern into conventional fabric widths as my circle patterns were wider than most
conventional fabrics. For some styles I could source extra wide fabric that
accommodated the 160cm wide circles, but in most instances, I needed to add a
number of seams which influenced the design of the final garments. I came up with
three construction solutions that can be identified in my final creative works:

1. bagging out all edges so seam allowance and stitching is hidden
2. laser cutting edges and fusing seams to eliminate edge fraying and stitching
3. fusing multiple layers of fabric together and leaving raw cutting edges

When I first set out to solve the problem of translating the half scale designs into full
scale garments, I decided that the seaming should become an integral part of the
design. Consequently, I added three additional rules to my system of design. However,
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these rules were interpreted in different ways throughout the project as I designed with
different materials:

in-the-round

i. the garment must be cut from a circle
ii. the fabric may be cut
iii. the fabric must remain in one piece
iv. the garment may be sewn
v. no stitching may be visible
vi. no seam allowance may be taken from the circle


In design styles one to six, I initially planned to adhere to the design rules by hiding all
stitching through entirely bagging all edges out with two layers of fabric (so that the
seam allowance and stitching is hidden inside the layers of fabric). Because
conventional fabric is generally much narrower than the 160cm of my full scale circle
patterns, this approach required the final slashed circle patterns to be dissected into a
number of pieces that would then be individually cut and sewn back together to form
the whole. I determined that after these pieces were seamed together, the slash
design lines of the original half scale pattern would be bagged out so that all edges
were fully finished and all stitching was enclosed. The flat piece of fully bagged out
fabric would then be arranged on the body (as it had been in the toiling process on the
half scale mannequin) and invisibly hand stitched in place. I did this to enclose the
stitching and follow the design rule no stitching may be visible. However, I also did
this to follow rule six, no seam allowance may be taken from the circle. To take no
seam allowance from the circle meant that I needed to ensure that when the original
circle pattern piece was dissected to fit onto the fabric, seam allowance was only
added to rather than subtracted from the circle. This would mean that after the
seaming and bagging out process had been completed (but before it was arranged on
the body and hand sewn), the fabric could be laid out flat to form a circle identical to
the original pattern piece, with no gaps where seam allowance had been subtracted
(Figure 31).

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Figure 31: Style two flat pattern shape and final seaming and construction lines.

To achieve this, there were specific places where I had to create seam lines and there
were also additional seam lines required to ensure each pattern piece fitted on the
narrow width of fabric. Consequently, constraints of construction led the design
process in this second phase. However, despite all these restrictions, I also realised
that there were a number of ways I could solve the problem of fitting the pattern onto
the fabric so each style had many potential design solutions. In other words, while
construction dictated that some of the lines had to be in specific places, many of the
other lines could be placed in numerous different configurations to fit in conventional
fabric widths. As a result, with these additional construction lines, I was still making
subjective and at times illogical design decisions while working within my system of
rules. For example, Figure 32 demonstrates two very different and equally possible
and logical placements for the seaming so that the garment fitted on available fabric.


Figure 32: Style three flat pattern shape, initial brainstorming diagram for colour and seam lines
and diagram of final seaming and construction lines.
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The process of translating a prototype into a finished garment is full of technical
challenges and is another under-examined area of fashion research. This process,
which is often seen as relating to construction or production, is actually very relevant to
the design process as it can alter the final garments drastically from the original design.
My process of translation involved problem solving based on a series of rational
approaches; however, this did not always result in rational and logical outcomes. For
example, bagging out all edges was extremely difficult as the pattern-pieces, being
circular, were cut on unusual grains of the fabric, causing the fabric to twist and warp
easily. In later styles, I replaced the bagging out process with laser-cutting to sear the
edges and prevent fraying so I did not need to finish the edges. However, as the laser
cutting machine can only work with fabric pieces 120 centimetres long and eighty five
centimetres wide, I had to add new seams to accommodate the machine. In addition,
because the laser cutter seared all edges and eliminated fraying, I started to fuse the
fabric pieces together with special heat-set fabric glue rather than sew the seams to
eliminate stitching altogether. This is not dissimilar to some of the production and
construction processes of Issey Miyakes fusing technology in his Pleats Please and
APOC projects (Figure 33).



Figure 33: Style eight laser cutting pattern shapes and final fabric fused together.


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As well as fusing seams, I also explored the idea of fusing multiple layers of fabric
together so I could leave cut edges raw and eliminate all seaming. For style seven, I
was looking to make a full scale version with no seaming at all, so I sourced a non-
conventional fabric, a polyester felt made from 100% recycled plastic bottles, that
atypically, was wide enough to fit a 160cm circle. While high quality wool felts used in
fashion are often less than 160cm in width, this felt fabric is produced for craft projects
which may explain the wide width. While this eliminated the need for seams and the
felt could be cut with a raw edge as it did not fray, the fabric was quite unstable as a
single layer. As a result, I decided to fuse two layers of felt together, one blue and
one black, to strengthen the fabric. This not only allowed me to maintain raw edges
and eliminate seaming, but also created interesting colour interactions as the
overlapping layers folded to expose the two different colours (Figure 34). With the
knowledge gained from style seven, I used the same method when producing style
eight, fusing two layers of black fabric together and cutting the style with raw edges.




Figure 34: Style six technical drawings and full scale garment.



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iv. Colour selection and surface decoration

The final part of phase two involved my selecting fabric qualities, colours, and surface
techniques for the garments. While for some elements I maintained a systematic and
logical approach relating to fabric availability, fabric performance and construction
requirements, in other instances I seemed to abandon my systematic approach. I
could have added additional rules to lead this part of the process as I had for the
construction process; however, in deference to my creative impulse I wanted the
flexibility to choose the colours and fabrics outside of a system. I cant really logically
examine my decision to do this, except perhaps that it is one of the illogical creative
aspects acknowledged as part of Conceptual art by Sol LeWitt. In addition, I did
observe that there was a certain flow-on effect and each garment I made brought up
new ideas for colours, fabrics, shapes, or surface techniques that then carried on or
developed for the next garment. As a result, this was not so much a system-driven
process, but closer to a series of ideas that evolved further with each piece. Arguably,
this aspect of my design process could be more similar to Conventional fashion design
methods than Conceptual approaches.

When I first started translating the half scale into full scale garments, I was working
with the premise that the garments would be seamed into sections and bagged out
with all seams hidden. Visualizing the garments this way I saw them in bright colours
not for any reason I can pinpoint, this is just the way I imagined them. I was
particularly inspired by the unusual colour combinations used by Philip Hughes in the
book Patterns in the Landscape: the notebooks of Philip Hughes. These landscapes
were sectioned, segmented and layered in unusually geometric abstract ways and the
colour combinations were unexpected at times tonal, and at other times clashing
(Figure 35). I looked to some of these sketches when choosing my colour palette as
well as being guided by suitability of fabric for the produced style and fabric availability.

91

Figure 35: One of Philip Hughes painting studies from his book Patterns in the Landscape: the
notebooks of Philip Hughes (Hughes, 1998).

In addition to the choice of colour, I also decided to take advantage of the laser cutting
machines to create surface decorations on some pieces, such as style one, four, five
and eight. I produced style eight first adding shaped pieces of organza to layer over
the slashes I had made all over the garment. After producing this, I found the shapes
a little large and awkward on the body, so I shrank them down to use them on style
five, and shrank them again to use as small intricate shapes cut out of the base fabric
in style one and four (Figure 36).

Figure 36: Laser cutting applications for in-the-round.
92

The way I developed these surface techniques by adapting and evolving them from
style to style does not adhere to a system, nor is there any logical explanation as to
why I made these decisions. Despite my otherwise systematic approaches, I found
myself reverting to more Conventional fashion approaches that draw on conventional
ideas of beauty and fashionability when selecting colours and fabrics. I found this an
interesting shift in my practice and although there was no room to further examine this
aspect in this research project, it occurred to me that mapping my intersections
between Conventional and Conceptual design methods and practices could be an
interesting research question for future studies.

v. Reflections

In-the-round was a valuable project to further expand my understanding of
relationships between Conceptual art and Conceptual fashion practice. By developing
a more complex design-system of rules, I was able to experiment with new applications
for my existing design research and design process methods. This more complex
design-system further helped me to identify links between my practices and those of
Conceptual fashion designers, such as Issey Miyake. As a result, I also expanded my
understanding of the research and design processes of Conceptual fashion design as
a whole. From both three-sixty and in-the-round I have identified connections between
my own research and design process and the creative processes of Conceptual artists,
Sol LeWitt, Lawrence Weiner, On Kawara and Roman Opalka. In addition, I have been
able to identify similarities between my research and design processes and those of
Conceptual fashion designers, such as Hussein Chalayan, Martin Margiela, Issey
Miyake, Junya Watanabe and Ann Demeulmeester. This has perhaps provided me
with the most valuable new knowledge for my own creative practice, as by exploring
how these designers use similar approaches in different ways I have identified many
different techniques to experiment with in my future practice (Figure 37).

93
Figure 37: All the final garments for in-the-round.



















94
Conclusion

In this project, the dialogue between theory and practice has helped me to expand my
creative practice, find similarities with Conceptual art practices and also identify
parallels between my own practice and those of Conceptual fashion designers. In
addition, through a practice-led research approach, I developed a greater
understanding of Conceptual fashion design research and process. Due to the limited
critical discourse currently available in Fashion Studies, I used Conceptual art as a
lens to expand understandings of Conceptual fashion and my own creative practice.
Both the theoretical and practical elements of this project demonstrate that despite
obvious differences between Conceptual fashion and Conceptual art, there are
valuable parallels to be made between the two fields. For example, exploring literature
about Conceptual artists, such as Sol LeWitt, On Kawara and Roman Opalka, helped
me explore and expand my understandings of my own systematic design process.
Studying their ideas and processes helped me develop and experiment with new
creative practice approaches that have more direct parallels with Conceptual art
characteristics and practices than my previous creative work. Before this project, I
argue that my research and design process was a hybrid of Conceptual and
Conventional practices. By aligning my practice closer to the more intellectual ideas
and processes prevalent in Conceptual art, I argue that I also developed a design
process that has greater similarities with the practices of Conceptual fashion
designers. These similarities with Conceptual fashion design practices became more
explicit after I adopted the self-reflexivity of Conceptual artists because my ideas more
directly led my design process. This led me to develop garment designs that more
clearly communicated these self-reflexive aspects of my practice. In addition, my
creative practice more explicitly questioned the field and norms of fashion and I argue
that this shift resulted in a more intellectual fashion design practice that directly relates
to Conceptual fashion design practice.

I argue that a key difference between Conventional and Conceptual fashion design
practitioners is how they approach the research phase of their practice when their
research ideas are explored and translated into design ideas. For example, I suggest
that the primary objective of Conventional fashion design research is generally to
create more-or-less traditional fashion objects of conventional beauty or fashionability.
In contrast, Conceptual fashion practices are driven by the exploration of ideas that
often question conventions and norms of fashion. This part of the design process, the
translation of research into designs is underdeveloped in academic research. As a
95
result, I explored Conceptual fashion design practices for translating research in the
design process. My analysis demonstrates that while Conceptual fashion designers
are generally driven by a tendency to prioritise ideas over the visual qualities of their
fashion objects, they use diverse design processes to translate these ideas into
designs.

I argue that like Conceptual art, Conceptual fashion cannot be defined by cohesive
visual qualities or working methods, but by an emphasis on the exploration and
communication of ideas. While both Conceptual artists and Conceptual fashion
designers prioritise self-reflexivity, I have found that Conceptual fashion designers are
more likely to make things or objects. However, their objects do not always end up
conforming to pre-existing or conventional ideals of beauty or fashionability. Despite
their diverse design processes, I argue that this tendency is demonstrated in the
practices of all six of the analysed Conceptual fashion designers, Hussein Chalayan,
Rei Kawakubo, Yohji Yamamoto, Issey Miyake, Viktor & Rolf and Martin Margiela. For
example, I argue that Hussein Chalayan and Rei Kawakubo both begin their design
process with concepts that they seek to embody in their garments. However, while
Chalayans translation of these ideas is often very systematic and related to a dialogue
between design, construction and function, Kawakubo uses a unique collaborative
design approach where she directs her patternmaking team to explore her ideas. My
research also shows that Yohji Yamamoto and Issey Miyake both explore and
communicate ideas that fundamentally question fashion conventions and norms
through their garments. However, while Yamamotos design process involves turning
visual and sensory references into symbols that communicate his questioning of
fashion, Miyake develops entirely new ways for designing, producing and engaging
with fashion that often adapt new technology and create new consumer roles. In
addition, my research shows that Viktor & Rolf and Maison Martrin Margiela both have
developed work that effectively dematerialises fashion.. However, Viktor & Rolf use
collage or pastiche that, like Yamamoto, transforms visual references into symbols that
communicate their ideas. In addition, their performance as designers and the
spectacle of their fashion shows is the crux of their creative practice and is a key part
of communicating their idea of fashion. Maison Margielas practice also dematerialises
fashion objects by using them as signifiers to communicate their ideas through
deconstruction or distortion of conventional features. However, in parallel with the
practice of Viktor & Rolf, I argue that Martin Margielas non-performance or anonymity
as the designer is also a key part of communicating the a key aspect of the houses
creative practice. While these designers represent only a small sample of the diversity
96
of practice within Conceptual fashion design, they do highlight that despite inherent
differences, they are all united by an identifiable intellectual approach to fashion that is
primarily driven by the exploration and communication of ideas rather than developing
conventional fashion objects.

As part of this analysis, through studio-based inquiry I explored the Conceptual art and
Conceptual fashion creative processes that relate to my own design research and
design process. This set critical contexts for my work because it demonstrates that like
Conceptual artists and designers, my creative practice projects are also primarily
driven by my research and exploration of ideas rather than pre-conceived visual
qualities influenced by conventions of beauty or trend. My creative practice projects,
three-sixty and in-the-round explore my use of design-systems and rules to translate
my research ideas in the design process. This work reveals connections to the system-
related practices of Conceptual artists, such as Sol Lewitt, On Kawara and Roman
Opalka. My exploration of design-systems through creative practice also highlights
similarities between my own design process and those of Conceptual fashion
designers Hussein Chalayan, Issey Miyake, Martin Margiela, Junya Watanabe and
Ann Demeulemeester.

Firstly, my research demonstrates that both Junya Watanabe and Ann
Demeulemeester use a similar approach to my project three-sixty, which was driven by
the exploration of a single rule. Watanabe and Demeulmeester demonstrate a
tendency to explore questions in their design process, that like my rule, place
restrictions on their design exploration and force them to design around these
constraints. Secondly, I argue that my system-based methods relate to working
methods that Hussein Chalayan uses for some of his creative works. In a similar
manner to my own process, Chalayan sets construction and function-related
restrictions that lead his design process and require a dialogue between design and
construction to develop a solution. Thirdly, I suggest that my practice has similarities
to Conceptual fashion designer Issey Miyake as he works within a complex series of
restrictions that lead his design process as he tries to solve fundamental challenges he
identifies in the fashion industry. While Miyakes practice differs to mine in that he is
trying to solve definitive problems to achieve a specific outcome, the complexity of the
system of restrictions he works within relate closely to the arbitrary, but complex
system I built for myself in in-the-round. This theoretical and studio-based analysis has
helped me identify my creative practice as relating to Conceptual fashion design. In
addition, I have identified new areas of experimentation for my future practice through
97
identifying and exploring art and fashion practitioners who use a similar self-reflexive,
intellectual and systematic approach.

As this project shows, the field of Conceptual fashion is complex, its design processes
diverse, and its outcomes unpredictable. It is a form of fashion that often targets a
critical consumer who is seeking to consume ideas as well as objects. Fashion is a
visual medium; however, it also trades on ideas, and Conceptual fashion design
exemplifies this. This is an ambitious project that scopes Conceptual fashion practice
and compares it to Conceptual art through a studio-based, theoretically informed
inquiry. In conducting this research, my central objective was to shed some light on
the way Conceptual fashion designers translate the conceptual into the material
through design process. In addition, I wanted to challenge and expand my own
creative practice by exploring how art practices related to my own creative practice.
Through this process I have analysed how fashion designers relate to the conceptual
and the visual in their design practices, traversing ideas of the tangible and intangible,
literal and symbolic, rational and irrational, systematic and random, logical and
intuitive, Conventional and Conceptual. I have made garments that test these ideas
and their relevance to my own creative practice. These garments are both
representative of my self-reflexive design process, and beautiful things in themselves.
There is still a significant amount of research that needs to be conducted on both
Conventional and Conceptual fashion design practices, as well as the range of
practices that lie between them. My project contributes to the field by positioning
Conventional design practices as the translation of the visual into the visual and
suggesting that Conceptual fashion design practices would be best described as ideas
into the visual into ideas Or more specifically, as ideas that are conveyed to the
consumer through visual symbols that transform back into ideas that question the
nature of fashion.










98
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