Throughout my project, I have researched a variety of ways to interpret the industrial world overwhelming the natural one, and vice versa in relation to my theme ‘Natural Industry.’ By producing mind maps and mood boards, I decided on the initial direction for my project following on from the title – focusing on mechanical inventions from the industrial world and combining them with animalia from the natural one, with a certain element of horror involved to draw my project towards the audience of costuming for a horror genre production.  

To initially respond to this, I researched and produced responses to a series of artists, such as Daido Moriyama and Matt Wilson. Moriyama’s street photography aided my conceptual development of stray animals, allowing me to incorporate this horror element into the stray, feral nature of a creature, as well as giving the initial inspiration for developing my own mythological creature based on various mythologies surrounding interpretations of animals – with the ferality coming through in my outcome by the scratchy rust-dyed lace embellishing this symbolism of abandonment. Wilson’s sculpture work inspired the physical direction of my project, with animal sculptures made up of recycled materials like scrap metal, informing my final owl mask inspired by the sculptures I researched. I produced a series of illustrations relating to both artists, with charcoal sketches of cats and mono prints in response to Moriyama, and paintings of owls and insects responding to Wilson which I embroidered with metallic objects such as buttons, sequins, etc. to resemble their mechanical side. This initial secondary research provided a developed basis for the rest of my project, giving me a multitude of ideas to work from should I reach a dead-end with one idea. 

The mechanical side of my initial research led me to utilising gears and physical mechanical parts such as nuts and bolts. To study these items, I borrowed gears and parts from the mechanics building and drew from them, sketching their structure and applying it to fabrics to see how I could realistically interpret it into a fashion outcome – as well as drawing from seeing the underside and working parts of cars, etc. This research of gears enabled me to design the initial ideas that are seen in my final mask, including the idea of merging the owl painting with the gears to make my own version of inventing this mechanical being and bringing it to life. 

To bring in initial ideas for a fashion garment interpretation of the theme, I researched two sculpture artists who worked with similar concepts and mediums to one another – Phils and William David. These sculptures – typically of the female figure in intimate positions with the flesh replaced with metal – are reminiscent of cyborg humanoids, relating to the dystopian horror element throughout some of my initial research. In response to this research and relating it back to the rest of my project so far, I took semi-nude photos of a female body and drew over the top with car parts and gears referenced earlier in my mechanics exploration, which I then printed onto fabric and painted with a metallic acrylic marker and fabric paints. These were some of my favourite responses in the project, as I loved how they developed the concept of a stray, nude, humane creature made up of these mechanical elements – and this creature development continued into the next artist H.R. Giger, who created airbrush paintings of cyborg alien monsters with elements of the human figure embedded in them. These cyborg-like sculptures and illustrations were a key element to my final design - shown in my bodysuit made up of machine prints that represent the mechanical body underneath the creature covered up by the flesh-coloured Lycra. I interpreted H.R. Giger's works again through paintings, but also decided to focus specifically on the uncanny like appearance which I recreated through producing clay figures of canine teeth – researched through sketches of my dogs' teeth and shark teeth seen in museum – which I coated in a layer of wax. I did not end up including these in my outcome due to time, however if I had more time, I would have included these teeth on wire as neck and waist accessories. 

This, alongside other research, was inspired by a visit to Cambridge and the series of museums there, specifically for Giger: chick embryos covered in wax and Fijian tribal necklaces/accessories made from whales' teeth. This expanse of research drawn from this trip allowed me to progress with a further multitude of pathways and ideas to work from, specifically incorporating the tribal aspect which I would later refine in to merge the tribal nature of humans with the industrial revolution side of humans. Another example I was inspired by however did not ultimately use was Samurai armour, which included layers of plates with small textile decorations that did end up informing my use of washers embroidered into my final skirt and bolero, hanging loosely to represent these armoured plates. 

Returning to physical fabric responses, I experimented with a series of techniques such as fusible film and rust-dyeing. The fusible film came with the idea of creating a pair of goggles, of which I would use the film in the lenses to develop a shimmering area of modern brightness to an otherwise Victorian piece, however I did not end up using this due to the production of a mask instead of goggles, though they did inform my initial idea for a collar piece. Rust-dyeing was another technique I developed in this project and ended up making my final piece almost entirely out of different rust-dyed materials. When sampling, I tested this on a variety of materials such as cotton, denim, and lace. Initially, it did not go well, especially on the denim which I had hoped would work due to how denim represents the uniform of the working man – linking back to my industrial factory-like approach. However, I solved this by blunt needle working into the dyed areas to draw it out, then dyeing again over the top and embroidering metal buttons into the areas, which worked greatly and perfectly provided this imagery of the working man. Lace was another material in which I experimented with multiple techniques into, such as pleating, rust-dyeing, spray-painting, layering, etc. I fell in love with using lace in this project, as it was easy to work with and developed my designs to a higher level, using it as the main base for much of my outcome. The colour palette provided by the rust-dyeing of all of these pieces worked well to achieve the metallic colouring but having it slightly subdued to give off the effect of the worn-down industrial world, abandoned and perhaps being reclaimed by the more natural elements, with the feathers coming in to play in the mask to reassert the creature as a natural being. 

Steampunk styling was a major inspiration for this project and informed many of the techniques I utilised, for example the rust-dyeing and inclusion of inventive merging of animals and machine. The key fashion elements of steampunk I also drew from for my outcome, such as the bodice corsetry, leather, lace, shrug, puffed sleeves, gathered skirt, clockwork/gear pieces, etc. The Victorian resemblance traditionally portrayed by steampunk informed my outcome, as well as the industrial revolution era theme of my project, relating to the sense of industry and metalworks, with leather and denim being in my original outcome designs showing the uniform of the working class from traditional to modern (leather to denim). Additionally, this uniform styling was developed by my final piece of designer research – Moschino Menswear AW17 collection. This inspired my more utilitarian approach to the materials used due to its inclusion of khaki, cargo, etc, however more specifically I was drawn to and used in my outcome the heavily embroidered berets and jackets – adorned with all sorts of metal bits such as buttons, safety pins, chains, etc.  

The primary focus of literal interpretations of steampunk in my work was displayed in the owl mask produced for my outcome – which was made from a positive-negative-positive technique from clay, to plaster, to a plastic form. The plastic I spraypainted with 5 coats – copper, gold, copper, black, then copper again to have a muted metallic shine -, then added foam gears layered on top of each other over the eye holes resembling the mechanical aspect to the creature, including also feathers hot glued to the ridges to resemble and assert the natural aspect of the owl, finishing with pieces of thin rust-dyed lace acting as ties around the head. I am immensely pleased with the result of this mask conceptually and practically, as this was my first time experimenting with mask-making. Should I redo this again, I would make certain aspects more visible such as the beak and ears, so that it more closely resembled an owl's features. 

When producing my outcome, I first mocked up a toile out of calico, which was successful and allowed me to discover issues with my pattern – for example I ended up switching out the maxi length gathered skirt in favour of a mini length gored one with curved yokes. This also allowed me to develop technical skills, such as yokes and two invisible zips at both side seams in the skirt and producing gathered puffed sleeves. Overall, the toile was successful and only these changes had to be made to the patterns, etc. For the final outcome, more changes had to be made due to technical errors, mainly with the bodice. Originally, it was to be made from leather, however this I decided to change due to the time I would have to make for sewing the tough leather and then the alterations, so switched this out in favour of denim taken from upcycled jeans. This also proved unsuccessful, as when I made the bodice it was far too big despite the toile being perfectly fit, so I attempted to alter it to make it smaller, but this proved a challenge and with the time constraints, I decided an easier option would be to change the design from a bodice to a bodysuit, as I knew I could do this in a shorter amount of time.  

Therefore, in my outcome I produced a full costume for my creature character alongside the owl mask which set the tone of the piece. First, a rust-dyed lace bolero/shrug with gathered puff sleeves, with bird feathers lining the hemline and washes embellished along the hem. To match the bolero, I also made a collar based on my lace samples, with four pieces of different lace trims layered on top of each other to make the collar connected by hooks and eyes, leaving a long tail to drape down, resembling that of a Victorian neckpiece. This section of my costume, alongside the owl mask, resembled the steampunk influence in my project and shows how the styles and manipulative techniques informed my outcome; the collar was also a favourite area of mine from this costume due to its effortlessly elegant styling compared to the more rugged approach taken to the other pieces. Secondly, I produced a mini length gored skirt with curved yokes and two zips at each side seam. This is my favourite area of the costume, and utilised multiple techniques seen in my project, for example rust-dyeing and fabric manipulation. The yokes I made from upcycled, rust-dyed denim and the panelled length of the skirt was made from the same vintage, rust-dyed lace as the bolero, hanging freely down from the more structured base, of which the front area of these panels is gathered upwards by gathering tape. Like my sample, in the denim I blunt-needle worked the rusted areas and embroidered over the top, this time with a variety of metals such as washers, buttons, nuts, bolts, hoops, etc to incorporate the influence of the Moschino collection and my original research into the inclusion of antique metallics. Also, matching the bolero, I added feathers again between the yokes and the panels, incorporating this semi-tribal aspect previously researched into the piece, allowing the natural aspect of the creature to shine through. Finally, I replaced the bodice from my original designs with a bodysuit as mentioned, creating a geared machine pattern and screen printing this onto the bodysuit using puff binder, which when heated expanded into the 3D form replicating the physical machinery; the bodysuit was then held up by a belt used as a halter neck, incorporating again the steampunk inspiration alongside the industrial uniform nature of the costume. In my design I included another layer of feathers along the top hemline, however I did not end up doing this as I felt that alongside the other layers with lots of embroidery that it would be too much visually and would derail from the focal point of the piece – the cyborg creature. I am unsure about whether the bodysuit matches the rest of the costume, however without the bolero it is visually less tacky and therefore I would like to dye the Lycra a different flesh-like shade to match more if I were to redo it, though am overall pleased with it conceptually. 

Overall, I am largely pleased with the direction my project took, and how my starting point of ‘Natural Industry’ ended with this steampunk version of animalia – which took inspiration from research completed from start to end. There are some areas that I wish I had developed further and taken to the next level, such as the uncanny alien beings alike H.R. Giger's work, though am still happy with how this informed smaller, more conceptual areas of my outcome. I greatly improved on various techniques and skills in this project, from patternmaking to experimentative techniques and continued developing them till the end, displaying my progression from my previous projects in terms of research and sampling.