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Karl heinz weinberger
"Admirers of Elvis and James Dean, these kids and twenty-somethings disdained conformity, the mainstream, and wore jeans decorated according to personal taste with studs, badges, and huge belt buckles. After gaining access to this small but attention-grabbing fringe group, Weinberger kept his eye on it and photographed it.
He reciprocated with invitations to his place. The men came mostly alone, finding in his pad a refuge from the police, girlfriends, and gang members, a retreat where they could let their hair down, where they drank, smoked, stripped, masturbated … and Weinberger photographed. Besides that, he listened to them, giving them sometimes advice and usually a warm meal, giving them a home. After retirement, Weinberger devoted himself full-time to these non-conformists, creating long portrait series that are of great intensity, indeed unique."
What I really like about his work is the vibe that he has overall created. When I was researching denim I kept in mind the idea of being young, working-class and the poor. When I was researching denim I also found out that it was created for people that worked in the mines as they needed a more protective fabric for work. And I was thinking about the strength and the way they have to work with their hands and how they clean their hands on the trousers and the dirty yet really interesting print that would make.
I was also thinking about the details of the clothes that he has photographed and how I can use them in my design development or even my textile designs. I also like the metal combined with the denim, it makes me think of rock and roll and from the simple poor people to the rock stars like Elvis.
details like the zipper, collar, buckles, belt, buttons.
Andres Serrano
"The imagery and content of Serrano's work is often a challenge to mainstream propriety or sensibilities. He produces images that combine the sacred, such as religious iconography, with the what might be called the profane: sex, bodies and their fluids, poverty, death, and/or violence. Even his studio portraiture presents controversial subjects in highly stylized ways, framing a homeless person or a loaded gun in the same way as they might be the subject in a Renaissance portrait or classical still-life."
https://www.theartstory.org/artist/serrano-andres/
On my contextual practice page I talked about why I love this photoshoot.
Andres Serrano bodily fluids and the morgue
The first two pictures are part of Address Sarrano bodily fluids series which I thought would make an interesting print and even stitching into it would make an interesting idea for a design.
To be honest these last two images have made me feel a bit uncomfortable but they have made me think about the Lawrence textile strike and all the people that have risked their lives to make their life better.
The Lawrence textile strike, 1912
At the turn of the 20th century, Lawrence, Massachusetts was one of the most important textile manufacturing towns in the United States. The mills in the area were principally under the ownership of the American Woollen Company, which employed about 40,000 people. The Company's consolidation of thirty-four factories across New England had a yearly output of about $45,000,000. The dawn of the Industrial Revolution had allowed many employers to lay off skilled workers in favor of large numbers of unskilled, immigrant laborers who were working on average for less than $9.00 for a full week’s work. A large proportion of the work was done by women, and about half of the workers in the four mills in Lawrence owned by the American Woollen Company were girls aged between fourteen and eighteen.
The workers lived in small, cramped, and often dangerous tenement buildings and survived mostly on bread, beans, and molasses as their staple diet. 50% of the children brought up in these conditions did not survive to reach the age of six, while thirty-six out of every hundred men died before the age of twenty-five. As well as these inhumane conditions, workers had to contend with rent prices that were higher than rent prices in the rest of New England, and ranged from about $1.00 to $6.00 a week for the small apartments the workers lived in. 58% of these homes found it necessary to take in lodgers in order to be able to pay the rent.
The conditions in the mills became steadily worse before the strike began in January of 1912. With the introduction of a two-loom system, the pace of work became much faster for the workers, which in turn led to a series of layoffs and wage cuts for those that remained.
The strike and subsequent struggle for the release of Ettor and Giovannitti lasted nearly a year. However, within the next few years nearly all of the gains fought for by the workers and the IWW had been chiseled away by the mill companies and there were drops in pay and conditions, and the installation of labor spies to keep an eye on the workers, leading to the firing of many union activists. The workers had won a temporary victory in Lawrence, but eventually lost all that they had fought for due to the bullying and intimidation of the American Woollen Company of union members and the coming economic decline in the US.
https://libcom.org/history/articles/lawrence-textile-strike-1912
Plan
PLan
to develop more (bigger) samples
start draping
work on sketchbook
bring in A1 sheets of paper for monday
don't play it safe- think outside the box- expand your research
QR code
scale
star sewing up the final design
Music
Miners
When I was researching denim I found out that " clothes for Western laborers, such as teamsters, surveyors, and miners, were not very durable. His concept for making reinforced jeans was inspired when a customer requested a pair of durable and strong pants for her husband to chop wood."
And so the miners wore jeans for work and i really like the idea of not caring about the fabric and "cleaning your hands" from work (from the dirt in the mines and the dust from the rocks) stain
and also the surrounding like the earth ( earth colors)
the history and identity of these people
worn-out aesthetic
practicality
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SAM TAYLOR WOOD
"Still Life by Sam Taylor-Wood - A real-life vanitas still life with an exquisite, simple meditation on mortality and beauty. The addition of a supermarket peach and a Bic pen prompts questions about modern attempts at immortality."
Food I ate during the break
When I was reading the brief, what stuck out to me was when my dad was cooking the Christmas dinner and he threw away some food and i really liked the color palette and so iI took a picture of it and that's how I started thinking about food. And then when we went to the market I started thinking about the process of buying the food and then making it and where it first comes from.
I want to do some embroidery or even try to weave the denim and then print on top to create the shapes and colors of the foods I ate.
Also, the Christmas dinner was very special and I thought i should add it to my research because we have very specific Romanian food that we eat like sarmale and I started thinking about how that looks like little packaging of food and the inside is rolled into a "shell".
I want to look more into food, more importantly, the process of cooking food like sarmale and i want to create samples.
denim techniques
"Denim Washes
After your denim garments are designed and made it’s possible to achieve different effects on the finished products. To achieve them, various types of chemicals are used alongside sprinkler guns and machines.
Stone washing was the first type of ‘special effect’ used on raw denim. This is a process that removes much of the colour from raw denim, and adds contrast. Pumice stones are used to imbue a worn, rough look. The washing time dictates the final colour of the fabric; the longer it’s washed the lighter it becomes. The denim is then rinsed, softened and tumble-dried.
Sandblasting is a laundry process that is performed before washing. Denim products are shot with guns that contain sand in order to add abrasions and to create a worn appearance. Originally done by hand, large laundry houses now use automated systems.
Enzyme washing is considered to be a more efficient and environmentally sound alternative to stone washing. Organic enzymes that eat away at the indigo are used instead of pumice stones. Denim products that are finished this way tend to be stronger than those subjected to traditional methods of stone washing.
Related reading: How Denim Manufacturing Impacts the Environment
Acid washing originated in Italy in the 1980s. This process is achieved by soaking pumice stones in acid, then washing the denim with the stones. When the stones make contact with the denim, irregular pattern formations are created on the surface.
Sewing Denim Fabric
Denim products are usually made by using an overlocker sewing machine and an industrial 2-needle, flat-bed machine. Large factories may use specialist sewing machines, but usually, if producing moderately sized quantities, ordinary machines would be perfectly adequate to achieve the double rows of stitching that distinguishes denim items from regular clothing.
If you’re after the traditional flat-felled seam used on denim clothes and will be manufacturing small quantities, then you can purchase a specialist felling foot that can be attached to your machine for in-house production purposes.
The production of denim clothing is undertaken around the world. Some of the larger denim manufacturing hubs are Portugal, China, Turkey, North America and India.
If you are serious about working with denim fabric, then working with a factory that specialises in producing denim clothing is a must. But, a word of warning to most new designers and small brands: be prepared for disappointment as you probably won’t be able to meet their vast minimums. In order to justify the finishing processes such as stone washing, sandblasting or acid washing, huge quantities of product need to be made by the factory. The machines that are used for finishing are very large and must be filled. Usually, minimums range from 300- 500 pairs upwards per style per colour/finish.
When Vetements decided to produce a range of denimwear recently, they realised that they would be unable to meet the minimums of any of the factories they approached. They overcame this initial hitch by thinking creatively, as most good designers do. They bought vintage Levis and reworked them into stylish, patchwork jeans that became a cult favourite.
You too can think like Vetements and find a new way to create your own denim line. Visit fabric trade fairs, such as Premiere Vision in Paris, and source specialist denim producers. With advances in fabric production, you will undoubtedly find some great denim which doesn’t require special finishing using large machines.
When working with denim fabric, consider working with a factory that is open to producing your goods creatively. Some designers, when working with a small factory, take the initiative and supply them with specialist sewing machines or tools that they don’t have, thus enabling the smooth manufacturing of their products.
Designers often desire the use of denim in their fashion collections. It is a material loved and worn by a large portion of the world’s population in one way or another. It allows for products to be entry point as well as high end. In short, it is a very democratic material. Not to mention that the contrast of the two rows of mustard top-stitching thread, against a backdrop of indigo denim, is nothing short of sublime.
Don’t worry too much if you’re unable to meet the minimums for the special finishes, just stick to dark blue and produce your goods locally, with the aid of a creative machinist and a felling foot. Dark denim has great hanger appeal and with the right cuts, will also have great selling appeal. Should you want to offer an alternative finish, why not try experimenting with bleach, paint or dye? Restriction is the ally of all creative endeavours, after all."
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