Tuesday, 26 November 2013

Research - Fashion through the years 1920-1950

This particular blog post is going to feature the research I have been doing in regards to fashion over the years. My website will focus on fashion styles throughout the era's of 1920-present, so it is crucial that I choose correctly and research well.

1920's

  • Glitz 
  • Glamour
  • Formalilty
Unfitting, long dresses dominate.

Actually an American image but similar styles to Britain. Tuxedo-like suit vs a lace dress.

Pointed court shoe with Mary Jane strap.
Loose fitting fur and generous fabrics.

Glitz and glamour defined with pearls, feathers, boas and sparkle.


Crystals are often seen especially in evening wear.
1930's
  • More simplistic styles
  • Durable fabrics
  • Elegance
Simple coats with fur around the neckline give elegance but simplicity.

Clothes were made to suit to family woman.

Structure and fitting was now more a part of the 1930's style.

Long dresses were still worn, but with less glamour than before.

Good Housekeeping magazine show a detailed reference of 1930's clothing styles.

Small details like frills and bows replace pearls, crystals and fur.
1940's
Fitted waists show off the figure of a woman.

Heavy fabrics were used for durability and wear.

The Tea Dress.

Brogue, Mary Janes, Court and Block heeled shoes in fashion.

The Pleated skirt.
 1950's
A more relaxed approach to being a woman, jeans and checkered shirt.

American/ British approach to gangs, often with their own unique styles.

The Circle Skirt proved very popular. 

The Circle Skirt, small waists and fitted clothing.

The Circle Skirt.




Decade Promenade - The Idea and Proposal

Proposal                                                     Jessica Derges K1207361

I propose to design and make a fashion based website, which runs through eras and decades, in particular the decades from 1920’s to the present day. The website will provide a guide to the most popular fashions of each era, whilst complimented with accompanying music, of the decade it represents.

Site purpose
The site’s main purpose is to be informative and creative. It will be educational in its aim to provide a walkthrough of fashion through the decades leading up to now. It also provides a history of music alongside the fashion. It will be creative in the way it provokes art within its content. I am going to attempt to hand draw fashion icons which will create an artistic take on fashion through the years.

Site inspiration/motivation
I was inspired to make a fashion style website whilst I was looking at other fashion sites, namely fashion blogs and e-commerce sites such as Topshop, Forever 21 and Boohoo.com. I decided it would be a good idea to produce a concise documentary of the history of fashion, but in an artistic manner. I then thought I could produce something fluid, which took the audience through a timeline of the history, and this could also incorporate the history of music development and changes to match the fashion. I decided on these two different aspects because I am particularly passionate about both of them, and feel I already have the knowledge behind both music and fashion over the years to successfully create my website.

Target audience/suitability
My target audience is going to be primarily females aged between 18-25. This is because I feel that a female would be more inclined to visit not only a fashion based website, but also a conceptual one. I have decided to only do female fashion through the years as this will suit a more specific target audience than choosing both male and female models. I have chosen the age group of 18-25 as I feel these are the people who are particulary interested in vintage fashion and fashion in general. More and more people are purchasing old, vintage clothes from charity shops, high street stores and markets, therefore it would be good to educate these people on the styles and fashions they are sporting, and where they derived from, making it a suitable website concept for its audience.

General website content
My website is going to be content-rich as I wish to use lots of different forms of multimedia to create it. Firstly I will be creating different doll/mannequin figures which represent the era of fashion I want to portray.

This will be set in a timeline fashion, moving through the decades from the 1920’s to the present day. Participants in the website will be able to travel through the website using arrows and directions, learning as they go about the fashion of that particular decade, through images that have been hand drawn.

Music will also accompany the fashion mannequins, giving the participant a real feel of the time that I am portraying.

Project Timeline:

Week 1: Designing and creating mood boards, updating my blog with research on the fashion era’s of the 1920’s through to the present day. I will be researching each era and the poignant fashions in each one.

Week 2: Producing a mannequin design for each decade, which is hand-drawn. Research existing websites for design ideas and layouts.

Week 3: Intricate layout design of the website, how it will work and the technicalities behind making the website. Researching Java, HTML and CSS.

Week 4: Researching and selecting music for each decade. Researching how to add this to a website.


Week 5: Website making begins.


Multi Media Productions - Proposal Final

Wednesday, 16 October 2013

Website Concept

I have started to produce some ideas for my individual website. Here are some of the concepts I have come up with;

  • Fashion based website in a timeline design.
  • Creative/conceptual experience. Users will go through the timeline of fashion, seeking different decades, era's and trends.
  • The decades will range from the 1920's through to 2013.
  • Suitable music will be added to continue the theme of each decade/era.
  • "Walkthrough" experience, allowing the users to feel like they are within the website.

Tuesday, 15 October 2013

Week 1: Classroom In A Book

I have decided to use the book: Adobe Dreamweaver CS4: Classroom in a Book to enhance my skills on Dreamweaver further, thus enabling me to produce a website of the highest standards I can reach. I will be posting some of the digital workshops here as a taster of the ideas and concepts I have been learning.

Week 1: Using Dreamweaver to make a structured HTML table

Using Dreamweaver and Text Edit we were able to learn some basic skills within week 1. These skills would inevitably be vital to our progression through the weeks, in order to compile a coherent website. 

Using Dreamweaver I was able to design our own HTML based structured table, which would be used for displaying the elements of a website in an orderly fashion. 

Below is the image of the table I produced using Dreamweaver;