1920s fashion. . .

Fashion styling during the 1920's. . .

Fashion has always been influenced by the mode of transportation, the architecture of the period and the customs of the people, so it was in the 1920's. In line with progress in other areas, clothing developed closer relationships with art, and an increased sense of freedom was expressed in simple yet elegant designs, with carefully selected fabrics and an intelligent, revolutionary use of color. 

Personally, although I am more into 50's fashion, including the hair and make-up, I LOVE 1920's woman fashion. I think it is so elegant and very much feminine, that even now some aspects are coming back into fashion, for example dresses covered in decorative tassels. Beautiful coordinated and accessorized outfits were a feature of 1920's ladies fashions. Hats, shoes, stockings, handbags, dresses and jeweler all came together in harmony to create a unique and elegant style that can only be appreciated I feel when seen in real-life to fully take in the precise detail of the mostly hand stitched garments. It is unfortunate that the vibrancy is lost in black and white photographs as I think if pictures from the iconic era were in color  the fashion would of more of an impact on fashion nowadays.

 

For me, 1920's fashion clearly defined its self as the fashion of the modern era. Known as the 'Roaring 20s' art and creative expression were alive again, which is why I personally think the fashion of the era has had such an everlasting effect, even on today's fashion. The first World War was over, and with it came new and colorful fabrics and materials. 

When I think of 20s fashion, although I haven't done much research into it in the past, I immediately think of jewellery, hats, shoes, dresses and handbags and how they all complemented each other, creating a classy style that was both unique and harmonious. I think as well to get the full impact of this style it needs to be seen in living color as black and white photographs simply don't do it justice. As part of my primary research I am going to look into exhibitions in and around London to see if there are any galleries or exhibitions put together which reference 20s fashion, as seeing the items in person would help me so much. 

As the overall look, regardless of what social class you were in, I would say the 20s to me was all about trends such as length gem bracelets, bobbed hair, cloche hats, thin knee-high dresses and tassels, soooooo many tassels  Although I think many fail to see it, I personally see 1920s fashion as very sexy, elegant and contemporary.

Brainstorm. . .

This is a spider-diagram I did with all my ideas and initial thoughts I had when it came down to the 1920's. The fashion, environment of where Daisy lived in, woman's rights/roles during the time period, politics, designs including architecture and so on. I feel that now I have these ideas and key words down, this has given me a broader horizon for my primary and secondary research, for me to build up my ideas and knowledge on the 20's as a whole. This resulting hopefully in a more polished set of final images.

                                

Being more specific, this is a quick mind-map of my character, Daisy Buchanan. Not going into too much detail but just a quick overview of the more topics that come from the character and what they lead on to, which I could include in my research I feel.

This is a video I found on YouTube gave me a good inside on the overall look of the roaring 20s. The way women carry themselves, the way they are perceived and also their iconic attire. This has given me so many ideas on how I can push my ideas further than the norm to create a generic, but twisted final image which gets the point and message across.

Other Characters

As Daisy Buchanan is a character in a story, I think it is important to mention the other characters in the story as without these, Daisy wouldnt have a storyline as she has some sort of relationship with all of the main characters. This is a small mood board to show the other main characters in the storyline that Daisy has an impact on, good or bad.

This is a mood baord to gain more of an understanding of the kind of things Daisy would of done in her spare time, which was most of the time. As she married Tom who had power and wealth, she didn't have the need to work as she had everything she needed. Post World War 1 as well, many women started working to help support their families where as Daisy lived a life of luxury. Wearing beautiful, hand embroided custome made gowns, enjoying the finest of live music with friends at lavish parties to relaxing by the river, these were all normal every day activites for Daisy. 

By creating these mood boards, this has helped me have more of an insite and understand of Daisy Buchanan, the lady, the socialite and the character. I find making mood boards helpful for my studies as I work better through having guidance visually and these are useful as I can now refer to them when I need to refresh my memory when doing character analysis.

My Character of choice. . .

Out of the main characters from the novel, instead of choosing Jay Gatsby which I thought would of been an easy choice, I have decided to do my character analysis on Daisy Buchanan. Daisy is a beautiful young woman from Louisville, Kentucky. She is Nick's cousin and the object of Gatsby's love. As a young debutante in Louisville, Daisy was extremely popular among the military officers stationed near her home, including Jay Gatsby. Gatsby lied about his background to daisy, claiming to be from a wealthy family in order to convince her that he was worthy of her. Eventually, Gatsby won Daisy's heart, and they made love before Gatsby left to fight in the war. Daisy promised to wait for Gatsby, but in 1919 chose instead to Marry Tom Buchanan, a young man from a solid, aristocratic family who could promise her a wealthy lifestyle and who had the support of her parents. 

As we are required to produce 3 final images of the change of character throughout out book of choice, I thought Daisy would be a good choice as she is quite a key role, throughout the story she is behind the scenes of most of the story lines. By watching the 1974 adaptation, directed by Jack Clayton, Daisy was played by Mia Farrow and by listening to the audio book, from my understanding I think she played the role well. 

From looking at different descriptions of Daisy online, by watching the 1974 adaptation and the listening to the audio book, I think the character of Daisy is quite misleading at first as she seems to have many different personalities. As the story progresses, I got the impression that despite her beauty and charm, Daisy is merely a shallow, selfish and in fact, hurtful woman. Gatsby loves her, or at least the idea of her with such vitality and determination that readers would like, in many senses, to see her be worthy of his devotion. Although Fitzgerald carefully builds Daisy's character with associations of light, purity and innocence, when all is said and done, she is the opposite from what she presents herself to be.

This is the second official movie trailer for The Great Gatsby 

I prefer this movie trailer when it comes to my character as I feel with this trailer unlike the first one, you get more of an understand of the drama around Gatsby and how is fake, made-up life comes and back fires. I think with this trailer as well, you can really see how stunning this film is going to be, with todays modern technology and amazing hair and make-up artists, I think visually this is going to be a stunning film and I can not wait to see it! 

Introduction. . .

So, new year, new term = NEW PROJECT!

I have chosen to do interpretive narrative as I really enjoyed this part of the course during my 1st year and I think out of this and Solent Creatives, I would of benefited more by doing this as I think choosing a character and developing my interpretation of it would be fun!

We were given a chose out of 12 books to read and to chose a character to focus our project on and I have chosen the well known novel, "The Great Gatsby".

"The Great Gatsby" is a novel by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald. The book received critical acclaim and is generally considered Fitzgerald's best work. The story takes place in 1922, during the roaring twenties, the post-World War 2 prosperous time in the United States. It is also widely regarded as a "Great American Novel" and i literary classic, capturing the essence of an era.

Our project requires us to read our book of choice, chose 1 character and to produce 3 final images, of the same character but from 3 separate parts of the film. I think this is an interesting task as usual with our previous units, we have been required to produce a final head shot and beauty shot, whereas with this project I tests our skills by incorporating emotion and location as well, which is something that I feel will need a lot of extra research into as this I haven't really focused on these aspects before. 

There have been many adaptations of the story, and there is an upcoming film being released on May 10th 2013, although my work will be submitted by then I am really looking forward to seeing the new film as 1, it features Leonardo Dicaprio (and we all love a bit of Leo) and 2, the film maker Baz Luhrmann intended on creating his own distinctive visual interpretation of the classic story, bringing the period to life in a way that has never been seen before.

The Great Gatsby - Movie Trailer, released 2013

I AM SO EXCITED TO SEE THIS FILM !!!!!!