Year 2 art

Balenciaga is a high fashion brand, founded by designer, Cristóbal Balenciaga in Spain, 1919. Balenciaga opened his first boutique in San Sebastián, Spain in 1919, which went on to expand including branches in Madrid and Barcelona. His designs were worn by the likes of the Spanish royal family and the aristocracy, but the Spanish civil war soon intervened with Balenciaga’s affairs, as he was forced to close his stores and move to Paris. Years later in 1937, Balenciaga opened his Paris couture house on Avenue George V, and his first fashion show featured designs heavily influenced by the Spanish Renaissance. During WW2, customers risked their own safety to travel and see Balenciagas designs, and it was during this period that he was noted for his “Square coat” (shown below). Post war, the full scale inventiveness and originality of the designer became apparent.  The fluidity of his shapes and outlines enabled him to change the relationship between his clothing and women's bo...

The brand was founded by James Jebbia. The first Supreme store opened in 1994 on Lafayette Street in downtown Manhattan. The store was designed with skaters in mind, keeping the clothes around the perimeter with a large space for people to skate comfortably in the middle. The brand mainly caters to Skateboarding, hip hop and rock cultures in addition to the youth culture in general. It produces clothes, accessories and skateboards. The brands distinctive red box logo is largely based on Barbara Kruger’s propaganda art; an example given below.

After being inspired by Adamaneven’s work, I decided to create my own piece in the style of his work. I started off with two separate shirts I removed the sleeves from the right shirt and created a template for long sleeves which I could cut out of the left shirt. I secured the new sleeves to the sleeveless shirt using pins and sewed them on - as I don’t have an overlocking sewing machine, I used a basic straight stitch to attach the two pieces together, then used a zig zag stitch to hem the raw edges of the material. The final product           Personally I think the shirt turned out to be effective and successful. The grungy deconstructed aspect gives it a sense of character. If I were to carry on working on the shirt, I’d do something else with the neckline, as I believe it could be bettered in some way. Embellishing the neckline with a chain or wire of some sort would add to the shirt’s chaotic energy. 

Shawn Stussy, the founder of the brand Stussy, first started combining fashion with art and a twist of his self-expression.   Born in 1954, Stussy was a California manufacturer of surfboards.  The defining logo of the brand started in the early 1980s after he began signing his handcrafted surfboards  with a broad tipped marker.  He then began using the same logo on garments such as T-shirts, shorts and caps that he sold out of his car around Laguna Beach, California.  The early success of the brand has been accredited to it’s popularity in hip hop and skater/surfer scenes, along with punk and other street subcultures. 

Placing the core and origins of streetwear can prove to be a difficult task due to the complexity and the different levels of it's influences and cultures. Like it's name would suggest, street culture incorporates the styles and subcultures that manifest in the streets. Although it is often labelled a product of hip hop, streetwear originated more from skate and surf subculture. One of the first big brands to come from this street subculture niche in the 80's was Stussy. Stussy was the first outlet of self-expression as a brand and it went on to i nfluence other, now widely known brands such as Supreme. Streetwear was a way of making a statement - something young people could use to distinguish and stand out, stating their true selves, ideas and beliefs.

For year 2, my main focus will be exploring the evolution of streetwear. Small Instagram artists such as @adamaneven and @mostpeoplearedead have inspired me to look at this, along with bigger brand names such as Balenciaga and Vetements. The unusual and distinctive pieces becoming more common among the fashion industry make me want to push the boundaries of fashion and create unique, one of a kind pieces.