For my Final Outcome of this Identity and self-project I decided to develop my accessorise concept further as it was inspired by body dismorphia, eating disorders and feeling uncomfortable in my own body. As there are things that I have really struggled (and still somewhat) struggle with, I thought that I would be able to create a very in-depth and personal response to this theme.
I added more layers of tights stuffed with plastic bags to my accessory, until it looked like the mannequin was engrossed and trapped in rolls of soft flesh. I was thinking of covering it with flesh coloured fabric, but I then decided that this ruined it, as it covered the interesting colours and patterns off the plastic bags, and the deep folds and crevices.
For my photoshoot for this piece, I created a virtual environment loosely inspired by the inside of the body by draping pink and white sheets and fabric, over display boards and across the floor. Pinned them together to make them look like they were all part of the same piece. Everything was very soft and textural, and to add even more contrasting textures, I added cling film and bubble wrap. Before the shoot I did a few test shots to see what the piece looked like in the location and I thought it fitted in very well with its soft, fleshy surroundings.
I wanted to make my garnet the main focus of the shoot, therefore the outfits that I put it with were quite simple. I put the model in a floaty, white asymmetric dress paired with squidgy, transparent jelly shoes, which fitted in with the soft organic feel of the garnet and set. I varied this outfit with two different cream coloured jumpers- one a fitted ribbed roll-neck and the other an over-sized, chunky cable-knit. This gave a variety different contrasting shapes, silhouettes and textures. I experimented with some very unusual accessorise and props, such as putting tights on the model's head, tieing rope around her neck and wrapping her hands in cling film. This not only added more interesting textures, but was a symbolic suggestion of feeling trapped and uncomfortable in your own body.
I chose my friend Eloise to be the model for my photoshoot as her red hair and pale-pink complexion really complimented the soft pink colour scheme of the mise-en-scene. She also had experience with Yoga and and Gymnastics, which meant that she was quite flexible and could preform interesting poses.
I chose my friend Eloise to be the model for my photoshoot as her red hair and pale-pink complexion really complimented the soft pink colour scheme of the mise-en-scene. She also had experience with Yoga and and Gymnastics, which meant that she was quite flexible and could preform interesting poses.
I was planning to do range of shots with standing, sitting and lying poses, but unfortunately Eloise was too tall to fit into the backdrop therefore I was only able to do sitting and lying poses which encouraged me to be even more inventive. I captured a few basic sitting poses to show clear images of the piece, but also did a lot of odd foetal poses and twisted lying poses.
When editing my photos I upped the brightness around 25% to achieve an very overexposed, hazy, dreamlike atmosphere. I also used the blur tool around the edges of the figure to enhance this effect.
Overall I am very happy with my final outcome of this project. I think that its is very unique and personal too me. If I would have ad more time, I would have also liked to produce a video featuring this garment about the issues surrounding eating disorders and what its like to struggle with them in a conceptual way.