In the 1920's shortly after The First World War Berlin became the sex capital of Europe and a sexual playground for adults experimenting with sexuality. Erotic dancers were bigger than ever and people were indulging in alcohol and drugs.

The fashion at this time was also very experimental, women were dressing provocatively, and the androgynous look was big at this time. Women were dressed as men and men were dressed as women.

 

The Beauty Myth

This book 'The Beauty Myth' by Naomi Wolf is a fascinating exploration into what peoples idea of beautiful is and why it is that way.

"A culture fixated on female thinness is not an obsession about female beauty, but an obsession about female obedience. Dieting if the most potent political sedative in women's history; a quietly mad population is a tractable one." _Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth; How Images of Beauty are Used Against Women.

We've been asked to think about what our own version of beauty is, and about what the difference is between beauty and attractiveness.

To me being beautiful is someone who is happy and confident in their own skin. Some women are naturally skinny and some women are naturally bigger but women who embrace the person they are is what I find beautiful. Sometimes just knowing people for who they are is all it takes to think of someone as beautiful. Attractiveness is the good elements in someone that makes them more attractive.

Rick Owens Spring 2014

In today's seminar we discussed diversity in fashion and watched this video of Rick Owens spring womenswear collection Paris 2014. I like the video but I did find it a bit strange, although it does demonstrate the idea of diversity very well I think we are so used to seeing stick thin models who all look similar so this was dramatically going against that.

There is a huge lack of diversity in contemporary fashion not only with cat walk models but on magazine covers and all over the fashion industry. All girls have the same attractive look about them and are very skinny. This project is about exploring the equality of people, men, women, and children with different backgrounds and shapes.

DIVIRSITY NOW!

Diversity

“We believe Diversity can enhance Creativity not impede it. Like the multitude of silhouettes our industry creates, beauty is also individual. It’s not restricted by age, shape, skin tone or size.”

Using 1920's Berlin as our research material and inspiration the main focus of this project is the idea of diversity. Beauty is not restricted by age, shape, race, size, gender disability or sexuality etc. This means that the model is automatically a key element to this project depending on the route I would want to take but allows us to be more free and experimental giving us a chance to work on someone completely different to previous projects.

Art movement in Berlin

During the 1920's art and literature were bigger than ever.
German print maker and artist Otto Dix became very famous at this particular time particularly with his portrait of Anita Berber.

Wilhelm Hienrich Otto Dix being his full name, was known for his brutality of war and depictions of Weirmar culture and society. He was widely considered one of the most famous artists of the Neue Sachlichkeit.

http://www.ottodix.org/

These are some of his paintings








This is his famous portrait painting of Anita Berber.



Using Otto Dix as inspiration we used our supracolour palettes to create portraits on the face using dashings of colour and texture.

I really like how my attempt turned out, I think it would be an interesting route to explore in terms of an abstract final look for this project. It was interesting to see how different shapes and tones could completely manipulate and change the face.

Bauhaus

Bauhaus is a German term for 'house of construction'. It was a school that operated in Weimar Berlin during the 1920's and 1930's combining fine arts and crafts education, founded by the German architect Walter Gropius. "Its core objective was a radical concept: to re imagine the material world to reflect the unity of all the arts."

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/bauh/hd_bauh.htm

CABARET - Liza Minnelli as Sally Bowels

We watched the film Cabaret as part of our research for this era as it was based on the book Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood and the focus of character Sally Bowles. The film gave an interesting and useful insight to Berlin at the time, including the horrific happenings of the Nazi attacks that were taking place. It also helped me to have an image of Sally Bowels in my head as I like how Liza Minnelli portrayed her character. I LOVED the film!


Burlesque

The film got me inspired to look at Burlesque as a lot of the dancing came from this idea. In the 1920's the 'Flapper girl' was invented. Sally bowels is a great example of the kind of women a Flapper girl would be considered to be. Someone who smokes, drinks, parties and treats sex like its casual wearing short dresses, beaded hats and with bob haircuts. It was usually curvier larger women who were burlesque dancers, which relates to the idea of diversity in this project.

http://www.thedandy.org/home/flappers-and-the-roaring-20-s


 

Introduction to the project

Goodbye to Berlin - By Christopher Isherwood

Over the summer we read the short story 'Goodbye to Berlin' published in 1939 to help give us an idea of the social happenings in Berlin at that time. The novel is written in a diary type format giving us the perspective of Isherwood himself. The main character Sally Bowles definitely stands out in the novel expressing the Wiemar culture that was among them. When analysing her character from quotes in the novel it was hard to believe she was only 19 years old with her "emerald green nails and cigarette stained hands" she seemed to be living the life of a much older adventurous woman. This made it hard to imagine what she really looked like.