Meow Meow

 My Kitty Clothing Line

I made this mini fashion line for a school assignment, just like a 5 year-old.

Assignment

Should your obsession cause the class to worry about your well-being by the critique?  Maybe…

With a target budget of $45 (you may spend a little more or significantly less) on materials that will be of a highly substantial quantity and can be manipulated and altered from their original form.  

These should be NON-Art materials at first glance.  Remember artists Tom Friedman, Tara Donovan, etc.   These could be multiples, or large chunks/masses. 

Piles and piles and an overflowing box of materials.

This is a full time job. We want to see evidence of 40 hours worth of work on this one!  

The visual translation should show:

1. multiple processes and or material investigations

2. an obsessive working physical action  (cutting, folding, scraping, sanding,carving, crushing, stretching, tying, piercing, punching, pounding, hammering, gluing, grinding, biting, chewing, spitting, tonguing, gnawing, stepping, stamping, stomping, dripping, dabbing, brushing, shaping, molding, painting, patterning, gridding, weaving, crocheting, beading, sewing, filling, counting, aligning, ordering, or arranging). 

3. a subversive, or slightly skewed relationship with the subject matter.

4. a dedication to hyper intricate and powerful craftsmanship

You see...

 just like a 5 year-old. 

Materials Used

Fabric, Thread, Zippers, One pearl, Ribbon, Bra, Elastic

Process

For this project, I created a vintage inspired fashion line, using fabric with pictures of cats all over. 
The prompt was obsession, as in developing an obsession for the sculpture and its elements. 
However, I started with my obsessions in mind, cats and clothing, and further developed it for the rest of the project.

This project was probably the most strenuous for me, rivaled only be the dream catcher sculpture that is bigger than me. I spent more than 40 hours, and much more than $45 (the suggested budget and timeframe) on this project. I worked every day, even over Thanksgiving break, for hours. I did become obsessed, to the point where I stopped sleeping. I spent whole nights working, just to get my pieces finished. The project took over my life in a way, and I spent a lot of time trying to perfect the clothes. I ended up making three dresses, a hair bow, a skirt, a tie, panties, and a bra.

At one point my sewing machine broke, and I spent over 5 hours trying to fix it. That was a pain, but it worked with the idea of obsession, since I was so obsessed with finishing the clothing, that I called every seamstress I know for help.

The dresses were hard to make at some points. The worst part was lining up sleeves on one dress, and I eventually took the sleeves out of the design, which actually was an improvement. 
All the patterns I used were vintage-inspired and leaned toward the conservative side. This ties into the obsession theme, too, since I love vintage clothing, such as Peter Pan collars, and high-waisted things. And cats. Always cats.