Chart: Description

For my chart I chose four fashion designers and a textile print designer which are – William Morris, Elsa Schiapparelli, Nancy Judd, Jean Patou and Andre’ Courreges. They all lived in different times, but all have something very common between them- they all have designs that where inspired directly from flowers. In the designs that I showed they have directed flower patterns on them. 

Starting with William Morris who was part in the Arts and Crafts Movement during the late 1800’s. He was widely aware about the drawbacks of the Industrial Revolution and that people were going to work and produce repetitive stuff with lack of creation and design. He was against all this and he worked hard to continue to produce designs by hand where each and every product was unique and different. He was a very famous print designer. All his designs where inspired directly from nature. His patterns where very full and busy. They were also very organic and classic with vibrant and rich colours and each leaf and flower was very detailed. The three designs that I showed in the chart are very bright and beautiful. 

Elsa Shiapparelli was a fashion designer during the early 1900’s and she was very popular after WW1. The end of the war inspired her more to have different designs from what already existed. She wanted fashion to have a new start in design. Her designs were very feminine and elegant. She had a very colourful style. The Garments I showed in the chart all have flowers and organic shapes embroidered to them. This embroidery make the clothing look very rich and sophisticated. They are very detailed patterns just like William Morris’s.

Only a few years before the 1930’s the thomb of Tutankhamun was discovered in Egypt. This was a big worldwide news and the fashion designer Jean Patou inspired himself from this historic event. He created clothes with shapes and colours inspired from the Egyptian culture. On my chart I am showing two long dresses from his designs. One of them is light orange with a long beaded and embroidered pattern on the front. It is a very detailed organic sophisticated dress. The colours of the dress where inspired directly from the tomb of Tutankhamun. The other dress is very flowy with three big statement flowers pinned to the sides. This is a more literate feature than the parrens of Schapparelli’s and Morris’s.

Andre’ Courreges was also inspired from what was happening and the discoveries of his time. He was mostly famous during the 1960’s and plastic was just invented and he experimented a lot with PVC in his designs. In the late 1960’s the first man on the moon landed and fashion around the world took a whole new look inspired from rockets and space. For my chart I showed two designs of Courreges and both are in white PVC and inspired from space suits. They actually look like something an austranout would wear. One of them has two big flowers in the front as a decoration. These flowers are very different than the ones from the previous dsigners I talked about. It is a very simple literate flower, while the others are more decorated with leaves and different shapes. Courreges design is a bit more childish. 

A huge eco environmental campaign is happening today all over the world. We are becoming aware that we cannot no longer continue to put our junk in our landfills. The government is making us recycle most of our thing and part of the education in school is about how to make our environment better. Nancy Judd is known as the Recycle Runway Designer. All her fashion designs are made out of recycled objects mainlt aluminium and paper. One the designs I show in my chart is a pair of normal black heeled shoes and she added aluminum flower details. The flower is very simple with small petals around it. The other garment that is on the chart is a black dress with white papered lace. The lace pattern is very detailed and beautiful and very feminine.

It seems that the further back we go in time the pattern of flowers on textiles and fashion was much more elaborated and detailed. Though it was always a subject that designers was mostly inspired from.