My concept is addressing spiritual wellbeing by trying to generate ecocentric beliefs that promote the wellbeing of all living things rather than social anxiety being the motivation for sustainable actions. Inspired by the Shinto Buddhism religion I am advocating harmonious relationships with the environment through the valuing and protection of native plants. My intention is to change how the wearer and others value our native plants through conversation created by my prints. Through research into Stern’s Value, Belief, Norm Theory I hope that this change of values will lead to the belief that we can protect our native plants by reducing our personal waste.
I gathered rubbish that was hidden in the banks and streams of Central Park and painted with it to create these textures. I drew these shapes from the framed slates of NZ flora and developed the imagery in to motifs that I layered with the rubbish textures. The juxtaposition of rough textures and organic shapes changes the appearance of the flowers, this is what I imagine the flowers would look like if we could actually see the effects the toxic plastics on plants.
Application: The application of my collection is zero waste fashion, in particular glamorous everyday wear that juxtaposes informal and formal elements with freedom. Most importantly I envision my prints being applied to garments that have zero waste pattern pieces. The Hina-Hina print could be made in to a dress similar to my end use, the Ake-Ake print could be applied to a two piece summer pants and tube top set. The Kumarahou print could be used for a nice crew neck sweater or other lose fitting garments.
Fabric: I chose linen as my main fabric as it has nice drape, is associated with quality garments and creates a subtle texture that enhances my designs. Ideally I would have used second hand fabric for my main design however I couldn’t source enough length in one type of fabric. I chose a cotton knit fabric for the Kumarahou coordinate to add variety to the collection and the flat background colour looks nice on a flat surface so it doesn’t draw away from the little bits of texture within the flower shapes. I chose this textured cotton fabric for the Ake-Ake coordinate as the structure gives it some movement and the texture makes the design more interesting.
My main design Kowhai, is a directional print made up of three layered repeats. One layer being a 7 spot repeat of Kowhai flower silhouettes. The second being a 4 spot repeat of Kowhai leaves and the third is a full drop repeat of the textures made from rubbish. The colour of the flowers is reduced so when overlayed, the dark texture defines the visual representation of the flowers. I chose to use the Kowhai flower in my main design as it is the most recognisable out of all my motifs and therefore it is more likely to spark future conversation.
My coordinates add variety and balance to the collection through texture, motif, colour and fabric.
Texture is most prominent in Hina-Hina, Kumarahou has a little texture and has lot of dark blue that is balanced with the light grey blue in Ake-Ake. All three coordinates have different floral motifs of not so common native plants with the intention to further the conversation and general awareness of their exsistance.
My collection has a reduced colour palette to appeal to my target audience, enhance the textural contrast between rubbish and plants and to reflect the somber mood of my concept.
The textural contrast is between organic shapes of the native plants and texture marks made from rubbish. Through layering and inverting the imagery the rubbish becomes hidden, which reflects the the issue that our rubbish is hidden in reality, for example hidden in Central Park. When recognised I hope this juxtaposition encourages the viewer to question the relation between plastic and nature with the aim to promote responsible plastic consumption and disposal.
Market / Audience: I can imagine zero waste garments made from my prints being sold on a website like WellMade Clothes, where you can filter items by ethical and sustainable values. So my target audience would be women of almost any age, that are conscious consumers and like to wear glamorous garments as everyday where.
Styling: To suggest that my end use garment fits in the glamleisure market I chose to style it with white sneakers, a casual long sleeve top and lots of jewellery.
Context: I have chosen to photograph my end use in Central Park because I wanted to relate my print back to where I got my concept inspiration from. This suggests to the viewer that my imagery is actually of plants while the contrast between my designs and the surrounding environment shows the transformation of the subject matter through design development. I also wanted to suggest that the wearer of my prints would want to go to parks like Central Park and admire our beautiful native plants.