Author: Faseeh Saleem
Written paper
ALTERNATIVE NOTIONS OF THE BODY IN FASHION DESIGN
CIVAE 2021: 3rd Interdisciplinary and Virtual Conference on Arts in Education / [ed] MusicoGuia, MusicoGuia Magazine , 2021
ABSTRACT
The body is central, a reference and starting point in fashion design. The purpose of this research paper is to re-contextualize the understanding of the body and explore its varied perception in fashion design development. To investigate this artistic research perspective a workshop was conducted with BA1 fashion design students to explore possible alternative notions of the body. The purpose was to re-think and re-discover the pre-conceived notions of the body and its scale in fashion design processes. This questioned the idea of fashion and further reflected on what could a body be in fashion design development rather than what it is. The explorations were done through a workshop with the students to stimulate their analytical and conceptual skills. The two-day workshop included methods of experimentations, reflections, dialogue, and discussions. The task was planned to keep in mind the four categories of learning i.e., directed, exploratory, productive, and reflective. The facilitative tools i.e., verbalizing thinking during the process through discussions, cooperative learning methods while working into groups were applied to develop dialogue and questioning. This discourse about body approximation and alternatives gave a new perspective on fashion design development. The result of the explorations is alternative models for understanding the body as a central variable in fashion design. The results have implications for design methods in fashion design development.
KEYWORDS: Body alternatives, design methods in fashion design development, pedagogy in design studies, artistic expressions in fashion design
Images from Faseeh Saleem