Design - A market approach

During final year of University in 2007, news media was stating - “Credit markets go into freefall” and "We suspect the problem in the sub-prime area is just the tip of the iceberg”. It seemed market demand was set to turn on it's head, the consumer bubble of the mid 00s was about to burst, as a global recession was imminent.

Personal and company - culture and ethics

Steven R. Covey's book '7 Habits of Highly Effective People' presents a framework for personal effectiveness. The book identifies that ideals of 'success' in the second half of the 20th century are largely attributed to personality traits - skills, techniques, premeditated behaviours, and maintaining a positive attitude. Steven R. Covey believes 'personality ethics' are secondary to fundamental 'character ethics'; the contrast of the two ethics can be exemplified by the (culture) iceberg. The tip above water being the initial personality, identity and impression we have of the iceberg (person), however it is the unseen base (a person's character) which supports, justifies and gives respect to the tip (person).

A company which seeks to provide a high quality product or service, needs to be created by people with strong character ethics.

 

Colour Matching

Creating balanced, pleasing to the eye outfits are not just made by those with a gift for 'style'; there are colour matching rules, when applied to an outfit they complement, blend, or accentuate one another. These rules compliment the outfit creation and selling process, as each combination makes a certain statement about the owner e.g. 'casual', 'formal', 'powerful', 'subtle' etc.

Design - A design school approach

Here I have detailed some core ideals we learnt about creative product / fashion design from my four years at Massey University in Wellington, which I finished at the end of 2007.

Socratic Questions = Great Ideas.

The 'Socratic question' was a way in which the philosopher Socrates believed we could all become less passive, demonstrate logically why we believe something to be true and therefor not become a 'sheep'. The process involves systematically breaking down a question into parts for analysis. Below is one such formula using Socratic questioning, I have added 'statements' and 'products' to give the formula a broader relevance.

Final Project Thesis - May 2007

The research for my 2007 final project began in March of that year. During the summer of '06/'07 I read American Psycho (1991) by Bret Easton Ellis and Affluenza (2007) by Oliver James. These books had very current cultural themes of consumer addiction, celebrity obsession, and the general excesses of western 20th/21st Century lifestyle. Further useful reading was Thorstein Veblen's The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) and Karl Marx's Capital, Critique of Political Economy (1867). These authors had lived through and critiqued economic boom and bust, and seen consumer frivolity and tragedy, their critiques gave an idea of what was to come...

My conclusion is more or less pointing toward a 'return to self', though it is left a little open ended. My ideal conclusion would have been: "A global recession will financially ruin The U.S.A and Europe, an uprising will be experienced by the ideologically repressed, some more outrageous celebrities will take there own lives, and thus fashion will embrace a radically new set of ideals based on a new set of foundations" 

My views on where the industry was going were far more radical than I cared to write down. I think I had shocked my tutors enough by writing about major changes in the way we saw consumerism, many took this as an attack on the fashion industry and therefor themselves, but far from it, i thought it a new beginning!

'The last supper 2007' Mood board: March 2007 

Final Project Portfolio November 2007

December 25 2006 - January 1 2007, Time Magazine's 'Person of the Year' is 'You'. This was a major tipping point for media, politics, commerce... It was a revolution of popular culture. It was also a starting off point for my final project.

Youtube.com which uploaded it's first video 'me at the zoo' on April 23, 2005 and 'grew rapidly' in July of 2006. For me Youtube was the beginning of a new public awareness of how popular media is made and received - by anyone for anyone - it was a paradigm shift.

The world was teetering on an explosion of collective consciousness, revolution, uprising, freedom, but what did this all mean for fashion?