Functionality?

I'm not 100% sure where we're up to with the silhouette trend now but here's the Martine Rose dress we were looking at. How does everyone feel about Andrew's suggestion of switching functionality on it's head? Here's a really brief summary of what we discussed with Andrew for Sadie & Lana:

Plastics - He encouraged us to think about WHY we have chosen each of the trends and their relevance to current issues and so we explained the link between the trend and the need to reduce waste, reuse, recycle etc. A few things to consider: Is the focus on reusing plastic going to grow? Are synthetic fabrics made from plastic more sustainable than cotton? Andrew also encouraged us to research different types and uses of plastic.

Functionality/Silhouette - Rather than prematurely focusing on the designs themselves he again stressed that we need a strong reason as to why we have chosen to look at functionality/folding etc. It was proposed that we use a 'rejection of functionality' in response to technological advances that are making it easier to do almost anything at a touch of a button (iPhone). We discussed whether this was actually a positive thing or whether we should promote the 'romantic' idea of things not being as functional and living a simpler life (back to basics). Should we be making time to change from work to dinner wear rather than creating a look that would be functional for both? After all, it is half the fun getting ready. What is Luxury? Spending time with family & friends etc. seems to becoming more of a luxury than monetary objects.

Embellishment - He liked the modernity of the beadwork research and the concept of reinventing old crafts such as knitting for modern consumption. We need to consider how to apply this 'modern take on craft' in unexpected ways (e.g. creating a fabric that looks like denim completely from beads). Skill and craftsmanship were key elements here. Again the idea of moving back to traditional values and crafts becoming a luxury was raised and he gave the example of a mobile phone company that promotes this simplistic outlook: https://www.johnsphones.com/gb/en/

Colour - We all agreed that the accidental photos Abbey took are great colour and print references. Andrew said to think about whether these accidental colours were produced by technology or nature. He liked the idea of us focusing on the break down of technology: cracked screens/t.v. with no signal, skipping CD or DVD/broken printers etc. This also obviously ties in with technology and the use of recycling. The influence of light is key within this trend as it is the light source that is becoming more or less visible when a t.v. screen cracks/the pinhole camera is incorrectly exposed etc. We were quite excited about using the cracks, jittery t.v. screens and so on for print ideas and these things/skipping music would look and sound good when filmed.

I guess that's all going to be pretty confusing for you if you didn't hear the discussion but I'm hoping it may help a little! Sorry it's not very well executed! Basically the main message was to have an interesting, exciting explanation as to why we have chosen each trend, we can't simply have seen an image we liked and furthered it with research. The need for the concepts to relate to issues beyond fashion is also relevant and he said that it isn't necessary for them to directly relate to fashion - an interior designer, for example, should be able to also take elements to work with. :)