Design Studies: Final Thesis, part 7 – Sketching 4

Dearest reader,

This was the last week of sketching during my thesis project where I am designing haute couture bags inspired by ballet and rococo utilizing bodily knowledge through dance. The goal of the week was to narrow down three to five final bag models using my research from the past three weeks of sketching. Therefore, in this post, you will see the last few sketchbook pages that led to the final results.

So, let's have look at what I did this week!

S K E T C H I N G 4

I started sketching this week by going through my whole sketchbook from this project and while doing so gathering all the elements I found interesting in my research such as shapes, textures, color combinations or similarities between phenomenon. Then I brought these design elements onto new pages and started developing them into different ideas. Of course, some ideas would be better than others and those that I liked best I then continued to work until I was able to narrow down five bag models I was happy with. In short, the process started with abundance of ideas which slowly shrunk through opting out the unusable ones until I was left with the final five ideas.

THE FINAL COLLECTION

The final haute couture bag collection includes five products: two corset pockets and three bags. Because this bag collection is based on a shoe collection I did last year called "Prima Ballerina", naturally each bag in this collection is also named after a famous or interesting prima ballerina.

Corset Pockets

Mademoiselle Parisot

Mademoiselle Parisot (1770-1845) was a French ballet dancer and opera singer during the late 18th century and early 19th century. She is remembered as a scandalous dancer who shocked London's society by performing in revealing, neoclassical costumes resulting in performance restricktions set by the Bishop of Durham. In paintings and drawings of the time, Parisot is often pictured one breast exposed.

Madame Sallé

Marie Sallé (1707-1756) was a French ballet dancer and choreographer who believed that dance should be dramatically expressive rather than a display of technique. She was also the first woman to appear in her own choreograps and, guided by her believes, she wore simpler costumes than those typical in the 18th century.

What is a Corset Pocket?

A corset pocket is not a dress nor is it an ordinary corset. As the name suggests, a corset pocket is a kind of corset with an asymmetric skirt that houses a rather large pocket where you can carry anything you may need for an evening of whimsical fun: a lipstick, a perfume bottle, chocolate caramels, a fan, spare diamond earrings, embroidered handkerchiefs and a pare of silk gloves. Although, a corset pocket is arguably an impractically big accessory it is, however, too delighfuly fabulous for us to notice such minor needs as practicality.

Bags

Miss Collins

Janet Collins (1917-2003) was an American ballet dancer and choreographer who had a successful career on Broadway and is remebered as the first African-American prima ballerina at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Later in her life Janet also taught modern dance in the School of American Ballet.

Fru Cullberg

Birgit Cullberg (1908-1999) was a Swedish dancer, choreographer and ballet director whose is best known for her modern ballet style and pioneering work in television dance. She was the founder of the Swedish Dance Theater and her own group the Cullberg Ballet as well as worked as a choreographer at the Royal Swedish Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet and American Ballet Theatre. Birgit's work was often inspired by literature and her style had psychological, dramatic and satirical qualities.

Donna Amalia

Amalia Brugnoli (1808-1892) was an Italian ballerina during the 19th century who has been considered inventing and developing dancing on-pointe, which later would become to define ballet technique.