Ava Gourlay

Uniform Narrative

Tied to a Gender

 

‘Tied to a gender’ is a runway collection which is heavily influenced by politicians’ workwear and gender roles. This project is inspired by uniforms from culture and industry.

 

I firstly started my research into PPE, which is currently being worn by nurses, doctors and carers to protect against COVID-19. I chose to look at this as it is relevant in the world today and has not been explored to this extent in the past. For this research, I looked at news articles about COVID-19 and extended my research into politicians. I started looking at how they were portraying and dealing with COVID-19. I felt, through my research of this, that I was not gaining enough shapes and forms to influence fashion design. I carried forward research of uniforms worn by politicians and decided to disregard the COVID-19 PPE.

 

I looked into the history of politicians’ workwear and I quickly became aware of a contrast in the male and female uniforms. In particular, inside parliament, males are required to wear a shirt and suit jacket, whereas females have no specification. I wanted to play on this ‘no specification’ for females while still remaining with the classic shirt base that a male politician would be required to wear. From here, I started to sketch out rough ideas of how I could change the design of the shirt to make it look more complex, interesting and feminine.

 

Through my research of politicians’ workwear, I explored both male and female garments. I also explored the idea of being assigned what you can and can’t wear due to your gender. I looked at iconic politicians, such as Jeremy Corbyn, Gordon Brown and Margaret Thatcher, for inspiration. 

 

I started by looking at Gordon Brown. The garment that stood out to me most was the classic tailored suit jacket that he wore during his time in parliament. From here I looked at other designers who have used the tailored suit jacket base within their work and Paris Fashion Week street style from 2016 caught my eye. I was particularly drawn to the features such as arm holes and button stands being used in unusual places on the garment. I experimented by making a sample of a jacket body with a single pocket and layered up button stands.

 

From research of Jeremy Corbyn, I noticed that he was more relaxed with his attire than other MPs. He frequently wore a classic tailored shirt, buttoned down, without a tie. I enjoyed the fact that this is a notable difference from what you would expect to see. I started to look at relaxed collars and made a sample of this, experimenting with layering up and placing them on other parts of the garment to see how this looked. I also extended the points of the collars and made the button stand taller.

 

After researching Margaret Thatcher, I found that she wore a lot of scarfs tied in a bow around her neck. I thought this concept was interesting as this was almost like a suit tie, yet more famine. This led me to think that it was a good example of the difference between male and female uniform. I explored this further by looking at designers who used ties in their work and was lucky enough to visit the V&A in Dundee, where Mary Quant’s work was exhibited and contained a variety of women’s work wear. She showcased ties and bows within her work and pushed the boundaries for woman’s fashion in the 60s. To help my development process form the ties, I made samples of ties in various shapes and sizes and took photographs of these tied around the body. I incorporated areas such as the waist and chest to emphasis a feminine body shape. I believe this added a big part to my development as I was able to grow ideas from here and play on the idea of being tied to a gender.

 

For my final garment, I set out to combine the research and samples that I had gathered and created over the project. I chose to use the classic woman’s bodice block to make a shirt as this provided the desired base shape. I then extended the arms and widened the body to make the shirt look oversized on a female model. I added the three-layer collar with an extended button stand. I left the front of the shirt without any fastenings and added a button stand to the back of the garment as it adds a level of design complexity. Finally, I added the ties, with buttonholes, to pull in the garment and made this stand out more by putting wadding in the centre of the lined shirt.