Martino Gamper

One of this designers most famous collection is "100 chairs in 100 days" - collecting and reconfiguring discarded chairs from around London.
I like how he transforms the chairs to make them new and unique, through a elements of randomness and spontaneity.  He is recycling & up-cycling used products into new interesting items.  

www.gampermartino.com

Hussein Chalayan

British fashion designer, who has twice been crowned the british designer of the year.  He pushes the boundaries of products/architecture with fashion to give life to his garments.
I was interested in how he transforms other objects into designs and creations that people can wear.

www.husseinchalayan.com/blog

Wear a Chair

'Wear a Chair'


Artist Research:

Hussein Chalayan
Issey Miyake
Martino Gamper.

Initial thoughts:

- Different chair designs

- Wear - who?  Clothes/hat/jewelery/bag

- Chair - cushions/legs/upholstery/fringe

I wanted to make a one off fashion garment item that would somehow reflect a chair, and I got lots of inspiration from my artist research.  I took various images of chairs and started to create a few fashion illustrations.

My ideas then developed from here...I managed to get some upholstery samples, and wanted to highlight key features from sofas & chairs - fringing and button tufting.  Whilst experimenting I i felt I needed to develop some more skills before structuring a fashion garment from scratch - so to set off I started experimenting with an old coat & how this could represent a chair.

Feedback from the first group crit was generally positive for the work I had done to date.  They liked how it was still a wearable item, the choice of chair features and the materials I had used.  I decided to develop this idea of clothing crossing the border between a garment and a chair, and create a new piece - almost as part of a collection.  This time starting from scratch to develop my skills rather than using a ready made garment.

I feel that I could continue with this project and expand my ideas further to create a range of 'wearable chair' garments.  I feel that the final photos have really enhanced the final product when displayed together.

Final Photos:

Final Installation:

Issey Miyake

A Japanese fashion designer.
I was interested in how he manages to add different 3D dimensions to his designs.