Motion Blur – Exploring interrelations between
body, print and garment (MA thesis)
Emelie Johansson
Abstract
This work investigates the interrelation between printed patterns and three-dimensional form, in relation to the human body. More precisely, the work aims to explore the expressive potential in new relationships between print, body and garment. It is a search for both new more dynamic expressions within printed fashion and alternative design methods in the intersection of textile and fashion design. The work is practice based, building on concrete experiments where the relation between typical print motifs, body movement and garment form is explored. Through using projections on a live body as a sketching method factors such as line, direction and movement are studied simultaneously in print and form in relation to the body. From those sketches printed garments developed, with a clear dialogue between garment, printed pattern and body. What this work proposes is an alternative to conventional approaches towards the development of printed fashion. Rather than separating textile and fashion design, this work suggests a holistic and dynamic approach where print and garment are developed simultaneously and in dialogue with an active body. Fundamentally changing the ways of looking at the relation between print and garment means challenging our notions of print and garment, just as the methods with which they are constructed. A new approach towards this relation could have not only aesthetic implications, but also social and economic. It challenges a traditional way of looking at the body within fashion and may also change the way the production of printed fashion is organised, as the existing roles and hierarchy between product and print designer is questioned.