Photo Shoot for Fashion Exploration

Fashion Garment made out of Latex

EXPERIMENTS WITH DIFFERENT MATERIALS

These experiments are the past of course module "FASHION EXPLORATION"

Which reflects the whole journey of my final piece of work. This journey took me to the level i always wanted to be.

Professional Engagement is the core module for these module and i have decided to continue with much more experiments for Fashion Exploration. I did lot of experiments using different techniques as well as variety of materials like wadding, tissue paper, mesh fabric, wax as well as Latex Rubber.

I started working with wadding, mesh fabric and tissue paper with wax.

This sample is made with tissue paper and layer of wadding. I made layers of them and dipped them into the hot colored wax and hand it to dry. It got dry and created this structure.

In this images dotted tissue paper is visible. It's underneath. 

This sample is made by using light green colored wax. The transparency of wadding can be seen here. 

These images were taken by handing the samples and from different dimensions.

     

After making small samples from wax, i made bigger one to see how would it look.

I have 2 colors yellow and red to make it. I made layers of wadding and first of all dipped it into the bucket of hot yellow wax. Then i added red color and dipped just the edges of wadding to create shading. Because of yellow color red got orange and brownish as well as the color got much lighter because of the white wadding. It was time consuming process because wadding takes time to absorb wax. 

Images from different angles 

The hardness of the sample gives very crispy feeling. 

This sample is also made by using same technique but with mesh fabric and wax.

I tied mesh fabric and dipped it in to the wax.

Shadow of the sample is one of the very interesting thing i like the most and want to go ahead with.

When i was clicking pictures i got the shadow the sample and took pictures of shadow from different ways.

Shadow creates very fabulous image. From this technique i got an idea of using shadow / reflection in my final piece of work.

I did this experiment at beginning using pressing technique.

I had wadding with me and some string so i did weaving of it on wadding and put it under the hot iron and pressed it for few seconds. Wadding got harder and flat.

This sample is also done by same technique of pressing. I just crushed the material and put under the hot iron and pressed it for few seconds. It was stared melting because of high temperature as well as created shiny texture on some areas.

This is a plastic covered with latex. Before i started experimenting with latex i did research for latex rubber and related materials as well as i ordered latex samples from 2 companies and then i started making sample of latex. This was my first sample. I applied latex with paint brush on cling film and kept it to dry. when it dried, i tried to pill it off but it didn't come out because of thin layer and cling film but gave a fabulous smoking effect. It looks like elastic.

I made this sample on bubble wrap. I didn't add color in latex.The texture on latex sample looks like proper bubbles though i used the wrong side of bubble wrap. 

For this sample i added Acrylic color in latex and made a layer of latex on bubble wrap with paint brush.

Wet Latex sample

Dried Latex sample.

 After pilling off the latex from bubble wrap, i got beautiful, fresh and innovative sample.Original color of sample is red but because of latex has a characteristic of getting brown when get dried, color became vibrant red.

Back view

After pilling it off from bubble wrap back side became much more interesting than right side.

Shadows

At the time of clicking pictures, i got an idea of shadow.I tried to take it in different ways.

This shadows are taken through sunlight. I put the sample in front of sunlight as well as put white card board underneath and got this beautiful shadow. It's not only shadow, it's also the shades/shading of color.And it became very strong point of my final piece of work. I want to use it in my final work.
But it could be reflection as well.

This is a multicolored sample of Latex.

I feel single color looks better than multicolored. I decided to go ahead with single color and started making latex sample on larger scale.

The process how i made bigger samples of latex rubber.

For bigger samples i spread bubble wrap on the table and tap it from both the sides.

Because of very less width of bubble wrap i put two wraps together and joined them.

 

Bubble wrap covered with single thin layer of colored latex.

Back side of Bubble Wrap Looks like this.

Two joined layers of bubble wrap.

Big sheet of Latex

 pilled off side

After making latex sheet on larger scale i started experimenting with fabric on mannequin.

At the i really wanted to use completely contrast material with latex. That's why i decided to use fabric with latex.My aim was to make a complete drape garment using latex instead of fabric but i also wanted to use fabric underneath. I started doing experiments with fabric first just to know about its natural fall as well as trying to make something new, innovative. I bought dark pink chiffon and vibrant red as same as latex color .

 This was just the initial stages in which i started pinning up the fabric in such a way and started looking at its fall. 

I did this experiment with fabric and latex. At a glance it seems really beautiful falls of fabric and could be   wonderful draped garment but it is not same with latex. Both are different materials. One is fabric and another one is latex rubber. It could not be possible to get falls as fine as fabric with latex. But latex has it's own beauty and own natural fall that fabric doesn't have. Both have their own characteristics.  

I pined it up the latex and made some falls. It's looks like very traditional way of draping. I used fabric just as a reference. Fabric gave me the direction to go ahead with latex.

It was looking like much more traditional. I really wanted to make a fashion garment and din't want to get falls by pining it up.At the end i felt not to use fabric because it was destroying it's beauty. It's own look is just fabulous. I wanted to see it's natural fall, It's natural beauty. Latex sheet with bubble wrap texture on it, it's really a very fresh and innovative idea. Nobody has done this before. Latex has got uniqueness in it's fall, color (it's get darker when get dried). I learnt so much by working with latex. It's really nice to know about a completely new material you could have ever think of it before. Once i started  playing with it i got complications but i got rid out of them. Because of that i came to know about the ways of handling the material automatically. It's was really wonderful experience for me.