Today I researched Chanel and Georgia O'Keeffe to take a good look at the colors and the drawing styles they used, so I can take this into account for my own designs
Coco Chanel (1883) born in France was a French fashion designer that made many changes in the Parisian Haute Couture. She inspired women with casual designs instead of complicated and uncomfortable dresses. One of her famous innovations were the costume jewelry, the Chanel suit, the quilted purse and of course the little black dress.
Her first succes of clothing came from a dress she. made on a cold day out of a sweater. She opened her first shop in Paris in 1910 where she started selling hats. By the late 1920s she did not only sell clothes but also perfume, textile mill and jewelry.
All with the help of her rich 'lovers' especially with Boy Capel who she fell in love with. He helped her financial so she could follow her dreams. In 1913 she opened a boutique in Deauville were she designed clothes for women that were modern and comfortable just like the clothing for men.
Chanel cannot sketch nor she doesn't like to sew. She does not like the designs on paper because she has a theory that no one can tell what a dress looks like and wants to see the design on the models. However that did not stop her from creating beautiful designs. Her style and palette is still modern as it was back then, chic and sportive. She created feminine evening dresses of lace that gave women as much authority as her day wear did. Her vision was that fashion should be available to the widest possible market. In 1939 she closed her shop due to the outbreak of World War 2. Until 1954 she designed the famous suit design, bell-bottomed pants and the quilted bag.
The colors white, beige, black, gold and red are the signature shades of Chanel. I decided to look closer to the colors black, beige and gold.
Beige: This color you will find in the two-tone leather pumps, perfume, and make-up line. The color beige is calm, relaxing and neutral. I think beige is also a color for luxury, seen in many dresses in fairytales which I want to use this color in my designs.
Chanel Couture Dress SS15 Black: She made black the ultimate color of fashion. The Chanel logo represents the elegance and sophistication that Chanel stands for same as for the little black dress. The color black represents darkness, night and despair. I would use the color as magic for the skirt and dress I will design.
Gold: this color stands for riches, excess and extravagance. It is also associated with magic, wisdom and courage. I am not sure how I want to use this color in my designs but I can use gold in my two other designs where I have not thought about the colors yet, maybe as an accessory or jewelry.
Since I already had a lecture about Georgia O'Keeffe I already knew history about her. I have now mainly looked at her paintings to see how I can apply this in my designs.
Georgia O'Keefe (1887) born in the United states is an American painter. She is know for her unique and personal style who was one of the first artists that embraced abstraction. She followed her own vision and choosing paint in her subjects to express her own experience and feelings.
She was inspired by the forms and objects in nature and most known for her paintings of flowers. The lines in her paintings and drawings are curvy and sinuous, the positieve and negative shapes are simply, graphic and clean. The flowers she made are much bigger than in real life so people would experience them the same way she did. She also used photography techniques such as zooming and cropping for her paintings. Bold, bright and intense colors you will find in her paintings. Georgia O'Keeffe often commented that the form and colors of the flowers was more important than the subject matter. The materials she used were pastel, charcoal, watercolor and oil. She used tones to create variations in color. Her color mixing also created transitions from light to shadow.During the lecture the teacher showed a painting of hers that immediately caught my eye because of the colors she used.
What I like about these paintings is the way they use color. Soft colors that blend beautifully into each other. The way she uses black but also purple and the soft shapes. How she used darker colors to shape the form and the shad The purple colors are beautiful and with watercolor I want to apply this into my own designs.
Reference:
Encyclopedia Britannica. 2021. Coco Chanel | Biography, Fashion, Designs, Perfume, & Facts. [online] Available at: <https://www.britannica.com/biography/Coco-Chanel> [Accessed 17 February 2021].
Biography. 2021. Coco Chanel. [online] Available at: <https://www.biography.com/fashion-designer/coco-chanel> [Accessed 17 February 2021].
The Business of Fashion. 2021. Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel (1883-1971). [online] Available at: <https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/news-analysis/gabrielle-coco-chanel-1883-1971> [Accessed 17 February 2021].
Artnet News. 2021. A New Show Traces How a Young Georgia O'Keeffe Transitioned From Drawings to Her Masterly Oil Paintings—See Images Here. [online] Available at: <https://news.artnet.com/exhibitions/georgia-okeeffe-show-of-the-day-1813674> [Accessed 17 February 2021].
Tate Kids. 2021. Who is Georgia O'Keeffe? – Who Are They? | Tate Kids. [online] Available at: <https://www.tate.org.uk/kids/explore/who-is/who-georgia-okeeffe> [Accessed 17 February 2021].
This is good research however on the fashion rather than just concentrating colours really start to look at the cuts and style of the clothes so you can discuss these in more detail using the correct terms - this is good practice and you will need to do this for your own work
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