Before the official start of my study abroad experience in Oxford, I traveled around Scotland for a week. One of the first things I did was go to the National Museum of Scotland, for they had two exhibits I was very interested in. The first was a permanent fashion collection that included pieces throughout history. One of my favorite pieces in the collection was a "Tartan ensemble" (on left), which was very Scottish, considering it was made of tartan wool. I liked the color, but the reasoning for using the wool is what really drew me in. The designer really wanted to support the local industry, and thus consciously chose a fabric that was created in Scotland. This collection also
included Vivienne Westwood's Harris Tweed Suit (on right) from her Time Machine collection, which was very armor-like and not like any tweed suits one might see someone wearing on the street. It is very much a statement piece, and that statement is full of power with a dusting of violence.
There were a few different designers highlighted in this exhibit, one of whom was Jean Muir. She created an Australian Bicentennial Collection out of wool and Scottish cashmere, at the invitation of the International Wool Secretariat (they invited several designers to make these collections inspired by Australia). Muir was inspired by the Great Barrier Reef, and made some really incredible designs from that initial inspiration. One of them was this
really cool coat situation, placed on a spinning pedestal. I think it was meant to be more of a
showpiece than anything, but I definitely would wear that out in public, if given the chance. Think of how warm it would be!
There was a whole section in this collection dedicated to textiles, and there was even a large metal binder with textile samples (pictured in gallery below), that you could flip through and touch. I quite enjoyed the chainmail sample. This section not only contained samples of textiles, but also items that were used to create these textiles. There was a copper roller from 1869 (also in gallery below), that was used for roller printing. This was quite the step up from hand printing, which was very labor-intensive and time-consuming.
This collection had more than clothes and textiles, however. There were quite a few shoes
on display, and one immediately stood out to me. The Flatpack shoe by Chau Har Lee is an acrylic shoe made of only six laser-cut pieces and absolutely no glue! It totally blew my mind that this shoe was stuck together without any adhesive. I don't know that I would trust them enough to wear them out, but from the other side of the glass, they looked safe enough.
A few of the items on display echoed back to things I have done during my undergraduate study at NC State's Wilson College of Textiles. One of my first projects was to make an outfit out of essentially trash; this collection had a few
pieces made of non-fibrous materials. One was a very short metal dress, and there was also a dress made out of paper, that could be folded up into an envelope. With
this trash project, like all studio projects, required a sketchbook with details of how & why I made the design choices I did. In the exhibit, I saw what was called a "laboratory notebook" (which I quite prefer to sketchbook, as it implies much more of a scientific process, rather than a book full of sketches and abstract ideas), that was open to a page explaining the Turkey red dyeing process. It included written information, and some fabric samples (which is actually pretty similar to what we include in our sketchbooks). There were other displays with fashion sketches and correlating fabric swatches, which are other things I would include in the documentation process. It was nice to see that the things we are doing in class, which at times might seem irrelevant or contrived, pop up all throughout history, and all around the world.
The other exhibit that I went to was called Body Beautiful: Diversity on the Catwalk. This exhibit absolutely fascinated me, because it addressed some of the major issues of the
fashion industry, unlike the first exhibit. The very first thing I saw of this exhibit was a short video giving an overview. I was quite impressed with it, in that not only was the content addressing a lack of accommodation for diversity in the fashion industry, but the video itself was geared towards a wider audience than usual. There were subtitles across the bottom of the screen, for those hard of hearing, and there was a recorded American Sign Language interceptor in the corner of the video. In addition, next to the screen, there was a book with large-type descriptions of the exhibit, which is great for people who cannot see very well. I quite appreciated the fact that the exhibit was about diversity, and the curators really thought about this when setting it up. So often, people will try to make themselves heard about an issue, but forget to account for certain aspects of said issue with respect to their performance. When this happens, their activism falls flat and seems somewhat one-sided. But that was not the case with this exhibit - it was very well thought out.
The exhibit was organized into sections of: Disability, Race, LGBTQIA+, Size, and Age. Essentially, each section had the looks that were worn by people who fit into these categories, in that they are not usually represented on the catwalks because of their
disability, race, etcetera. Each outfit had a corresponding information placard that explained the significance of the look and the person wearing it.
Most of the models that wore the clothes designed for disabled people were missing a limb (and usually wore a prosthetic of some sort), or were otherwise not the typical definition of able-bodied, so the clothes were designed with that in mind. The dress pictured right was designed for Teatum Jones, who is nicknamed "the horse whisperer" because she instructs her horse through spoken commands and seat movements, due to her nerve damage and severe leg weakness. As the designer states, "we wanted to design a dress that reflected a young woman who had the most beautiful ability to dream big, never give up and always radiate the most heart-warming smile." It is made of
silk organza.
The most spectacular aspect of the designs made for ethnically and racially diverse people, is that most of them are no different from items that are not designed with diversity in mind. This is just as it should be; all of the models are equal, and each deserves the same recognition and opportunities as their non-marginalized counterparts. For the most part, there is no reason for the clothes to be different. The most obvious exception is the expansion of the Islamic fashion market leading to the production of more modest clothing (and, of course, hijabs and other head coverings). The outfit on the left was designed with that in mind. Notice how it covers most of the body, but does so fashionably. This was worn by Halima Aden, who was the first Muslim woman to walk on an international high-fashion catwalk wearing a hijab.
The looks within the LGBTQIA+ division are all radically distinct. There was argyle, plaid, fancy collars, red wigs, and a whole lot of personality. Two of the outfits, while not necessarily my favorite visually, had really intriguing stories to go with them. Pam Hogg designed one of these looks (on left), and his accompanying quote quite honestly dropped my jaw: "I hate fashion with a vengeance. How dare people tell other people what to wear! You can't. When I'm teaching I say to people 'your greatest gift is your individuality, why would you want to look like someone else? Find what is really you and build on that, you are this one person and that is glorious.'" He starts out with a bang, stating that he hates the industry he is in, but his rational totally makes sense. So much of the fashion industry is about conformity, that true individuality really sets a designer apart. Another individual represented in this exhibition,
and on the catwalk, is Desmond Napoles (also known as the drag kid Desmond Is Amazing). He walked (in the outfit pictured right) in Rio Uribe's Gypsy Sport when he was 10 years old, but even at such a young age, he had a lot to say, "Gypsy Sport is all about mixing genders. All of the fashions could be worn by anyone no matter how they identify. My motto is 'Be Yourself, always'... It meant a lot to me to see models of every age, race, gender, identity, body type, orientation, class, and ability walking the runway because I think everyone is beautiful."
Diversity in size on the runway has definitely been a hot topic for a while now. Considering British women are an average of size 16 (I would talk about American averages,
but since I'm in Oxford, well as they say, "when in Rome"...), it makes complete sense that many of the models should echo that. The clothes made for plus-sized models (or, you know, normal-sized people), not only are sized up, but often are designed to emphasize different things. Since these models are curvier than the standard size 2 model, those curves are highlighted, as shown in the look on the left. My favorite look from this was actually the t-shirt pictured below. T-shirts like this were designed for all the plus-sized models who walked this particular collection. In the middle of the 6, it says "I'm a 10 out of 10 who wears 16". So often, people are judged numerically, but the designer has turned
this on its head and shown that sure, numbers can define you, but you decide which numbers are significant.
Age is not something most people think about when they think about diversity, but it is worth considering. Conventionally, once models reach a certain age (and it's not that old - often in their 30's!), they can no longer find work. This seems awfully odd, considering the majority of consumers are older than 30. This group is underrepresented, which does not make their shopping any easier. I chose to highlight this jacket (below), mainly because I loved the large fabulous pockets. Just look at those! You could fit
so much stuff in one of them! It's insane! I'm sure than women of any age would love to have a jacket like that.
I went to these two exhibits on separate days, because there was just too much to take in to get it all in one day. One the first day though, I went through some other exhibits and saw some pretty amazing things. There were chainmail pants, a Ross tartan suit (so named because it was made by Donald Ross), and Dolly the Sheep! It absolutely blew my mind that I got to see this famous sheep. She is a symbol for the amazing technological advances of biotechnology, and for our society's potential to solve ridiculously difficult problems.
Aside from the cool museum exhibits, there were a lot of cultural textiles all over Scotland. There were shops full of woolen items, and people wearing kilts all over the place. I really enjoyed experiencing the culture of the Scottish people, through visually appreciating the textiles. Fashion really can say a lot about a society. For instance, the Scottish clans each had a specific kilt design, which while it is not very applicable nowadays, refers back to some very cool historical events. And of course, one thing all this wool says about Scotland is that it is cold.
Now, while all of that was incredible, the most exciting thing that happened was purely by accident. On my last day in Scotland, I was walking down the road and happened upon some roadblocks, a crowd of people, and a bunch of British guards with their fancy uniforms and fuzzy hats. My first thought was "Is it the queen???" but my next thought was "Surely not; there's no way I'm that lucky." Well, I was that lucky... I saw the queen!!! She, along with Prince Charles, were going to the Scottish parliament as part of Holyrood Week. Holyrood Week gets it's name from Holyrood Palace, which is where the Queen stays when she is in Edinburgh. This week is full of activities in which the Queen attempts to strengthen relations with Scotland.
All in all, a great week. The only thing that could be better is a month in Oxford, right?