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Synthesis

“As a practical response to the theories and ideas introduced in the essay, a brightly coloured woolen yarn wig has been created with the intension of successfully protecting one’s identity in an age of surveillance and increased online presence. As well as helping to disguise personal identities from the invasive surveillance systems, the aim of the woolen wig is to also help reduce levels of social anxiety and fears of being alone in public places as well as enabling the wearer to express themselves creatively and portray a fun and playful appearance.

 The chosen material is a one-hundred percent acrylic knit which is sewn onto a tight woolen lining to enable a firm and secure fit on the wearers head. This material is light weight, allowing the wig to be easily transported around in a handbag, ruck sack, or even in a pocket, without taking up too much space or carrying too much weight. This unique accessory allows you to feel more comfortable and relaxed when you leave the comfort of your home and enter the outside world that is infested with surveillance systems and technology. If you start to feel nervous, anxious or along then the idea is that you can then retrieve your colorful woolen wig from your bag or pocket and then put it on your head, protecting your natural hair and even your ears, if you wish for them to be hidden. This should then make you feel slightly more protected from these invasive machines that are constantly monitoring your ever move.

 Although the main purpose of this wig is to try and protect individuals from surveillance systems, the fashion design and aesthetic is carefully chosen to enable the wearer to express themselves through colour and unique hairstyles of their choice. Anti-surveillance fashion is taken very seriously and the current garments that are created are often made with dark, durable fabrics. This means that, generally, anti-surveillance fashion tends to look quite intense, serious and often slightly frightening. Does all anti-surveillance fashion have to be designed so seriously and intelligently? Why can’t anti-surveillance clothing be designed more light-heartedly by involving colour, vibrancy and fun. The brightly coloured red and pink wig was designed with this thought in mind.

 Just like fashion itself, the wig was designed to serve a multitude of purposes. A person would buy this modern accessory to aid personal protection against surveillance systems, yet also to allow self-expression. While the wearer feels protected from the inside, the wearer can also feel fashionable, sexy and confident from the outside as well. The colourful wig alludes a bold and brave statement against surveillance and even some current anti-surveillance fashion brands. By creating garments that help protect us from surveillance, it is almost like we are letting these systems win. Instead of subtle, dark, serious clothing we should be creating bold, fun, expressive controversial anti-surveillance fashion instead.

 The idea is that a range of wigs could be created to suit the customer to make the accessory a lot more personal and comfortable as a result. The wigs purpose and values would be a whole lot greater if the needs of the customer were met. The pink and red wig design was created for a fun and creative female who wants to express her character, yet try and protect her identity from invasive technology.”

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| SHOOTING MY ANTI-SURVEILLENCE WIG |- Model: Imogen Smith

Here are a selection of the best landscape photographs from my shoot. For my final images I want to play around more with layouts and layering images over each other, or next to one another, to enhance the surveillance vibe. As I was taking the photos I tried out different techniques and took photos from strange angles so the photographs would look like they were taken from a CCTV camera.

I wanted to make YOU (the viewer) feel like you are intruding, watching and spying without helping yourself, creating an uncomfortable feeling. The model is styled in a bold way with a leopard print top and a bright shiny green skirt overlaid with a big black fila coat creating quite a unique street style look. The garments used also compliment the red and pink colours in the wig.

LOCATION: I wanted to pick a location that was quite grungy and rundown in order for the models garments and wig to dramatically pop out. My backyard in Hyde park seemed to be perfect for this. The bars covering our windows, the wall and metal gate all add to the mood of the image and the surveillance theme. 

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| SHOOTING THE ANTI-SURVEILLANCE WIG |

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| Making Process | Stage Three: Start from one side of the pre-made woollen lining and sew on 1 bunch of wool at a time down your preferred parting line. In my case I wanted the parting of the wig to be pretty central. Carry on sewing the bunches of string on until you cover the whole lining.

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| Making Process | Stage Two: Creating bunches of wool to then be sewn onto the woollen lining. I will sew the red and pink woollen bunches on alternately so the colours are evenly spread out across the wig.

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| Making Process | Stage One: Source pair of woollen tights, then tie a knot in the legs above where you are going to cut and sew the top of the wig lining. 

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| DESIGN DEVELOPMENT |

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| COLOUR COMBINATION |

After finding a selection of colourful wool I then decided it would be a good idea to start grouping the colours that would look nice together in a wig. I finally decided on the bright pink and red woollen yarns as they seemed to reflect the correct, fun and colourful, vibes that I was hoping to go for. Plus I am planning on creating this wig for a female and I want my shoot to be very feminine and bold.

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|SOURCING MATERIALS| 

I like the idea of using materials that I have already got lying around at home, instead of buying more. After looking into how to create a yarn wig I have been keen on the idea of using brightly coloured wool to create a product that will help protect you from surveillance systems by disguising your natural hair and parts of your face. A lot of designers have taken the increase in surveillance and mass online presence very seriously and as a result have create garments that are practical, subtle and serious. Using hardly any colour in their designs at all, making the outcome quite frightening for some people. I want to make a product that can help protect a persons identity against these invasive machine but also give off a fun and happy vibe at the same time. We shouldn't let technology stop us from going out and having fun because we are anxious about being watched and recorded. 

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|MAISON MARTIN MARGIELA| Fall 2012 Couture Runway Show

After looking at Sam Handley’s blog I found Maison Martin Margiela’s 2012 couture catwalk show. The masks worn by the models caught my attention and I thought would make good design research. Although I have decided to stay clear of the mask route as I want the wearers face to still be visible, just slightly hidden from surveillance machines. Although these diamond masks are very cool and colourful, they are also slightly scary and the idea for my final accessory is to create a product that can be worn light heartedly.

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| EVIE DAVIS |

Evie’s blog I very good and filled with valuable research that enabled her to create a unique and original eye-wear accessory. Focusing her original attention on identity, she also introduced the idea of the typical male and female stereotype. She looked into camouflage colours and patterns to resemble soldier and the military so she could use this as a main design feature to portray ‘the typical male’. Evie then contrasted her boyish camouflage framework with a feminine pink lens.

I thought Evies research into the frame of the glasses was good, giving her lots of options when coming to designing her own glasses. The materials used were very unique and the whole making process included a variety of technical skills. Overall I liked the whole idea and the outcome seemed to work well in her final shoot. Although the idea could have been portrayed better in the shoot if the glasses were worn by both a male and female. 

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| SAMUEL HANDLEY | Fashion Communication

I really really liked Sam’s blog as I thought the content and thorough research was very informative and enabled him to design some meaningful masks relating to gender identity. I chose Sam as one of my peers to review as we both chose the topic “Identity” and, although having completely different concepts leading up to our finished accessory, we both had similar ideas about focusing our attention on headwear designs and masks. I will certainly use a couple of the designers he researched as I think this could be good for my project and will make my design ideas stronger as a result. Its a shame that Sam did not manage to do a final shoot for his mask as he came across some issue when putting it on the model. I would have liked to have seen more photos of the mask being made as I found it quite hard to picture what the final thing would have looked like. 

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| ALICIA BROWN | Fashion Communication

Alicia’s blog immediately caught my attention because of how colourful and fun it was. I liked her idea and final laser cut earrings as they are simple and look good photographed. Her approach was quite cheesy and lively. Alicia touched on celebrity culture slightly by looking at famous ladies who are known for expressing themselves in a vibrant way, through colour and accessories. She looked at Iris Apfel, Baddie Winkle and Miley Cyrus. All these ladies could be potential customers for Alicia’s final accessory so I think she's done a good job relating her concept and research together in order to create her final piece successfully. 

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|EMILY COOPER| Fashion Communication 

I decided to review Emily Coopers blog as I think her style of working is the complete opposite to mine. For her COP2 practical she has chosen a very clinical, simple and monotone aesthetic. Colour is NOT something she has focused on. Emily also chose the topic “Identity” and decided to go down the evolution route, taking inspiration from philosophers who talk about criminology, the theory of evolution and the nature of inheritance. Emily has looked at the link between animals and humans and so in response to her research she has come up with the idea of creating an animal mask to portray these links between man and beast. 

She has primarily focused her research on looking at geometric shapes and artists that create masks out of cardboard and paper. I really like Emily’s ideas and thought processes throughout her blog and I think the final result is very effective as it links to her original concept well. However, her shoot and final mask are a little too similar to her photographic research images. They almost look like they’re from the same shoot? 

For Emily’s exhibition research she looked at J W Andersons: Disobedient Bodies exhibition which opened up in the Hepworth gallery in Wakefield in March. This is an exhibition I have recently been to visit and I will also use this as part of my research before I start designing my wig/headpiece.