The story of Claudia and Quentin- Presentation ♰

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“It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold; when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.”

- Great Expectations

Victorian inspired fashion ♰

I was sat in my Fashion lecture today and all of a sudden felt an urge to write a post on modern fashion that was based on the Victorian era. I thought it would be very interesting to see what fashion designers have specifically taken from the era and made it into something fashionable NOW. You know... Intriguing.

-Valentino-

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2zxFrA_CkN9_aODLlo36viuycf4bmioomEep_so_V3emLuvhuCzeqkJW_z9RXdfpQ_NS0fYTA4mXqOJd5lpIYGhV9P9N2EAnhEpKOlYdsvcHD3APeHMuC0VOi9k3yijvn6eprR_Opphi7/s1600/Picture+10.png

This collection SCREAMS Victorian. Personally, I love it and I think it definitely has a modern and interesting feel to it. It looks very personal to me as it is all nude and quite tight as well as very feminine and sexy. 

-Nina Ricci/Spring '09-

http://www.hautfashion.com/designer-collection/nina-ricci-spring-2009-rtw

http://www.hautfashion.com/designer-collection/nina-ricci-spring-2009-rtw

This collection has a Victorian feel to it because of the high collars, the iconic sleeves, jodhpur-like pants, a natural palette of nudes, purples and browns and delicate floral prints. The result was a poetic and ethereal gathering of long-legged fairies that wore sheer ombre-dyed tights and high-heeled pumps. This collection I think is very beautiful and girly.

"Olivier Theyskens, one of the few exceptionally skilled couturiers, uses exquisite fabrics and innovative structural details to emphasize feminine beauty and renew the idea of romanticism in fashion, detached from seasonal trends." - http://www.hautfashion.com/designer-collection/nina-ricci-spring-2009-rtw

Julien Macdonald- Grunge Deluxe ♰

These are the looks that I re-created on my model. It is a look from London Fashion Week '13. 

I found these very cool and grungy. I love the idea of the messy look but you can tell it has that hint of creativity to it and behind all that mess hides a piece of Art. 

I also really like the hairstyle that comes with this make up look- very easy but cool and effective. Simple, twisted ponytail which screams 'I couldn't be bothered but I still look good'.

This look has been inspired by Marilyn Manson the king of this smudged black eye's look. 

LOVE IT. <3

♰

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This look is all about creating flawless skin with highlight + contour. The messy hair is suppose to represent 'the morning after the night before'.

I think there is a few ways how I could represent Claudia and Quentin through my work, and these looks have helped me to understand the techniques other make up artists use in order to send a message they need to send.

Gothic Asylum... ♰

I have found an article online that intrigued me... It talks about and shows portrait from an asylum in the 1800's. Photographs were taken at West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum by chief neurologist Sir James Crichton-Browne.

These kind of stills from the past make me feel like I understand more about the atmosphere of gothic horror as it really does give me chills. It is shocking how far we have come when it comes to technology invented and types of medicines and therapies used. Forced into a head brace, bound and held up by police officers, or sitting down with their eyes rolled back in their heads - these are the harrowing faces of mental illness in the Victorian era.

"Diagnosed with conditions such as ‘imbecility,’ ‘simple mania,’ and ‘acute melancholia’, all of them were patients at the West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum, Yorkshire, in 1869.

But while some of their treatment may appear barbaric by modern standards, this asylum, its founder William Tuke, and chief neurologist Sir James Crichton-Browne, actually paved the way for ethical treatment of the mentally ill.

   

Pictures included in this article, taken in 1869 at the West Riding Pauper Launatic Asylum near Wakefield, Yorkshire, show some of the patients interred there. While some of the treatment looks barbaric to modern eyes, in fact the centre pioneered the way for ethical treatment of the mentally ill.

                                 
     

The photographs are part of a 5,000-strong collection of detailed documents on patients taken by Sir James Crichton-Browne, the chief neurologist at West Riding, who helped lead the way in medical treatment of mental disorders.

The West Riding Asylum, based near Wakefield, was the first institution of its kind in the UK to take those with mental conditions out of the way of regular society to a place of relative protection. To that end, the hospital-come-boarding house was entirely self-sufficient, housing its own bakery, butchery, dairy, shop and laundry.

Previously those with mental disorders were exhibited in bedlams, such as the famous one in London, imprisoned in cells, or chained to walls in workhouses. This new, relatively compassionate approach was driven by the asylum's founder, William Turk, a Quaker who believed in the sanctity of life and of behaving kindly and morally to all of humanity.

Sir Crichton-Browne (pictured right) also used the security of the asylum to begin his groundbreaking research into mental illness, investigating whether there was a biological cause behind the conditions he help to diagnose.

He helped to take some of these portraits of patients, meticulously labelled with notes on the patient’s appearance and ailments, and three years later collaborated with Charles Darwin on his book ‘The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals.’

Crichton-Browne pioneered a medical approach to the treatment of mental disorders at West Riding, banning the use of restraints unless necessary, keeping sedation to a minimum, and allowing patients to indulge in leisure activities and take up jobs as part of their healing process.

He also published in-depth journals from his time at West Riding containing observations from himself and his team on mental illness, treatments with various drugs known to affect brain function such as cannabis, nicotine, alcohol, and nitrous oxide.

The records kept at West Riding were so detailed and extensive that they are now recognised as being of huge historic and medical importance, and are protected by UNESCO.

The collection includes over 5000 photographs of patients from the late 1860s onwards, putting a face to thousands of the patient numbers. One patient was Mary Manning, a Bradford domestic servant, who was admitted in 1880. She claimed to be the 'Queen of heaven, possessed of great wealth and had been crowned'.

Sir Crichton- Browne reminds me of a character from the Asylum season of American Horror Story- Timothy Howard. However, his intentions were a lot different and not positive in any way."

Maybe this story is what inspired Ryan Murphy (the producer of AHS) to create the Asylum version of the show?

Pleasance, C. (2015). Portraits from an asylum: Harrowing 19th-century photos show patients at notorious institution kept in SHACKLES and visibly distressed. Available: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3000407/Portraits-asylum-Harrowing-19th-century-photos-patients-notorious-institution-kept-SHACKLES-visibly-distressed.html. Last accessed 18th Mar 2015.

Evaluation of project progression - Great Expectations ♰

Miss Havisham- Continuity 

Estella

The great expectations project was definitely something I found challenging. I have learnt a lot of new techniques such as ageing, illness as well as burns, cuts and bruises. I enjoyed every bit of this project as I feel it allowed me to really grow as an artist by requiring me to design something I have never tried designing before. I also enjoyed the research part of the project, before I did not quite understand what that era was about. I really enjoyed finding out about the characters and starting to create them in my head while watching the TV series and reading the book. I felt like there was no limitations and I could fully create what I had in mind for that specific character. If I was going to do this again, I would know how to prepare myself for the assessment better. I did not quite realise I needed continuity notes in the second part of the assessment, I just assumed I could use the same ones as well as the face chart to re-create the look. However, I do not feel that it affected the level of it and am very happy with the outcome of this assessment. The transformation part was the most enjoyable and that is when I have learnt the most- by practising. Overall, I feel like I have learned a lot by going through the designing process and am very happy with the outcome of this assignment.

Ideas for Estella ♰

- Hair Ideas -

Idea No.1

The picture on the left shows my first idea for Estella's hair. It involves a simple bun at the back with a few curls hanging out of it. The front of the hair is sleeked back with curls near the ears.

I really like this hairstyle as I feel like it represents the character and their personality. Estella is a young woman who also can be quite evil... therefore the combination of the curls and sleek bits of hair.

Idea No. 2

The picture on the right shows my second idea for Estella's hair. This hairstyle is very simple with the hair curled all over and a hair piece at the top of the head to create this 'princess' feeling that Estella is giving off as a character.

The two front bits of hair would be pinned back to symbolise her 'innocence' which sometimes she seems to have. 

Idea No. 3

This is my third idea for the hair and it is the most simple one. However I feel like Estella is not mean to stand out that much therefore this would probably be my final choice for the look. The two front bits would be sleeked and pinned at the back. There would also be a bun at the back of the head, which I want to look quite neat. 

- Make-Up -

Make Up Idea No.1

Make Up Idea No. 2

The make up idea on the left is very subtle and girly. I feel like it represents Estella very well as it is not too bold but is still quite 'sassy'. I want the skin to stay as natural looking as possible as she was stuck inside with her mother. I feel like it would represent the character in an appropriate way...  

Make up idea on the right is a lot more emphasised, especially the lips. I want the eyes to look very natural as well as the eyebrows. I want the skin to stay as natural looking again- as I feel if it was tanned, it would not go with the idea for the character and the circumstances she lived in.

Make Up Idea No. 3

This is my last idea for Estella and it is the most 'bold' one. The eyelashes are very black, which would represent evil. The cheeks would be emphasises with blusher and the lips would be fire red which would represent how unpredictable she is. I feel like that would make the make up a lot more interesting and add story to it. 

PRACTISE 

Analysis - Estella's Character ♰

https://feminema.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/
estella_adult.jpg

Estella's character on the screen in my opinion is very ironic, as she has been moulded into this cold-hearted person but then turns into

someone that says it has made her good in the end. Raised from the age of three by Miss Havisham who destroys her abilities to interact with the world, Estella has been made and forced to break men's hearts. She ends up making Pip (other main character in the film) fall in love with her, which not long after turns into a heart break.

Unlike the dreamy and traditional love story, Estella is cold, does't care about other people's feelings and is very manipulative. Though she makes Pip feel very small for not being a part of the upper classes, Estella is actually even lower-born than Pip; as Pip learns near the end of the novel, she is the daughter of Magwitch who was the coarse convict, which means she comes from the very lowest level of society.

Despite her cold behavior and the damaging influences in her life, Dickens nevertheless ensures that Estella is still a sympathetic character. He does it by giving the reader a sense of her inner struggle -“Suffering has been stronger than all other teaching. . . . I have been bent and broken, but—I hope—into a better shape.”

Daily Life of a Victorian Woman ♰

Because of high birth rates and improving life expectancy, Victorian families were normally quite large. The growth of residential domestic service, even low down the social scale, and the prevalence of lodgers, especially in towns, meant that many households were further swollen in size and complex in formation. Although households consisting of more than two generations or containing more than one husband/wife partnership had never been common in Britain, there was a tendency, especially in textile districts, for grandparents to live in households containing young children, particularly where mothers were working outside the home.

Many young people, especially young women, migrated to towns and cities in search of work as the possibilities of agricultural employment declined. Migration was facilitated by family and other connections: communities were recreated in towns and cities through local concentrations of settlement of particular ethnic, religious, regional or familial groups and by the possibility of finding accommodation through lodging or domestic service in the homes of contacts of this kind.

Most households necessarily drew income from a number of sources, with many women and juveniles adding to wage earning even if their employment was usually more intermittent and low-paid than that of adult males. Although the male breadwinner wage was increasingly regarded as the ideal and even the norm, in practice many households were dependent upon female earnings, especially those households run by widows.

One of the greatest problems facing the historian of women's work is the absence of reliable information. The census enumerators' books are the most obvious source, especially for the period after 1841 when occupations were included; but in practice such information is vastly more accurate for men than for women for several reasons. Firstly, contradictory and inconsistent instructions were given as to how to classify women's work, particularly where this involved home-working or consisted of helping in a family-run business (such work was sometimes deliberately excluded from the record). Furthermore, women's work was often part-time, casual, and not regarded as important enough to declare.

Sometimes it was illegal (as with prostitution) or performed in unregulated sweatshops (a further reason for failure to record). Women may have also have preferred to keep their income-earning a secret from their husband. An occupational designation, for whatever reason, meant something very different for men than for women. With the emphasis primarily upon their role as wives and mothers, women workers did not usually see their occupation as a centrally defining characteristic of their lives, and therefore frequently failed to declare it.

Hudson, Pat. 'BBC - History - Women's Work'. Bbc.co.uk. N.p., 2011. Web. 2 Mar. 2015.