I was looking for inspiration for fashion Body Art and I came across these images on someones blog/tumblr. I unfortunately can't find too much information about them but I just LOVE these images, and sometimes with projects like this just looking at the images is the best for inspiration rather than researching into the meaning of them too much. I have put a collection of the photos I found, I hope you enjoy them and find them as inspiring as I do, enjoy!!
Today in class we were learning how to use props in the hair, this is a really good idea for Tribal because from my research the hair can have quite alot of shape to it and by adding props to the hair this can give it shape and height.
Props you can use
Polystyrene Balls
Tights Stuffed with cotton wool, Doughnut
Polystyrene Ring
Here are just a couple of different objects that I have used before in the hair, you can use most things that give shape to the hair, but you must remember they can't be too heavy otherwise they will weigh the hair down. Below are the photos of my first attempt of hair using props, I aimed to create height and I feel I achieved this. I was lucky with my model because they had long hair so was good to get alot of height, this is a good thought for when I choose my model for my final imagine. For this look I used, polystyrene balls, some were circular shaped and some were more of an egg shape. Once i placed them where I wanted them I then placed the hair around the shape and secured it with a hair bobble. I hid the hair bobble with crepe hair, this also added colour to my look. i carried on this technique till I finished with all the hair. The hair sometimes flopped over, this hair would be good for my Editorial image because i could add some clips to keep it up, if i did use it for my catwalk look I would maybe use wire to secure it.
In the recent Victoria's Secret Catwalk show(2012) their was a bit of controversy. In the show their are lots of different themes such as circus, cheerleader girls etc. One of the themes for Thanksgiving was model; Karlie Kloss as a native american. This caused a lot of controversy and has had alot of backlash since the show. Model still went down the catwalk like normal however ever year the catwalk show is then shown on television and streamed online a month later. But because of all the controversy Victoria Secret Decided not to show this model and took this look out of the show.
This outfit was criticised because of it's ignorance reference to tribal culture and it's history, it wasn't really criticised cause of the whole outfit the main thing people were offended by was the head dress. A head dress is associated with very honourable men and are a symbol of respect worn by native war chiefs and warriors. It does also have religious references. Alot of people said they were 'disgusted' by the images of the model wearing the head dress. Victoria Secret has apologised for offending people and this segment in the show will not be broadcasted, this is their offical statement "We are sorry that the American Indian headdress replica used in our recent fashion show has upset individuals. We sincerely apologise as we absolutely had no intention to offend anyone. Out of respect, we will not be including the outfit in any broadcast, marketing materials nor in any other way." Model;Karlie Kloss has also apologised on twitter saying; deeply sorry if what I wore during the VS Show offended anyone." It's got me thinking, sometimes does fashion go too far, so what do you think?
I love the Victoria Secret catwalk as their so innovative and fun! Here is some images from their show that have a clear tribal reference, the image on the left is from the segment of the show called "Wild Things". In this part of the show the models all wore animal print wings and they walked through large trees(you can see at the back of the photo) and walked through gold glitter, which brought the glam into the catwalk. As you can see the men all wore tribal print sarongs and had large tribal print tattoos painted on the body. The model in this photo is wear leopard print underwear and also had tribal tattoos painted all over her body. Another tribal reference she is wearing is the large hoop necklace, I have already researched into the tribe this originated from and you can see that the stylist has got this idea from the Kayan People.
Here is the video I watched of the "Wild Things" Segment from the fashion show.
The term Surma is the Ethopias government name for the Suri, Mursi and Me'en groups. They live i very remote areas, at a young age to beautify themselves the women have their bottom teeth taken out and their lips pierced . Their bottom lip is then stretched over time and a clay lip plate is inserted to keep the round shape of the lip, this is counted as beautiful. The lip plate differs in diameter and over time the plate gets bigger and bigger, you can see from the photo above and to the left that they all differ in size. Recently the clay plates have started to fade out and not be so popular, the young kids paint with white clay on their face and body, using dots and circles. The Surma people have a sky god called Tuma. Nobody knows how the lip plates came into use, the plate is a sign of beauty and the bigger the plate the more cattle the women is worth. This is important when the women is getting married.
I now want to look at Tribal prints in fashion. This is from the Burberry SS12 catwalk, a lot of the skirts were in a midi shape and were in the style of a sarong. I love the tribal print and the colours, they are earthy muted colours, the blue greens and yellows are not bright but I think this works really well. I love the pattern on the material, it's not your typical aztec/tribal print because I imagine that to be lots of sharp lines and triangular shapes. The pattern on their material is a lot more soft and rounded shapes rather than harsh lines.
Heres my attempt on Scarification, i really liked doing this, it was very messy but really fun. I was surprised by how much I liked it because when watching and looking at the photos i really didn't like it cause I'm not good with bumps on the skin or skin problems. However when I was doing it I really didn't mind the look of it at all!!
Here is my first attempt at Scarification, here I am showing you all the different materials you can use on the body to achieve this look, along with the ones i have shown in the image above you can also use pasta which hasn't been cooked. When i was doing this I was only practising applying it to the skin, i wasn't practicing any patterns, I just wan't to see how it would stick.
How to Apply
The way to apply the materials, is to place your chosen material into a bowl and add liquid latex, you want to make sure you have enough to cover all of the materials but not too much that it turns out looking like soup.
Mix all of it together, it should be quite a thick consistency.
Then using either tweezers, a spatula or your hands place it onto your models body.
Apply it to the desired pattern you like
You need to make sure that it has dried before you start moving around, you can either wait for it to dry or use a hairdryer on a cool setting.
Once it has dried, you then need to apply supracolour to blend the scarification in and for it to look like it's an addition to the skin.
Decide what colour you want it to be, whether it's skin colour or red(fresh cuts).
Apply the colour with either a sponge or your makeup brushes.
Make sure you blend evenly. Adding definition if you need to.
Here is a photo of my first try at making a pattern, I used rice. I like the idea of using V shaping, I forgot to take a photo after I applied the supra colour i will be doing it again so I will upload another one don't worry! I really like this technique and think i'm defiantly going to use this on one of my images.
Today in class we learnt about scarification, it is something i have never learnt about before. I had seen it before but never known what it was called or why they do it. I was abit nervous about learning about this because I am very squeamish and am also abit funny about bumps on the skin. But I was still intrigued and tried to put this aside and learn about what scarification is about.
We started off in class by watching a presentation about Scarification and what it was all about. We then had to watch a video of the procedure of scarification. I found these quite uncomfortable to watch, as you can see the person having it done was in real pain and I found it quite hard at the start tin understand why would you put yourself through something that is so painful. I still find it hard to understand but this is probably because I am really bad with pain, but it's what they believe in so I appreciated that.
Scarification is made by small cuts, scratches and burns on the skin. The procedure of scarification is performed like a ritual in many tribes. A lot of the tribe gather around to watch it happen, they start scarification from as young as 3 or 5 and then they also perform scarification again to show the a boy is becoming a man and vice versa. After the initial cutting is done they then brush leaves onto of the cuts to try and subside the pain and then everyday they splash their cuts with water so that they don't heal. The aim in scarification is to get a good rise, the patterns are very intricate and every one is very different, the designs are amazing and so detailed!
We also learnt about the crocdile tribe, we watched a video on the National Geographic Website about the ritual procedure they undertake. I found it fascinating, a couple of days before they are about to be scared they go into a tent and must stay here, sleep here etc and must not leave until they are going to the ritual. They then will lie down within the keeping room and the scarification is performed without any pain relief, they are then kept in here for a few days after the scarification is performed. So that they can get a good rise on it, this is part of the ritual.
I was shocked when i heard but actually not surprised after watching the video that people have died from the pain they were in from scarification. They don't get any pain relief apart from a small shot of alcohol, they would be shaking from all the pain. It's just amazing what they would go through for their tribe and what they believe in. I've attempted my own scarification, wait to see the post of what it looks like and how I did it!!
I watched a program on this tribe about a year ago and then while I was doing my research I remembered this tribe and how fascinated I was when I watched it. The women in the tribe wear metal rings around their neck, they are made from brass the spiral is wound round the neck manually by the other women. The process of putting the metal rings on for the first time can take up to several hours because the brass is so tough. Tourists call these women, giraffe women because of the look metal rings giving them a look of having long necks.
Girls as young as 5 wear these rings, the older you get the more coils are added. It does actually have an effect on their bone structure, by wearing these brace coils it bushes their collar bones down.
animneckxray.gif Watch this short clip it shows some xrays of how the body has changed by people that have worn these rings. The rings are worn for beauty, i love the look of them and i do find them beautiful too. I would like to experiment with these rings and try to use them or the idea in some way within my shoot. Maybe either using lots of bangles, or necklaces or even by just using the shape of the circle in the hair.
Shine By Three Collabo, Drums Tribal Editorial Shoot
I found this shoot while undertaking my research into Tribal within fashion. I found this shoot on a photographer; Kent Johnsons Website. He is a freelance photographer based in Sidney, Australia. He also runs two successful blogs. He works on a wide range of genres in photography, such as fashion, beauty, architecture and so on. I really like this work as it has such a wide variety but also because his work is very crisp and clean.
I LOVE this shoot, I have tried to research into who was the makeup artist, hair and stylist but i can't find who it was which is such a shame. The majority of the images are in black and white which is not what I imagined a tribal image to be in. I always thought that because most tribes are so colourful that all the images are colourful however this shoot isn't and I think it's so effective and strong. Also the makeup isn't majorily full on, tribal makeup doesn't mean it has to be lots and big patterns. I love the line down the nose and then the dots on the cheek and it's something I really want to try and makes me think it doesn't have to be big and bold. I want to take some inspiration from this shoot and it's made me want to go and draw some face charts, which is what i'm about to do!
Here are my attempts of drawing on Magazine cuttings insipred by artist Jean-Luc Moerman. I decided to just do mine in black because i think this made it more tribal looking. I really liked this technique of drawing on the cuttings as it helped to get an understanding to what it would like like on a models body. I think my favourite ones are number 1 and 3. I decided to just do the tattoos on the arm and hands of number 3 because I think this gives a real contrast to the bare face. I also took my inspiration for number 1 from the Kaor tribe as i remembered they painted their face with dots. I like the effect and am going to try a look like this on me later as well. I loved doing this and can't wait to do more!!
In our lecture I was introduced to the Belgium artist; Jean-Luc Moerman. The title of his work that I am looking at is called "Tattoo on Paper" as you can see from some of the images this collection is where he draws tribal style patterns onto famous celebrities and famous portraits. He takes the images from ad campaigns or portraits of celebrities and draws on top of them. The majority of his collections are drawn in black pen, however their is one that is in red which works well as the campaign is all red so ties in with the colour theme. I really like his work because of he uses people which you would not normally see with all this art work all over their body such as President Obama. You can see from his work that he is strongly influenced by tribal makeup and patterns. I love how Bold his work is, his work is defiantly shocking and thought provoking and also makes you see the subjects in a different way. I can't wait to try this for myself I am going to rip some images out of magazines and have ago for myself. This will good practice for me to practice my free hand work and to start to generate tribal patterns and to see what works and what doesn't.
I came across this tribe while doing my research and instantly love their look of the dots all over their face. Doing all this research is not good cause I don't know which Tribe I like the most I keep finding more I want to experiment with. This image below was the first image I saw from the Karo Tribe and straight away when I wanted to try this look on me and start to add colour to the design.
This is a women from the Karo Tribe; The Karo Tribe are based in South Ethiopia near the east banks of the Omo River. The Karo people draw these designs on with chalk, charcoal, ochre and red earth. It is good to know what materials they use because I would want my look to be authentic. The women from the tribe scarify their chest to make them self beautiful
The Scarafication on this mans chest means that he has killed a dangerous animal or enemy. I've looked on mycourse and it says that we are going to be looking more into scarification in Lotties lesson I am interested to find out how to create it but also slightly nervous because I am squeamish. When Looking into this tribe I also found out that the Men will marry as many women as they can afford, but this tends to be about 2 or 3.
