Unit 3 Proposal - Fashion and Beauty

After considering many different ideas for my Unit 3 project, I decided on the topic of Fashion and Beauty. This is because after thinking of numerous shoot plans and ideas to develop, I realised all of them can be linked into the topic area of fashion and beauty, therefore not limiting me creatively and giving me plenty of options to work with over the course of the project.

One of the ideas I want to explore with this is the idea of street fashion. This would include looking at current fashion trends and vintage fashion, using influences such as the magazine Dazed and Confused as they include various trends and culture which relate to this idea. Another way I want to develop this idea is linking culture, current events and places into the shoots. For example I could use certain props to link a studio shoot to the idea of garbage and recycling and I could do a location shoot showing London fashion.

Another, slightly contrasting idea of the above I want to look at is couture/high fashion ideas. This would include looking at influences such as Vogue covers and fashion houses such as Chanel. I would show this in a classic way for instance black and white to create a classy look such as seen on shoots with Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe. I want to include in with this idea as well ideas of society and how society perceives the people who follow high fashion and create a contrasting view. For example, they are often seen as happy and carefree, but I could show a “behind the scenes” view on a contrasting emotional level.

Another idea I want to look into is Fantasy fashion and beauty. This was another idea I was considering to be my project overall but I did not want to be limited. The ideas I have with this idea is to show both fairy-tale and horror ideas that tell a story and link in with fashion and beauty. With the fairy-tale aspect of this, I would take inspiration from popular tales such as Cinderella and clash the “Disney Princess” style with modern day fashion. Another idea with this is taking classical fairy-tale characters and placing them in a contrasting or slightly linking location. For example, dressing a model as Alice in Wonderland and putting them in the middle of Piccadilly Circus. With the horror idea, I would mainly focus on beauty and the prosthetics make up aspects. For example showing the idea of the devil through beauty by using makeup and prosthetics. Another idea with horror is using animation to create transformations, for instance human to werewolf in a full moon which would focus on prosthetics and fashion.

I also want to look into this topic at a deeper, more emotional level by looking at how people stereotype and how magazines, celebrities and fashion put pressure on body image. This idea will show a more real life idea of fashion and beauty in contrast to the superficial, perfect ideas. With this, I would get inspiration from documentaries and documentary photographers and - with the models permission – take a deeper look into them and how they feel.