Output details

Charlie Says...

Research content/process:

This fashion collection was shown at Japan Fashion Week in 2009, one of the world's premier annual venues for new couture. The research process for the collection centred on a mining and critical examination of social and cultural references in early twentieth century western attire holding somewhat androgynous connotations - for instance, caps, trousers, and waistcoats feature extensively in the portfolio's documentation. For the collection, however, a creative transmogrification takes in which these styles, cuts and colours are combined in wholly original and quite feminine dresses, blouses and hats. There is a late-Victorian / Edwardian feel to the collection indicating Reem Alasadi's interest in the cultural and social connotations of 'new public women' and the stirrings of a 'feminist sensibility' as well as the socio-political demands associated with the Suffragette movement in Britain before the First World War. Reem Alasadi, Iraq-born, has undertaken related research on the status of women and girls in modern Iraq and, in that respect, the collection is an essay on the topic of cultural, social, political and dress displacements. The collection was shown at the necessarily transient catwalk event in Japan and is now dispersed - another form and instance of displacement underlining the modernity of Reem Alasadi's concerns even as she draws on early-twentieth century source materials and that time of emergent feminism.The portfolio includes a range of documentary materials including a CD of the catwalk show, material samples, sketchbooks and other collected elements.