PIXELBLOCKS CLOTHES TEST

MUCH easier to manoeuvre and they actually look better because compared to Lego bricks I can work on little details on a small scale. I think I may have found my material.

LEGO CLOTHES TEST

First attempt at making Lego inspired clothes with Lego bricks. As you can see, the pieces are way to chunky to fit around the doll's body.

LEGO VS. PIXELS

Lego bricks


Eboy


Invader

Invader, who prefers to remain anonymous, always appears masked in public to hide his identity. He is known to be ‘responsible for perhaps the most recognizable street art stunt of the last decades.’ (Lazarides, Artist - Invader, 2009)
He chose to use the pixelated aliens from Toshiro Nishikado’s infamous 1978 arcade game, Space Invaders. He started his invasion in Paris in 1998 by gluing the aliens made up of small coloured square tiles up on walls. These tiles represent pixels and his invasion has spread across 35 other cities around the world. One of the more prominent places where the tiles have been installed is on the Hollywood Sign. The first was placed on the letter D on December 31, 1999 and Invader has placed mosaics on other letters of the sign during his further trips to Los Angeles

This new form of street art is interesting to look at because it combines urban street culture and geek culture; the graffiti aspect of the urban culture and pixelated video game aspect of geek culture. During the email interview I conducted on 05 May 2010, when asked the reason why he chose Space Invaders as the main character of the project he answered: ‘I see them as a symbol of our era and the birth of modern technology, with video games, computers, the internet, mobile phones, hackers and viruses.’ (Invader, 05 May 2009)

Pixel art is something that emerged to the surface quite recently and is a great example to look at as it has a strong connection with geeks and technological revolution we experienced in past decades.
As the internet has entered our lives, many designers turned their vision to pixel graphics due to their fast-loading performance for overcoming bandwidth and web browser problems. (Lam, F., 2003)
A pixel is defined as a minute area of illumination on a computer screen, one of many from which an image is composed. (Compact Oxford English Dictionary, 1991) This smallest unit of geekiness is now used in pop art by artists such as Eboy. Eboy uses pixels to create his world designed for computer screen. He has collaborated with Adidas, Arena magazine, The Guardian, DKNY, MTV, Levi's Honda, etc. (Eboy, About, http://hello.eboy.com/eboy/about/)
Today’s pixel graphic not only caters for low-resolution desktop icons and low-bandwidth internet connections. It has become a new form of art. It is often used to illustrate clean, playful and impressive images as well as giving a certain kind of minimalistic expression…They are no longer framed inside digital boundaries and will extend to tangible media with a three-dimensional form in the near future. (Lam, 2003, p.6)

And I think i'll be interesting and fun to bring pixel's characteristics into real life, possibly into the fashion world because fashion is about visual presentation, and without pixels there won't be any images.

AWESOME

My new-found favourite designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac keeps amazing me. This is a 3D animation of his S/S 09, JC in the sky with diamonds collection starring Lego people as models wearing exact designs shown on the catwalk. Watching this has made me want to bring legoness into the fashion world.
Fashion meets geek.

JEAN-CHARLES DE CASTELBAJAC

While I was doing deeper research on fashion designers that find inspirations from geeks, I found Jean-Charles de Castelbajac (JC/DC). He debuted in 2008 and I absolutely love every single piece of clothes he created so far.
Especially for his S/S 2008 Collection, JC in the sky with diamonds, he displayed a series of clothes for both men and women heavily influenced by Lego bricks, Disney characters and superheroes. These elements are undeniable geek symbols and for this reason he immediately became my favourite designer. Here are some geek-influenced designs from his S/S 08 collection.









Click HERE to visit JC de Castelbajac's webpage

FASHION GEEKS

Nowadays Geeks aren't just people who plays video games on a friday night with a take-away pizza. The meaning has changed and now it's used to describe single-minded outsiders drawn to a wide range of creative pursuits who live beyond the main stream.

Viktor & Rolf

The Amsterdam duo, who in their formal and identical dress have continually drawn comparisons to artist-twosome Gilbert & George, exist in a kind of hybrid zone between fashion and art. Known for theatricality and the great sculptural quality of their clothes, Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren shared a sense of alienation in their schooldays, but when they met in 1988 at the very start of their fashion studies, recognised a similar sensibility right away. Together they create designs, which are both cerebral and breathtaking, and the clever theatricality of their shows make conventional runway about as interesting as a visit to the dentist. VP

Read full article HERE

Many internationally acknowledged fashion designers seek inspiration from geeks.

For example, Luella Bartley, an English fashion designer and magazine editor, said her Spring/Summer collection presented at London Fashion Week 2008 was heavily inspired by Thora Birch’s geeky shabby chic character in Ghost World. Designer Catherine Holstein followed this trend and launched her Autumn/Winter 2009 collection featuring models in oversized thick rimmed glasses, neat tied back hair. She stated that her dresses were inspired by Nintendo pixilation. (Full article HERE)


Luella's The Ghost World inspired S/S 08 collection


Ugly Betty


Catherine Holstein's geek, nintendo inspired A/W 09 collection