Black Point Dress (Emotion Collection)

RESEARCH BACKGROUND Bugg's research is informed by new methodologies for design and communication at the intersection of fashion and performance. This practice-based body of work seeks to connect designer, wearer and viewer on an experiential level that is derived from and performed through body and clothing narratives. Bugg collected oral history interviews that draw together material about the embodied experience, memory, and emotional and sensory responses to clothing. Analysis revealed shared responses in the form of physical and emotional triggers to garment design. RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION A conventional approach to fashion design positions the garment as part of linear narrative with character driven methods associated with costume design and the wearer is not actively engaged in the process. The methodological approach for this work was to dismantle this hierarchical structure of production and place the focus on the body and the clothing to produce new meaning and performance through design. RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE The 'Black Point Dress' was shown as a performance installation comprising the garment, film and live performance at the Wye Arts Centre in Berlin for Berlin Fashion Week 2013, and was also exhibited at RMIT Design Hub for 2 weeks in 2013. A peer reviewed conference paper has been developed into a book chapter 'Emotion and Memory; clothing the body as performance' to be published by Interdisciplinary Press 2014. 1,000 visitors attended the Wye exhibition and the website attracted 1500 visits. Media reviews highlighted Bugg's cross-disciplinary approach to fashion and performance. An outcome was an invitation from Niccolò Montanari. Creative Director of Berlin Fashion Film Festival to curate a fashion film screening from LCF for BFFF 2013.