The Muse as Client

  • Liliana Sanguino: Course Leader Fashion Design Womenswear, LCF
  • James Pegg: Fashion Design Womenswear, LCF
  • Shee Fun Chan: Fashion Design Womenswear, LCF
  • Marilyn Rainey: Fashion Design Womenswear, LCF

This Lightning talk starts at 13:40 in room T303. Back to Lightning Talks

Brief description of session and activities

Now in its third year the ‘MUSE’ project invites students to research the cultural significance of selected iconic women for whom they will design and realise a capsule collection.  The muses themselves are an active element in the project providing a live client for students to meet, have a dialogue with, fit and ultimately present their collection to.  This year, for the first time, we are proposing a cross-school cross disciplinary collaboration with students from Central Saint Martin’s BA in performance who will be invited to create an environment in which to showcase the final work.   Strategically placed in the second year of the Womenswear BA course, this project aims to introduce students to the idea of a ‘client’ beyond an abstract notion.  By definition the muses are individual and diverse and students will be required to engage with thoughts about sizing, body type, age and gender as well as personality, taste and the context in which the clothing will be worn and seen.  Previous muses have included; Princess Julia, Dusty O, Scarlett Canon and Sue Tilley.  The end product will be an innovative response to an unconvential idea of ‘client’

This year the muses will be drawn from the world of performance.  Students from each course will be encouraged to interact, share ideas and exchange practice methods working to create garments and a performance space specific to their chosen muse.  The muses confirmed for this year are Cibelle, Lucy Fizz, Scottee and Siobahn Donaghy who are all charcterised by their risk taking approach to performance and dress.

We would like to invite participants to discuss their experiences of working with diverse industry clients beyond the traditional notions of shops, design companies and manufacturers and how this may have enhanced students’ learning experiences.

Will students be involved in the session? If so how?

No

What will participants take away from the session?

Seeing how students respond to live clients that challenge their perception of an ‘industry client’