Displayed here are shots taken from Raf Simons' autumn/winter 2002 runway show, titled 'Virginia Creeper'. This collection was presented within a woodland setting which reflected and resonated with both the name of the collection of the looks being shown. The title of the collection, 'Virginia creeper', is a Native American plant that grows wildly, and this is what Raf named the collection after, tying in with the theme of nature. Virgina creeper plants are visually beautiful, but when touched, they are actually poisonous to the skin. This whole collection I based around the duality of nature. "Both soothing and cruel, nature is still not totally conquered by mankind. At the same time the forceful beauty of nature continues to be a fascination, for previous as much as today's generation. Even after centuries of industrial progress, these elements of nature maintain their intrigue, mystery and wonder about them."

"Vast and impenetrable woods still put fear into mere mortals. Uncharted swamps serve no real purpose but remain the staple of ominous tales and whispered stories. Poisonous weeds (like the Canadian Virginia Creeper of the collection's title) are a wonderful sight to the eye of the beholder while at the same time cannot be touched or eaten. All said subjects, predators, plants and caprices of nature alike, are isolated, almost separated from modern civilisation."

With this context, you begin to get a better understanding of the collection, and the garments begin to resonate with you on a deeper level, understanding the reasoning behind layering choices, colour pallets and silhouettes. Raf stuck to a very mutual colour pallet on a whole, focusing on shades of greens, browns, beiges and even light blues. These all reflect the natural surrounding of there runway and ring true to the context of the collection, allowing the garments to blend into the environment. I love Simons fascination with oversized silhouettes, exaggerating proportions and elongating cuts. This is something very prevalent within the collection. For my own project, 'beyond the pines', matching my colour pallet with styling choices to the environment around the shoot will be something I consider heavily, along with how the styling reverberates with what surrounds it. Personally, I feel that this runway is a strong reference for my own work, linking to my woodland theme, and title of my proposal thoroughly. These runway shots will be referenced in my test shoot outcomes during commune, where I explore shooting there body in this raw and unforgiving habitat.

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Displayed below are a few scans from the photography annual of 2019. I came across this annual in the library, and after flocking through it, I realised myself becoming inspired ad engaged by certain pages throughout, which really mirrored my initial thoughts on my final project, titled 'Beyond the pines'. Here I have selected some really interesting imagery that I feel correlates to my time on commune and what sort of imagery I am striving to achieve. Firstly, all of these shots are taken in natural, pure surroundings, which I feel effortlessly elevates the images made, due to the natural beauty and innocence of nature. The wonderful clash between this tranquil natural setting, and the unorthodox poses and positions of the models placed within it is really engaging visually to me, and is something that I want to continue exploring during commune through photography. IN the first scan below, the styling choices compliment the 'set' of the photo, and work to blend in and fit to the colour pallet of the grass and foggy sky, making use of beiges, light greens and greys. There is definitely something effective about this choice to merge both the surrounding and there model through garment colour choices, but then separating and highlighting the characters through an asymmetric composition and series of strange poses upon the hillside. The playfulness and theatrical element of their poses contradicts the eerie, yet raw backdrop, which I think works effectively. However, in my opinion, different styling choices could be made in order to create more impact on the viewer, allowing for the characters to have more personality and a sense of presence within the shot. For example, exploring vibrant colours and unique silhouettes that would clash with the backdrop could be more effective. This is something I plan to explore through my own photographic experimentation during commune.

Above and below are some great examples of how the natural landscape can be used and how lighting can be explored in order to construct a deeper narrative and create engaging visual outcomes. For example, utilising how the suns beams cast shapes and shadows through the trees, and  using this to illuminate areas of the image you are making. Above is a wonderful example of this, where the photographer has carefully placed the model so that her face is highlighted and her legs, leaving the rest of her body in shadows. Visually, I feel that this is super intriguing, I love how this looks and due to the fact the lighting is all natural, it shows initiative when locating spots top shoot at, which is vital to effective image making. I aim to explore this myself when taking test shots in the woods of the Surrey hills, looking out for locations which will enhance my photographic experiments due to either lighting or there surrounding set. Both of these photos have amazing experimental compositions aswell, using the interesting textures and tones of the floor to shoot the model within. I love this aesthetic of having the model laying within the foliage, becoming engulfed or shrouded by the surrounding, as I feel it makes a dramatic effect, and plays on the idea of how nature can be brutal and unforgiving, overpowering everything else. My concept 'beyond the pines' really looks to explore this idea through image making and set location.

After commune, I began to reconsider my project proposal slightly, in order to cater for my other interests throughout foundation so far. I decided that I wanted to incorporate a a design and making process into the project, allowing me to further explore my interest for fashion design, but then still finalising the project with an FCP focused outcome, utilising the garment I end up creating. I plan to keep the rest of the project the same, meaning I will still use a woodland 'pine' setting to shoot my garment, and I want to achieve a series of posters as the final outcome for the project, potentially with a short accompanying 30 second film. After realising I wanted to include this design element into the 'beyond the pines' project, I decided that I made most sense to use this idea of being within the pines and the sports/ activities that we associate with that. For example, mountaineering such as skiing, rock climbing and hiking all take place in an environment where pine trees are most common, that being in the mountains and hills. Therefore, I concluded that the references for my design work would come from looking into mountaineering, and the gear and equipment they utilise to complete such tasks, and using this as shape, silhouette and material reference for a design process, that will eventually result in me physically creating a mountaineering inspired garment. In addition to this, mountaineering sports such as skiing and hiking are sports that are quite close to my heart, as I have been brought up doing them from a young age. This allows me to have a much deeper connection to my project, as it will revolve around sports that I am fond of, and have a special place in my heart. The fact that Im knowledgable in these fields will also help me to direct and understand the equipment and materials on a deeper level, as I have experienced lots of it, and so when it comes to designing, I will have a better understanding of what will physically work and what won't. Carrying on with this, another reason I have chosen to base my design process upon these activities and the gear they utilise is because ever since I have been in London during foundation, I feel like I have not had the time to enjoy my hobbies so much, as the majority of the time I am working on different projects that I don't get the ability to go out explore nature as much as I did before. For me, this is quite a personal thing, and I feel that it is so important that we interact with nature and get away from social media, shopping and city lifestyle from time to time to appreciate a more simplistic and peaceful world. I find it quite sad how I don't get to spend as much time riding bikes in the hills, skiing in the mountains and hiking. These are things that really make me happy and it is hard sometimes to accept that I doth have the ability to do it as much as I used to. Therefore, this design and project is very much based on my own experiences with mountain based sports and being in that beautiful environment, and how in general, people do not seeped enough time interacting with the natural world, and take such things for granted. The title of project 'beyond the pines' has a slightly different meaning ever since I introduced this design element to it, where I will be referencing mountaineering sports for design inspiration. Beyond the pines will refer to the fact that when you are talking part in such mountain sports as climbing and skiing, often you are within and beyond the pine trees, but quite often the heights you may reach are beyond that of which pine trees can even grow. This is a very direct reference to the word beyond the pines. In addition, the name is a reference to the fact that people taking part in these sports are in lots of cases pushing what is physically possible in order to be the best that they can be; going above and 'beyond' to achieve their goals. From this point, the research references will change slightly, to cater for my exploration into mountaineering gear, looking back at old photos, from camp sites to climbing gear. These are all things I will consider when enduring the design process. 

 Displayed above and below are a range fi scans from the book - Everest 'summit of achievement'. I decided this would be a good place for me to start conducting my research into mountaineering wear and equipment because Everest is the most famous and renowned mountain, where some fo the most memorable climbing experiences have taken place. This book looked way back at the history of Everest, and explores the old equipment used and how this is so different to the current day. I felt really inspired by lots of the base camp images, where the sherpas would have set up camp before trying to climb Everest. The shapes and structures found here are super intriguing, and from a design perspective, are great starting points to reference silhouettes and shapes from, which can later be transferred onto the human form. I'm very much fascinated by this idea of having a sort of frame work or stricture, that supports a lighter weight fabric, such as can be seen on tents today. This is something that I plan to explore further within my design and draping process, as I feel it has potential for some really innovative design work to stem from it. Other notable features found within these images would be things such as lots of bulging silhouettes that are contrasted by tighter fits  elsewhere. For example, the use of really bulky oversized shoe silhouettes, contrasted by tighter fitting pants, creating a sort of ballooning effect. This similar idea fo ballooning is noticed in downed puffer trousers and jackets, along with some of the tent imagery, where they are being blown up by the wind. This is a reaccoring theme and something that I may look into during designing. 

Above are some more super engaging images extracted from the book. The ones that really caught my attention from design perspective were the profile shots of all the sherpa men in a row, with the huge wooden and wicker structures suspended from their backs and heads. I found myself fascinated with this idea of Balancing weight, and how it is visually presented here is very inspiring to me. The sheer size of the structures balanced and supported onto the backs pn this men is incredible, and in a fashion sense, really experimental and exciting to look at. In some cases the loads these men would carry are larger than them, in both weight and physical size, which is pretty incredible. For me, I feel like I can really draw inspiration from this idea of tactically supporting loads and weighting loads evenly in order for it to sit on the body. I plan to take this notion of balancing weight and explore it physically on the body, during draping processes. This will help me to get an understanding oh how to distribute weights on the body and will also enable me to get a better understanding of finding ways to support loads with as little materials and equipment,ent as possible. From a visual point of view, this is really exciting, and I love the idea of creating large, obscure structures and forms that can sit on the body in various ways, exaggerating silhouette and shapes in order to create a much more dramatic and theatrical result. This is very reminiscent of lots of Craig greens work, where he explore tent like structures on the body. He likely references these sorts of images in his design work also.

Displayed here are a bunch of old photos that I collected from family holidays, to either skiing or hiking locations. I felt it was very necessary to make the references for my design work a little more personal, and to tie in the whole narrative of the project more thoroughly. As I previously mentioned, since being at uni I feel very out of touch with nature and exploring all it has to offer. Growing up, I was surrounded by it and spent the majority off my time out doing sports such as skiing, climbing and mountain biking, which are things I seem to do less and less as a result of high volumes of work to complete. I feel it is so important that people interact with nature and don't take for granted its ability to clear the mind and make you feel better win yourself. Nowadays it is sad how little people go out in nature, in this world of technological advances etc. Therefore, for this very personal reason I decided to based my whole project entirely on this theme off the outdoors, and much of what it entails, from my own experiences. In most of these photos, I was very young, but I have fond memories of these places, and the feeling of carelessness, something I envy nowadays. In terms of inspiration for my project, I won't necessarily take lots of reference from these photos in terms of shape, but more in terms of colour pallet choices and materials. There is a wide range of bright, popping colours seen throughout, quite often incorporating colour blocking and clashing of contrasting colours. This is very retro and sing seen so often today, which is why I feel it may be interesting to explore modern silhouettes and shapes upon the body, but contradict these with vintage colour blocking and retro print. This is just an idea and is something I may explore in more detail later during my development process.

Displayed here is designer Craig Greens MA Menswear collection from CSM. I have decided to include this in my research for my final project because there is inspiration that can be drawn from it in terms of silhouette, structure and shape, but also, even the exploration with print is a great reference. This collection shows clear links to my own and there are similarities between the two. Here, Craig is experimenting with constructing structures on the human form, creating sorts of scaffolding and forms which do not congenitally fit with the human figure. This in turn, creates a beautiful contrasty, between the slim body of the model and the unique structures that hang from it. I personally find some much beauty in this collection because its a really innovative and exciting way to look at menswear, not focusing on wearable garment outcomes, but rather taking a very conceptual and experimental approach where the body becomes a structure for these artistic fashion forms to be showcased upon. In the collection I can see many links to this common theme of outdoors lifestyle, camping, hiking, climbing etc. which relates to my projects stimulus very closely. I can see that Craig has drawn inspiration from objects such as tents and camping equipment in the creation of these 3D shapes, layering upon one another to build up these beautiful geometric forms. These geometric forms are reminiscent of my own draping process, where I explored positioning hiking equipment on there human form in unusual and unconventional ways, creating a series of exciting shapes and silhouettes that I can reference later in my own design process. One main similarity between my project and this collection is the idea of creating very bulky forms that sit upon the human body, exaggerating proportions and exploring conceptual silhouettes, which Craig has done amazingly here.

An alternative relevance between my work and this collection is the prints Craig explored. As you can see Green referenced the outdoors inspiration, using variations of the classic camouflaged print to colour block onto his garments. This clear correlation between the camping/hiking references used to design the silhouettes and shapes is then reinforced with these cams flsauged prints which relate to nature and being in the outdoors. The colours, greens, oranges and yellows link to leaves and the colour change throughout the seasons of autumn and summer. This is very much a link to the title of my project, 'Beyond the pines' and the idea of being within the foliage of pine trees within a woodland setting.