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Issue 53 – June 2015 – QUEEN MARGARET CALLING
The Year 13 International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma
student came up with the idea for her dress while on
holiday in Auckland when she walked past the DFS
Galleria and noticed the high fashion brand advertisements.
She says the models looked stiff and lacked emotion – a
tactic designed to reel in the consumer.
Using this concept as inspiration, Luisa started to develop
her ideas for her political art project. She needed to research
a political or social issue and devise a creative project using
the concept. Luisa’s issue was rampant consumerism and
society’s obsession with brand name clothing.
The process of creating the dress began by designing a
collage of logos in photoshop and then varying the colours
to fit the gradient color shift. Once the collage was finished,
Luisa bought a pre-set dress pattern to create the dress.
“Instead of using fabric, I printed my collage on
cardboard paper which became my fabric”, Luisa comments.
This art project was certainly a learning curve for Luisa
because she had never sewn before, never mind made an
entire dress. She says piecing together the dress was hard
work.
“At some points I needed two people to help me fix
the dress because I was immobile while wearing the heavy
construction.”
The pattern on the dress itself is a self-made collage of
high fashion brand logos, a necessity for a brand name on
a fashion item. The colour shift from a bright yellow and
orange at the bottom all the way to black and gold at the top
represents how we perceive brand labels.
“We think the clothes look nice and desirable but in
reality, they all have similar designs and are expensive,” Luisa
says.
This project has led Luisa to decide on the theme for
her work in Year 13 IB Visual Art which will be ‘Urban
Structures.’
The branded dress has also inspired Luisa to pursue
installation work, which is art created for a specific site, often
incorporating materials or physical features of the area.
“I want to expand and do bigger projects but still keep it
in relation to my theme and me.”
Luisa’s teacher, Head of Visual Arts, Mrs Paulette
Pavelich, was impressed by Luisa’s work.
“I admired Luisa’s tenacity and resourcefulness when she
was planning and executing her design,” Mrs Pavelich said.
“She was able to troubleshoot effectively and was open to
feedback and suggestions throughout the process.”
Luisa’s dress will be assessed as part of her IB Diploma,
which she chose because of its international focus. She
is currently taking six subjects as part of the IB Diploma,
which include German, Art, English, Mathematics, Physics
and History.
The Art of Labels
Luisa Zeilinger has created a dress that
explores the nature of branding and con-
sumerism.