My chosen subject for my Final Major Project is 'The Nostalgia Battleground'. A concept derived from examination of childhood experience and its influence on adulthood. 'The Nostalgia Battleground' opens up area various areas of research, possibly driven by Freud's stages of Psychosexual development, such as:
- Can we change the effect of our childhood experience in adulthood?
- Do we all have nostalgic memories of childhood?
- What specific experiences in childhood determine specific personality traits?
Therefore, the concept of childhood experience determining one's adulthood opened up various areas of emotional conflict - whether this be the possible contradiction of childhood experience and its influence on adulthood, or, perhaps non-nostalgic memories making it a battleground of thought, or contrary to this, a fighting and longing for the nostalgic past.
One influence on the final theme decision is that Art constantly questions our identity, as the Oxford Dictionary confirms defining it as 'Subjects of study primarily concerned with human creativity and social life, such as languages, literature, and history', making the investigation into childhood experience relevant for my Final Major Project. Furthermore, the relevance of the theme further influenced my decision to choose childhood experience as a research subject, with it being a subject that everyone can relate with, giving me more potential primary research.
More importantly, childhood is a subject that has been growing increasingly in the Fashion World, making it a relevant subject to me as a Fashion Promotion student. Once example of the nostalgia growth is the '90's trend', which I have been greatly influenced and been part of, beginning as early as 2013 (according to WGSN) and still continuing as according both for and against critics, from Polyester Zine and Vice. Nathalie Olath from Vice, has urged to 'push things forward' calling for new innovative ideas. Such a statement evidences the strength of engraining childhood has upon if fashion critics are even asking to push things forward, perhaps we can never escape our childhood. Thus, such criticism raises possible research questioning into how long childhood experiences last, and perhaps, do they got stronger as we get older.
Further influences on the concept 'The Nostalgia Battleground' were designers such as Meadham Kirchoff, Ryan Lo, Fyoder Golan and Jaquemes often reference childhood in their collections; whether it be through the fun, kitch, playful garish frills or through literal concept driven fashion. Indeed, Meadham Kirchoff's SS15 collection was driven by the idea 'reject everything!'. Meadham Kirchoff stood to reject commodification and the fashion-machine itself. Mead ham Kirchoff's use of draping and sheer fabrics reference a nostalgic past, however, the SS15 displayed their whimsical garments ripped and torn as the models stopped down the runway to Riot Grrrl. Meadham Kirchoff inferred that the nostalgic past is not something that can be a reality, especially in the fashion world - making it a nostalgic battleground. Indeed, commodification that they stood to reject destroyed them resulting in no AW15 show claiming to Style.com 'and then one day, the sponsorship runs out. You’re on your own...It’s always seemed like, ‘How do we do this? How do we keep up?’. In fact, it seems that it is becoming increasingly difficult for designers to fund their own fantasies, as evidence by the late Louise Wilson who said that funding that helped support McQueen and Galliano 'disappeared without so much as a murmur'.
Such stressful realities, are something that I can emphasise with having had stress related issues myself; making the idea of childhood escapism something that I am fascinated in - however, again this presents 'the nostalgic battleground' as I know that one cannot live in their memories. Furthermore, such nostalgia evidences a particular type of childhood experience that I would like to research into, and perhaps find out why I am easily stressed and what has made my experience in hindsight positive.
Images from Polyester Zine evidencing nostalgia themed designs iby Fyoder Gola's and Meacham Kirchoff
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