Human migration, the movement of people across the globe with the intention of settling temporarily or permanently in a new location. It is usually over long distances and from one country to another, and
as we all know, it is a major issue in the world today.
People are fleeing regions of the world that are plagued by warfare, instability, poverty, disasters and persecution.
This embroidered GIF shows the main migration routes across the globe today.
Central Americans constantly attempt to get into USA...
People are trying to escape the violence in Syria, Yemen, Iraq, so undertake extremely dangerous journeys to find a better life!
Migrations, journeys and movements are affecting every region of the globe.
Many an artist is expressing his/her thoughts and feelings concerning this major world issue...
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| La Mer Morte, by Kadar Attia |
The lifeless clothes in various hues of blue visually depict the tragic issue of human migration across the sea.
And a number of conceptual clothes designers have also worked with the theme of 'journey' in their collections.
Rei Kawakubo Comme Des Garcons, undertook it in her A/W 2003 collection. At the time Sarah Mower described RK as maybe being a "lone traveller on an aesthetic journey".
RK was looking at the woman who wears her clothes as a being on the move, heading somewhere "with what looks like bundles of possessions slung about her body." RK said the collection emerged from the idea of a pilgrimage.
Oh, the hazardous frantic lives that many people actually live!
Another designer who has worked with the theme of journey is the highly creative Hussein Chalayan. He has a particular fascination for travelling, aeroplanes, airports, transitional things and places.
For 2000 A/W he created a wonderful collection called 'After Words'.
This collection referenced the 1974 Turkish military invasion of Cyprus, which displaced both Turkish and Greek Cypriots from their homes.
Chalayan wanted to express forced displacement, expatriation and the sorrowful image of people who return secretly to their homes to gather up their precious possessions. He set the scene on a stark stage arranged like a sitting room with a coffee table, armchairs and a shelf of household objects.
This site will show the whole collection, which is worth the viewing, just to see how it is laid out and the way the models enter and exit through doorways. The finale is fantastic.
If you don't want to view the whole collection, go to this site and watch the wonderful finale sequence...it may be 16 years ago, but it is still astounding.
What technology has totally changed the way that we can easily travel the world today?
I think air travel.
Hussein Chalayan is interested in aeroplanes. In his 2000 S/S RTW collection he produced an Aeroplane Dress, which was made of fibreglass, metal, cotton and synthetic fibre. The side and rear flaps were opened by remote control to reveal a mass of frothy pink tulle.
There are other aspects of the collection that also reveal aeroplanes, to me anyway. I see wing flaps in this bodice,
and parachute toggles in this image...I once sky dived, static line, and I remember drawing the lines down like this (admittedly, it's a while ago now!)
Chalayan also came up with an "Airmail Dress".
One size fits all apparently. It's a dress that folds up to fit inside an airmail envelope. The paper is Tyvek, which is unrippable. I heard Sue Wells talking about aerogrammes the other day, my, that took me back! I loved writing on aerogrammes, and also loved receiving them. It was a great way to communicate with people who were on a journey far from home.
In 2003 Chalayan took his conceptual 'Journey' theme to a new level with a film project called "Place to Passage".
This site will give you a brief view of this project. There is a connection with a Formula One racing Team, you'll see it, Honda I think...
A long limbed, rather pared back, young woman travels in a highly self-sufficient and streamlined pod from London to Istanbul. She sets out from an underground car park, night becomes day, eating is followed by sleeping, sleeping is followed by dreaming. Are the dreams disturbing? Is it all about memories and nostalgia?
'Place to Passage' relates to Hussein Chalayan's thoughts that, "we are all migrants, and there is no such place as home". When we travel from one place to another, do we re-imagine and re-create ourselves to cope with what has now become new to us, so that we feel we are a part of it?
When I was researching 'After Words', one comment that took my eye related to the household objects being secreted away inside the coats or in the outer pockets. Some were even the same shape as the possession....it demonstrates how important pockets are when we are on the move.
Pockets have not always been sewn into the seams of clothes or onto the outside as they are today. Until the mid 1850s, women's pockets were actually a separate item and worn tied around the waist.
They looked like this...maybe not quite so patchworked.
The below V & A Museum website provides a great coverage of the history of pockets. It's a good run down on what pockets were about, and there is a reference to a heroine called Pamela, who had to flee her master by escaping out a window and her pocket proved very handy!
After reading the information in this site, I think you'll appreciate where the term "pick pocket" comes from. The 'Spot the pocket' paintings are fun and all the information provided helps in the appreciation of the rhyme...
Lucy Locket lost her pocket
Kitty Fisher found it
Not a penny was there in it
Only a ribbon round it
To have a go at making your own, look at this site
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/m/make-your-own-pocket/
A number of years ago these "wear on the outside pockets" became popular again.
A pocket that you wear, which can also serve as your bag...
Vogue Patterns came up with their versions for you to construct
When I was at AGHS, ChCh I offered an after school session
and 2 lovely young students took up my offer. I remember their exclamations of "Cool!" when they completed the project. I wish I got a photo, 'cos the wearable bags they created really were very cool.
Yohji Yamamoto, in a collaboration with Mandarina Duck (an Italian luggage manufacturer) got right into bags being worn. The outfit/handbags were made of durable textiles like canvas, nylon and linen. They were inspired by uniforms and working men's clothing. There is no need for the wearer of these garments to carry any other type of bag when on the move.
What about a bag that has an aspect of a garment...an urban mobility backpack...for that person who is on the move through the city
Someone who is very skilled at creating clothing known as "portable architecture" is Lucy Orta. Her work involves aesthetics and ethics, thus creating a strong social commentary.
In the 1990's she produced a series of work known as 'Refuge Wear'. She wanted to confront the issues of people living without shelter and the effect that can have on the holistic health of a human body.
Orta's Refuge Wear and Body Architecture Series expressed the idea of clothing being habitats that travel along with those who wear them. Temporary shelter is providing the basic comfort when the wearer can stop off and rest before carrying on his or her way.
However, here are young people, whose lives are in upheaval and they now have to live in tents. These tents don't quite offer what Lucy Orta would like to provide!
Now, take in this traveller, a quite different piece of work from Lucy Orta
It is Fabulae Romanae Spirit - Traveller..a symbolic journey across Rome.
Go to this website and click on the film, it's a wonderful journey across Rome.
http://www.studio-orta.com/en/artwork/447/Fabulae-Romanae-Spirit-Traveller
The aspect of shelter being an item of clothing is investigated by many artists
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| S.L.A.K. by Jurgen Bey. Slak means snail. The jacket inflates to become a portable shelter |
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| Travels with Charley by Rirkrit Tiravanija. The combined jacket and tent is a portable shelter for a homeless person. |
It reminds me of a Martin Margiela 1999 A/W garment. Bed blankets filled with down which were made into a coat. It has a rectangular shape when it is unfolded and the sleeves are detachable.The coat's function is protection of the body, keeping it warm at least.
It does seem cosy...
just like Issey Miyake's Vogue Pattern.. year 1996, I think..It is very duvet like, good for wearing when on the move, and good for snuggling into when needing to stop and sleep.
The photograph of this tent was installed beneath the California/Mexico border fence, which is very poignant because inside the tent, the artists presented army blankets that are embroidered with the names of people who have died attempting to cross the U.S.- Mexico border.
The US - Mexico border, extends from the west to the east. From Imperial Beach, California & Tijuana, California in the west, to Matamoros, Tamaulipas & Brownsville, Texas. It covers 3,201 km. 
The 22.5 km section of this border fence between the Otay Mesa Border Crossing in San Diego and the Pacific Ocean used to be known as Tortilla Wall
Consuelo Jimenez Underwood is a Fibre Artist, who comes from these south western borderlands. She creates work that is a reflection of her own personal border experiences as the daughter of migrant agricultural workers - a Chicana mother and a father of Huichol Indian descent. During her childhood, she crossed the border many times with her Mother and Father, encountering the dangers and political implications such crossings presented.
In 2006 she produced 'Tortilla Meets Tortilla Wall' as her response to the atrocities that people want to make to keep other humans out!
This concept of wanting to keep people out, or being very aware of people wanting to get in, is expressed in this infamous road sign
The silhouette of a family frozen in mid-flight.
In the 1990s these signs were originally designed to warn motorists about the busy stretch of San Diego highway after over 100 people trying to cross the border were struck and killed by cars.
Consuela Jimenez Underwood related to the little girl in this image.
She was horrified when she was informed about when a person is hit by a car going at full speed, often nothing recognisable is left except small fragments of clothing.
She constructed this large scale quilt 'Underwood' in honour of those who have died making that hazardous journey across the Mexico US border.
https://vimeo.com/161218211?autoplay=1
In the 2014 World of Wearable Art (WoW), the winning costume had a wonderful connection with journey, travel, migration.
It is a two-piece costume made of leather and heavy cardboard suitcases...those old type suitcases which will have lots of memories of the journeys they have been on.
Both Maori and European clothing styles inspired this piece, which makes it a strong symbolism of the first human immigrants who made the journey to Aotearoa /New Zealand.
This you tube site will show 'Poly Nation' in motion. I really like the waka/wheel vehicle. It expresses the mode of transport technology that each culture developed, which in its' own way changed their futures.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wm11_6FD1yc
So, Journey, Movement, Migration....
maybe a number of us don't experience "Migration" on the level of others....but we do move and journey around the globe a lot more and a lot quicker than generations before.
There is a designer, Xue Bowen, who has utilised that idea of travel into a collection she put together. The traveller who goes off and discovers the world, beyond their own, and he/she brings home "omiyages" (gifts or souvenirs you give away).
Xue Bowen up-cycled her souvenirs into creations which when worn constantly reminded her of the journeys she undertook.
And to finish...
a connection with the CDG A/W 2003 collection, RK's conceptual collection to do with "pilgrimage".
I'm wondering if those "bundles of possessions" relate to the Japanese concept known as 'Furoshiki'. 'Furoshiki' is a square piece of fabric used to wrap and carry objects of all shapes and sizes. The corners are drawn up and knotted into makeshift handles.
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| A woman peddler carrying her wares in a furoshiki in the Edo period. |
(Gift Wrapping. Creative Ideas from Japan, Kunio Ekiguchi)
This link can show you how you create your own furoshiki.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F74Dwe2BDFw
And here I go... I've got to go... very little time...I've got to move...I've got a square of denim fabric...I'll create my furoshiki to carry my precious possession...what possession do I pack and take?
