This work is an investigation of how to redefine the perception of decoration. Decorative elements are reinvented as fundamental tools for creating garments and form in a collection of nine outfits. To show the width of what embellishment is able to create, the decorative techniques of all garments are different. The work also deals with the question of taste when it comes to embellishment. By using decorations seen as tasteless the work revaluates notions of good and bad taste. Materials as sport fabric combined with embellishment trick the eye and all small decorations together form new materials. New ways to use embellishments are explored, and the time consuming techniques are reminiscent of haute couture techniques, but in the designer’s own way.

Ce travail de recherche s'est orienté progressivement sur une investigation de plus en plus approfondie de l'univers des représentations liées à la mode, plus particulièrement à un vêtement : le bustier-corset. Se pose la question des rapports qu'entretiennent l'art et cet artisanat spécifique qu'est la couture. Nous pouvons l'étudier à travers les œuvres d'artistes telles que Natacha Lesueur, Jana Sterbak, Niki de Saint Phalle, Annette Messager et Elsa Schiaparelli. Il est à remarquer que la plupart de ces artistes étaient féministes et nous pouvons faire l'hypothèse qu'un travail esthétique de cette nature, impliquant une réflexion sur l'image de la femme, incite à une prise de conscience et de position sur la place qu'on lui donne dans la société. Un point de vue ironique, voire burlesque, a souvent été recherché pour créer une distanciation, un effet de surprise propre à déclencher une prise de conscience. Il est d'ailleurs également possible d'investiguer le corps de la femme et l'imaginaire qui l'entoure à travers l'existence et l'utilisation de symboles tels que la passementerie, le bijou, les matières brillantes et clinquantes. Bien que la représentation de la mode ait toujours existé dans les Arts, ce travail se focalisera sur les artistes des périodes modernes et contemporaines, qui accompagnent la naissance du design et son développement. Cependant il sera nécessaire de s'interroger sur ce qui s'est joué pendant la Renaissance, période pendant laquelle la notion de métiers d'art s'est développée, et sur l'historique du bustier, de son apparition jusqu'à sa déconstruction. Enfin, comment situer certaines de ces démarches en se référant aux notions d'art majeur et d'art mineur ? Faut-il dissocier des démarches artistiques de techniques différentes ? Pour figer le travail à un style correspondant à des normes dictées. / The research work gradually focused on a more and more deeper investigation of the universe related to fashion, and more particularly to a garment : the strapless corset. This raises the question of the relationships between art and the sewing craft work. We can look into it, through the work of artists such as Natacha Lesueur, Jana Sterbak, Niki de Saint 1 Phalle, Annette Messager and Elsa Schiaparelli. We can notice that most of these artists were feminists and we can make the assumption, that an esthetic work of this nature, involving a reflection on the image of women, creates an awareness on the position we confer to them in our society. Very often, an ironic attitude, even burlesque (or caricatural) was often looked for, to create a distance, and an attitude of surprise, appropriate to trigger an awareness of the situation. Moreover, it is also possible to investigate the body of the woman and the fantast around it, through the existence and the use of symbols such as trimmings, jewels, and bright and flash y materials. Although the representation of fashion has always existed in Art, this work will focus on modern and contemporary artists, who accompanied the birth and the development of the design artwork ... However it is also necessary to take into consideration, what happened during the Renaissance period, during which the notion of craftsmanship has developed, as well as the pathway of the bustier, from its creation until its deconstruction. And finally, how to position some of these works (or analysis) in conjunction with major art, and minor art, art work and artcraft ? Are they an extension of technical and symbolic practices so it leads to a combination.

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I create to heal wounds – personal, emotional and social. I create to break the patriarchy  and normative systems that excludes people of different genders, sexualities, colours and bodies. I make human wear – fashion for bodies of all sizes and genders. I want people to be comfortable with themselves and their bodies and that is the goal with my brand EKLUND EKLUND.  The fashion world today consists of “his and hers”, size zero, “wear and tear” and sexist ads, all of which maintains heteronormativity and sick beauty ideals. Clothes are made for “women” and “men” in size XS-XL, leaving everyone outside of those norms excluded.  I will research the gender - and beauty norms in western media and fashion and how it affects people and their self esteem. How can I make fashion inclusive and socially sustainable? Can I make clothes that fits all?  I’m gonna make a One Size Queer Couture Collection to include different expressions and bodies to change the norms of gender and size. One Size that adjusts to different shapes and sizes, Queer as in genderless for everyone and Couture as in hand-made fashion.  I will achieve this through experimental pattern making, non-normative design and a presentation of the clothes with and for people confronting norms of gender, sexualities, beauty and colour.

Coudre le poids des matériaux modestes est l’enjeu plastique de mon travail depuis plusieurs années. Par une extraction et une exploration du modeste au sein d’assemblages cousus, s’est ouvert un questionnement sur la sculpture. La thèse Du silence à l’ouvrage, témoigne de leur passage de futiles à surfaces planes au sein de suspensions et interroge leur fragilité et poids théorique. En détournant les usages traditionnels, je couds des assemblages qui silencieusement interroge le quotidien, le savoir-faire, l’ordre apparent des choses et des représentations. Je tisse une constellation d’interprétations, de formes et de références dont la force symbolique et politique se révèle dans le modeste. Les formes sculpturales découlent de ce préexistant, négocient avec lui et l’agencent. Elles ne naissent pas d’une modification provenant de l’extérieur mais de la matérialité des matériaux les composant. Une chute où les matières racontent leur tragédie et épuisent leur possible, pour devenir des formes empathiques aux poids symboliques. Mes recherches exposent les assemblages cousus pour révéler les tensions inhérentes à la matière et sa provenance. / Stitching the weight of modest materials is the fundamental question; it is the heart of my research these past several years. Modest mediums are able to raise questions about sculpture by extraction and exploration of their materiality in stitched assemblies. The thesis Du silence à l’ouvrage shows their passage from futile object to flat surface in suspensions and tell their fragility and their theoretical weight. Turning away from traditional uses, I sew assemblies that silently asks every day, knowledge, the apparent order of things and representations. I weave a constellation of interpretations, shapes and items whose symbolic and political force is revealed in the modest. Sculptural forms derive from the pre-existing, negotiates with it and arranges it. The sculpture is born more from an external change than from the materiality of its components. It is a fall where materials recount their tragedy and deplete their potential becoming empathetic forms of symbolic weight. My research demonstrates stitched assemblies and reveals the tensions inherent in the material and its provenance.

My doctoral thesis is comprised of two bodies of research: two artworks taking the form of installations (videos, audio recordings, textiles, texts), which will be exhibited for viva. Femme Fabrications, 2016, is made from research into the American artist Joseph Cornell's (1903-1972) source materials held in the Smithsonian American Art Museum alongside research on Jean Wilkinson's 1977 book Flower Fabrications. A series of textile works encased in silk lined boxes trace my step-by-step construction of a rose from organdie. The floral emblem of the white rose (dried), 'death is preferable to a loss of innocence' , becomes an editing device, which I use to consider a number of possible recipients for the rose, such as Cornell himself. Spoken word audio recordings, which ruminate on how his sexuality pertain to the criteria of the rose are edited together with home-camcorder video footage of the house that Cornell lived in for most of his life - the house he made the entirety of his artworks within. Central to The Cesspool of Rapture, 2017, are moving-image studies of zippers, stains, rips, abrasions, openings, and closings in a series of dresses made by the American couturier Charles James (1906-1978). These videos register and move through the material research, the garments, at alternating speeds. The changing speed is registered in sound by clicks synced to each individual frame. It is at times violent and at other times tentative and gentle as the uncovering of the damage to the dresses unfolds. Audio recordings of James explicating his interests in eroticism and sexuality persistently interject the footage. This work includes the installation of a series of reconstructions of James's 1932 Taxi dress. Its black linen body is reconfigured and abstracted as the splayed design makes unfinished seams and unzipped zippers visible. In each artwork I configure viewing and consuming as a mode of authorship. I show how these diverse processes of identification become authored acts. When drawn into intimate relation with the leftover material of these historical authors, my contamination proves deviant: I gain possession of the capacity to speak for them, to expose, idolise, misrepresent, and fictionalise them. My thesis is composed of this group of methodologies, which were found and developed within the production of the artworks.

Indulgent and desirable, luxury both boasts and seduces. Luxury is an elaboration on the essential, manifest in forms of etiquette and exclusion. Films index both reality and fantasy. They reflect, denounce, and exaggerate, making them invaluable cultural documents. Post-World War Two, the ease of air travel, mass production of goods, and foreign influence changed the face of luxury. By examining the films To Catch a Thief (1955), La Dolce Vita (1960), and Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961) – all three from the era of this shift in luxury – this essay excavates this change, by examining the narrative, objects, and architecture of selected scenes.

Indulgent and desirable, luxury both boasts and seduces. Luxury is an elaboration on the essential, manifest in forms of etiquette and exclusion. Films index both reality and fantasy. They reflect, denounce, and exaggerate, making them invaluable cultural documents. Post-World War Two, the ease of air travel, mass production of goods, and foreign influence changed the face of luxury. By examining the films To Catch a Thief (1955), La Dolce Vita (1960), and Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961) – all three from the era of this shift in luxury – this essay excavates this change, by examining the narrative, objects, and architecture of selected scenes.

Nowadays, all the enterprises in the fashion industry face the problem of variability of supply and demand. Working in fashion implies facing rapid changes, and the success or failure of a company is often determined by the company's ability to adapt and respond quickly to these changes. In addition to having to deal with large quantities of information, the companies must ensure the availability of all their products, in all the stores worldwide, while optimizing inventory levels. This research will focus on Christian Dior Couture and more specifically on the Eyewear. The immediate objective of this research project is to optimize the inventory while maintaining the sales. The information on stock out rates crossed with the sales quantity, the stock and the coverage enables supply chain's managers to make decisions at a store level and at a reference level to reduce the stock at its optimal value without compromising the sales' level. In the future, further studies could be made to try and optimise the reordered quantities in addition to optimizing the current stores' stock.

This thesis set out to address the ‘unsuccessful entrance’ experienced by the technique of tufting in the context of fashion design. The conventions of industrial tufting methods are challenged in the field of contemporary couture with a focus on three different aspects: backing, raw material and technique. This traditional carpet making technique, presented through the concept of couture, is aimed to be introduced as a potential novel technique among the other artisan ones inherent to the field. Robot tufting has until now been exclusively employed by the carpet manufacturing industry and only two robot manufacturing companies operate worldwide. It is a research subject with no previous academic or artistic publications. This thesis introduces for the very first time the concept and technique of robot tufting in the field of fashion design for the potential future garment creation. A more profound exploration of tufting in the context of fashion design requires a fusion of fashion and textile design into a one hybrid practice with a cross-disciplinary approach. Alongside challenging the conventions of tufting, the conventions of old disciplinary boundaries are aimed to be challenged.