BA (Hons) Fashion Design Technology: Menswear
This project is a redefinition of the gentleman in the 21st century, to include aspects of masculinity that have been excluded in the conventional definition, such as gay subculture, and the wild, playful desires of the boy child. Inspired by the post-colonial expression of the tweed suite in traditional South African isiXhosa initiation ceremony, I explore the possibilities to overcome the tensions between tradition and contemporary expression that are experienced by young men everywhere. Having direct historical reference to the British Tweed aesthetic, as well as the traditional cultural elements of African aesthetic, I attempt to reflect these tensions, and possibilities for transformation in my collection that plays with colour, texture, proportion, and the artisanal deconstruction and rendition of the tweed tailored suite. All the tweed suiting I designed and wove as part of the project and created them in collaboration with an artisanal tweed mill in London, called London Cloth. The research for this project used a variety of different methods that include, but not limited to, site visits to South Africa, interviews, and reference materials from historical archives and libraries in South Africa and the UK. http://timothywangmenswear.blogspot.co.uk http://timothywangmenswear.tumblr.com contact: timking.wang@gmail.com