Shapes That Shape Up Our Fashion….

Wanna wear something like leaves or wanna be fashionable? Well if your answer to the first question is no and the second question is yes, there are dozens of reasons why you should know how geometry and shapes have permeated in the regular fashion scene making it an imperative element in fashion.

Like I mentioned in my first post, both disciplines namely architecture and fashion entail erasing space and filling up the plane with something creative, albeit on markedly different dimensions. Sometimes, however, the mingling of concepts among these two is characterized by conscious choice. As fashion terms like “draping,” “weaving,” and “pleating” penetrate throughout the architectural world, and methods of building construction incorporate themselves into garment-making, the intertwining of inspiration between them grows inseparable but visibly tangible with each passing day.

Today let’s uncover how the building blocks of architecture namely different shapes render a new dimension to a creation every time it is applied to fashion.

Plaid: uses parallel and perpendicular lines to create series of rectangles widely used in formal shirts.

Argyle:  which is basically a series of overlapping parallelograms is mostly found on sweaters and socks.

Sweater with argyles

Triangles, circles and rhombuses: are used in innumerable designs of various types of outfits since times immemorial.

Angles: are very important while cutting the garment to ensure perfect fit of the final outfit. The angles are also widely used as guidelines in designing various necklines created to augment the neck of the wearer.

Circumference: has to be paid proper attention while creating the sleeves of any outfit and while deciding on the flair of skirts or circular outfits like ghagra in a ghagra choli.

Geometric Tessellations : are born when a shape is repeated over and over again covering a plane without any gaps or overlaps. One design that can be created through tessellations is symmetry. When I was researching about basic shapes in design and fashion I came to know that there are more than 15 possible ways that a particular shape can be used to tile a flat surface or plane to create symmetry. Now isn’t that amazing?

skirt beautifully adorned with circles

Thus a story unfolds every time a plain piece of cloth is adorned by lines, angles or when arcs evolve into curves, and diamonds take the form of lozenge and argyles. Fashion designers like Dolce and Gabbana have always been inspired from architects—and vice versa thus  producing some of the wackiest and most astonishing ramp and retails experiences in the past few years—altering and designing the way we think about fashion. At the wonderful blog mentioned below, I found some beautiful outfits-one more astonishing than the other, all inspired by architecture

http://modenodeblog.com/2012/02/23/architecture-and-geometry-in-fashion/

So friends start paying attention to the shapes in your fashion and let it shape up your personality to create that enigma called “you”.

Welcome To The Architectural World Of Fashion

Do you ever stop and wonder, what you do really matters? What if it turned out that all this time you have been missing the goal by a mile? What if the things you do day in and day out had no impact on people? After clearing my higher secondary exams with distinction, I appeared for the entrance exam for textile designing as I always loved fashion. I failed to get through the general entrance exam with a 2 percent margin and I also missed admission in the college of my choice with a 0.35% percent margin. The story of every student belonging to the general class category was repeated in my life. Admissions closed-hopes rotten! The only field with admissions open was Hospitality Management. With no other option left, I joined the course. Later, I went for career counselling; appeared for an architecture entrance exam and there I was in another college, as an Architecture student. That’s how I was forced to take up architecture in spite of loving fashion and fabric.

Architecture Calling

But while learning Architecture, I started getting fascinated by the similarities between fashion and architecture. Now I have realized that they are not absolutely different after all. In fact, Fashion and Architecture have more than one similarity. Both of them are ruled by design. Both of them give you the freedom of creation. Both of them reflect the ambitions and sensibilities of contemporary society and preferences. Both create space and volume rendering a third dimension to the otherwise bland two dimensional portrayal of matter. Both share the basic characteristics of providing shelter and protection to the human body. It was when I read some interesting articles on the internet describing how fashion inspires architecture and vice versa, that I started to derive my own inspiration from both these fields.

Architecture Inspires Fashion

The most intriguing part, however, is the difference between Architecture and Fashion .Fashion, by its very nature is short lived and transient while architecture is more durable and permanent. When I was going to get my driving license, my dad wanted to teach me how to change a tire. I had trivialized of interest in getting my hands black and greasy. I told him that I don’t wish to do such things since I will always have someone around to do that for me. And there was my dad smiling at me leaving me horror-struck when he uttered these words, “For the rest of your life do you want to ask, beg and depend for your basic life needs? Needless to say, that I learned more than how to change a tire. That was when I realized ‘what you do really matters’. However small a step is you need to take it because you never know when your small step might lead to a big impact.

Architecture Inspires Style

So, in spite of being an Architect, here I am with a fashion blog as a small step to present my opinions! Here, you will find everything about fashion from clothing, footwear and accessories to make-up tips and diet that will help you look and feel gorgeous. You are most welcome to have a look at fashion from the monumental perspective of an architect. Welcome to Kiara Thakur’s Architectural world of Fashion.