Clothes "Made By Me"

In this course, we create our own designs that can be easily transfered onto hats, t-shirts, jackets and more. It is important that in this process that your designs and messages are original (meaning, don't make your own "DC" knock-off).

Controlling Your Own Image

Particularly when we are teenagers, we seem to have this desire to explore our own self identity through clothing. Even when I look back to when I was a teenager, I can still remember how the clothing I wore placed me within a group of friends and how this clothing gave us a sort of identity. We use to go see concerts all of the time in Toronto after we all had got our driving liscences (and of course at that time, the day you turned 16 years old you got it!). We saw as many live, up and coming Canadian bands as possible. The next day at school, of course we would all wear our concert shirts from the night before. As a result, we were called the "Grapes of Wrath" group (one of our fav Canadian bands). Every time we wore those t-shirts, we recalled the fun of the evening and it brought up memories of that festival or evening. Even now when I hear some of the music from these bands, I can clearly remember when I saw these bands back in the early days when they just started out, at a small concert venue.

Advertising experts play on this idea that clothing plays an important part on personal identity. Think of it as a sort of uniform that makes you be part of a group.

What does your clothing say about you?

The problem with clothes purchased from stores, is that we are associating ourselves with the identity their advertisers put out. Even the clothing stores that tell us that they are unique and individual, are still purchased by thousands and millions of other people. More expensive clothing only means that less people will be able to afford them, so the possibility of someone having the same shirt as me diminishes.

Can we ever be truly original?

Make your own clothes! By designing your own t-shirts and hats, you control the image that you are presenting to society. Your clothes will be one of a kind and you will not be controlled by advertising agencies that control the meaning of their imagery.

Who controls the identity of clothing?

The Power of Messages via T-Shirts

Protest and Propaganda

Excellent article examining how tshirts can be used for protest http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4287446.stm . Shephard Fairey looks closely at how propaganda and the power of messages and how they can change the world.

Ethical Fashion

There is a reason why we can buy a t-shirt for three dollars... cheaper to buy one than to make one yourself. Recently in the news we heard about Joe Fresh clothing. There are numerous issues when it comes to clothes and the conditions in which they are made. An excellent resource is http://www.ethicalfashionforum.com/the-issues .