Following on from Leigh Bowery mood board, answering questions raised about the making of masks
After the mood board exercise I started thinking more about masks. One thing I like about Leigh's masks is that they're often made of the same fabric as the dress, and so appear to be an extension of it rather than an accessory. The use of elaborate fabrics to make these give the effect of him almost being wallpapered, and the cut outs for eyes and mouth somehow add to this.
Although I like the effect of Margiela's stretch jewelled masks, I wanted to first work out how to make a pattern for a woven mask. I began with a polystyrene head, and taped out where I thought I should be aiming for with grainlines.
Bloomsbury. (1991).Jean Paul Gaultier Winter 1991[Online image]. Retrieved from https://www.bloomsburyfashioncentral.com/products/fashion-photography-archive/image/jean-paul-gaultier-fall-winter-1991-32975
The most obvious seam line, seen here in this Jean Paul Gaultier mask, is straight down the middle of the face. Gaultier seems to have used the temple as the meeting point for at least 6 segments.
I divided the head into sections with tape, to give me an idea of both seam lines and grain lines. With something as rounded as the top of the head, I think it's important to keep the grain running from top to bottom, so that there is consistency all around the head.
I wasn't that happy with the results. I think the combination of protrusions and indentations that are found so close together on a human face were causing problems. I wondered if the fabric Gaultier had used had been stiffened to allow for this, so looked back over some photographs.
ImaxTree. (2007).Jean Paul Gaultier at Paris Fashion Week Spring 2007[Online image]. Retrieved from https://www.livingly.com/runway/Jean+Paul+Gaultier/Paris+Fashion+Week+Spring+2007/WEdh0Zb2-7H
In this photo you can see the mask standing away from the face around the eyeholes. I think it is perhaps welded to a plastic frame so that it doesn't lose it's shape. While I look for a frame or similar, I decide to reduce the width of the pattern by 20% and use this new pattern to make a stretch version.
I've used a striped fabric, as I wanted the grainline to be visible, so that it's easy to see if it's warping at all. I then remade it in a stretch mesh, and started to glue rhinestones for the gem encrusted version, as made by Margiela. Unsurprisingly, the glue from the rhinestones affected the stretch properties of the fabric. However, different areas need different levels of stretch, so I tried to adjust the density of the rhinestones on each pattern piece.
The image above shows how I've started to weight the rhinestones more heavily at the front as, provided the stretch is maintained on the back of the head, the face needs the least stretch.
Here you can see the varying degrees of density, slowly being built up. What I'm finding interesting about the process is that once again I'm using the same fabric throughout, but treating individual sections differently, to get distinct qualities from each one.
REFLECTIONS
While my initial experiments at using woven fabrics to closely mould to the face were less than successful, further explorations with knit fabrics have shown me that I can get the structure I need by treating different sections differently, and this can also be used with woven fabrics, possibly to even greater success.
The Lucha Libre (Mexican wrestling) masks that I feel the Leigh Bowery masks are most reminiscent of, were most commonly made of leather, which obviously has zero stretch. Having since looked at patterns for these masks, I've seen that they are approached from a completely different angle - not from the crown - and instead having separate nose pieces. And again, in this mannequin head made by Design Surgery, you can see from the seam lines that the face is treated as an entirely different section, which makes a lot of sense. I feel confident that, when incorporating this into future designs, I'll be able to apply what I've learnt from working with both stretch and woven into making a mask that fits well.
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