The Sakura project parameters specified that we design six shirts that were to be made out of white cotton poplin. They had to have a collar, at least one sleeve, and an opening. As someone who rarely designed anything made out of poplin, the only thing that really came to mind were business shirts. In my initial brainstorming phase, I spent a lot of time trying to 'jazz up' the idea of a traditional business shirt, and used a lot of pleats and heart motifs. My designs began to remind me of Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura, two animes that I used to watch before school in the late 90's/early 00's.
Animes like Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura embody the 'magical girl' archetype, and focus on the magic of transformation. The heroines of these animes were able to fight the bad guys and win, without having to sacrifice their femininity or their fashion sense. It occurred to me that a lot of the kids who had watched these shows were now grown up and working in professional jobs, myself included. The villains we're fighting are no longer the imaginary aliens or cartoon supernatural beings, but instead the old-school men in senior management who won't listen to women unless they appear as 'masculine' as possible. I, myself, have been guilty of wearing steel-cap boots and jeans in order to gain more respect in a male-dominated industry. Given the moment that the 90's and 00's are having at the moment, I wanted to use the nostalgia and create a line of shirts that made the wearer feel powerful and confident in the boardroom, but that were still fun and feminine.
The second assignment for this semester was to create one of the designs, and it's corresponding pattern pieces, from scratch. I decided to use Design 6, which was an adaptation of Sakura Kinomoto's (from Cardcaptor Sakura) middle school uniform. I wasn't satisfied with the sleeves on the original design, and so redesigned them for the final design. The shirt is made from white cotton poplin, and the double breasted chest panels have buttonholes in both sides, allowing for 'button-links' to be used as fasteners. These are customisable, and can be matched with the removable ribbons at the bottom of the sleeves.
