The Controversy of Met Gala 23

The Controversy of Met Gala 23

Intro

Information is easily accessible these days, yet many are oblivious to the ongoings of the fashion world besides the trends and fashion. This project aims to reach out to the general public to stir an interest in the other aspect of the fashion industry. The focus is on the creation of a small collection in a three-dimensional space as fashion moves into Web3, while also exploring various possibilities and roles it plays within the industry. The collection aims to generate conversation revolving around Karl Lagerfeld and Jameela Jamil's controversy, humanising Karl Lagerfeld not just as a pioneer without any faults.

In the following content, I will break down the project into finer details and elaborate on the thought process behind the creative choices.

In spite of the medium here presented as a short clip due to the limit in format, the original medium was designed to be a GIF. This is to cater for the ever-shortening attention span of the social media generation.

The creative ideology behind Karl Lagerfeld's outfit was to balance between maintaining his iconic look and modifying as much of it as possible without taking away the "essence" of it. Hence, this affects my design process and exploration. In turn, I fiddle around with the material of the garment much more than the silhouette itself.

Below are the patterns of the suit as well as a material chart for the outfit.

While the key reason behind the marble preference was to elect a material that falls outside of the traditional notion of what it could be, blurring the line between fantasy/digital and physical/real.

Here we have the turntable of the 3D scene as well as the breakdown of the project from render to compositing with 2d elements to adding in vfx and sfx.

Next, the complement to Karl Lagerfeld's outfit would be Jameela Jamil's outfit. The approach for it was in a more traditional manner: developing sketches and variations of silhouettes to colour schematics to consideration of materials. 

One of the crucial factors affecting the design of Jameela Jamil's outfit was the perception of rigidity in Karl Lagerfeld's outfit – the formality of a suit and the nature of marble. Given that, I wanted Jameela Jamil's outfit to contradict it, having a sense of fluidity and a "flowy" attribute.

Bearing in mind, Karl Lagerfeld's monochromatic look, I wanted Jameela Jamil's colour schematics to be in opposition to provide a distinction between the two (this is to mimic their difference in opinions and in the argument/controversy). 

With that reasoning, I looked back specifically at the Baroque period when art was characterised by high intense contrast, drama and glamour, sitting perfectly within this project's parameters. 

Overall, I wanted the play of polarity between the two outfits — the masculine and rigidity of a suit versus the feminine and softness of a dress.

Here is the final outcome of Jameela Jamil's Look.

Thank you for watching!