R + P Post 13: Influences and inspiration from art, fashion and culture

It is very important for us to present our artist/band with a style which is super edgy and inspired by street-wear. Our TA will then be able to relate with our artist/band but they need to also be able to aspire to the artist so they can become a 'fan' of them. We can do this by dressing our artist/band in styles which are considered trendy and desirable for the audience.

famous South African beaded bangles

We found a lot of inspiration in South African artwork and culture. Their use of colour is exactly what we would like to achieve in our music video. Rather than going for neons and pale colours, we want the makeup and colouring of our music video to be much richer.

Surma child covered in vibrant tribal paint

abstract art piece by South African artist

Another big inspiration for us is 2000s fashion style. Particularly the clothing worn in old RnB videos. Here are some example screenshots of outfits taken from old 2000s RnB videos...

Even though the style shown above was predominantly American, UK style plays a huge part in our influences for our music video as we want to make it as realistic and relatable to our UK audience.

We came accross the designer CAITLIN PRICE who creates street-wear inspired clothing collections. Some of her collections are sold in Selfridges which is obviously very high end with some of her pieces selling for £620. Our audience would generally be too young to afford or relate to this style of clothing, but the fact she took ideas from streetwear (which is generally cheaper) and some of rave culture which reflects on the style we want to create for our artist; edgy.

CAITLIN PRICE AW16

I looked at some other designers from London Fashion Week September 2016 and found some designers' collections which fit the style we are going for.

FYODOR GOLAN AW16

TATA NAKA AW16

TOPSHOP UNIQUE AW16

J.JS LEE AW16

As you can see, all these collections are very urban and edgy. Some feature a lot of colour and some are more monogram. Some feature patterns which remind me of tribal prints and traditional African clothing. You can also see a lot of street-wear and sportswear worn by youths being reflected in new fashion trends. 

We want to portray youth and diversity through our artist's styling because children are our future and so the styles they create or aspire to now will be huge fashion statements.

 I believe RIHANNA portrays this 'urban' fashion look really well and subsequently many youths aspire to her because of it. She seems to be able to pull off every outfit you could think of! This edgy, funky and urban style mixed with her 'I don't give a f*ck' attitude and controversial dance music, makes her a diverse but inspirational and quirky role model for young people.

I would love to interpret some of these fashions into the styling of our artist/band.