Evaluation of Whole Project

I am really glad that I chose this unit, I have learnt so much and have had a lot of fun in terms of trying on wigs, seeing how it changes peoples appearance and even going out and buying and then designing my own wig! I chose to use a lace front wig as I wanted a more natural hairline in my photographs and I really like the effect of them and I enjoy knotting so I will have to get used to the lace!

For my first assessment, I looked into the 1940s and chose to create a factory girl. Rather than just designing a wig and putting it on someone, I wanted to create a character with a story as if the character was in theatre. With the support of my costume and makeup design, I feel I have achieved this. I am very pleased with my images from this informal assessment as I feel it captures the era well and is recognisable to people. The props and the way my model is positioned in some of the photographs resembles a poster from the 1940s advertising women to work which is the kind of look I was going for. I feel the research I have done and the design work I have put in has shown in my final outcome of this era. Although my design was quite simple with the snood, my contemporary wig required more skill and I wanted to recreate the usual snood that was originally worn out of hair. If I were to improve, I would have bought just a normal acrylic wig or paid a bit extra to have the lace a more natural colour to my models skin tone rather than a darker one as I had to cut the lace very short so that it couldn't be seen as clearly.

For my second assessment, I recreated the 1940's victory roll in a more contemporary style. I always knew that I wanted to recreate the snood out of hair as I liked the idea of creating a more modern factory worker. Today, many factories use machinery but there a few that still have people working in them. I wanted this to reflect in my modern hairstyle but so that it still looked fashionable enough to be worn on a catwalk or in a magazine. I really liked the one big victory roll at the front rather than having one either side and I liked the effect of recreating the snood out of actual hair. I feel this is what made it more contemporary. The makeup and costume supported this too. I used a denim jacket rather than a blue shirt as they are similar but the reflect both my chosen eras. I also added a poppy to my models outfit as I wanted to show that the soldiers who fought for our country are still thought about and remembered today. This year it has been 70 years since the second world war ended and I wanted to show the contrast between my two photographs by having the 1940's factory worker taking over her husbands job to one of her family members showing respect and remembrance towards the people who fought in the war.

Overall, I feel both assessments went really well and I feel I have created two characters by changing my models appearance and transforming her from one era to another with the help of my wig, costume and makeup. I have learnt a lot in this unit and it has definitely helped me decide what route I want to focus on now. I have really enjoyed everything from learning the basics to putting on a wig to designing ideas and creating them. I have taken a liking to knotting and have surprised myself at how quickly I picked it up, I am looking forward to knotting more over Christmas and making many more things.

Final Images - Historical

Final Images - Contemporary