Fashion Design School of Design

Martha Gladwin (She/Her)

Make Amends

To Make Amends for the traditional male gaze, I have put women’s wants and needs at the forefront of my decision making, and to Make Amends for the environmental impact of fashion, I have transformed second-hand textiles to make new garments. My collection is inspired by kitsch imagery and the ‘make do and mend’ movement, to create clothing which empowers the wearer and is a source of sheer entertainment and joy.

The names in the collection are inspired by a historical German saying that a woman should devote herself to children, kitchen, and church. I’m reclaiming these words by making fashion that women want to wear for themselves and celebrating the self-care, love and indulgence that can come from making your outside match how you feel on the inside.

In previous work I have borrowed from traditional menswear to give strength to women through masculine clothing. However, Make Amends rejects the masculine view and instead focuses on traditionally feminine fashion to convey feminine strength and power, to the viewer and for the wearer. It is for the joy of everyone who would like to step away from the overriding control the male gaze holds over fashion and women.

Throughout this year I have thought a lot about this Margaret Atwood quote and wondered how to remove the man from the equation:

“Male fantasies, male fantasies, is everything run by male fantasies? Up on a pedestal or down on your knees, it’s all a male fantasy: that you’re strong enough to take what they dish out, or else too weak to do anything about it. Even pretending you aren’t catering to male fantasies is a male fantasy: pretending you’re unseen, pretending you have a life of your own, that you can wash your feet and comb your hair unconscious of the ever-present watcher peering through the keyhole, peering through the keyhole in your own head, if nowhere else. You are a woman with a man inside watching a woman. You are your own voyeur.”

This proposes a fundamental dilemma and conflict, which along with the environmental impact of fashion has proved a challenge to my personal practice. However, it has also driven a deep consideration of these issues, resulting in the ambition to put positive work into the world will only make it better and begin to Make Amends.

Contact
marthamgladwin@gmail.com
M.Gladwin1@student.gsa.ac.uk
@millie_martha_gladwin
Martha Gladwin
Collections
Make Amends

Kleider

Make Amends

Concept

Initial Inspirations

Designing

Kirche

Kirche

Kleider

Kleider

Küchen

Küchen

Construction

Details

Make Amends

Make Amends