Georgian Architecture - Bath Research Trip

 After reading more into the making of the town of bath and its roman and georgian roots, I wanted to visit the city to see the scale and detail of the architecture that was created during Gerogianas time.
Georgiana was known to have lived in Bath when her name was tarred by her involvement in campaigning for the Whigs. She is said to have lived at 2 Laura Place - which is a quiet location, and a house unassociated with Georgiana in 2015.

 The crescent is one of the most extravagant buildings in the country, let alone Bath itself. Made from Bath stone and shaped into a semi circle, the town houses look over the Georgian gardens just outside the centre of bath.

A road down from the Crescent is the Circus, a large circle of houses, split by a small roundabout and roads. Once all town houses these are now mainly split into flats.

Inside the Assembly rooms where the Bath Costume and Fashion museum is located (see separate post) the extravagant Rococo style carvings around the wall as well as the mirror above the mantle piece echo the Georgian architecture inside as well as outside.

The Bath Fashion Museum - Research Trip

As well as viewing the magnificent Georgian architecture around the city of Bath, I also wanted to go into the Fashion museum in the Assembly Halls. Their current exhibition was around Georgian fashions and was ideal to give me an idea of what references I can include in my own project styling.

 The museum also had modern Georgian costumes and also a designer section where I correlated some Georgian references which may inspire my project.

 The museum has helped greatly to understand the style shape and materials used to create realistic Georgian costume. It has also given me a vision for an authentic Georgian male character, and has also given me some references to female avant garde and authentic styles, which I have found specifically helpful to work towards my styling.

Creating the half wig base

 The process of creating this base was fairly simple. This was due to the fact that the 56cm circumference of the head for the first time fitted on a 56cm block, without the hairline being slightly smaller or larger than the main head circumference. Also the padding needed was minimal, with just a slight bit needed in the centre of the block where the bulk of hair sat. This didn't take long before I was ready to apply lace onto the wig.

 The caul net was relatively large for this template, allowing stretch over the head for the half wig, which is obviously smaller than a perfect fitting full wig.

 The foundation section of the wig also needed to be longer than the standard cuts we have at uni, due to the circumference of the models head and width of the foundation without lace. This meant there were a lot of darts including two large darts in the back of the caul net. I wasn't happy with these and tried to split these into 4 smaller darts located at the top and bottom of the net, however was unable to do so due to the direction of the netting and darts.

Human hair in the press

After a discussion with Sara and Carolyne, I decided it was important for me to use human hair in this project, allowing me to develop my setting and styling, building my techniques and also hopefully improving on my marks from specialist practise. I began to look into where human hair is imported from, and how it is made into wefts;

In 2010 the BBC wrote an article on the uses of human hair which is being heavily imported to the west from the east. The uses for it were never ending, being used for obvious things such as hair extensions, pastiche and wigs, through to the unusual use in food as an additive found in bagels and pizza dough, as well as being made into mops to soak up oil - something BP used within the massive oil spill of 2009 in the atlantic ocean. Full article available here; http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8753698.stm

In 2008 Jamelia (pop star) travelled to India and Russia for a BBC documentary 'whose hair is it anyway' and claims to have discovered many women around the world feel forced to sell their hair to gain money (russia) and for religious practise (india) where they do not know where there hair is going. Jamelia also claims that human hair can often come from corpses, and can be taken from the dead without the families knowing. The humane element of hair sourcing is something widely disputed more so in the last decade. Full article available here; http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1036155/Why-Ill-wear-hair-extensions-pop-star-Jamelia.html

Purchasing the Human Hair

After looking into the welfare of hair sourcing, as well as the pricing and qualities of the hair, I was able to purchase this. I contacted the buy hair.com team, in relation to a colour match service they offered. From observing a photo of my model they were able to confirm her hair was a shade 8 - Light mousey brown, and could be combined with the Light brown shade 6, to create a natural looking hair colour matching my models. The hair comes in wefts available from 12 inches through to 24 inches. The description of the hair from the manufacturer (stranded online) states;

'These Luxury Human Hair Extensions, can be treated as normal hair when applied as hair extensions, the weft can be cut, curled, straightened and blow dried as normal. The hair is of Luxury 100% Human Hair Best Quality.

The Wefts can be applied using either the weave hair extension method (sewed onto scalp plaits), cold bond hair extension method (glued in using weft bond glue or liquid gold adhesive) or micro ring hair extension method (micro rings attached along the weft, attached to the hair using a loop and pliers)'

After further research into the pricing of this particular brand of extensions - which is very popular throughout the internet but also has been used by one of my peers, I was able to confirm hair at 18" length would be approx. £40 per packet. Therefore I was able to set aside £160 for the hair. However after further research into the hair supplier stranded, I was then able to register for a trade account with the company, allowing me V.A.T free prices on all orders over £100. After completing my order of 4 packets of human hair, and one packet of Kanekalon hair which would be used to cover my cage, the total became £106 + £9 delivery. Saving almost £50 from the high street prices was something I was pleased with and allowed me to keep on budget.