Bronze Fashion, Apparel and Garment Design · 2022
Humpback Whale Song Conceptual Fashion Design
- A' Design Award 2022 Bronze Winner in Fashion, Apparel and Garment Design
- Awarded April 15, 2022
- CLIENT: Saaku
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 35,985
- Verification code F4DA8A8E3E · Verify this award
About Humpback Whale Song Conceptual Fashion Design
The collection is inspired by, the humpback whales and their songs. The idea of the project started to develop during and after a deadly injury that happened to the designer of the project. she sought help from a sound engineer friend of hers, to extract the sound spectrum of the humpback whale song. The process was followed by the design of a new graphical pattern with reference to the main sound spectrogram. Due to the cubic form and pixelated nature of the final pattern, she travelled to city of Yazd home of ikat in Iran to create her very own handmade fabric.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- The pattern for the fabric of the collection is rich in concept, dazzling in idea, noticeably communicative and illustrative. The designer wanted to acknowledge the importance of the whales in our ecosystem, for their role of producing large amounts of oxygen for our planet, as well as to highlight the inspiring characteristics of them. Each of the garments of this collection carries a part of the main sound waves, which resembles the echoes of the humpback whale song in the oceans while migrating.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- The collection consists of twelve looks, oversized coats and jackets, pleated trousers, summer shorts, short sleeve summer sun dress, long sleeve jumpsuit, genderless shirts, long sleeve shirt.
Fabric of the collection is a handmade traditional ikat of Iran embellished with the pattern of humpback whale song, woven in city of Yazd, Iran.
sizes are, small, medium and large - Tags
- Fashion, Fashion design, Conceptual fashion design, Ethical fashion, Humpback whale song, Art and science
- Production Technology
- Due to the cubic form and pixelated nature of the final pattern, the designer, further decided to use the traditional weaving method of ikat. To ensure the authenticity of the craft, she traveled to the city of Yazd, and with the help of one of the great masters of ikat craft, the process started. The craft of ikat is through applying the designed pattern on bundles of yarns, calculating the gaps, numbering the bundles, choosing the color for the pattern, dying the yarns, warping threads, attaching the head of the yarn into tail of the previous threads on the loom and finally weaving the fabric.
- Design Challenge
- The project took place during the corona virus pandemic, when for the purpose of weaving the fabric, we had to safely travel to the desert city of Yazd in the middle of a hot summer, with restrictions and high risks involved. We had to spend more than ten hours a day, double masked with poor air conditioning in a 34 degrees warehouse which was at times unbearable. The work started to get tougher when it came down to the implementation of the pattern on the fabric, considering that the real life size of the long woven fabric was about 50 meters.
- Project Duration
- The project started in March 2021 in Tehran and finished in July 2021 in Yazd, and was exhibited online in Tehran in August 2021.
- Operation Flow
- The fabric of the collection is fully handmade, animal cruelty free materials for the yarn and threads had been chosen to weave by the hands of ikat masters in Iran. The pieces can be worn day to night due to their statement design characteristics and the shades of colors used are neutral and easy to match with other pieces. The items are super lightweight and give a relaxed sensation to their wearer having in mind to give the calming sense of water flowing, just like how the garments flow over the body.
- Research
- The idea of the collection started to develop during and after a lethal injury that happened to the designer. Within unconsciousness, pain and relapse, having a sort of chain like visions about humpback whales started to draw her attention to these beautiful creatures and contemplating about them. They are one of the most undiscovered creatures on our planet to date, the characteristics of these mammals, their vocalization, the tough and challenging journey they go through and their intellectual abilities to communicate with each other intrigued her so much that the idea of designing a fabric with a message came into her mind.
- Inspiration
- The collection is inspired by the remarkably intelligent humpback whales, their complex acoustic vocalization, incredible social institutions and their language ability, which gives these sea creatures, the potential to communicate from north pole to south pole, with very low frequency sound waves. Especially the songs they sing during their 68500 km of migration. Their song consists of sounds that form a pattern and the repetition of the pattern makes a theme and then a song.
- Image Credits
- Copyright by Maryam yazdanpanah,
Photographer, Alireza davvari / Models, Mehdi film and farina akbari, 2021 - Patents
- Copyright by Maryam yazdanpanah
Colors of Humpback Whale Song Conceptual Fashion Design
Design Interview about Humpback Whale Song Conceptual Fashion Design
The collection is inspired by, the remarkably intelligent Humpback whales, their complex acoustic vocalization, incredible social institutions and their language ability, which gives these sea-creatures, the potential to communicate from north pole to south pole with very low frequency sound waves. The main idea behind my design is the songs they sing during their 68,500 km of migration, while in their deep solitude in the depth of the oceans. Their song consists of moans, cries, chips and clicks that form a pattern and the repetition of the pattern makes a theme and then a song.
it is by far one of the most complex, laborious and yet one of the most precious projects for me with which I have personal attachments and also treasure its philosophical and the scientific depth.
I wanted to acknowledge the importance of these mammals in our ecosystem, for their role of producing large amounts of oxygen for our planet, as well as to highlight the inspiring characteristics of humpback whales. The humpback whales are one of the most undiscovered creatures on our planet to date, the characteristics of these mammals, their vocalization, the tough and challenging journey they go through each year and their intellectual abilities to communicate with each other and us mesmerized me.
"Humpback whale brains are laced with spindle neurons and in humans spindle neurons are associated with language acquisition, social intelligence, facial recognition, and compassion. These humpback whales, they've essentially had the ocean internet for millions of years" said by Dr. Fred Sharpe, Biologist at the Alaska Whale Foundation (AWF), who has been studying humpback whales since the 1980s.
I wanted to acknowledge the importance of these mammals in our ecosystem, for their role of producing large amounts of oxygen for our planet, as well as to highlight the inspiring characteristics of humpback whales. The humpback whales are one of the most undiscovered creatures on our planet to date, the characteristics of these mammals, their vocalization, the tough and challenging journey they go through each year and their intellectual abilities to communicate with each other and us mesmerized me.
"Humpback whale brains are laced with spindle neurons and in humans spindle neurons are associated with language acquisition, social intelligence, facial recognition, and compassion. These humpback whales, they've essentially had the ocean internet for millions of years" said by Dr. Fred Sharpe, Biologist at the Alaska Whale Foundation (AWF), who has been studying humpback whales since the 1980s.
Winning the A’design award attested to creativity and quality of my work as a designer and will open a wonderful path for the future of my brand, driving me to set more ambitious milestones for it. More specifically for this design I hope to showcase it in prominent locations around the globe.
It took 4-5 months to design the concept, less than a month to design and make the fabric and a month to finish and showcase the collection online.
The idea of the collection started to develop during and after a lethal injury that happened to me, during unconsciousness, pain and relapse, I have had recurring dreams about swimming in the oceans, walking bare foot on sands in unknown deserts and watching giant whales breaching out of the water, a sort of repetitive, chain like visions that started to draw my attention to these beautiful creatures and contemplating about them slowly helped me to regain a mental clarity and subsequently my physical health. I felt like they have invited me to share a journey with them as if I am one of them. I started to write those dreams in my notebook and dragged me to the world of oceans waves and sounds.
This is a kind of collection that carries a personal message. For me the bare foot walk on the dunes of sands in my dreams was later like a deja vu, when I was led by the journey of this collection to the city of Yazd, in the heart of the main desert of Iran, to pursue my dream of weaving a timeless and iconic fabric with ikat method.
This is a kind of collection that carries a personal message. For me the bare foot walk on the dunes of sands in my dreams was later like a deja vu, when I was led by the journey of this collection to the city of Yazd, in the heart of the main desert of Iran, to pursue my dream of weaving a timeless and iconic fabric with ikat method.
No, it is not produced or used by another company.
I wanted to design a pattern for the fabric of the collection, that was rich in concept, dazzling in idea, noticeably communicative and illustrative. Also wanted to highlight the art of Ikat making and its craftsmanship in Iran which is started to being forgotten and fading, especially among young generations. The ikat industry faces many challenges which needs more support, consideration and attention.
Yes, Sakiyama Takayuki a Japanese ceramist who draws his inspiration from the sea, specifically the rugged Pacific Ocean seacoast near his home
Conceptual design enthusiasts
The concept, the role of the nature in designing the garments and the amazing craftsmanship .
Since the humpback whales and their songs was the main source of the inspiration for this collection, I wanted to name this collection with regards to these amazing mammals, so to directly communicate it with the audiences and also raise their curiosity.
Hand sketch, Adobe illustrator and Adobe photoshop.
It has been the first time ever in the history of ikat in Iran that such traditional fabric has been embellished with modern conceptual pattern associated with nature.
Mr. Jamal Ghadirzadeh the ikat master.
Technology was used in extracting the sound spectrums of the humpback whale’s song for design purposes, also in designing tools that speeded up the process.
The humpback whales, their lives and their songs.
The project took place during the corona virus pandemic, when for the purpose of weaving the fabric, we had to safely travel to the desert city of Yazd in the middle of a hot summer, with restrictions and high risks involved. We had to spend more than 10 hours a day, double masked with poor air conditioning in a 34 degrees warehouse which was at times unbearable. The work started to get tougher when it came down to the implementation of the pattern on the fabric, considering that the real-life size of the long-woven fabric was about 50 meters. Calculating the gaps and covered areas with black rubber bandings around the bundles of yarns, which is a step in coloring the fabric, was an intricate job and quite arduous given the circumstances and the hot weather. To achieve the maximum resemblance to the actual designed pattern, we had to redo the rubber banding process more than hundred times and since the coloring method of the Ikat is quite complicated and hand done, the interpretation of the pattern was a tedious work.
But interestingly the more the journey got challenging the more it motivated us to accomplish the goals of the project and the energy force of the Humpback whales pushes me to finish the job.
But interestingly the more the journey got challenging the more it motivated us to accomplish the goals of the project and the energy force of the Humpback whales pushes me to finish the job.
I believed my project deserved to be seen and accredited on international scale.
self realization, the limitless power of mind and body also the unlimited, surprising force of the nature and the cosmos .