¡Inspiration
When I think of the 1980s, what comes to mind first are the gDynastyh power shoulders, gMiami Viceh blazers, heavily accessorized street-chic Madonna look and, of course, Ray-Bans, made iconic by Tom Cruise in blockbuster movies like gRisky Businessh and gTop Gunh. Also quintessentially 80s was the British punk rock look Tartan, long associated with aristocracy and military, were unconventionally adorned with studs, eyelets, zippers and layered chains. This led to my interest in the history of tartans.
Tartans, symbolic of Scottish heritage, were originally associated with Scottish regions and districts as the checkered-cloth patterns were produced in local tastes by local weavers relying on a limited range of color dyes available in the area. This has lead to the idea of district tartans being the original association, between the land, community and its cloth. Where there was a strong clan within a district, as was often the case in the Highlands, visitors from other areas might well have been recognized as of a clan from their tartan. It is this concept of clan tartans that predominates today.
Finding the commonalities between Scottish tartans and Japanese gkamonh (family crests), which were heraldic symbols that originated as patterns woven in fabrics to distinguish the clan or and family of the wearer. As unorthodox as it was for tartans to be worn as punk fashion symbolic of anti-establishment, I was inspired to combine Scottish tartans and Japanese family crests to illustrate the outrageous 80s style.