Lesson video

Hello there.

My name is Mrs. Dhami.

Thank you for joining me for your design and technology lesson today.

Now, the big question for today is what is the difference between function and form? Now we're going to explore this together with the absolutely amazing and inspirational designer called Vivienne Westwood.

So hard hats on, let's get cracking.

Our outcome for today is we will be able to use inspiration to design a new product.

We have four keywords today.

Fashion designer, which is somebody who designs clothing and accessories.

Form, which is how something looks.

Its visual appearance.

Function, which is how something works or what something is designed to do.

And lastly, inspiration.

This is where our ideas come from, something that makes you want to do something or design something in this case.

We have two learning cycles for our lesson today.

First of all, designers, and we're going to explore Vivienne Westwood, and then we're going to move on to fashion design and explore the two terms, form and function, but also relate that to Vivienne Westwood.

So let's start off with exploring the designer, Vivienne Westwood.

This is a picture of Vivienne Westwood.

Now, Vivienne Westwood was a British fashion designer.

She was a self-taught designer who mixed traditional styles and materials with bold, modern elements.

And she's best known for bringing the punk style to mainstream fashion.

So what do we mean about the term punk style? Punk style tends to be when you express yourself individually and you go against what we call the norm.

So sometimes punk style can be a bit more outrageous and express your own emotions.

And that's what Vivienne Westwood aimed to do with her fashion design.

Let's take a little look at Vivienne Westwood's childhood.

So she was born on the 8th of April, 1941 in a place called Derbyshire in England.

Take a little look at the map of Great Britain, and you can see the purple dot that is showing us where Derbyshire is.

As a child, she lived with her father, Gordon, a factory worker, and her mother Dora, a cotton mill worker.

At the age of 17, Vivienne and her family moved to Harrow, outside London.

Let's take a little look at Vivienne Westwood's early career when she first moved to London.

So after moving to London, Vivienne enrolled on a jewelry making course at the Harrow School of Art, but left early to begin work.

After working in a factory for a short while, Vivienne trained to be a primary school teacher.

I wonder if she ever taught your year group.

Whilst working as a teacher, Vivienne made and sold her own jewelry in Portobello Road.

Now, for those of you who might not know, Portobello Road is a very famous lender market, which sells all sorts of antiques and individual one-off beautiful products.

But while she was selling her jewelry in Portobella Road, she also taught herself to make clothes.

Getting started with the clothes making.

So Westwood's husband, Malcolm McLaren was a music manager who managed a punk band.

Notice that word punk.

We've come across that before about her style.

So in 1971, he opened a fashion and music store in London called Let It Rock, where Vivienne designed and made clothes to sell.

The shop became very popular with people on the London punk-rock scene as well as famous punk musicians.

And as you can see by the picture, this is a picture of one of Westwood and McLaren's outfits called the pirate dress, which was designed and made in 1981.

Now, what I'd like you to do is just take a minute to look at that photo of that pirate dress, and I'd like you to try and come up with three words that you might use to describe that outfit.

Pause the video, come back to me when you've got a few ideas.

Okay, hopefully you've had time to think of some beautiful words to describe this pirate dress.

Perhaps you might have come up with words such as colorful, perhaps individual, perhaps pattern, perhaps bold.

I'd love to hear what you said.

Where did Vivienne Westwood get her design inspiration from? Vivienne Westwood's designs were very original, meaning that they were very one off and they showed her personal beliefs.

She was originally inspired by the fashion of the 1950s, but later by 18th century fashion.

Then artists such as Matisse and Picasso and even pirates.

It just shows you inspiration can come from a multitude of different places and different people.

She was passionate about climate change and wanted her clothing to be sustainable and long-lasting.

She also encouraged people not to throw away clothes, but to rewear and adapt them.

Put your hand up if you have ever worn a hand-me-down.

That could be a piece of clothing, perhaps from a brother, a sister, a cousin, or a friend.

I know I definitely have.

I've had lots of hand-me-downs and so do my children.

Well, that is the same as Vivienne Westwood's belief.

She wanted clothes to be sustainable and long lasting and be passed on.

So you are doing a little bit of what she believes in too.

Time for our first check-in.

Which of these would a fashion designer design? Would it be A, clothes, would it be B, buildings or would it be C, furniture? Have a little think.

Perhaps tell me or perhaps the person next to you and come back to me when you've got a fab idea.

Well done if you got A, fashion designers design clothes.

Let's take a little look at her further success.

Westwood design clothes for pop stars, royalty, and even the crew of an airline, as well as working with many famous brands.

Just remember, she taught herself how to make clothes.

Imagine what you could do.

In 1990 and 1991, Vivienne was awarded the Fashion Design of the Year award by the British Fashion Council.

In 1992, just a year later, Vivienne was made an OBE by Queen Elizabeth II.

Now, an OBE is a national honor awarded by the British monarchy.

So that is big.

In 2006, she was made a Dame for her contributions to the fashion industry.

Wow.

Let's take a little look at her successes throughout her life on a timeline.

So in 1941, Vivienne Westwood was born.

30 years later, in 1971, she opened her first shop.

In 1990/'91, she was awarded the Fashion Designer of the Year.

In 1992, just a year later, she was awarded an OBE by Queen Elizabeth II.

In 2006, she was awarded a DBE, which is when she became a Dame.

And then in 2022, she died at the age of 81.

What a wonderful inspirational life that she led.

Time for a quick check-in.

Which style is Vivienne Westwood best known for? Is it A, futuristic B, traditional C, punk, or D, skater? Have a little think.

Come back to me when you've got a great idea.

Well done, if you got C, Vivienne Westwood is best known for her punk style.

Onto task A.

Vivienne Westwood once said, "Buy less, choose well.

Quality, not quantity.

That's the most environmentally friendly thing you can do." What I'd like you to do is discuss this quote.

What did she mean by this quote? Perhaps you might want to reread it again.

And how did it affect the way she designed clothes? Have a good think.

Perhaps have a discussion with the people sat next to you or perhaps as a class and come back to me when you've got some wonderful ideas.

I imagine you will have had some absolutely wonderful discussions there.

Perhaps you might have discussed some of the following points.

Vivienne Westwood didn't want people to keep throwing away clothes and buying new ones.

She thought that people should buy better quality clothes that would last longer.

She thought it was better to have a few good quality clothes rather than lots of cheaper, poor quality clothes that wouldn't last.

She designed clothes made from good quality fabrics that would last, and she chose sustainable fabrics to reduce the impact on the environment.

I love the sustainability impact of her clothes.

Onto learning cycle two.

We are now going to explore fashion design using the terms form and function, but we're also going to relate it back to the work of Vivienne Westwood.

All designers, including fashion designers such as Vivienne Westwood, consider two main things when designing new products, and they are form and function.

So form, it's one of our key words today.

Form refers to the way something looks, including its shape, colors, and pattern.

Function refers to how something works or what it is designed to do.

Designers try to balance form and function to create successful products.

If designers focused only on function, the product will be practical and work well, but it may be unappealing to customers.

They might not want to buy it, therefore, it's not gonna sell very well.

If designers only focused on form, the product might look good, but it might not work as well as intended, and it may go outta fashion quickly.

So again, people might not want to buy it.

Fashion designers consider form and function when choosing fabrics and other materials for their clothing designs.

Vivienne Westwood wanted her clothing to look good and appeal to customers, which is what form means, but she also wanted them to be wearable and last a long time, which obviously relates to function.

Time for a quick check-in.

Which word refers to the way a product works.

Is it A, fashion, B, function, C, style, or D, form? Have a think, come back to me when you've got a great answer.

Well done if you've got B, function.

Function refers to the way a product works.

Westwood mixed fabrics such as cotton with fabrics known for their functional qualities such as hard-wearing denim and leather.

She also added fastening such as buckles, straps, zips and safety pins, which were both functional in the way that they worked, but also decorative that fitted into the punk style.

Alex and Izzy are discussing the design of their school uniform.

Alex says, "The material is hardwearing and last.

My jumper used to be my older brother's." Oh, doesn't that fit beautifully into function? Izzy says, "It's not fashionable.

I wouldn't wear it outside of school." That fits beautifully into form.

Then they both go on to say the uniform is comfortable and suits the different activities we do at school.

And that fits nicely into the first comment that relates to function.

So my question to you is, what do you think about your own school uniform? Do you agree with some of Alex and Izzy's comments, or do you think something completely different? Pause the video, perhaps have a chat to the person next to you or on your table, or to your teacher or to myself.

Come back to me when you have had that opportunity.

Well done.

You've made some beautiful comments about both function and form.

Some great thinking there.

The pupils are wondering whether they could redesign their uniform to balance function and form in the style of Vivienne Westwood.

Well, this is exciting.

Izzy says, "We could use hard-wearing fabrics but add some extra details to make it more appealing." Alex says, "If we reuse the existing uniform to make a new design, it will still be recognizable as our school's uniform." It's a great point, isn't it? Because that's one of the purposes of school uniform to make you recognizable to which school you belong to.

Fashion designers use sketches to plan out their clothing designs, but also to communicate their ideas to other people.

They may include swatches or samples of the fabrics or materials they will use.

So what it means by that is they might cut out a little bit of that fabric and stick it next to their design.

And you can see that if you look closely in the middle image on my screen.

Izzy used a template to sketch some ideas for a new Vivienne Westwood-inspired uniform.

Now, what I'd like you to do is pause the video and take a few moments to look at these sketches.

What can you as a class identify that has been inspired by Vivienne Westwood? Come back to me when you've got some wonderful ideas.

Well done for discussing some of those wonderful ideas and coming up with some great thoughts.

Let's see what Izzy said, and see whether you got some of the things that she identified.

So Izzy said, "I use things inspired by Westwood, such as safety pins, tartan, and a pirate style." I wonder if you managed to get some of those too.

Well done for all of your efforts.

Time for a quick check-in.

Which of these would you consider when thinking about form? Would it be A, how to strengthen the fabric? B, how long it will last? C, how waterproof it is, or D, which color to choose? Have a think, perhaps tell the person next to you, and come back to me when you've got a fab idea.

Well done if you manage to get D, when you are considering and thinking about form, you often think about which colors to choose.

Onto Task B.

And this activity is lovely.

What I'd like you to do is redesign part of your own school uniform in the style of Vivienne Westwood.

So you could choose which piece you want to redesign.

You might choose your jumper or your sweater.

You might choose your blazer or your jacket.

You might choose your shirt or your t-shirt, your skirt, your shorts, your trousers, or perhaps even your P.

E kit.

Once you have chosen, I would like you to think about the existing piece of clothing including the fabrics and the colors and how you could add additional design details, accessories or fabrics to change the design and make it into the style of Vivienne Westwood.

And how I'd like you to present it is I'd like you to sketch out your ideas on a template and annotate it.

I'm really excited to see the wonderful Vivienne Westwood redesigns of your school uniform.

I imagine you have some absolutely wonderful redesigns for your school uniform.

So hopefully you should have your design ideas sketched onto a template and hopefully you should have annotated.

Remember, annotation is a posh word for labeling.

So you should have annotated the drawing to give more information to somebody else.

Izzy said, "I use tartan because Vivienne Westwood liked to use traditional fabrics like tartan and tweed." I wonder if you could all start wearing the new redesigned Vivienne Westwood school uniform.

Well done with all of your hard work on these beautiful designs.

This brings us to the end of our lesson today.

Well done with all of your hard work.

And let's summarize what we have found out.

Vivienne Westwood has produced a range of fashion designs.

Fashion designers choose materials for both function and form.

Fashion designers will add fabric details to their sketches, and school uniform could be inspired by Westwood designs.

Well done with all of your hard work and I look forward to seeing you in another lesson soon.

Take good care.

Bye bye bye.