11th February
In the lesson today we spent time looking at the ideas for performances we could create, within small groups of 4-5 we had to think of an idea for a performance piece, as I have previously put ideas here on my blog about what we could do in a small performance and with the aid of the photos and quotes found in the forum exhibition I suggested we created a performance piece about the shoppers and shopping experience over the past 100 years within Croydon.
we choose four periods/eras in the last 100 years to portray, choosing time periods when the shopping experienced changed or developed.
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| in these two pictures you can see the fashion of people in the early 1900's, the fashion seen seems to still have the feel of the Victorian Era. |
in these two pictures you can see the fashions of the 1920's when women fashion especially started to change, this is also the time when Women started to buy clothes rather than make it/have it made which started the boom for clothing shops.
1920's
1940's -1950's
here you can see the fashion of the 1940's, during WW2 fashion reverted back to making your own as many clothing shops were closed, women took on the task of "making do and mending" clothing whilst still keeping up with the latest fashions, women created new clothing out of old clothing and material, making beautiful creations (dresses) as seen in the image below.
1960's-1980's
the 1960's were a time of change for fashion and retail, clothing became manufactured in factories and the idea of shops that only sold clothes boomed. with London's oxford street leading in grand success Croydon followed the ideas of London retailers and the Whitgift centre was built offering hundreds of shoppers the experience to shop for the first time "hand to clothing" choosing and trying on anything they could find in the shop in over a 50 stores throughout Croydon.
the experience of shopping had changed, it wasn't just the women shopping but the men, families, friends and young people too. The Whitgift centre didn't just offer a place to shop it offered a place to socialise with the opening of cafes.
2000-Now
Since Croydon had changed to a place for fashion, eating and socialising it was in many peoples eyes set for success as a place of interest and enjoyment. The Whitgift centre was soon joined by the Centrale centre and both were booming in success at the beginning of 2000. However, the country in the past few years has been through a lot of money troubled times including the credit crunch and the recession as well as the 2011 riots meaning that shops and businesses in Croydon missed out and lost a lot of money resulting in the closure of many stores and businesses in the area. Therefore in the past year Croydon has been offered a boost with the planning permission for Westfield's shopping centre to build in Croydon taking over the Whitgift centre and Centrale therefore it will be interesting to see how Croydon develops in the next 100 years.
As a group we decided to break up these different era's between us combining the early 1900's with the 1920's. We thought about having each era's representative in a different corner of our space in the Whitgift centre dong their "shopping" and then having them all meet and play out different events that have happened throughout the past 100 years.
the ideas:
•Croydon over the years
•How people shop
•Characteristics of different shoppers
•Fashion in the different era's
•Marks and spencer's as a central part as its been in the same plot for many decades.
•Shopping experience and how its changed
research into era's
I have found this website for Francis Frith which allows us to look at pictures and maps of Croydon over he past 100 years. http://www.francisfrith.com/croydon,surrey/#utmcsr=google.co.uk&utmcmd=referral&utmccn=google.co.uk
by looking at these pictures and maps it allows us to see especially in the early 19 hundreds what the streets looked like thus giving us an idea about what the shops would look like and the amount of retailer shops were available.
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