Materials are my God

Fashion is my Church

Making is my Religion

This collection was a result of making. Not preconceived but made through physical acts in motion. This collection is anti-determinism, it’s about negotiation with material rather than absolutism......this means that rather than asking the fabric to be something or have some preconceived notion around what the garment will look like, I ask it what it WANTS to be.

*photos shot and edited by reggie ray pimentel

The pieces produced for this collection are made from a range of my own personal tester fabrics used for previous projects, up-cycled textiles made from deconstructed garments, doilies and vintage lace from estate sales. All altered through dye and appliqué processes.

As fashion designers, fashion enthusiasts, stylists we are often sold a dated code of designing and creating. BUT THE WORLD IS BURnING so let’s throw out those ideas because I’ve decided to stop listening. I want to make 1 of 1’s, create things with emotional weight and stories not mass produced.

On making -- I reject hierarchical structures of production inundating our society… to be the ‘boss’ means to be in charge, means to instruct, means to tell those making to MAKE. But most ‘bosses’, ‘leaders’, or otherwise particularly in contemporary ‘brands’ cannot practically apply their own skill sets to what they sell to their clients. To me this is a weakness, as we start to reject ideas of fast fashion and mass production. Those who aspire to create new brands, adding to the already over-saturated fashion market, need to be more connected to what they sell. There should be a heavy consciousness and what I would call ‘production-guilt’ in what we add to an already full world…..

“Instead of making something COOL, how about you make something GOOD.”

To me power comes with the ability to add something beneficial to the world. To have the capability to create something from nothing is the highest of powers, it is power in its most practical form. Somewhere in contemporary history - I would say the industrial revolution - craft, conscious and thoughtful making was lost. As the multiple crisis’ of the world become more prevalent it’s our responsibility to be conscious of what and how we contribute to it. 

It's a privilege to be able to work and listen to the materials used in my work and let them speak and be what they want to rather than manipulate and disregard their authentic materiality. I don’t want to exist in a situation where I’m distanced from my work, where the materials aren’t connected to me through manipulation.

thank you to the photographer, Reggie Ray Pimentel and models Hanna Meilin, Marie Bilodeau and Kali Catterall