Holes in Memory

I’ve always loved the challenge of taking disregarded fabric or clothing & repurposing into something unique & interesting. I search in charity shops, use unwanted clothes from friends & family, & use secondhand websites to find deadstock, offcuts & items for me to create with. In using secondhand materials everything I create is individual, unique & identifiable to me as a designer, & eliminates the need to buy new. This also aligns with my concept: the juxtaposition of forgetting & remembering, with having Alzheimer’s disease. I interpreted this through creating a textile, as textile elements are something I include as a designer. The textiles on my garments hold meaning: the woven lighter parts represent the brain, memories, while the darker areas represent Alzheimer’s, beginning the process of forgetting. For garment context, throughout my collection I drew inspiration from Victorian garments: high necks, puff-sleeves, fitted silhouettes, & interpreting fabrics such as tartan in my own unique way by using secondhand leather to reference my research of fashion influences in the Victorian era, & my textile background. In my pursuit for sustainability as a designer, I have thoroughly explored multiple outlets. This includes using faux leathers I have sourced from charity shops, vintage & deadstock lace I have woven together, as well as using jersey material to create new versions of my textiles, making my main fabrics secondhand in my latest collection. This can also be seen in smaller areas of my designs, giving offcuts a new purpose within them. E.g. creating my own hand-stamped labels for my garments made from offcuts, which I have incorporated in my final collection, as seen in the title & accents within the introduction. This process has inspired me to think sustainably when moving forward in my designing career.