A Faberge Picnic

A Fabergé picnic: Expressing greed and desire alongside childhood nostalgia. When I was young, I would go for picnics with my grandparents, one week we went to our usual spot and the picnic bench had been stolen. It makes you think why? What was so desirable? This led to the idea of “A Faberge Picnic.” A young couple are having a picnic, they reach into their basket and find a Faberge egg amongst the other items. They lay it on their blanket and suddenly the blanket starts to transform into a Faberge version of itself, anything the magical egg touches turns into a luxury version of itself (like King Midas’ golden touch) My collection represents the greed they demonstrate and how they are trying to get back to the car as quickly as possible without being seen. Each garment is a piece of the picnic. Look 1 a cooler bag skirt, completely pocketed all the way around. Look 2 represents the picnic bench that was stolen, alongside a bodysuit that follows the design of a Faberge Egg with its panels. The third look is the picnic basket, hand woven from plastic rattan. Next is look 4 which represents the egg itself with a rounded jacket, the pockets are purse clasps. Look 5 is a daisy chain dress – each beaded flower handmade by myself. Lastly, look 6 represents the motion of the transformations, it combines the baskets handle and a blanket, on top of a corset made from insulation. I have tried to illustrate that greed is endless and represented by the desire to live a more materialistic life. It asks the question: why steal something so mundane? This then leads to the theme of luxury and how luxury itself is highly desired. Luxury is something that not everyone can afford, so another variable of ‘pricelessness’ is nostalgia. Within my collection, I aim to illustrate the notion that beauty isn’t an object, it is in fact a way in which something is perceived and, within this, how nostalgia can play a strong part in seeing something's beauty.