In a special feature for Totally Dublin, we take a rare glimpse behind the scenes at NCAD’s hallowed fashion department to speak with some of the freshest creative minds in Irish fashion. We selected four promising students to talk us through their collections and aspirations in the final weeks before this year’s hotly anticipated degree show.
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Take us through your collection.
My final collection started off with the concept of the smart phone being an extension of yourself. I wanted to create a space between the body and the garment, to highlight the connection/disconnection of technology with the person, as with our generation we are constantly connected to wires. I started looking at our ’online persona’ and who we are in reality, whether it’s Instagram or whatever part of cyberspace. That led me on to wanting to create structures that sat off the body.
I started by fusing different fabrics together to actually physically break the space. I went on to develop ‘hanging’ garments, where I placed a Styrofoam block up in behind the garments and pattern cut around that, then I began ‘hanging’ fabric – Comme des Garçons was a huge influence here. I constantly draped on the stand to play with shape, then would take it off the stand and place the pattern down flat, sew it up, and then alter that shape again. I’ve been experimenting with elastics, using suspension to see how I can get the garment to keep it off the body and rely on its own construction.
What materials did you use?
I was originally using the fused material, but it was getting kind of lumpy so I moved on to a fused neoprene, which is not a classic draping fabric so it was interesting to use stiff fabric for drape. I decided to go for black and white because it has a timeless quality to it and it related to my research in terms of a techno-digital age.
Have you interned anywhere?
Last year I worked for a digital marketing company, where they developed a fashion app called Get The Look. It was interesting because I got to see a different side of the fashion industry, but to be honest I couldn’t wait to get back after the summer to get more involved in the creative side! I do find the digital aspect fascinating as it’s so immersive, right down to the selling of a garment on your phone, which I find quite personal, and I supposed it has fed into what I’m working on here.
Words: Honor Fitzsimons
Images: Jocelyn Murray-Boyne
