Fish Story ––– The development of a personal story to inspire a new collection, through the observation of historical archives.
01. THE PROBLEM
Fish Story started in the Central Saint Martin’s archive: captured by an old swatch of 1960s printed fabric that looked detailed and quite naive, I have then started looking at all the details that were in it which were holding a very different meaning from the first impression I got.
Images of war and destruction were filling the repeated pattern, leaving me fascinated by the contrast feelings that small piece of fabric was giving me.
The absurdity yet the freshness of the presented topic became the starting point for the development of a personal developed story to inspire the collection rather than just using a replica of the fabric.
02. THE SPECIFIC SOLUTION
The story I wrote tells how other species in the past fought their battles against each other that eventually lead to the death of all. And then, as we know that story repeat itself in cycles, it was then the turn for fishes which decided to mimic their fellow humans using similar weapons to fight each other. That ended of course with the death of fishes too.
Following the brief story, I have developed further research into historical parachute outfits, 1960s Vogue illustration and textured fish skin (as symbol) to recreate collages that were used as starting point for design development of the capsule collection.
Intricate designs were then developed as interpretation of the collage hybrid outcomes. Elegant voluminous dresses, tailored jackets and tops reveal volumes and cut outs inspired by the parachutes and enriched with the colour palette from fish skins and utilitarian details form the military uniforms.
03. THE OUTCOME
The historical reference was reinterpreted, and the story created out of it served as unique reference in its colour, details, mood, to stylise the collection and the illustrations out of it.
