Nadine ––– A collection designed on a fictional character, dedicated to strength and softness, rebellion and identity research.
01. THE STARTING POINT
The creation of a character and the story behind is the starting point for the creative research: by knowing as She feels, She moves through life, what is She is surrounded by, I have developed an extensive research and experimentation for the final collection.
Rebellion and identity research, inspired by a woman that can be both fierce and soft: the collection is dedicated to this.
Nadine is a collection where I merged my jewellery backgrounds with fashion. The combination of this two elements gave birth to my passion for decorative masks.
02. THE SPECIFIC SOLUTION
Nadine is a woman that knows and embrace female society manners and the rules of living in society but also acknowledges and cherish her wilderness, the instinctual pulses to be lived on her own. Those extremes plays well together as she flow from one aspect to the other of her personality.
A key gesture that represents the inner world of this fictional character is destroying the jewellery that beautify her during the day so that she can build masks that represents her wild side.
I find very fascinating that same “tools” can be used to change the perception while delivering very different messages.
1950’s fashion couture and housewife figure were chosen as key references of the extreme socialised female body while the wild and instinctual aspect was inspired by African primitivism. Keith Haring, cave painting and African tribal costumes are here inspiration for prints, textile manipulation and accessories like masks.
The use of collages helped merging references together creating exciting outcomes by mixing 1950 couture minimalistic volumes with African prints, apron shapes revealing ancestral African female body shapes, gingham tablecloth patterns layered with cave painting marks, and so on.
The 1950s volumes becomes canvases to be filled with other aspects of the female spirit that are less welcomed in society. Second hand jewellery was used to decorate the masks that were an hybrid form of a a couture hat and an African mask.
03. THE OUTCOME
The output is a collection that has clashing elements from bold couture shapes, African textiles accessories and bold primitive prints mixed with preppy pink Vichy patterns. Masks and garments details were created with hair pins and broken jewellery merging references form 50s hats and African masks.
