I'm really sentimental, but I also really like a good story.
I found it while walking on the beach in Matarangi.
And on the back it has a really beautiful inscription
that says "Violet Richan, Dux, 21st of the 12th, 1922."
You know, there's so much potential in this can.
It could honestly be anything.
So, it's a beautiful, really delicate, fine metal.
It's got little floral designs around the edge.
I just really liked the porosity and the way
that it's been worn away over time.
All of the environmental impact that's kind of worn its shape.
And it's funny to look at them and pull them out and think
that that was 50 or 60 years ago.
And think something that was once money is now
just a piece of metal.
So I got into painting about eight or so years ago,
and it was just a really good way for me
to get whatever I had going on off my chest.
My great grandmother Violet was female dux
of her school in 1922, and I think
that's a pretty awesome achievement
for a woman of her time.
I hear she was quite an outrageous lady.
My great uncle left my family a coin collection when he died.
And his whole life he talked to us
and our family about this coin collection
that he was going to bring us.
And they sit in a cupboard, and I always hated the fact
that something that used to have so much value and someone's
pride and joy became nothing.
People always ask me why and how I
came across sewing coins into my clothes and my outerwear.
To say that it was a thought out process
is a post rationalised lie.
Rather than thinking about a particular vibe or trend,
I try to think about a feeling that I
had when I was at the beach, and that calm and stillness.
And so all of the pieces that I've been working on recently
have been trying to evoke the sense
of the surface of the water, or the shape and stillness
and permanence of a rock, and those organic shapes
that you get.
In my garments that I make, I look at them
the same way I did at a canvas.
So when I used to paint, it would
be whatever was going on in my own life,
or what was going on around me, and it was my thoughts
and feelings on those things.
That's what I used to put on the canvas.
That's what I do with my garments.
I design in the same way.
I take a scenario or something and I just
start to build on it.
My great grandmother's dux medal informed my thinking
significantly when I was in university.
And my final graduate collection
was called Well Behaved Women Seldom Make History.
And it was based around the attitudes
that the women in my family have always held
that sort of translated into my designs and clothing,
and just my ethos around the business in general.
So I was using this to mark the pocket inside the bag,
and inadvertently it got stitched into the pocket lining.
I dropped it off to a customer the next day.
And then they decided to email me and tell me
"The way you sewed that coin into that bag, it touches me
and it makes me feel so good, and that's such a cool idea."
And I just played along with the idea,
and then it became part of what I do.
It was a great way to tie in the arc between me trying
to give purpose to these coins again,
and me trying to create meaningful goods
that people relate to.
I think you get a real sense of satisfaction when
you finish something and you know that you
have made it with your hands.
You don't feel like the technology has
done a lot of the job for you.
Anything that's in my mind, anything that I dream,
or that I envision, I can put that out.
I can put that onto a canvas.
I can create something that wasn't there before.
I just like to build out different layers of stories
behind each of the garments and why they're there.
Through my clothes I'm kind of reliving memories
of my past and my family.
Our school motto is "Aim for the Highest."
A bit of a lame way of saying it, but really just going
out and making the world yours.
And not bending to what people expect of you,
or tell you you can't do.
For more infomation >> Making Runway Fashion Work for Everyday Life - Duration: 7:40. 
For more infomation >> S3 E21 Bright Heart Birth Services/ Recording Artist and Fashion Designer Christine Storm - Duration: 28:31. 
For more infomation >> Tempe incubator helping fashion designers thrive in Arizona - Duration: 1:50. 
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét