Royal Academy of Arts, crop of 2015. Internship with Walter Van Beirendonck. Free, methodical, spontaneous, feisty and enthusiastic, a cradle of delicious contradictions.
Crafts: “When I was little, I loved to draw and make things with my hands. My father knew that art was my thing when I drew a trumpet when I was four years old. When I was 14, I already knew that I wanted to be a fashion designer. I started to go to painting classes, I went to exhibitions and I read a lot about art. Painting and sculpture is what has always inspired me the most. I was admitted to several universities. I chose Antwerp and it was the best decision I have ever made”.
Collection: “It’s called ‘Der Klub der wilden Maler’ (the Club of wild painters). I found inspiration in a painting of a forest by the expressionist Ernst Kirchner. Capturing an atmosphere and turning it into lines, shapes, colors and garments is what I love about fashion. I explored free painting and abstract art, resorting to the most basic geometric shapes, the circle and the triangle, creating tension when combining them with organic paint. I like classic male tailoring and kimonos and experimenting with color and with different techniques and materials; that kind of diversity enhances the outline. It’s a collection dedicated to those artists who have the courage to think differently and to express it. It is also a contrasted balance between abstract and figurative art. They are like two sides of me, the free and the structured, and I like to make them converge”.
Genuine: “I tried to eliminate all influences in order to work in a fully free and intuitive way, ennobling the possibilities of the circle and the triangle without references to any artistic work. Yes, broadly speaking I am inspired by schools like Bauhaus. I adore the organization, accuracy, the roundness of the shapes, the creativity applied to the visual arts as an expression of the times. Kandinski, Josef Albers, Paul Klee or even Walter Gropious. It is not only about manufacturing products, but rather about giving them souls.”
Antwerp: “I feel completely identified with the artistic, aesthetic and modern vision of my school. It made me who I am. That emphasis on creativity, originality, individuality and the method, more than on the business part. I see fashion as an individual and contextual expression, and there they teach you how to tell your own version”.
Rules: “My main rule is to be true to myself. I want to be compact, I want everything to have meaning. To question society and the world and nurture my work with my experiences, my environment, art, politics, the genre… To position myself in the fashion industry. I want to fuse fashion with other disciplines: theater, opera, cinema, literature, sculpting, painting… To experiment and grow, to go beyond. To continue learning and doing whatever I can in order to achieve a better world, because it is in our hands”.
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Text: Carmen Cocina
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This interview was published on Neo2 Spring issue, you can reed more articles like this in FREE ISSUES
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