The judges have made their decisions for the winners of the fashion categories — supported by Gucci — of the i-D x ARTSTHREAD Global Design Graduate Show. While earlier this week we showed you the winning projects for accessories and fashion comms, here are the projects working with textiles who won the judges over.
Winning the print and embroidery category is Quint Verhaart, a 25 year old BA graduate in Fashion Design (HBO) from Willem De Kooning Academy in Rotterdam, with his collection, ‘Victims of Absence’. Quint was inspired by the way in which sea creatures camouflaged and wanted his collection to emulate the motion and noise of this act as well as the escapism of becoming invisible.
“From when I was a child until now I continue to be inspired by all the materials and life forms nature has to offer,” Quint tells us. In his collection, beautifully textured gowns reflect the motions of fish scales, billowing flared sleeves could blend into coral reefs and layers of intricately patterned fabric deceive the eyes.
Quint brings particular attention to a pair of heels made from the leather of salmon skin and the fins of the lionfish – a beautiful yet venomous and destructive marine fish – with the shoes being a metaphor on the ways both the creature and humans invade and ‘trample’ coral reefs. As Quint puts it, the “exquisite beauty yet hidden consequences of deception camouflage.”
Quint is refusing to let the creative train go after graduation – even amidst a debilitating global climate – with upcoming jewellery and shoe collaborations and a new big project. “Don’t let your brain get dusty” he tells us, “just keep getting better and striving for more.”
Winning the knit and weave category is 29 year old Emma Gudmundson, a graduate in BA Fashion Design at The Swedish School of Textiles, University of Borås. Her collection, ‘Floats’ puts the domestic knitting machine at the heart of fashion. “Often in a creative process the tool that produces the fabric is seen just as that.” says Emma, “the sketching, coloring and form creation is developed with other means separated from the machine.”
By putting the knitting machine at the centre of the entire project, combining flotations — a reference to the hanging yarn threads — and different hook up stitches, the result is a 3D structure, with changing movement and opacity. “I love the experimentation part of the process. It is exciting to try different combinations of colours and materials to see how they affect one another. It keeps my work feeling interesting and fun” Emma tells us, also revealing that she began designing as a child for her dolls, her grandmother’s dog and herself. Inspired by the bold works of Joan Miro and, like Quint, the stunning underwater world, her collection of dresses seamlessly blends black into green, pink into orange and indigo into blue with your eyes gliding along the streams of rippled yarn, produced through hand-sewing techniques that leave zero-waste.
As she currently waits for her knitting machine to arrive where she is staying, Emma is eager to get creating again and plans to set up her own business to sell her unique, hand-made dresses and accessories.
Stay tuned as we announce the rest of the winners in the fashion categories and you can check out all the amazing entries in this year’s Global Design Graduate Show, here