One reason why I find fashion grad students so fascinating is because they are indeed the 'crystal ball of fashion'. Their passion for what they design is what keeps fashion alive and relevant in today's society, giving meaning to and retaining the meaning of the clothing that we wear. One such student and emerging designer, who is no stranger around here, is Stacey Grant. Previously featured here was her utterly gorgeous dress, which in itself is a piece of wearable poetry, inspired by the trauma of her dad's stroke. Stacey is currently completing an MA degree at Kingston University in London, where she continues to explore the emotions involved in designing and those inherent in the designs themselves. I thought that I would feature a few of Stacey's projects over a couple of posts in order to take a peek into the life of a fashion grad student, and to keep tabs on her work. The first post today is on her project entitled "Dimensions, Perspectives, Body, Spheres" (or, DPBS), which allows the students to explore the role of the body in 21st century fashion and beyond. Fascinatingly, Stacey's take on this project was to incorporate scent into a garment.
Here are Stacey's thoughts on the DPBS project:
I am interested in the body as a nurturer and a destroyer through illness. My own father's journey through his disability caused by a stroke in 1991 underpins my work.
Considering memory loss and the breach that brain damage can cause, I thought about fragrance and scent as our strongest and most powerful and primitive link to our sense of memory.
In a design for need context, fragrance can be used to treat and help with memory loss in Alzheimer's or Dementia, and many other conditions.
For this garment, I used my Dad's archived patterns to reinterpret what he did as a tailor from my perspective as a fashion designer and daughter. Transparent chiffon and organza were used to reveal the inner workings of the crafted and hand sculpted elements of a tailored garment. Skin tones of blush and nude emphasized the body, and micro encapsulated scent was embedded in a poetic and intimate way redolent of the memories explored and the role of my parents. Masculine and feminine fragrances intermingle next to the skin and in the body's atmosphere to tickle the wearer.
Brilliant. I love how the photos of this project, taken by Paul Postle, capture the model in an array of emotions, each of which could be triggered by a particular scent, which only the designer, wearer, and now we would know could be contained within the garment itself. I can't say enough how excited I am about Stacey's work as a student, not to mention what she'll come up with once out of school. Stay tuned here for the next feature of Stacey's work, including a fabulous new-to-me technique called digital draping.
