JiJing Lai

Taiwanese artist JiJing Lai's series of weavings, called 'Little Forest', where JiJing has poetically incorporated seeds and grasses into her weavings.

"Little Forest"
To those who are accustomed to the hustle and bustle of a big city, urban living seems to be a full, colored schedule book. Even though everyday is a new day and sacrifices must be paid for life, one cannot help but fight for a change from time to time. Imagine a day, one walks into the woods embracing a moment of peace, sits in silence doing nothing, and enjoys the day undisturbed. Pure pleasure.
Over the past few years I was able to go into the nature and see the mountains during my travels. Mountains are surrounded by trees and bushes. Whenever I was in the mountain, I felt I was part of the surroundings, returning into the original, primitive state of mind. Without the hustle and bustle of the city, a symphony of chirping birds and humming insects and the crispness of the air constitutes the wonderfulness of this little forest.
Dried natural plants are the focal point in the series of “Little Forest.” I weaved those dried leaves and sticks into my works in an attempt to maintain their original appearance as much as possible. Through these works, I’m hoping to bring everyone back to the wonderful moments that I had enjoyed in the forests. JiJIng Lai

Thank you Dom 

Jules Henderikus ten Velde

Jules Henderikus ten Velde's collection 'Natures Bride" This young designer has innovative ways of incorporating unusual materials and approaches. Jules graduated from the Amsterdam Institute of Fashion this summer.

"The collection tells the story of a young woman who escapes the modern world and harsh city life, and flees to the countryside. When she arrives she falls in love with the beauty and innocence of nature. Be charmed by the landscapes surrounding her she decides to devote herself completely to nature. The concept of Jules Henderikus ten Velde's graduation collection symbolizes his position as a fashion designer. His desire is to change the conditions of the current fashion system into a more couture-driven and animal-friendly way. Man-made materials like lurex and plexiglass are used by slowly processing these into natural materials such as raffia, palm-leaves and naturally dyed cottons." 

Damini Deshwal

"I read a question on Quora, a boy asking the world if it would be okay for him to wear a saree. Afraid if the world would judge him, he continued describing his "imperfect" features: dark skin, spots on face, skinny silhouette, creating a not so  "masculine" body. The simple question gave birth to this project's idea of making garments that would celebrate a man's body the way it is, a human's body the way it is, the acceptance of the inner soul that does not have a gender at all, the curiosities that have no border." Damini Deshwal 

These are silk, linen and jute garments created as gender neutral clothing. It was important to Damini that the fabrics were all natural and that all synthetic man made constituents were removed, like the man made constraints and type casting of gender. Damini is studying Fashion Design at the Pearl Academy of Fashion in Delhi.

Francesco Marzetti

Francesco Marzetti is a genius, an inventor, and creative force, here he is with his glove coat and miniature horse made from old welding gloves.

ADiciannoeventitre

Spring summer 2017 slow fashion from the skilled artisans of Italy with women's clothing from  ADiciannoeventitre marrying beautiful linen womenswear with the incredible cobbler skills of Simone Cecchetto.

NIHL

There is something very glam rock about this year's MA graduate collections in both London Central St Martins and Parsons. However it is often flavoured with something else. Neil Grotzinger (NIHL) graduate collection for Parsons, with its embellished sheer fabrics also reminded me of pop at, in particular Roy Lichtenstein's works decorating the skin with line and pattern. 

"It's about breaking the masculine façade, there's these ideas associated with functionality, certain expectations, that didn't even exist in the first place." Neil Grotzinger

Barbara Langendijk and Noon Passama

During the past few months a collaborative project has been developed by Barbara Langendijk and Noon passama creating a capsule collection that merges fashion and jewellery design, inspired by traditional smocking and gathering techniques resulting in amazing, larger than life nets of silhouette.

Mandy Pattullo II

Delicious textile sketchbooks by Northumberland based textile artist and designer Mandy Pattullo.

Sara Cunha

Sara Cunha is a Portuguese illustrator and graphic designer who often works in textiles using the discipline of quilting to create her graphic, geometric images.

Patchwork lining

Amazing patchwork lining of French late 18th century silk jacket. Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Thank you

Anna Hoyle

Irreverent and full of humour  Australian illustrator Anna Hoyle has created a whole series of fictional book covers about clothing, anthropomorphising those daily garments that make up our daily wardrobes, 'My Clothes Hate Me' is a genius series.

Althea Crome

Artist Althea Crome is a micro knitter who uses silk sewing thread and polished surgical wire as needles. Creating these tiny beauties; Gloves for a spider? Socks for a stag beetle and a jacket fit for a queen bee.

Sergio Castaño

Barcelona student; Sergio Castaño's “Aceite de Palma”, pursues stereo types in search of individuality, investigating of fifteen different possible people archetypes of today’s society, all of them characterized or re-worked with humor, but respecting the essence of each one. Inspired by “The History of Ugliness” by Umberto Eco, Sergio wanted to explore the idea of relativity as a way to understand the truth about beautiful /ugly stereo types.

Gareth Brookes

A karmasutra of tangled thread, these are some of the reversible sex embroideries of Gareth Brookes. Gareth Brookes is a graphic novelist, printmaker, textile artist and bookmaker who crosses genres and evades classification.

Donna Huanca

Uses skin as a canvas and explores colour, contrast and pattern this exploration applied straight to the skin is a fascinating way to explore the nature and character of clothing.

"A lot of my works, in the beginning, were all related to clothing because I was nomadic. It was always about bundling up and carrying everything you own and have on your body. A lot of it was binding and hiding the body, and protection of the body. Slowly it started to disrobe and become about the skin. A blank canvas." Donna Huanca