Aurélie Fontan II

Aurélie Fontan's graduation collection 'T E N S E G R I T Y //' was full of movement, the depth of plastic adding to this effect. Aurélie Fontan's work focuses on design for sustainability, exploiting both craft and technological innovations. This collection encompasses the wearer like a cage, creating an exoskeleton of plastic, a meccano like encasement. 

At the graduate fashion week Aurélie's collection was awarded the Marks and Spencer Womenswear Award, The Dame Vivienne Westwood Sustainable and Ethical award and the Catwalk Textiles Award.

"I am a very hands-on designer and the whole collection started from the materials I was using. Being able to create and manufacture my textiles from scratch was an exciting process. Specifically, I have worked in a science lab (Ascus Art & Science) that is the only public-access lab in the UK, and they have kindly allowed me to develop my bio-textile, so that I was able to grow my own dress." Aurélie Fontan

" TENSEGRITY is a collection that originated from the alarming effects that our human activities have on our environment. As a young designer, I felt that my responsibility lies in the active research of low environmental impact materials and processes. TENSEGRITY is a combination of the holistic approach I have taken through various design strategies, including Design for Disassembly, Design for Slower Consumption and Design for Waste Minimization.

The collection is based on several closed-loop systems, involving an alternative seaming method that allows different fabrics (wool, Modal, cork) to be separated when recycled. The range also includes bio-textiles, in the form of a grown fabric that is 100% biodegradable and put together with soluble cable ties made from corn starch. The garments themselves are mainly cut with a zero-waste construction of panels layered in tessellation. Moreover, the lasercut textures are created based on a double helix DNA waste-free pattern." Aurélie Fontan

Aurélie Fontan

Aurélie Fontan's second-year fashion project for 'Diversity' at the ECA fashion show, modeled by Samuel J H Froggatt.

"My garment emerged from the Diversity Network project that The Edinburgh College of Art initiates every year in collaboration with "All walks beyond the catwalk". The purpose was to consider my practice as a designer applying my designs across a range of silhouettes / people/ morphology." 

Aurélie chose to tackle, within a panel of diverse people, the theme of masculinity in fashion, which she perceived  to be pulled to two extremes; either very feminine (transgender wave) or very masculine (stereotypes conveyed through media) .

"I was really interested in Sam, he is an art student who equally dresses with womenswear and menswear.  I researched gender in fashion and media and     specifically gender fluidity."

Aurélie through research came up with the concept of Sam not having to have the dilemma of choosing between masculinity and femininity but being able to accommodate both in one garment. A garment that celebrated a more sensitive masculinity and that is able to empower men who feel their body or personality
is not represented by contemporary society.

"As part of this project I had to include a 3D typography on the garment as a statement to reinforce my concept - the word Alpha is suggesting another word -"male"- to convey a strong contrast that is stated as an ironical criticism of society's expectations about masculinity." Aurélie Fontan