VOID 2012 @ Object Gallery, Sydney, Australia.

VOID: Tabula Rasa 2011

tabula rasa [ˈtæbjʊlə ˈrɑːsə]

n pl tabulae rasae [ˈtæbjʊliː ˈrɑːsiː]: an opportunity for a fresh start; clean slate

[Latin: a scraped tablet (one from which the writing has been erased)]

While fashion appears to change constantly, this change is primarily superficial. Forms, lines and details are repeated ad nauseum, only occasionally revealing anything new. As a result consumers are bombarded with choices that all look the same. Boredom and the impulse to buy something new rapidly sets in, only for it to feel old as soon as it is worn. Can reimagining the fashion design process disrupt this or is ‘Fashion’ all pervasive, infiltrating my hands and influencing every line I draw and every cut I make?

Void questions the conventional fashion design process that values drawing over cutting, image over form, and explores what happens when fashion is designed from a ‘blank slate’. At its core the garment is a pliable space for our bodies to travel through that should fulfil individual needs for movement, modesty and expression. However, contemporary fashion is guided by money and trend forecasters, media and style-makers first vet the choices offered, never showing the public what is really available or revealing the realities of the fashion production process. In Void, the contemporary fashion design process is reversed, dealing first with the whole cloth and corresponding 2D pattern and lastly with the body and 3D form. Each garment begins as a textile Tabula Rasa; drawn on, cut and formed to create a void for the body to travel through. Unexpected and unplanned forms emerge, hopefully showing the value of good design outside of the vagaries of ‘fashion’