This collection is about the exploration of identity and friendship. I started making mood boards and collages. I think this is a great way to get ideas. That way I come up with a certain vision. I wanted to show different identities.
The collection is called 'lobi' which is Dutch slang for loving. In this project I was very focused on loving, friends and family and asked myself several questions about this.
The subject of these outfits is about being a particular individual in a group. With both outfits I assumed a shirt dress deign to be able to focus properly on the processing of the material.
You can lose yourself completely in a friendship, family or group. But what if this group identity doesn't match your individual identity at all? I am very intrigued by the image of a group. People have a certain image of the group and therefore automatically of you.
With the first outfit I decided to make a hidden face. By stitching and filling in fabric, a relief was created which depicts a face, but which is not immediately visible. You have to look closely before you see the face. In a group you can become invisible in a sentence and fade away from the others a bit, you can disappear into the background. Your own persona can also be very much influenced by the group, your own face gets hidden under that influence, you could hardly recognize yourself anymore.
You also cannot meet the group image at all. There can be a conflict between group identity and personal identity, how you see yourself. There are many guest workers and migrants in the Netherlands. We have a very multicultural society. I think this is very valuable and something beautiful. Many Dutch people think that the migrants steal their jobs and take up their space. The group of the migrants are all seen as something negative, would have no manners and they are hastily generalized just to blame one particular group. But if you don't feel connected at all with the group that other residents stick to you, a conflict arises. The identity that the inhabitants have woven into the mirgants does not correspond to the personal identity.
There is still a lot of racism in the Netherlands. For example, someone with a Dutch application is more likely to be assumed than another candidate with a foreign surname. Taking this into account and the fact that the Dutch feel that migrants are stealing their jobs. I chose to integrate a blouse in both outfits. A blouse stands for labor and has something masculine, but is still very gender neutral. The blouses are very large, taking away the wearer's own human forms. Thereby has the first outfit a double collar, because a person can represent multiple identities. You could also think of it as feminine versus masculine.
With the second outfit I enlarged a textile portrait I had made before and incorporated it into the outfit. It's a self portrait. It shows that you can show yourself and you can be yourself. Also under this outfit is a blouse.
I shot this on two young boys to take the outfit out of context. It gives a very different feeling to see the clothes on young children than on models. There's something youthful about it, literally. Young children are still very pure and can still be formed, their identity still has to be partly acquired. They look alike and fit well on image, but they also have an intense connection with me. The outfits are about me and the ties I have with the people around me. My designs are about identity and bonds with yourself and others. I have to connect to it myself.
My brothers modeled the dresses as a direct connection to myself and the youthful aspect of this subject and concept.
This was during the making process.
In addition, I decided to make a collection book for these two outfits. I have incorporated my color cards, friends and family in this, also a bit of digital work which I have also worked on very much in this project. With this collage book I learned more about photoshop and how to use it.
