The NYC Melting Pot 

I love New York. It may seem stereotypical to say, but I do.
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I’ve been a tourist there for a couple of summers and felt completely transported by it. Whether or not you were born in New York, the city is as much an “Empire State of Mind” (Jay-Z 2009) as it is a geographical place.
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In 1986, Jean Baudrillard said in his travel diary that “As soon as you set foot in America, you feel the presence of an entire continent”. This statement embodies the way I feel about New York City. So many different communities have travelled there to make a new home therefore creating a beautiful patchwork of people. Although native New Yorkers may not always perceive it as such. To them it’s natural; it is how things have always been.

Inspired by the work of street photographers Dan Lin, Bruce Davidson, Scott Schuman, Tommy Ton and Brandon Stanton, my aim was here to design an innovative collection of samples for a high end womenswear collection (Spring/Summer 2019) whilst illustrating this idea of societal performance and streetstyle. I wanted to focus on these overlooked roles that play such an important part in everyday New York. Mixing plastics and various weights of fabrics (silks, velvets, nylon, cottons..) was key to emphasise on this notion of diversity in New York City.

Click here for Moodboard references!

Here, sport and street influences share the same bed with sophisticated materials and luxurious hand embroidered details. Puffer jackets with heavily embellished basketball jerseys and sweatshirts, alongside fine digitally printed silk satins were used to illustrate the contrast between refinement and toughness. 
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Bringing together the street and the glittery sides of New York was a main feature in my concept, as it is a city of “jungle toughness, but also sophistication, glamour, chic, wit”. (Burgess 1973)

In a world where fast fashion and programmed obsolescence have taken over, using hand embroidery to add longevity and emotional durability to a garment is something really important to me.
​Keeping alive century old techniques such as gold work and tambour beading are essential to help move forwards and reinvent embroidery. The idea of mixing old techniques and contemporary materials in order to make something beautiful to be kept forever is what drives me every day as an individual to create.