I am a menswear designer with an interest in taking inspiration from aspects and fabrics of sportswear and military garments and combining them with clasing themes such as suiting fabrics, which is what I did for my graduate collection.
My graduate collection ‘Extreme Commute’ explores a fictional world in which commuters must endure extreme weather in order to get to their 9-5 office jobs. My main focus was on clashing aspects of the traditional suit with aspects of military uniform and sportswear to create garments which would be suitable for a work environment but also practical and moveable.
The inspiration for this collection came from my time working in an office when I took a year out of study. I constantly saw my male collegues run frantically around the office whilst wearing a suit, which restrained their movements and was not practical for the amount of moving they did, but they had to wear it to fit with the company’s dress code.
My main focus was on the textile element of this collection rather than technical. I explored distorting pinstripes using a combination of print and hand ruching to create creased textures in my garments to represent commuting through extreme weather whilst maintaining a traditional element.
