This collection was the first of 3 collections created during the COVID-19 pandemic whilst in lockdown over 2020 and 2021. I therefore had to limit my interaction with others and visits to suppliers (for fabrics and trimmings), as well as limiting my use of textile services outside the studio such as dying or printing services. Hence, this collection was created using studio stock jersey fabric and using a technique which is normally a domestic technique; that of dying fabric using bleach. In this manner I succeeded in creating the collection entirely in my studio.

 

The use of chlorine in the collection had a double meaning: in that firstly bleaching fabrics is a domestic technique, but also bleach was a product used excessively during the pandemic, as all cleaning products were, because of the new mental focus on excessive hygiene (that occurred particularly in this early stage of the pandemic).

 

Limited access to being able to buy trimmings gave me incentive to design garments that would avoid fastenings such as zips and buttons. Although all this was a challenge on the one hand, on the other it immediately set out the parameters by which I had to design. This meant I had to explore my creativity using limited means. The entire collection uses just one fabric quality which I had in stock in 4 colours.

 

With a focus on habitual, domestic use, the collection emphasises on comfort whilst still being conceptual in its design. As our lives shifted, moving activities indoors and our outings became limited to that of a very casual nature, particularly with the increase of video calls; I decided it made sense to focus design on the upper half of the body. These garments can be worn at home for lounging and exercising to everything from a video meeting, to a video date.

 

I have carried over political messaging from my last collection launched before the pandemic Wear Your Beliefs. I have used texts that weren’t in the garments of that collection but were on display props during the Wear Your Beliefs exhibition at the Point Centre for Contemporary Art, Cyprus in November 2019. I have taken the opportunity to use bleach to write text, thus bringing activism into this collection too as a continuation.

 

The collection colours and mood are dark, echoing the psychological state of humanity’s collective conscience at the time.