Lydia Love-Gough (She/Her)
My collections this year were centred around what makes us human. I have always had a fascination with human form, and through my degree have explored the various ways and theories behind why and how we dress the body.
My first collection titled ‘The Body Reworked’, aims to understand the connections between the body, movement and clothing. I have aimed to communicate the relationship between these entities, and considered our genetic heritage and medicine alongside this.
My McQueen Collaborative collection titled ‘Connie’ pays homage to my direct linage on my mother’s side. I have paid tribute to the women in my family through a series of knitted tailored silhouettes. Using the properties of fabric, I have aimed to communicate the importance of the body and it’s heritage, using the language of knit.
The Body Reworked
Medicine is often considered an art of science. Artistic offerings from the likes of da Vinci and Andreas Vesalius display the entangled history between art and medicine. In his time, the Italian polymath da Vinci claimed to have dissected more than thirty corpses for his anatomical studies. These studies have been referred to in medicine time and time again. My aim for this collection is to communicate the relationship between fashion, the body, more specifically its genetic heritage, and medicine. From a medical perspective, fashion offers some insightful theories of why we wear what we do, and how cognitive behaviours have created trends and fabrics that have physical and psychological benefits. For example, compression clothing has been proven to improve athletic performance, decrease injury, reduce and prevent varicose veins, leg ulcers, DVT and improve the blood flow in the body. Using these properties of fabric I aimed to create a symbiosis through knitted silhouettes that benefit the body, whilst embracing the artistic depth of fashion.
Project Links
CONNIE
Sarah Burton, the creative director of Alexander McQueen, discussed the significance of the rose for the brand in the opening statement for the ‘Roses’ exhibition. From this, the notion of ‘…birth and rebirth and the whole life cycle’, has inspired me to investigate my own heritage and the women before me. Specifically, the women in my direct line on my mother’s side. ‘Nannie Connie’, as seen here on the immediate left, has been described to be as a determined, confident character, who was a great influence to my Grandmother and Mother. I intend to represent my Great-Grandmother’s ‘fun confidence’ through draped and tailored knitted silhouettes, whilst making reference to the McQueen archives that inspired this exploration.
Project Links
GRADUATE FASHION WEEK
An exhibition of my final collection at Graduate Fashion Week 2022, London.
