Delicate elegance through functionality: Inga Praskevicuite presents her MA collection
Sarabande scholar Inga Praskeviciute has released her MA collection, supported by Sarabande. We caught up with her to learn more about the collection, diving into the origins, techniques, and inspirations behind the collection.
Inspired by the effortlessly stylish women of Northern Europe who incorporate technical wear into their everyday wardrobe, Inga challenges the traditional divide between function and beauty.
Firstly can you talk us through the collection and what you're expressing conceptually?
I’m from Lithuania but I moved to London when I was 16…I feel like my background and culture have merged with London's viewpoint after all these years. Arnd that naturally reflects in my work.
The idea for my Master's collection is turning practical functions into decorative. It draws inspiration from Northern European women, who are intuitively exploring technical wear but are incorporating it in an elegant way into their wardrobe. When you look at them, you don't know if they're dressing for practicality reasons or to decorate themselves.
In your work, we've seen you using unique techniques, especially in your BA collection. Are there any new methods you incorporated in this collection?
“For this collection, I have taken two practical aspects of this one puffer jacket: down and hood. I use the Down Inners to create this unique textile while the hood is incorporated into each draping of this collection. This alteration of the garments is in a way the hybrid of outerwear and knitwear.
This entire collection was only made from one puffer jacket. You never would think there is so much in one jacket. The expansive nature of Down allows me to measure the control the usage of materials. The down used to fill half of my dress is one quilted piece on the puffer jacket sleeve.
The final photo shoot was inspired by my BA collections, using a lot of circular, spiky forms on the model’s hair and makeup. The girl’s hair static resembles individual pieces of down.
What was your focus in terms of the colour palette throughout the collection?
The colour palette is based on the key colours of the puffer jackets, mainly white, beige tones, and black. For a pop of colour, I used yellow to bring it up a little bit. Remained pretty muted, because everything is trapped between two layers of organza. Everything had a shade of whiteness throughout it which merges the two colours.
I also created a speckle colour palette. I dyed some of the down textiles while the others are just placed loosely into the garments. This construction process fluidly coloured the garments.
How has the support from Sarabande nurtured your practice?
I've been a Sarabande scholar throughout my BA and MA. It allowed me to do loads of prototypes. I have the freedom to test and redo garments with a range of fabrication and colours.
It gave me the chance to truly understand what I like and what goes together well, through physical making, not just by photoshopping it or drawing it. This is such a luxury to have it as a student. Normally in big brands, you can allow yourself to prototype so much, touch and feel the fabrics whereas being a student can be quite restrictive when it comes to using materials. Through my master's, I've learned the most about fabric fabrication and colors, and that was purely by allowing myself to make a lot of mistakes. This is where the financial support is key; you become a bit more fast, quick and, allow yourself rather than overthink, to just do it.
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