This project is born from a collaboration between VLISCO and Textile Design program at Académie Royale des Beaux Arts, in Brussels.
I was impressed with the big amount of waste materials collected during the 27 steps of production in the Dutch textile manufacturer and decided to start my research around the potential of textile waste.
I was inspired from the concept of resilience and I used traditional and handmade techniques, in order to make the iconic Dutch cotton fabrics more precious and luxurious.
I think that VLISCO is a worldwide fascinating journey.
The unicity of the waxprints comes from the multiple layers of history and cultures that, mixed up together, have created the iconic patterns and the rich color palette, in a sort of resilient cultural process.
I transposed the idea of ‘resilience’ in cultural contamination and I made a personal interpretation of some traditional textile techniques as the Indonesian ikat weaving or velvet texture which was inspired from the traditional Congo Kasai velvets, combined with the luxurious silk European velvet technique.
I have also played ‘disturbing’ the original waxprints, mixing up different patterns and their color palette from some Vlisco waxprints, trying to design some reversible woven fabrics .
I developed a playful and a festive collection, that celebrates the characteristic and classic red bow pattern, cutting up the elements that compose it and creating brand new patterns, ‘disguised’ in the same waxprint patterns or hidden under a charcoal flat tint.