Fashion and Textiles graduate Linh Khanh Bui received a Highly Commended Purchase Award. Judges praised the sensitivity shown in selecting photographs to be displayed alongside her work, and commented that seeing the garments modelled showed them to greatest effect.
Artist’s statement:
I have developed a collection of knitwear pieces that reflect the aspects of things that we fear the most. The collection is entitled Thálassa, from Thalassophobia – a fear of deep bodies of water and the creatures that inhabit them.
Typically, knitwear is associated with comfort and relaxation. This project challenges these preconceptions, and aims to present the beautiful aspects of the things that provoke an internal discomfort, even fear.
I have created and modelled textiles which draw inspiration from the forms of alien-like deep-sea creatures, due to their unsettling physical nature, e.g. plankton, jellyfish, etc. I began to create delicately knitted structures that mimicked the transparency and weightlessness these creatures seemed to convey. The key techniques were used are cabling and partial knitting, and I have found a way to combine both which was used in constructing every garment.
This is a capsule collection which draws attention to the structure of the textiles. This is achieved through the use of boning, for example, as this gives the delicate materials a framework to extend across which highlights the knitting techniques implemented. The monochromatic collection uses hand tooled lace in fine mercerized cottons to optimize the transparency of the knitted structures, whilst integrated structural boning provides the spiralling silhouette and forms.
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