Céline Bregman

Dichotomy

In a world where we are confronted with lots of stimuli, identities, revelations and unrealistic dreamworlds, it is easy to lose track of ourselves, our roots and our identity. When looking at myself and major events that have passed my life, the realisation came that my life has been split into two parts. I came to the understanding that life isn’t that romantic and that I romanticized myself and my past as a way to escape from the harshness of real life. A denial to endure the pain and the feeling of suffocation. This longing for and holding on to the past, a way to escape from real life is something that aroused my curiosity.

That is why my collection is about romanticizing and the contrast with the roughness of real life. A dichotomy of the real and the unreal. But at the same time a translation of a dichotomy I discovered within myself. As one part of myself is romantic, dreamy, fragile and nostalgic. And in the other part has formed itself a darkness, anger and “rawness”. The light side and the dark side.  

The idea of the dichotomy became the guideline for my collection and translates itself in an investigation to the power of my romantic side, and the search for the reality in it. Based on my delicate and feminine handwriting, my designs have grown out of feelings, thoughts and tensions. I make them tactile by translating them into textiles and the transformation of traditional tailoring. Hand-processed textiles, by fraying and distortion, is creating roughness, refinement and value in the layers that I add to relatable garments. In my work and within my collection my aim is to investigate and visualize the tension of the real and the unreal world.