Loïs Brandsen
Keywords: Craftsmanship, Heritage, Serenity
Internship: Camiel Fortgens
lois.brandsen@hotmail.com, +31636279766, instagram.com/loisbrandsen, linkedin.com/in/loïs-brandsen-6142a7205
Blanket, the feeling of not knowing where to belong
The issue of not knowing where one’s home is, not knowing where one belongs, and not knowing their identity.
As an ambitious and beginning fashion designer, I am passionate about bringing quality and meaning to garments in relation to community, heritage and craftsmanship, as well as the modern translation of its function in the future. In search for atmosphere, proportion and silhouettes, I strive to create a poetic story which reflects on the emotions we experience as human beings in the community.
My final graduation collection focuses on the question “Where do I belong”? Growing up in two homes in between two opposite cultures that somehow melted well, left me longing for a home that does not even exist. By answering the question given, I recognized my cultural background which resulted in two opposite worlds; the Dutch and Indonesian culture which are intertwined in my family blood. Defining both cultures made me study the sense of belonging and the definition of home.
‘The definition of the feeling of not knowing where to belong’, has been put forward as a ‘blanket’, the exemplary metaphor of material culture. Imbued with memories of youth, of significant persons, occasions and rites of passage, a blanket includes the tactile features of mobility, texture and warmth. Making direct contact with the skin and inhabiting the spaces of private life, a blanket has a particularly intimate quality which helps to negate the inner self with the outside world. Wrapped around in a blanket gives the human being a feeling of comfort and nurture and it provides a safe place where we can let our vulnerability loose in our most private setting, a place where we gain our sense of belonging and makes the individual feel the ideological aspect, the feeling of being “at home”.
“The atmosphere that is created by wearing a garment is a tactile feature that is emphasized in the process of defining fabrics and designing silhouettes in the search for a round, serene shape development, by the use of padding wrapped in light and soft textiles, and by covering and revealing parts of the human body.”
“A house where I go alone calling
A name that silence and the walls give back to me.
A strange house contained in my voice
Inhabited by the wind
I invent it, my hands draw a cloud
A heaven-bound ship above the forests
Mist that scatters and disappears
As in the play of images."
“The touch of a hand is a symbolic tactile feature in the graduation collection that is inspired by everyday life and celebrated rituals that are performed on and in the home."
“I dream of a house, a low house with high
Windows, three worn steps, smooth and green.
A poor secret house, as in old print,
That only lives in me, where sometimes I return.
To sit down and forget the gray day and the rain.”
“Using my hands as a powerful tool made me interact with the feeling of not knowing where to belong. As a result an expressive collection of prints, existing out of fingers and hand palms, was created which resembled the feeling of homesickness."
Jewellery maker: Sepideh Jahanpanah
Shoe makers: Mitchel Leijser and Hans Petrie
Hair and Make-up Artist: Laura Garnier
Editing: Ira Grünberger
Photographer: Nelli Serzanowa
Models: Eva Kuus, Anna Vet, Britney Lindo and Juliette Kool