Carmen Chan illustrated by Chloe.
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23rd of February 2016 Profile What I knew before meeting her: I came across Carmen through recommendations from friends. I’d known her work, as she’d previously been runner up in a competition to dress Grayson Perry, and my sister had helped her with the design. So keeping that in mind, I knew that Carmen would definitely be someone worth shadowing as she had a strong vision and it would be interesting to document her experimentations with textiles. Who she is: Name:
Carmen Chan
Nationality: Malaysian Background: Carmen is Malaysian Chinese and grew up in Malaysia. When she was ning, her family moved to Hong Kong. She studied in an international school, until she was eighteen, when she then moved to London. She studied a foundation in fashion design at Central Saint Martins and is in her final year studying BA Fashion Print. During her placement year, she interned at Lanvin doing art direction for nine months, Burberry for art direction for one month and Ashish doing a design placement.
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How our first meeting went: When I first met Carmen, what immediately struck me was the pastel blue eye shadow covering her eyelids. It was intensely opaque and it looked as if she had took a paintbrush and painted a semi circle on her eyelids. “I like your makeup, the blue looks nice.” I commented. “Thanks, yeah I really like blue. I’m not really into wearing ‘pretty’ makeup but more makeup that’s bright, colourful and a bit silly.” Carmen replies. It’s a nice start to our meeting and I can already tell that Carmen is someone who fully embodies humor both in her style and in her designs. We begin by discussing what she’s been doing. Last week, they started pattern cutting and actualizing their 2D drawings into 3D. Carmen doesn’t have her sketchbook so instead; we discuss the physical pieces she has created. She’s done a fitting the week before, testing out different pieces on her friends. “My fit model was really pretty and thin, but I don’t think I’ll use her in the final show because I’d like my friends to be modeling the collection. Its more representative of real girls.” There’s a side-by-side picture of the fit model, next to Madeline, one of Carmen’s friends.
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She pulls out a thick band of black elastic. “I’ve sort of played around with having it really oversize in proportion to everything, like its overgrown, that’s sort of a recurring theme in my collection.” A huge part of her collection lies in textile design. Carmen explained to me that Shibori, a Japanese tie-dyeing technique that employs a variety of different techniques to create folded patterns within textiles, heavily inspired her. It’s an ancient Japanese technique that can date as far back as the 8th century and has been used for countless decades. Shibori comes from the Japanese word Shiboru which translates to ‘wring, squeeze or press’, in which the technique manipulates materials into shapes. “I’ve developed my own technique in which its all done by screen printing, so there’s zero sewing involved.” Carmen explains. It’s impressive, especially considering that the material is so tightly ruched together. “What fabric would you have to use then?” I ask. “Probably, cheap material, since its got so much glue on. I’ve been using for all of my samples and its turn out really well.” I hold up the material samples and they are surprisingly light. “That’s the main
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technique I want to employ into my designs.” “I was really looking into trompe l’oeil because to me, that’s funny and very much part of my style.” Carmen says as she shows me a crop top she’s made with her shibori infused technique. She flips over the top to the backside where a zipper is pulled together by a long braid. “I like the idea of using hair, so I played around with creating a braid as a zip so when it zips up to the top, it looks like the girl has a long braid that just goes all the way to her waist, but I haven’t really thought whether I’m going to go with it.” When I ask her how prepared she is for the crit on the 1st of March (Three looks from the line up are required), she responds calmly “I have one look that I really like but I need to build upon the other two.” She has a lot of work on her hands, especially before the next crit, but she seems to have a good handle of things, even if she claims that she’s “panicking in my head”.
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26th of February 2016 Today as I meet with Carmen, she has her sketchbook, so this week, I want to go more in depth about her inspirations and to see more of who she is through her work. She brings me her sketchbook from her locker, which is filled to the brim with papers, fabrics and several sketchbooks. “Sorry I’m such a mess!” She brings me a plastic folder in which several A3 papers are enclosed in. “This is my sketchbook, its not all in order, which is very unlike myself, but I’ll go through it with you so that you understand it and I hopefully don’t seem mental.” If it wasn’t established during our first meeting, its very clear that Carmen’s humor is sarcastic, dry and clever. (Of the cover photo image) “This is what my starting point was, I started looking at young girls and youths because I always want to bring a more playful attitude to my clothing and I think this comes very thoroughly through childhood. These are just some doodles I made, you know because I thought it’d be funny if they had things coming out of them. I found these old school photos online.”
“Here’s the colour palette I’m focusing on, it’s all bright colours. I hate brown.”
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“I was exploring through my childhood photos, but looking at things that I was wearing as a child and sort of replicating that in my designs. My girl is sort of funny because she’s an overgrown child who still needs to grow up, but I really wanted to look into what I was wearing.”
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“When I did my placement year in Paris, I lived in a room with Liam (Carmen’s friend who also studies Fashion Print) and it was the tiny one bedroom apartment. It was crazy, there was a tree growing through it. But I found all these amazing vintage 70s and 80s sweaters in the thrift shops and vintage stores so I played around photographing them, I’m just really drawn to how graphic the textiles are.”
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“What I was really fascinated by was trompe l’oeil, and the trickery of it. I liked how you can create a three dimensional perspective just from creating a certain type of pattern on material. In this image, I liked how the jacket looked like it had lapels, when in actually it was just a print. I think when you realize the trickery in the design, its quite funny to the person.” 15
“I was looking at lot, in particular at swimwear. Initially with all these swimsuits from the 80’s and 90’s, in particular the high cut of them. I found it very funny, and started playing around with the idea of incorporating them into my collection.”
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“Then I toyed with the idea of incorporating swimwear into accessories, so I came up with this bikini shoe.�
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1st of march 2016 On the morning of the day I’m meeting Carmen, I receive a message from her via facebook.
When I walk into the studio to see Carmen, she’s in a bit of panic. There’s fabric lying around, which is not unusual for a design studio, however this time it seems more like an unwelcomed guest sitting on the table. “How good are you at sewing?” Carmen asks me. I tell her that I can sew, but very basically, and its really up to her if she wants to let me sew. She explains to me that she’s creating shoe covers, similar to the ones slipped on shoes when going into a pool or on shoes when keeping a runway clean. She roughly measures some elastic and cuts out a strip of sky blue cotton and we move onto the machines. First is the overlocker, used to finish off the edges. It’s a bit daunting to be using industrial machines, especially as I am someone more ample to the machines from Apple, so it doesn’t go as smoothly as desired. At least no one is hurt. Carmen quickly decides that it would be better if she were to do it, to which I thoroughly agree. After a test trial, we fit it onto a shoe to see how it looks Alas, its too big for the shoe and the idea is scrapped. I then observe Carmen as she puts together her looks for the line up. She’s nervous, but I only know this because she tells me she is, in the mildest mannered way possible, she does a good job of maintaining her cool. I glance at her line up and see that instead of the minimum requirement of three looks, she’s prepared four looks. Ambitious? “No, I just like to make everything once it comes into my head.” She turns to me and asks if I can help her colour in a pair of trousers with a red felt tip. I don’t have anything else to do and it seems as if Carmen looks busy so I help her out. “It’s the illusion of creating trousers within a pair of trousers. I just want to play with those ideas.” She shows me a piece of paper with her toilles sketched and illustrated onto her friend, Julia. “These are the four looks I’m presenting today.”
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As I walk around Carmen’s table, I see that she has most of toilles scattered around the studio. “This is a piece I have done,” she points to a white overcoat hanging over the full length mirror, “With this piece I wanted to use the wide elastic bands I have and I made them into bows, which you know, are like little girl items.” At around two, most of her models, her friends, arrive at the studio to be fitted. “I specifically want my friends to model for me because my collection is sort of about them.” Despite time ticking, Carmen has a talent for remaining calm faced whilst putting together her looks. “I don’t care at this point but its going to be shit” she says dejectedly, though her face doesn’t show any signs of despair. As the time nearers her crit, which is at three in the afternoon, I begin to wonder how they would look on the model as though there are many complete pieces, it seems to disjointed to assosiate as indiviudal looks. However, I notice that once Carmen starts dressing her models, then her looks come together. On her friend Amy, who has on a plain white button-up, Carmen puts on top a bikini collared crop top and begins to cut as Amy wears her pieces. She has a good eye for style and I really notice that she styles her pieces on her models to create “her look”. There is a lot of contrast in her pieces, with a capaucious dress tucked into a pair of skimpy bikini bottoms, leaving little to the imagination. She has paper cut outs of sketched boobs and attaches them on top of her some of her pieces. It’s time for her crit as she presents her pieces to her tutors. The tutors love the spirit of her “easy going, lazy girl”. They love the idea but don’t think it translates well physically on some pieces. One tutor points that her 3 boob bikini is amusing, but her wide trousers, don’t work as well from the back. Willie Walters comments that it has “Huge potential to look amazing or daft”, and “more fun needs to be injected”. The underlining comment is that it needs to be “pumped up” and the narrative needs to be stronger. The tutors really want the spirit of the overgrown girls pushed further with the looks.
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8th of march 2016 “I’m getting rid of everything”. Carmen says to me when I meet her. “Everything?”, “Yes.” She replies. It’s a daunting task, especially when the has to present six finalised looks next Thursday, leaving her just over a week to produce everything. So what’s going to change? “I’m making it much more minimal and focusing on the swimsuits. I just feel like these small garments are more true to the girls I would want to portray. Its quite me as well, I keep buying children’s clothes and trying to fit in them. Its about girls who are a bit overgrown but still need to grow up, slash me, I need to grow up!” I watch Carmen as she works in the studio, tracing out paper patterns for her toille. Isn’t it challenging to restart? “It is but you just got to go ahead and do it, can’t really lament on things too long enough.” She tells me that now she’s been experimenting and playing around with triomp l’oeil ideas. The one thing she is keeping however, is her shibori. She pulls out a small mirror that she bought recently and makes two small cresents out of a blue marker pen. “Maybe the model can wear this and it would be like looking at a reflection through the
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mirror?” She puts some strips of red felt below the cresents. “And this is the mouth, see?” I see as she reveals to me the full face. Would this work? We try this out on me, but its an idea that doesn’t match up physically. “Ah well, it was worth a shot.” I notice a lot of her designs are similar to her clothes. For instance the crop top she is cutting out on her toille has a peter pan collar, like the one she is wearing. She takes out a towel, and starts draping it around a mannequin. Despite the obviously goofy look of a girl running out in a towel, it has a surpisingly elegant silloutte. “I always see my flatmate, Cathy, wearing a towel around the flat, so I thought I’d do an homage to her by making a towel dress!” I glance at a sheet of paper that has about 8 figures drawn on it. “This is my tentative line up. But it could all change.” The sillouttes are definitely more minimized, almost to the point of skimpy. Is it sexualised, yes. But with Carmen, its also empowering. Its from a view of using real girls as real models, a refreshing point in a world of inauthenticity.
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15th of march 2016 Today was an important day for Carmen as it was her second crit, where she needed to show her finalised ideas. “So how many looks are you presenting today?” I asked, remebering the four she presented two weeks before. “Ten looks.” She replied. An undoubedtled large amount of work , especially considering she scrapped all her looks from the last crit. Is she an overachiever? She denies it, but she always has an underlining drive to excel in her work. Carmen mentions that she’s slightly stressed out today. However, it always confuses me when she says so due to her relaxed personality. When she is “stressed”, she quietens more and focuses more intently on whatever it is that she’s doing. However, she’ll suddenly start talking about how unneccesary her stress is, as to not shut out anyone who’s around her. It’s this reason alone that makes it difficult to tell whether she’s stressed or not. Crit #2 Feedback Out of the ten looks Carmen presented, about seven were chosen from the tutors as strong looks that Carmen should continue with. The plaits that were made to exaggerate pubic hair was a highlight and the tutors really appreciated how false it looked. Again, the feedback was to “built it up more” but the tutors felt that the narrative of using her friends, was very strong. The story was there and that was what made the collection come alive. The tutors strongly suggested that Carmen continue to use her friends as the models for the final collection. Some of the tutors still thought that the collection was too minimal and that it should be built up with hats and accessories. “Think more about the styling”, Willie commented. “Exaggerate the hair even more, it should be longer, touching the ground almost.” They also felt that the looks should look more like a group of friends, so they told Carmen to look at the overall and reorganise the order of each look. I think that Carmen’s collection stood out to them because of its humourous and funny aspect. I could see that the combination of the accessories, models and outfits really made her collection strong.
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“Cathy”
Carmen’s flatmate.
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“Julia�
Studies Fashion Communications & Promotions at Central Saint Martins, final year student.
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“Melissa�
Studies Fashion Print at Central Saint Martins, second year student.
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“Rahel”
Met through Carmen’s friend, Ashley, who also studies fashion print.
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“Kate�
Studies Fashion Knit at Central Saint Martins, second year student.
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“Flora”
Studies Fashion Print with Carmen, final year student.
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“Alex�
Studies Fashion Knit at Central Saint Martins, second year student.
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22nd of April 2016 Today was the first time I met with Carmen after the easter break. I had been away the first week and she had been away in Spain for two weeks so we couldn’t meet up. When I meet with her, we recapped on anything that had happened. There was a gloss shortage in CSM which meant that any of her shibori screen printing had to be delayed, so she is rushing to produe everything now. Looking more so like a girl of Comme des Garcon with her Rei Kawakubo hair cut, polka dotted dress and black brogues, she exudes an relaxed attitude, evident from her two weeks away. She showed me two pieces that she made with her screen printing. When I saw her, she had just finished making the vest of the final piece. As she puts it on, it instantly becomes filled with life, through the graphic lines and the wrinkled texture of the screen printing. I followed her into the print and dye room as she and Ella (her second year helper) were screen printing, Carmen’s own special technique. I watch as they stretch a small piece of jersey over a wooden board, meticulously stapling it down so that it doesn’t morph back into a scrap of matterial. Then a screen, with Carmen’s name drawn in marker over the side, is placed on top of the material. Then comes the most crucial part, the gloss. It’s placed over a slider and I watch as Carmen and Ella push the glider over the screen from both ends of the table. Its a tedious and messy job that requires the both of them to put on aprons and gloves. Heavy duty indeed. Pushing the glider across the screen is more labourous then seeming as the goal is to spread it all over the material. They repeat this a few times until the gloss is evenly spread and any remains are put back in the bucket. Then a roll of linen is carefully slid over the glossed jersey. Finally a wooden tube is used to roll over the material to really cememt the gloss in. Its a long process as the gloss will have to dry overnight fot it to be ready for tomorrow. It’s also an operation that requires two people so Ella is crucial to Carmen making her designs.
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25th of April 2016 I meet Carmen, as ususal in the studios. She starts by showing me some of the pieces she’s completed. So far, she’s done a lot of her shibori, and shows me a towel, constructed out of the shibori piece I last saw her document. “So these are like little towel dresses”, she narrates as she shows me the towel laid flat on a table. “Its an ode to my flatmate Cathy who I always see in a towel, so she’s wearing this look.” She’s also done some digital prints. which are shown on one piece swimsuits. “I just photoshop these prints together and send it to the digital lab for them to print off.” During our session we begin talking about hair, as Carmen has refrenced a lot of hair pieces in her collection, when she all of a sudden asks me to cut her hair. Its a moment I don’t quite expect, more out of shock rather than character, but its normal behaviour for her and nobody bats an eye. She brings me a pair of hair dressing scissors and instructs me on cutting her fringe in the studios. It’s particularly nerve wrecking and it seems odd that she would place such trust into me. However, I’m making a bigger deal out of it than she would and her charm gives in as I cut her fringe. “I used to just get masking tape and cut it myslef.” She shows me a swimsuit that she’s finished but needs to refine. Its made with a digital print that Carmen designed on a computer before sending it to the lab to print onto lycra. On the back of the swimsuit, the words “KI$$ MY ARSE” are emblazoned over the right cheek. Its extraordinary to see the final piece and touch it, and it makes me wonder whether I would be able to fit in it. There is an element of practicality into her designs. “Oh yeah, you can definitely swim in it,” Carmen comments. “Or wear it around the house or go out, basically whatever you want to do with it. She also shows me a top, that looks like a pair of running shorts. It employs the use of tromp l’oeil to trick the eye and it’s a clever look. The shibori that she’s created is the main basis of the top and the leg holes are actually where the arms go through. Its interesting to document how these more ‘absurd’ pieces are normal to Carmen and seeing it to life actually made me realise how skilled Carmen is in envisioning her ideas.
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3rd of may 2016 As I walked into the fashion print studios, I found Carmen on a table spread with a large rectangular quilt. Following the previous week, Carmen told me that she was adding quilts to most of her looks, as to add something to her looks. So far she had made three quilts, for three looks, but the quilts were all different. The one she was working on was green and white, and made from her Shibori technique. “We’re going for a just-got-out-of-bed-after-sex look,” she said to me with a smile. Though initially puzzling, the quilts played into her overriding theme of oversized proportions, especially in comparison to the tiny swimwear. The one that she was working on, had green and white stripes, made out of Shibori and had a funny doodle of a leg sprawled across it. Though one side of her quilt had her shibori on, the other side was plain, as she explained to me that she wanted her friends to draw whatever they wanted on the back. “I told them to draw whatever they want”. The doodles comprised of funny puns and sayings her friends had scribbled down. Throughout our session, friends came in and out and added doodles on the back of it. The other quilts weren’t made out of shibori, and were instead digitally printed. Carmen had combined doodles that she had done in her sketchbook and comprised them together so that it could be printed off as a material. When held up, the quilts had crude but also provocative statements, from Carmen herself. One particular had Peaked Last Year written in bold as Carmen had admitted to me that she thought she “peaked last year”. There were also several play on words, i.e booty and booties, all going back to Carmen’s background of English literature. Another one said free range cash as a play on free range food. Each quilt had Carmen’s signature outlook stamped on. Unfortunately, though it was impressive, making the quilts were also time consuming as Carmen expressed to me the tiresome process of making the materials and sewing everything together. Thus, her use of digital printing to help “speed up” the process. She seemed to be on track with her designs though with the addition of the quilts, it seems as if she has much to do. She also started focusing on accessories, and had made a literal “ bucket bag”, with a bucket covered in a blue polyester that had flowers screen printed on. You could really see all the individual elements of each look coming together.
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10th of may 2016 Today is the day of Carmen’s final line-up and in contrast to the previous one, everything this time was the real collection, not the toilles. I arrived early to find that most of her models had already arrived and were getting prepped by Carmen and her team. Everyone seemed to be in good sprits, though one of her models was absent, so another student in fashion print stepped in. Instead of presenting the requirement of six looks, Carmen had constructed seven. When I asked her about it, she told me that it was because she had “too many ideas” so she decided to make seven looks. Everything had been completed except for one bikini bottom, so that particular model wore a white, high brief pair. Sunglasses that Carmen had found on Amazon were given to every model and matched to the colour of each outfit. In relation to her swimsuits, Carmen had a bottle of salt water that she sprayed onto the models, to give them a “wet” look reminiscent of stepping out of a shower or pool. Though the look was effective, salt water was perhaps not the most ideal as it irritated and made skin itchy, so Carmen resolved to use warm water next time. This time, the girls had their outfits, quilts, sunglasses and all wore their own white shoes. Carmen had also made several bow ties and ribbons out of lycra that she used to tie around the models to accentuate their outfits. Though there was a lot of flesh and nudity on display, the models were all comfortable and soon the flesh became background noise, literally as the models were all chanting and singing backstage.
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The feedback from the tutors was highly positive and all the tutors really felt as if all her friends really made the collection come together. “The rest look fantastic” remarked fashion print pathway leader Elisa Palomina. “The quilts really show off your print technique.” Willie Walters commented. As Carmen had tested adding temporary tattoos on a few models, the tutors suggested that she do even more and on all the models, with some even saying the tattoos should be bigger. As the feedback on the swimwear was positive, and it felt as if the tutors had a lot of trust in Carmen, more of the critiques were generated towards the presentation of her outfits. The accessories were met with high praise, and it was the combination of the accessories, quilts and swimsuits that really made the collection look united. The tutors wanted more printed socks, as exhibited on one of her looks, for all the models. They also discussed methods of presenting and displaying the quilts, with Walters suggesting that the models wrap it around themselves when they walk. She also suggested that the show could start with the models running out and throwing the quilts on the floor, before sitting on them. Though Carmen was unsure how that could work, due to the more logistical reasons of the time and space the models had. The tutors also wanted more coloured hair extensions as accessories but agreed that they wet hair really emphasized the looks.
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1. MARGAUX
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2. JOJO
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3. MELISSA
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4. KATE
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5. RAHEL
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6. MADDY
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7. ALEX
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19th of may 2016 Today is the day of the internal press assessments, and the air is filled with anticipation. Carmen has told me the day before that she’ll be starting the day early so I arrive at 10:00 AM, where she has already begun tattooing her girls. The studios are already cramped with clothes and students walking in and out, but as more and more girls arrive, space becomes e xtremely limited. Yet despite the lack of space, the girls are calm and collected as they chat to each other while applying tattoos and talking about their day. “I’m stressed that the girls won’t be ready in time”, she mentions to me when I ask her about how she feels. Though it seems as if the group of friends surrounding her and the fact that more and more people are coming in to help her mellows Carmen’s stress. The air is filled with a 90’s centered playlist that is emphasized with speakers. Carmen and her friends dance along to TLC, old Mariah Carey songs and rap to Notorious B.I.G. Carmen will be the last show of the day, at 4:00PM, and in the middle of the line up, to which she dubs as a “filler” spot. Throughout the day, “Get off the Road” is continually played, as it’s the soundtrack of her runway, to help the models prepare for the show. Despite the long hours of getting ready, the models are happy and it doesn’t feel as if much time has passed. The models put the clothes on themselves, and it feels as if they’ve got a personal connection to the clothing as they adjust it around them. They’re predominantly half naked but yet again, nudity is no concern as the girls are most importantly, comfortable with their own skin, an ethos that Carmen thoroughly champions. “The girls are comfortable, fun and silly! That’s really more than I could ask for!”
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I leave to go watch the show and as Carmen’s name is called, the song opens. Her girls are fearless, stomping and chewing gum whilst the lyric “We are the hellcats nobody likes!” play. They hold their quilts around them when they walk up the runway and wave them high as they exit. Her collection stands out, due the fact that the models are of all different sizes and shapes, an important factor to Carmen to show “real girls” but not a message she wants to be defined as. “It’s important to me to show real girls, but these are my friends, the collection is about them and how we’ve bonded over shared experiences. Its not that I set out to do a collection about diversity! But it’s an important part.” She’s got a loud applause, mostly from her friends sitting in the audience, and despite the fact that her family isn’t here; it feels as if her friends embody the spirit of family. After the show, Carmen is more elated that it’s over than how she’s done. As her friend Gareth shoots her collection by a white wall, many of her friends talk and plan for the press show, even though the list of those who have gotten in will be revealed next Monday. The general attitude is that there is no doubt that Carmen wouldn’t get into the press show, everyone is citing her as the “one to watch”, with many fellow designers and tutors coming up towards her to congratulate about her success. The BBC interviews her and film as she celebrates with a bottle of Prosecco. The after party is present in Carmen’s mind as the place to be after this though it seems as if the whole day has just been one extended party.
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1st of june 2016 Today is the press show and Carmen has been selected as one of the forty to show. On the Monday after the assessment shows, the press list was unexpectedly revealed. The studios was a strange atmosphere, designers were either masking their true feelings or telling phoning their friends, which made it an tense environment to react to. One of her friends had sent a photo of the list to a group chat Carmen had for her show. At the time of the unveiling, Carmen was at her home, in Dalston, sleeping and found out through the message her friend had sent her. “You guys are all going to be walking!” she replies, to which her friends respond with heart emojis and congratulations. In the two weeks in between her assessment show and press show, Carmen has been extremely busy. “I’m now doing twelve looks instead of six,” she tells me, double the amount of the looks she had made. “The tutors want me to create way more! They want more quilts, more hair, more everything! I’m a little annoyed because its more work, but I’ll manage.” Isn’t that a lot of work? “Well I already had two looks drawn out, and four of them will be the same dress but in different colours, so those girls will walk down in pairs.” It seems as if Carmen’s colossal of ideas have come in useful. She’ll stand out, as most other designers will have six to ten at most. “Some of the girls I “street casted” in the canteen! But they all are different shapes and sizes and when I saw some, I was like whoa she’ll be a cool friend!” Again, Carmen’s worry is that her models won’t have enough time to get ready, as applying tattoos consumed the most time. Ironically however, her worries are less with the collection that “will get done”, but with the fact that her parents are flying over for the press show.
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When the day arrives, it’s very calm and there is much more space and there’s less designers showing. The whole day is yet again, like a party, her models dance to songs to pass time and walk around the studio’s bare breasted and oblivious to any concerning eyes. The outfits are all styled together with various bikini strings and accessories, including a bag attached with a brunette hair weave. There’s also cauliflower, decorated with stickers that some models hold as a parody of holding a bouquet of flowers. The first press show is more intense as the girls are nervous about walking to the music. Carmen tells each girl to remember to be “playful, sassy and have fun”, a motto that can be overused, but with Carmen, she really means it. After the first show, the models continue to dance around and Carmen’s friend Gareth, studying fashion communications and promotions, takes photographs for her look book. There are a lot of people taking images of Carmen’s collection and her friend Maddy, who’s her main “muse” and closest friend, is also making a movie charting the behind the scenes. Having this network of people around her is important for Carmen and above anything it’s the message that she wants to share.
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Carmen often tells me about her impending visa expiration and her predominant fear is being deported back to Hong Kong. “I just don’t want to be working in Hong Kong for the time being. I need a job.” She’s applying for the MA as well, which she describes as a “temporary fix”, since it’ll allow her to continue living in the UK for another year and a half. “But I’ll still be in the same position as I am now, looking for a job!” She adds. Her fear of being unemployed though is unlikely. During her placement year, all the placements she undertook were paid. As her second show makes its debut to the press, the first being for family, her collection is snapped by i-D and selected as one of the “highlights of the BA show” by Dazed. There is a following and people are responding to her nostalgia but also humour-fuelled collection. Her instagram, by the end of the day, has increased by 100 followers and each of her models has posted pictures on their personal accounts of her collection. She has a fan base and regardless of whether she admits it, it’s her easy-going and self proclaimed “chill” personality that has her set for a bright future.
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JULIA
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OMA
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JOJO
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CATHY
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CHIARA
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MELISSA
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FAVE
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KATE
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RAHEL
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MADDY
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YASMINA
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ALEX
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Photography on pages 109, 111, 113, 115, 117, 120-121, 123, 125, 127, 129, 132- 136 by Niall McInerney Photography on pages 137-138 by Gareth Wrighton All other photographs by Natalie Chui.
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