Lena Pogodina Louise Webber

Thanks to my Estonian background rich in its craft traditions, the process of creating things by hand quite naturally became a core element of my design practice. often look for inspiration in the more traditional forms of craft, such as knitting, weaving or leather work, and explore ways of thoughtfully incorporating them into my fashion creations.

For my final collection I’m using a fabric manipulation technique I invented when working on a sustainability project for a leather design competition. However, this time have explored the idea fully in other materials like wool felt and limestone neoprene that was recycled from old wetsuits. The structures built were combined with knitted fabrics allowing me to create novel and eye-catching silhouettes and textures.

To provide theoretical support for my work, explored how designers can benefit from the craft’s practical vocabulary of making. My written work approached craft as a process, or a way of doing things, rather than as a classification of objects or people, making it possible to analyse the work of a craftsman and a designer from the points of learning and skill, attitudes to function and materials, as well as placing them among their communities.

Glasgow-based designer, with a keen interest in identity and how it can be conveyed emotionally and physically through culture and society. My work this year has been focused on female inheritance of trauma, how myth and folklore can be both informant and informer. Mythology has in every culture, been a means of creating and maintaining sociological expectations. Throughout generations, these stories have been interpreted and reinterpreted according to the cultural and social norms of the period or region, and therefore undisputedly follow long traditions of generational bias. In popularised Classical myth, women became objectified, degraded, ostracised, sexualised, and vilified, all under the justifications of the embellishment of their actions and motives.

My collection will focus on the way femininity is explored though Celtic myth. It is often viewed with a lot more respect and understanding. Its stories feature women who are diverse and empowering, who often relay the same wildness and spirituality observed in nature. Women are not vilified and ostracised for not living up to the standards set by male centric values.

My approach has been to focus on the exploration of texture and form relating to the wild natural aspects that these myths relay. My practice involves the manipulation of fabric through use of smocking, appliqué, ruche and embroidery, among other processes and coatings.