WIth Love, from Helen

Category: Apparel

With Love, from Helen is a womenswear collection rooted in the beauty, power and pain of the female body. My concept was sparked by a desire to connect with my maternal grandmother, Helen O’ Connor. I never met her due to her early death, yet I was struck by the idea that as she was pregnant with my mother, she was also carrying the eggs which would one day become my sisters and I. I chose to manifest this unique maternal connection in the form of Matryoshka dolls- a woman within the women that came before her. As the female reproductive cycle is my single tangible link to my grandmother, I decided to also focus on the four phases of the menstrual cycle to inform the central narrative and mood for my collection. Each garment tells its own story about each phase of the cycle. I also draw on the mother-daughter symbolism of the blood-like pomegranate for the Menstrual phase, as well as my rendition of Helen’s own artwork to highlight the desire for connection in the Follicular phase. I used these visual aspects to experiment with combining sublimation print and textile manipulations. Extravagant volumes of tulle serve as the perfect canvas to draw attention to my original technique while simultaneously giving it its own space to breathe. Ovulation is expressed through the lens of ‘a confident leap into the world’, with soft, iridescent organzas and volume. The Matryoshka doll shapes are manifested in a thick wool that mirrors the lining of the womb in the Luteal phase, and then adorned in offset embroidery between lapped seams. Through the narrative of the menstrual cycle, the garments delicately and lavishly illustrate the feminine balance of connection, tension, and release. My collection ultimately serves as a manifestation of the beautiful connection I feel to my grandmother, and pays homage to the uniqueness and complexity of the mother-daughter relationship- an intimate connection that surpasses generations. My entry for the Only Natural competition is the Doll Suit, which features the Doll Jacket and the Doll trousers from Looks 02 & 03 respectively. The garments can be styles separately or together, and are both made from 100% virgin wool and lined in cotton. Notable details are the lapped seams to give a detachable Matryoshka Doll feel, and offset embroidery in a soft pink across the sleeves and the legs.The jacket has a 3D collar built into the lining that is stuffed with locally sourced hand washed alpaca wool. The trousers feature wadded bluff back pockets and a boxed out hand dyed zip.