Millie Tiwari
Memory Fabric
https://www.instagram.com/m.illie.e/
This body of work explores my mother’s experience of 1980s Berlin; a unique, and transient, social and political climate which was permanently altered by the fall of the Berlin Wall – a point in time which I will never be able to have a direct point of contact to. Though stitching together the memories my mother has woven, reweaving and threading together her witness of history, I was able to explore the fragmentary nature of memory collecting and retelling stories.
The collection centres on the mood and the tension in Berlin before the fall of the Wall; the sombre, sooty atmosphere, the fragility of people’s safety and way of life contrasted with the bold, brash punkish attitude of the youth. Concepts of nostalgia, gloominess, tension between fragility and sturdiness are communicated through dark, dull colours, delicate sheer fabrics with an almost-not-there quality, and a thick leather jacket to form a slightly undone, worn-in look.
My design philosophy is grounded in storytelling and creating garments with emotional durability. By virtue of their intimacy and closeness with our bodies, clothes lend themselves to carrying the stories of our lives and affective experiences – whether consciously or subconsciously. Through engaging with storytelling in fashion for this project I aim to establish my voice as a designer who responds to the people and the world around me, not to trends.
The fabric of this story already existed with my mother; my involvement was in retrieving the fabric, reweaving the gaps with my own meaning, threading together the narrative to create a garment that tells a story about storytelling
Photography: Meggy Laguda
Models: Victoria Yusl, Esme Jack, Angela Kong
