Rhapsody

Rhapsody: an effusively enthusiastic or ecstatic expression of feelings
from ancient Greek origin literally translating to “stitching song”.

In my work, I am strongly inspired by music and dance/movement. As an artist, I am interested in the art of performance and especially when it comes together with fashion.
I am influenced by music and rockstars. I love rock music from the 70’s/80’s and the fashion from that time as well, as the rock stars were wearing bold designs on stage to express themselves and their music.
Therefore I wondered If music could help me in my design process, and how would I be able to visualize it? I am focusing my research on sound-to-color synesthesia, which is a phenomenon where few people get to see music and experience it differently.
The goal of my collection is to « shape » and « sculpt » the music I love through the use of fabrics and different kind of materials.

The rhapsody collection is a collection of costumes designed from music.
Within this collection, I am creating my own synesthesia by draping the feelings that come to me as I listen to music. Listening to my favorite songs (Bohemian Rhapsody from Queen, Where is my mind? from the Pixies …) I intuitively draped and designed costumes that abstractly interpret and represent each of the songs from my personal feelings and emotions. The music guided me to create those abstracts and not so recognizable shapes. In this process, the music took control over my brain and dictated my actions. Therefore the shapes are involuntary and I cannot explain them, it simply represents the rhythm and flow of the music according to my feelings, similar to a dance performance. It is mostly about self-interpretation which is something inspiring to me as an artist.

I collaborated with dancers and circus artists to present my collection as a dance performance where the music, the costumes and movements all came together to show a beautiful and emotional performance with all different and unique acts.