The garments which make up my 2025 collection may be considered wearable art. I share a love for gardens intent on immersing my audience in an abundance of joyful colour and form. I tell a personal story; I share a piece of myself.
I grew up surrounded by gardens that exude colour and beauty and these places became my safe space. I dream, one day, of curating my own garden and becoming lost in the magnificence of nature. I wish to share this vibrancy and optimism with my viewers and submerge them in sensory experiences where colour, shape and form inspire limitless imagination. This is about gardens as a place of rest, joy and belonging; It is about growth, immersion and romantic mystery.
Throughout this project I am following the complex and unexpected love story of King Nebuchadnezzar and his wife Amytis of Media (630-565 BC). I relate to Amytis as we share a desire to be constantly immersed in nature. Nebuchadnezzar and Amytis’ romantic and power charged relationship created a wonder of the world that remains a mystery to this day: The Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
Amytis yearned to be engulfed in the landscape of her memory and imagination. In an act of idealistic, all-encompassing love - or perhaps a boastful display of his abilities - King Nebuchadnezzar created an impossible garden that defied physics and engineering; An architectural phenomenon of beauty, grandeur and mass. My collection is inspired by this awe-inspiring abundance of pattern and structure.
Some say that I may never have a garden of my own because my generation lives amidst a cost-of-living crisis. Such suggestions threaten my dream and so this collection is me fighting back and making my dream a reality. If, at this moment, I cannot have a physical garden, I shall create one that can be worn.
