Transcendence

My new collection called “Transcendence” and the second one by “SheverDUSHKA” is finally launched. Its out there now for all of you to enjoy (if I'm lucky ;) and judge! It’s again autumn/winter women’s wear and the main item of the new range is outwear – jackets, coats, capes. The pieces, I believe, are the ones which set the whole look. Also, now, when I know my clientele better, I made some adjustments and the new collection is created with consideration for ladies of different sizes and shapes. Plus, although, each piece is OOAK, this time I will take orders to produce new versions of the items according to customers wishes but with certain changes in colour or/and textures, trims, etc. Thus, it is not identical to the original. Working on this collection I proceeded to explore textile techniques I got to experiment with developing my first collection “Human Chamaeleanus” – nuno-felting and shibori. It was love at first sight between me and those techniques :) I totally love how they allow to create unique textures and surfaces. Such poetry within!!! This time I drew inspiration from two different sources. Styles and silhouettes are inspired by historical costumes of 14-18 century, such as medieval dresses or regal robes. I believe, the HBO’s new hit “Game of Thrones” has something to do with it ;) “Winter is coming…” ;) At the same time, textures and colour palette are driven by nature – stones, caves and ground surfaces – various shades of brown, tangerine and beige. Collection is made of high quality natural materials such as merino fleece, merino and virgin wool jersey, silks, silk/linen blends and some gold sequins and genuine leather in metallic shades to give it a more contemporary touch. The name of the collection “Transcendence” came (with a help of friend of mine) as I tried to express the underlying meaning beyond material and practical value of the garments. In general, the world “transcendence” describes “the state of excelling or surpassing or going beyond usual limits"; "a state of being or existence above and beyond the limits of material experience". In application to my collection it’s about taking inspiration from historical costumes, bringing elements over into modern society and giving a wearer a chance to get a sense, a feeling, an emotional experience, which goes far beyond just materiality of the garment itself. Because, even in updated modern application each particular historical style comes with baggage of meanings attached to it and therefore creates different emotional atmosphere around as well as inside the wearer; changes the energy flow if you wish. So here it comes... Subliminal Transformation Reversable Coat_Sublimation Side

Subliminal Transformation Reversable Coat_Regal Side

Back & Forward Reversable Coat_Internal Side

Back & Forward Reversable Coat_External Side

The Hidden Within Hoody_Good Forces

The Hidden Within Hoody_Evil Queen

To Infinity and Beyond Cape

Rings of Eternity Lace Dress

Legacy & Spirits Jacket

Bells & Whistles Jacket, Scarves and Skirt

Huge THANK YOU to everyone who helped me to make it happen: Amasingly creative team of XRay Doll for their enormous work with photography, retouching and filmmaking!!! My dearest friend and very talented haidresser Heather Loudon for my hair colour, hairdo and make up that gave me the perfect look for this collection!!! And, finally, to my hubby, who puts up with me being a lousy wife while I'm busy creating :))) LOVE YOU all dearly!!! xoxo SheverDUSHKA

New collection is finished :)

There is again a month gap between 2 posts. Well... I really do s... at regularity, don't I? ))) Anyway, last few weeks have been hectic - helping RwB with their collection for the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week and finishing my own collection at the same time will make you overwhelmed with work ;) Now both things are done! Yahoo!!!

Especially happy about finally finishing my new collection which was shot last Sunday :) Hurray!!! Now less then 2 weeks before it will be set free for everyone to see and react :) It's an what can be deservedly called "Haute Couture" collection as all garments are 90-100% hand made (including construction - meaning sewing!!!) as well as textiles. The collection is shaped utilising my favorite techniques - nuno-felting & shibori. Therefore, my "newly born baby" is, as planed, transeasonal womens outwear collection 2012-2013 named "Transcendence".

It's about taking inspiration from historical costume and bringing elements over into modern society, giving a wearer a chance to get a sense, a feeling, an emotional experience, which goes far beyond just materiality of the garment. An emotional experience that has traveled through the times and have been brought to give a sence of how it would be to feel like, for instance, a medieval nobel lady or a 16-17th century queen."

The shooting happend at Carrageworks in Darlington (Sydney). But final images will be digitally retouched to give them more high-end editorial look and create a better way to deliver the concept of the collection.

As always, will keep you posted, hopefully without delays ;))) xoxo SheverDUSHKA

First born ;)

Hey there!
Have been working on my first toile for the collection over weekend.
Pretty happy with the result :) Here it is with inspiration, textile and silhouette developments.

Nuno-felted coat 1

This is nuno-felt (silk/linen blend and merino fleece) I intend on applying to the developed silhouette.




Sleeve patternmaking


See you later ;) xoxo SheverDUSHKA

Creative brainstorming

In my previous post I outlined textures and colours of my new collection. This time it's about silhouettes.

For "Time nomad" collection (draft title, remember) I'm thinking of loose fitting and "spacey" shapes. My primary inspiration comes from historical costumes between 15-19 century. Mostly cloaks/capes and medieval dresses. I love the idea of those long uneven flying sleeves or the exaggeratedly puffy ones. And what about back of the cloak fluttering behind as the woman walks but not as light and drapy as soft silks but with some kind of queenly grace, ceremonial even? I hope this description is not too confusing ;))) Guess, images should make it easier ;)











Oh, my gosh, the draping toiles is going to be so much fun!!! Can't wait!!!
xoxo SheverDUSHKA

Moving on...

Recent sudden death of close friend of mine, Alyona, who wasn't even 40 got me thinking about how much time I waste got suck into routine while life is passing by. This lost has shaken me and, surprisingly, woken my creativity up. What a strange effect... Sooo... I got my hands full in developing the next collection.

I'm still polishing the concept, but the working title is "Time wanderer" or may be "Time nomad". This is going to be women's outwear collection were I will be further exploring combination of nuno-felting and shibori. Main colours will be brown, beige, ochre but there will fair bit of orange as I consider shades of orange to be my signature ones.

I have done some textile samples over weekend defining textures and colours of the collection. There just some of them I consider applying and gathered images I've drown my inspiration from.

Mood Board



Textile Sample 1



Textile Sample 2



(photo of the wall of the building near Eiffel Tower, Paris I took when was there last year)

Textile Sample 3-4

My recent works_Art & Australia

Art & Australia, Sydney, April 2011

Romance Was Born is well known for their collaboration with australian artists to create unique prints they utilise for their fashion collections.
In this case guys collaborated with Oz artist Nell to make several garments for photoshoot for Art&Australia magazine.
But the dress I made wasn't print based and eventelly didn't get into the issue but was presented at fashion week in May 2011 (more details and images will be in following post).
Nevertheless, I got these cool pillow covers as a "thank you" present sighed by the artist ;)))

My recent works _ Nespresso

Hi, again!

While I've been out of covering my activity for the last 6 month it doesn't mean I've been doing nothing. And although most of my recent works have nothing to do with felting or shibori but I indulged myself with beading and other sort of embellishment working on some projects with Australian duo Romance was Born. There some of them ;)

Nespresso, Sydney, Australia, (December 2010)

Anna & Luke received project to create 3 extravagant dresses for launch of Nespresso flagship shop in Sydney made predominantly from coffee pods.
I worked on 2 of them - gold/brown and pink/red/violet ones.
That was fun experimenting with unusual materials )))
There are some photos:






Anna, Luke (RwB), Marcus, me