Collage of the collection 'Medium' (2009) by Alexandra VerschuerenMoMu - Fashion Museum Antwerp
The recipient of the 2009 MoMu Award was Alexandra Verschueren (°1988, Antwerp, Belgium), who presented `Medium´, the collection she had designed for her final degree project at the academy.
Alexandra Verschueren: “This collection began when I accidentally stumbled on a film on YouTube and, around the same time, saw the work of the German artist Thomas Demand at the Tate Modern.
Studio atmosphere with pieces of the collection 'Medium' (2009) by Alexandra VerschuerenMoMu - Fashion Museum Antwerp
Both had to do with paper.
Lookbook of the collection 'Medium' (2009) by Alexandra VerschuerenMoMu - Fashion Museum Antwerp
Demand recreates everyday objects and interiors from paper and then photographs them, while the YouTube film showed a young couple inspecting a house that gradually turns out to be built of paper. In both cases, paper is a strong medium in exposing the artificiality in normal life.
Lookbook of the collection 'Medium' (2009) by Alexandra VerschuerenMoMu - Fashion Museum Antwerp
'Medium' at SHOW 2009 © Etienne Tordoir/Catwalkpictures (2009) by Alexandra VerschuerenMoMu - Fashion Museum Antwerp
That is what I hoped to put into my collection by working with paper and with fabrics that refer to paper.
'Medium' at SHOW 2009 © Etienne Tordoir/Catwalkpictures (2009) by Alexandra VerschuerenMoMu - Fashion Museum Antwerp
'Medium', SHOW 2009 © Etienne Tordoir/Catwalkpictures (2009) by Alexandra VerschuerenMoMu - Fashion Museum Antwerp
Paper is moreover the first material for every designer – your first sketches are on paper and you make your patterns from paper.
'Medium' at SHOW 2009 © Etienne Tordoir/Catwalkpictures (2009) by Alexandra VerschuerenMoMu - Fashion Museum Antwerp
In terms of technique and form, I found inspiration in Japanese Origami architecture and tried to incorporate different folding techniques in my silhouettes.
Drawings of the collection 'Medium' (2009) by Alexandra VerschuerenMoMu - Fashion Museum Antwerp
For the colours and prints, I referred to the crude, first strokes in children's drawings, to marks on blotting paper, chalkboard, and so on.
'Medium' at SHOW 2009 © Etienne Tordoir/Catwalkpictures (2009) by Alexandra VerschuerenMoMu - Fashion Museum Antwerp
In short, I play with the tension between textiles and paper. I play with form. What you see is not always what you get."
In 2010, Alexandra Verschueren won the Grand Prix du Jury L’Oréal Professionnel at the Festival International de Mode et de Photographie à Hyères. In 2015, she obtained a Doctorate in the Arts from the University of Antwerp with a study entitled `Doing Fashion Design: Autoethnographic Reflections in Dialogue with Architecture´, written while she designed, produced, and marketed six collections of her own. She now lives and works in Vancouver, Canada.
www.alexandraverschueren.com
Every year, MoMu awards a prize to one of the graduating Master students of the Fashion Department of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp: originality, a strong visual language and craftsmanship are key ingredients for a collection to win a prize.
The MoMu Award gives a single student the opportunity to present his or her collection in an exhibition at the MoMu Gallery.
Special thanks to Alexandra Verschueren, Frederik Heyman and Etienne Tordoir.