Juliana Sissons – Couture Fashion Show: Medieval and Renaissance Galleries: 19th February 2011



February 27, 2011

Inspired by Armour, these garments were designed to give personality and power to the individuals, padding builds up areas of the body and lends an imposing and authoritative touch to the female figure

Juliana Sissons: Couture Collection

Saturday 19th February

Medieval and Renaissance Room 50a

13.30 & 15.00

Fashion designer, Juliana Sissons, participated in the V&A’s Artist in Residency programme between July and December 2010. During this time Juliana used the V&A’s medieval and renaissance galleries for research and was particularly inspired by the armour collection and by images depicting armour within the many tapestries and sculpture. Sissons’ new collection on show today is of developmental knitted pieces inspired by the research, skills, exploration and textile experimentation gained during her residency. Like armour, these pieces can be worn separately or can be worn in conjunction with other items from the collection to make up whole outfits.

The links between historic armour and fashion are extremely close. To complement Juliana’s collection, selections from the Museum’s armour collection will be available for visitors to examine.

Collection:

  • Oyster cotton knitted dress with warm gold copper wire inserts; detachable sleeves and collar
  • Black cotton knitted dress with black copper wire and gold lurex lace panels; detachable sleeves
  • Black elastic and grey cotton knitted playsuit with grey cotton and black ribbon knitted collar attachment; detachable sleeves (digitally enabled textiles) 
  • Flesh elastic and oyster cotton knitted playsuit; detachable sleeves (Digitally enabled textiles)
  • Glaze linen knitted dress with loop detail; detachable sleeves
  • Mink grey cotton knitted suit with tuck pleated detail; detachable collar
  • Black wool knitted suit with light gold copper wire inserts; detachable sleeves
  • Black wool knitted suit with light gold copper wire trim and slash detail; detachable sleeves

With special thanks to Vikki Haffenden who worked closely with Juliana to develop the digitally enabled knitted textiles in the collection; (no’s 3 and 4); these fabrics were developed on the Industrial Shima Seiki knitting system at the University of Brighton.

Photographs by Toxi Doyle: Models from BM Models, Brighton and FM Models, London.

Excess becomes a means of communication and experimentation

 I have tried to convey a story in an engaging way to the Museum audience

About the author



February 27, 2011

Juliana Sissons was Fashion Designer in Residence at the V&A from July - December 2010. She was granted special access to the Museum's Medieval & Renaissance collection for study, research...

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