For Kelly Konings, MA graduate of the Swedish School of Textiles, textile design is fundamental to garment making. Her ‘Hybrid Forms of Dressing’ collection is inspired by the emotional connection we have with our clothes and the memories embedded in their fibres: the feeling of touch, the soft pilling on a wool sweater or the rigid structure of a suit. Konings has created 2D jacquard woven textiles that are worn as 3D garments. All garments are woven in one piece in a layering system in one complete textile, without any sewing. Draped and folded onto the body, these whole-garment woven textiles urge us to rethink the interdependent relationship between a textile and a garment. Even colour gradients that look like worn-out effects have been woven into the textile, but also the buttonholes, stitch details, collars, sleeves and pockets have been woven directly into the textile in well-known garment archetypes such as a party dress, a knitted sweater and a blazer in hybrid forms of dressing made from deadstock yarns from the Swedish textile industry.
