My collection was inspired by beautiful death. I went to Paris and spent most of my time in Pere Lachaise looking at few important aspects, such as; structured of the graveyard, crosses around the cemetery, different tones of the stones, ornaments on the door and also names of individual family. Life after death, somewhere beyond the ground that intrigue me, the silence and the beauty of a cold gravestone.
From there I continued my research at the Catholic Church in Capuchin Catacombs, where they display the dead particularly the pious and holy in startling, dramatic fashion. It was formerly believed that the early Christians used these galleries as places of burial for their dead.
Overall the main idea is dressing after death. Full-length garments, wrapping around the body, covering the dead would be my main silhouettes.
Furthermore, I looked at the cause of death from natural death to murder victims. I looked at a particular murderer, Ed Gein had exhumed corpses from local graveyards and fashioned trophies and keepsakes from their bones and skin. He decapitated body in a shed, hung upside down by ropes at her wrists, with a crossbar at her ankles. The torso was "dressed out" like that of a deer. The whole idea of cutting the body translated to the garments.
This collection involved tailoring, cut around the garments and movement. Tailor garments with fine detail mixed with creative cut on the garment that I analyzed from the cuts of a dead body. The movement came from the idea of wrapping garments around the skeleton in Catacombs Church.
For the fabrics, I looked at what suitable fabrics to use for my collection and my main fabrics would be leather, double sand silk and wool. Based on Autumn/Winter 12, heavy fabrics mixed with light fabrics would be suitable. Natural colour more like the colour of the cemetery. Simplicity of the garment mixed with fine details. Laser cut on the bags and prints would be the highlight for my collection.
Jacqueline Loekito present unisex clothing to the public with a mixture of masculinity and feminity in one garment. I approached the masculinity by using clever tailoring details but still keeping it feminine with the choices of colour and lengths. Its appealing for both sexes and for customer out there that are looking for something new and fresh. Dare to dress in a different manner, without losing their identity.
