Art and Heritage Online Database

Object Type: Garment
Artist/Maker: Bui, Linh Khanh
Place Made: United Kingdom: Aberdeenshire, Gray's School of Art
Date: 2022
Awards: RGU Fashion Design Purchase Award
Classification: Fashion and Textiles

Description:

look 1

θάλασσα (Thálassa)

I have developed a collection of knitwear pieces that reflect the aspects of things that we fear the
most. The collection is entitled Thálassa, from Thalassophobia – a fear of deep bodies of water and
the creatures that inhabit there.
Typically, knitwear is associated with comfort and relaxation. This project challenges these
preconceptions and aims to present the beautiful aspects of the things that provoke an internal
discomfort, even fear. To achieve this, I have created and modelled textiles which draw inspiration
from the forms of alien-like deep-sea creatures, due to their unsettling physical nature.
Inspired by marine organisms like plankton, jellyfish etc. I began to create delicately knitted
structures that mimicked the transparency and weightlessness these creatures seemed to convey.
The key techniques were used are cabbling and partial knitting, and I have found a way to combine
both which was used mainly constructing every garment. The monochromatic collection uses hand
tooled lace in fine mercerized cottons to optimize the transparency of the knitted structures, whilst
integrated structural boning provides the spiraling silhouette and forms.
This is a capsule collection which draws attention to the structure of the textiles through well
manufactured garments, delivered in three key looks. This is achieved through the use of boning, for
example, as this gives the delicate materials a framework to extend across which highlights the
knitting techniques implemented.
Object Number: ABDRG2022.27