Bianca Delos Reyes

How do you physically convey the feeling of vertigo? This question served as the starting point of this collection. DUAL VISION takes inspiration from that dizziness—the lightness and then sudden heaviness of your body, the struggle for focus, and the afterimages that would trail along your line of sight. To ground that feeling in reality, DUAL VISION explores varying levels of opacity through the use of laser cutting and sheer fabric selections. The layering of laser cut panels produced a blurriness in the garments that would shift as the wearer moved. Fluid drapes and voluminous silhouettes created with lightweight materials further emphasized this effect, allowing the fabric to stay loose and move freely. The collection also utilized textile repurposing as a means of conveying motion; parallel buttonhole trails stitched on patched pieces of recycled denim not only reinforced the fabric, but also imitated the trails of light that would appear in your vision as the world spun around you.

Over the course of four years, I’ve learned to accept that not everything has to be set in stone. My earlier designs from first and second year avoided taking risks and as a result, I was never fully satisfied with the end product. I was more focused on getting the work done rather than what story I was trying to tell with my work. My mindset was that once a garment was designed, I had to stay fully committed to it. It limited my creativity and hindered any growth. It was only when I finally had *too* much time on my hands that I really started thinking about what I wanted to see and not what I’m told to do that I began experimenting with different surface design techniques. I realized that I enjoyed the challenge of finding out how a certain process works and thinking of ways I could implement it in my work.