Fashion Textile for Product and Costume

Rachel McKinney

Made In Michigan

When it comes to art and design, I find myself to be most inspired by history and my family. In 2022, I inherited my great- grandmother’s button collection. This collection came from her time working as a seamstress during the Great Depression and World War II, and throughout the mid-Twentieth Century. The beauty of these tiny pieces of art struck inspiration, and at the same time got me reflecting on my own time as a designer and my time working in an alterations shop.

The ideas of make-do and mend, and crafting for a purpose to make old items new again have been passed down from her generation to my grandparents, and to my father who helped teach me how to sew. Drawing inspiration from the motifs of these buttons, as well as other items hand-crafted by my family members, this collection celebrates my heritage and the generations that came before me by using traditional craft techniques to create sustainable couture garments using second-hand and deadstock materials.

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Welcome

We formally welcome you to ‘be.cause_’, the Limerick School of Art & Design Graduate Show of 2017 featuring the work of final year LSAD Graduates from Painting, Printmaking & Contemporary Practice, Sculpture & Combined Media, Ceramic Design, Creative Multimedia, Fashion Design, Fashion, Knitwear & Textiles, and Visual Communications.

This show is the culmination of the last four years of discipline introduction, skill-building, research and experimentation which has finally led the graduates here; synthesising all they’ve learned and absorbed during their time in LSAD. 2017 has been a historic year, peppered with student shows, both on and off-campus. This year is the first graduating year of the Fashion Knit & Textiles cohort, culminating in a memorable show that featured a wonderful collaboration between students on the programme and students on the Creative Multimedia programme in LSAD Clonmel.

This type of collaboration is one of the most important things graduates will take with them. It’s not only important within the context of an art college, but remains a crucial part of the wider world context of art and design. Increasingly, the creative professions need graduates as flexible, adaptable individuals, capable of working across a variety of media and disciplines. For the last four years they’ve all been working together, and we hope that they continue to stay in touch, and continue to build interdisciplinary links as they advance into their careers.