-
- Deirdre Quaid
Deirdre
Quaid
Everything We Love.
My collection is inspired by the ‘Picasso 1932 – Love, Fame, Tragedy’ retrospective shown in the Tate Modern. Most of these works from Picasso’s turbulent year were portraits of his lover and muse Marie-Thérèse Walter. I was moved by the dreamy pastel hued colour palette and abstract shapes Picasso employed in his paintings of her.
Colour is the primary focus of my designs and I wanted my collection to reflect Picasso’s palette of romantic lilac and hazy blue tints which clash with bright yellows and deep reds. Relying heavily on hand knit textiles, I utilised intarsia technique to create surrealist shapes and figures, along with embroidery and hand painted fabric. My research of 1930s fashion influenced my silhouettes.
In the final gallery of the retrospective there was a quote from the French ethnologist Michel Leiris, who after seeing Picasso’s work in 1932 wrote “Everything we love is about to die, and that is why everything must be summed up, with all the high emotion of farewell, in something so beautiful we shall never forget it.” This quote resonated with me and I hope to evoke the same feeling of enduring love I got from looking at those portraits when people look at my garments.