Maebh
McEntee

Digital Doppleganger

Fragmentation

Distortion

Isolation

tension

manipulated

gathered

layered

absence/presence

BA Fashion (with Technology)

Digital doppelganger explores the ways in which people cope with loneliness and grief through digital presences. The collection reflects what is natural and human, the desire to hold on to connection. In contrast to this, something that is totally inhuman, digital presences. Digital doppelgangers are accessible and can be created within minutes which if you are coping with the loss of a loved one can be instant comfort and ease. Over time, it begins to feel increasingly unsettling, small details at first that you attempt to brush past to hold onto who you once loved, until the cracks begin to show.

My garments translate this gradual sense of discomfort through manipulated silhouettes, enlarged proportions, gathering and disruption. Traditional tailoring elements are implemented to create familiarity and a sense of solace. This gets altered upon closer inspection through volume and ties, while my striped fabric is manipulated through gathering to distort the recognisable pattern. This visually represents the shift from familiarity into unease.

Balancing softness with structure, the collection combines traditional suiting, shirting and sculptural forms to create garments that appear recognisable yet subtly displaced. Through this tension that has been created, Digital Doppelganger explores the emotional instability of an attempt to recreate human presence in the absence of genuine human connection.I utilised Clo3D technology to develop ideas from 2D to 3D, and Adobe Illustrator to render and present my final design work. Through layering, gathering and distortion, my garments reflect an attempt to recreate human presence. These forms reflect the ways in which people attempt to replicate human connection and presence through digital forms to cope with loneliness and grief.

Work Placement – Ber McNamara – Limerick

The Void

Void

collapse

erosion

Decay

instability

haunting

intrusive

unknown

torn

asymmetrical

irregular

raw edges

sinking into absence

the unknown.

My alternative collection explores the sensation of sinking into a void and the uneasy curiosity surrounding what exists within it. The concept developed through an investigation into absence, uneasiness and the process of being warped and submerged.

I took visual inspiration from manipulated skull imagery I had drawn on my iPad, creating forms that were initially recognisable before progressively warping into something unfamiliar. This transformation became a metaphor for the psychological experience of sinking, a slow shift from clarity into uncertainty.

The collection reflects these ideas through silhouettes and garment details with elements of fragmentation and emptiness. Negative space was used to represent absence and what may have once been there. Overall, the collection aims to capture the tension between attraction and discomfort within the unknown.