Bareia Ahmad

Bareia’s Pre collection takes root in a WW2 situation: imagine a girl standing on a London underground platform. But she is not crowding there in her siren suit with hundreds of others in response to a bomb alert, a shrieking siren, fearful that she might have to spend the whole night there. No, she is waiting for a train, her escape from the blitz to the calm and safety of the English countryside.

The aesthetics of the collection reflect the contrast between the harsh reality of sleeping on the underground and the beautiful safe haven of country life. The colour palette is influenced by the vibrant colours from the painting “Ah, it goes, is lost” by Cy Twombly which are complemented by textiles influenced by a series of picturesque colour photographs of the English countryside taken just days before the war started.These colours are translated into the collection as

brightly coloured floral Liberty prints merged with the muted tones of serviceable woollen blankets. Authentic creasing is created at elbows and other areas suggestive of the crumpling of blankets and clothes worn all night on a tube platform.The collection features flowy feminine silhouette juxtaposed with soft tailoring war time utility.

To reflect the results of rationing, patches of luxurious fabrics are worked into the otherwise block coloured utility cottons to illustrate the importance of holding on to any little bit of luxury they once had, the hand blanket-stitching reminiscent again of the blanket. These result in garments looking as if they have another garment patchworked into them in order to preserve it.