Nathalie eggenschwiler

Grey Sheep

illuminath.i

Location

zürich / switzerland

University

Institute of Fashion Design, Academy of Arts and Design, FHNW University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland

Graduation year

2021

Contact

looking for beauty in the weirdest places, curious hands guiding the way: this is how i explore the world around me.
after finishing the foundation course in art and designt at the lucerne university of applied sciences and arts i moved to basel to study fashion. i have always been obsessed with the human body and how it interacts with its surrounding. so my own body became one of my most valuable tools: through experimenting with my body i try to examine the meaning and boundaries of clothing. i like to pair my experimental mind with traditional craftsmanship to push the edge and to deconstruct societys expectations towards the body. after two years I took a break from my studies at the institute of fashion design in basel and moved to amsterdam where i completed interships at two small independent labels. after that adventurous year i moved back to switzerland where i did a third internship at a luxury leather goods label. with all that new knowledge and energy i returned to the institute of fashion design and finished my studies. my graduation collection is the beginning of my attempt to undermine the prevailing categorization in fashion and questioning the concept of beauty shaped by the patriarchal society.

Latest Collection

Dissolve into bliss

Questioning how body and clothing are actually connected, makes internalized boundaries visible to which the collective mind has gotten used to: boundaries, like the divisions in gender, the clear separations in between materials or the classic division into tops and bottoms.

With my thesis, I dare trying to undermine the prevailing categorization of fashion by deconstructing marked femininity. How can the viewers expectations of the body be thwarted so that a sensual awareness is awakened to perceive clothing as more than a covering for the skin?
Using styling on my own body and adopting poses with art-historical female connotations, I examined my body feeling and these newly created shapes and forms. Wrapped in fabric, exchanging volumes, revealing a different silhouette depending on the view. This resulted in photographs, which I subsequently painted over intuitively. I investigated the tension that opens up when a pose is translated as part of the silhouette and thus a piece of clothing takes its place. The blurring of boundaries between body and design is underlined by merging different materials and fabrics.

By alienating traditional pattern making, which tries to bring the body into perfect symmetry, an aesthetic appears that is not primarily composed of regularity and harmony. Alienation also takes place in the processing of the materials; for example, the structure of knit is transferred to the leather by embossing. For the ruffled dress I developed a system of smocked fabric ribbons that can be connected with metal rings.

"Dissolve into bliss" dissolves the patriarchal norms of society and expands the concept of beauty.

Latest Collection

Dissolve into bliss

Films