The concept of this collection is based upon the work of Canadian photographer Robert Polidori (1951). He is known for taking pictures of decayed, barely visited places affected by natural disasters or historically known buildings ruined by time.

For my collection I was mainly analysing two of photographer’s books: a controversially acclaimed book of New Orleans ,,After the flood”, (2008) and ,,Parcours Muséologique Revisité”, (2009) – a documentation of Versailles in it’s restauration. Those are two different places – one is the collapse of a poor neighbourhood due to the natural disaster and the other – a restauration of High Style Palace. This contradiction interests me as a designer.

Polidori, who is a master of urban portraiture sees the necessity of depicting what is in a temporary state and soon will disappear. This concept translates in my collection with easily ruined materials such as real wallpaper, melted fabrics together with painted and stiffened knitwear or flocked plastic that evolves into a skirt. Furthermore there are painted and burned fabrics, shoes made out of collected materials, trash, and skies. Other materials, which are more sustainable, are wallpaper prints on textiles, manually marbled textile, or real rust imprints on fabrics.

Overall my process was an eclectic approach resulting into a conjunction of materials -that I came across by chance during the research of the photographs of Polidori- and found and retrieved materials from my surroundings.

This collection is an attempt to work in a reactionary and improvised way, which comes close to the practice of drawing or painting by means of assembling, erasing, adding and juxtaposing, therefore leaving me with endless variations. I would like to see these silhouettes as a continuation of my earlier developed practice of a draftsman only this time in 3D.

Photos: Team Peter Stigter