Meet GFF International Talent, Clara Shanie Pranata, from Binus Northumbria School of Design. Clara’s final year collection is inspired by the dichotomy between rural and city living, and the yearning for nature and serenity of rural environments that those living in large cities often experience. Her collection brings rural aesthetics into the city and finds a balance between two opposing worlds. Read more about Clara’s work below.
Contact details:
Email: clarapranata1@gmail.com
Tell us about you, where are you from, what lead you to fashion and choosing that course?
My name is Clara Pranata and I am from Jakarta, Indonesia. I come from a traditional Chinese Indonesian family that is, true to the stereotype, so business-minded that I often wonder where I inherited my artistic tendencies from. I had a lot of dreams growing up: a dentist (because I had a lot of toothaches as a child), an interior designer, an architect (I almost failed maths so this was highly unrealistic), and a doctor. Working in fashion was not something that I had ever seriously considered, but one thing that has always been a constant in my life is my love for clothes, fabric, and colours.
I would spend hours just scrolling through countless pictures of street style, 1960s clothes, and iconic photoshoots. Another thing that I enjoy is creating something tangible using my own hands; being a part of a process of creation from start to finish. After a long period of existential crisis in high school, it dawned on me that I belong in the creative world, so I impulsively switched my economics class to visual arts despite warnings about the subject being notoriously difficult. And that was the best decision that changed the course of my life for the better. I eventually rediscovered my passion for the arts and design, which led me to apply for a fashion major. And here I am.
Describe the inspiration and concept behind your work. Talk us through your final project and your research process. How did that come about?
The inspiration behind my final project first came two years ago. It was from a Japanese movie titled Little Forest, which told a self-discovery story of a woman who returned to her old village to seek warmth that was missing from her life in the city. The movie was filled with quintessential village life, from provincial serenity, mouthwatering farm-to-table food, and friendly banters between farmers. “Healing” was the perfect word to describe Little Forest, which led me to think about the stark contrast between urban and rural lives. I brought up this topic when talking with my supervisor and she welcomed the idea.
After some research, I found out that my topic was actually in sync with an emerging lifestyle movement caused by an increasing number of young professionals moving to rural areas to escape the sleepless urban way of life. The constant pressure of having to be “on” all the time, crowded cities, and the tall buildings with no sunlight has caused people to feel burnt out and yearn for a simpler lifestyle away from the concrete jungle. From then on, I based my collection on these statistics; reading research journals and articles, making correlations, finding visual representations, and putting puzzle pieces together until the concept solidified itself in my mind.
After numerous changes, I finally settled on the theme of “escapism”, about how rural aesthetics and lifestyle are sneaking their way into urban trends because people yearn for a temporary escape from the busy routines. To help me imagine the designs, I created a fake character in my head, which was a city-dweller who longed to escape and find provincial tranquillity, but were bounded by obligations to stay in the city.
Tell us about your design process. How do you work? How do you take your research and develop your own designs?
The journey of creating this final collection was not an easy and smooth-sailing one. At that time, rural living was still a rarely talked about idea purely based on geographical statistics. I experienced a difficult time trying to find credible and valuable research materials, both written and visual, to the point that I begged my supervisor to let me change to an easier topic. I read countless fashion articles about how designers develop their collection, how they piece their ideas together and transform them visually to help me conceptualize my collection. Looking at past projects, I always begun my design process by collecting as many research materials, data, and reference pictures as possible.
They were all recorded in my notebook and I would continuously edit them until I ended up with a cohesive mind map and mood board ready to be developed. Half of my thesis period was spent on exploring written research and material development alone. I went on a site visit to a village in Java that was famous for its rural living experience and interviewed some of the local artisans there as part of the primary research. From them, I got the inspiration for silhouette, mood, and material manipulations for the collection. The rest of the design processes were simultaneously carried out from sketching, fabric sampling, material testing, until pattern drafting and producing.
Tell us about your Collection Development. How do you toile, how do you like to pattern cut, do you like to drape?
The collection development started after the sketches were approved by my supervisor. I would draw and break each piece down into pattern pieces in my little notebook and transferred them onto real drafting paper. Generally, I prefer pattern drafting more than draping because my design aesthetics tend to lean towards dramatic, voluminous silhouette, the kind that needed slash-and-spread or flounce construction technique to achieve, or tailored pieces that required dart manipulations and pivoting.
However, I did employ some draping techniques to construct a few body-hugging pieces in my collection, such as pleated bustier and women’s shirt. I made six, full toiles during the collection development because some of the pieces have asymmetrical sides. Based on the first toile, I made further adjustments on the fit and cutting, and altered the pattern until the final result represented my design fully.
Talk us through your final collection and each outfit. Why where these the final designs?
My final collection consisted six looks: four womenswear and two menswear. The main theme was a fusion of urban and rural style. I adopted utility-style silhouette inspired by urban industrial workers and corporate employees as a metaphor of the feeling of being stifled in a crowded city. As for the rural aspect, I gained inspiration from the farmers and village dwellers I encountered during my visit to the Javanese village. There were influences of kebaya, faded floral pattern, oversized polos with a long-sleeved shirts underneath, and cargo pants.
These charming, rustic rural details were combined with the stiff utility looks to “humanize” them. For the menswear looks, the first one was an oversized utility coveralls-esque jumpsuit with ruching on the shoulder lines, which was inspired by farmers rolling up their sleeves. The second look was a three-piece consisting of a sheer knitted pullover, two-toned cargo pants, and a voluminous, asymmetrical coat that featured tiered drawstring panels on one side and a tailored shape with checked fabric on the other side. The first womenswear consisted of a three-piece similar to the previous menswear, but the outerwear is a cropped jacket with drawstring cuffs and silicone pockets. In contrast to the first look, the second one featured a breezy, asymmetrical linen dress that made the wearer imagine she was running through a field of flowers.
The third look was a four-piece getup inspired by the lady farmers I met. It featured an oversize shirt with ruched shoulders, a pleated checked bustier, and a sheer fitted dress underneath. This look was topped off with a wrapped utility skirt. Last but not least, the fourth look featured a tailored suit in check fabric wrapped with a pleated linen belt. These looks were selected because they represented multiple sides of the urban-rural fusion theme cohesively.
What materials have you used within the collection and how did you source them? Why were this the right material for your collection?
Multiple kinds of materials, textile and non-textile, were used in the collection. For the textile, I mainly used natural fiber such as cotton and linen to emphasize the rustic and earthy ambience of the theme. These fabric types were treated afterwards using different methods. I block-printed rural insects using oil-based paint on linen and added embroidery. These insects were stamped and embroidered with similar colors to the fabric because I was inspired by my first night at the village, where the farms would be filled with invisible noises made by nocturnal insects that people in cities could not find. I underwent multiple trial-and-error tests starting from carving the linoleum blocks to make stamps to applying paints and printing them.
The next material that I integrated into the collection was inspired by the village resort keychain made out of clear resin with dried butterfly embedded inside. It was the perfect epitome of the fusion between nature and synthetic materials. I then gained further inspiration from multiple designers who used silicone and dried flowers as clothing. For this experiment, I turned cucumbers and carrots into papyrus-like sheets, as well as pressing my home-grown flowers (zinnias, vincas, cosmos, etc) and sandwich them in a layer of thin silicone rubber that I later transformed into pockets. I contacted one of the designers that used similar technique and was able to find the suitable silicone type for my collection.
Tell us about your illustration technics. Explain your final line up and what art materials and technics you use to showcase it.
I may not be the best when it comes to illustration, but I have developed my own illustration style over the years. The final line up featured the collection that I assembled based on cohesiveness between looks and color schemes. My illustrations usually consisted of mixed media materials. I used markers to color the skin and scanned the drawing into the computer to be digitally processed. The clothes were colored digitally along with masking of fabric swatches for the pieces with prints. I kept the posture straight and facing the front because I wanted the outfits to be seen in detail.
What part of your final project have you enjoyed most and why? ie, the research and concept or maybe the manufacturing of the collection.
The part that I most thoroughly enjoyed was the research stage of my collection development. Out of all the design process, I must say that my strength was in researching because I managed to find extensive information from insufficient data and turned that into a full, cohesive concept. During the research stage, I truly let my mind run wild and was able to learn new information, gain valuable insights, and visualize countless possibilities on how my collection could look like. I received opportunities to talk to industry experts and obtained suggestions that would steer my concept into a better direction. It was also during the research and development stage that I was able to experiment on unconventional materials and satisfy my curiosity.
What’s an aspect of the fashion industry that you’re passionate about fixing or having a positive impact on?
As we all know, the fashion industry sits on top of a mountain issues from labor exploitation, burn-outs, animal cruelty, and waste. I care about all of these issues as a fashion student, but the one topic that I especially pay attention on is sustainability. It is one of the most frequently talked about issues out there, with the global warming and threats of irreversible environmental damage looming over humanity. I strongly believe that it is time to take a complete, drastic action that can minimize or eradicate the issue altogether. There are numerous brands, big and small, campaigning and making changes into their production system to be more sustainable. However, I have read stories about “greenwashing”, which is a term used for corporation who are making false advertisements and claims about their brand’s supposedly sustainable approach.
As a consumer, I find it especially diabolical for a fashion brand to falsely market their products as eco-friendly because not only it massively hinders the progress of sustainability campaign, it also creates misconceptions among customer who may not have enough awareness about the matter. As a part of the younger generation, we are taking environmental issues very seriously because it directly impacts us and the future generation. I am passionate about this because I want my future family, children, and the people around me to be able to have fulfilling and contented lives in a safe environment, and to be able to peacefully coexist with other creatures of the Earth.
What is your plan once you finish your BA? Where do you wish to be in the future?
I have just started a job as a digital product development staff in one of the technology media companies in my country. It is a vastly different world from what I had been accustomed to as a fashion student, but I felt that I needed to expand my horizon and broke out of the bubble that I had so comfortably lived in for more than four years. I am planning to use this fresh-graduate period to experience new things, pursue hobbies, and to slow down for a little while (I am sure we are all familiar about the workload of a fashion student).
In the future, I plan to pursue a master’s degree abroad and start a career in the trend forecasting field, which is a section of the creative industry that I have always been extremely curious about as I find it very dynamic and almost enigmatic. In this moment, I may not have a clear view of my life trajectory, but ultimately, I hope that I can find my place in the creative industry and use my knowledge for a good cause; to be a person that can bring positive changes to the world and everything around me.