IED Barcelona is one of the Graduate Fashion Foundation’s international member universities for 2020, and is part of a network of IED schools across Italy, Spain and Brazil. IED Barcelona Design School forms part of an international network dating back over 50 years specialising in Design, Fashion, Visual Arts, Communication and Management education.
Thanks to its focus on multiculturalism and interdisciplinary nature, IED Barcelona attracts students of over 100 different nationalities every year who study fashion design, fashion marketing and styling in both English and Spanish. Below, you can meet 10 fashion design graduates who have created their final year projects inspired by a diverse and fearless range of themes: environmentalism, globalisation, religion, death, history and travel.
Tamara Toby
The world of prostitution has always intrigued me. The women, the lifestyle, the dark side of it, the Brothels, how they live in a rough, direct and brutal world. How it is expressed in the Bible and how it continues to exist today, anywhere in the world in all cultures. During the 1990s in Israel, there was a big immigration wave from the former Soviet Union and the trafficking in women increased, and so did the sex industry in Israel. I chose to be an observer in this world, in a painful world full of mystery, control, power, passion, violence and romance.
During the work process, I felt that I wanted to focus on the women, to put them at the centre and try to understand the story behind them. I was trying to figure out who they were. Did they choose it or were they chosen by it?! Where do they work? What is their routine? What kind of women are they? Strong?! Weak?! Are they similar to me or am I to them? Perhaps we share the same fears?! For that, I wanted to understand the physical space and where it started so I went back in time and collected pictures of brothels from different periods and from different places.
I wanted to implement a new perspective that contains all types of women and cultures. I used visual elements that appeared in all the pictures such as ceilings, lamps, floors, lines, sheets, bed covers and rugs and translated them into fabric manipulations. In order to create the volume and the silhouette, I used the brothels as inspiration in combination with elements from nature and the feminine body structure. I collected old linens and bedspreads and painted them and used them as new raw materials.
Valentina Cassidy Taylor
Describe the inspiration and concept behind the work. (300 words):
In 1957 my grandmother Pauline travelled all the way from Sydney, Australia to Hong Kong to stay with her friend Rosetta and her family for 4 months. This introduction to a new and interesting culture was life-changing for her, all of these new experiences gave her a taste of what it meant to be a part of a high society community. Hong Kong, at the time, was one of the most exciting and flourishing cities to be, times were changing and the golden age was happening. I wanted to understand why this trip had such a personal effect on her after all the years, so for me, that meant to create a collection reflecting on how I see my grandmother and the influence this time had on her.
The vibrant colours and details she remembers from Hong Kong were one of the main elements I emphasised throughout the collection. I combined a lot of moulage for volume research and tailoring to represent the strong presence of traditional Chinese clothing. I really wanted to show the extravagance of both the eastern and western worlds and combine them as one. It was important for me to focus on the luxury and excess that was present at this moment in my grandmother's life and the effect it would have on her. I think that this exciting time in her life made her perceive a fake reality that she believed she was a part of. I can see how damaging and misleading this impression of reality can be and how present it appears to be in our current society.
Sofia Adell Paramon
SER it’s the initiation to the constant search of my Ikigai. This project is my starting point, it is made up of everything that has been part of my life and my development to become the person that I am today. Long sleeves, and bottom trousers, crawling off the ground while you walk, keeping my grandfather alive. Neutral colours bring the sensation, the feeling of melancholy through the pass of the time, the permanent change, but at the same time contrasted with a touch of light, of colour, bringing this desire to continue living, advancing, evolving and exploring.
It was necessary to analyse separately each part that integrates with me, to really understand my deep self. Reflected by deconstructing constructed garments like blazers, shirts, pants and creating new volumes, news garments, turning old and sentimental clothes into new ones. Bringing a totally different vision but without neglecting everything that forms my being, the people who have been with me till now, reflected in classic tailoring.
I recognize beauty in the established canons but I am not resigned to think that there is only one way to see it, because it is in change and imperfection where the true balance is found. It is abstract and it is not afraid, allows things to flow and allows me to be aware of each moment, enjoy it, feel it and respect it. Contrasting more structured, rigid silhouettes with others that create that sensation of process, movement, and freedom. Playing with the finishes of the garments mixing highly polished, very clean finishes with others that are imperfect and unfinished. Always allowing me to continue transforming and getting to know myself in search of my evolution, to continue discovering my ikigai without ever losing energy to explore new things.
Marija Kozomora
Mantra’s heart beats for the mysticism of the natural world, the world of Mother Nature. Its path represents the new start, new terrain, new ground, new inner self. The path is emphasizing the ability to turn our minds around, so that we, as humanity, once again experience ourselves as part of nature, imbued with soul and spirit. It is creating the new terrain to feel and reconnect with our soul and all different sides of spirits. My main focus and duty creating this collection is to bring more awareness about the nature aspect of clothing. Clothing that speaks a unique language, our collective language. The message behind is dedicated to humans belonging to its roots, the roots of nature.
I strongly stand for collective reawakening, therefore the step I am taking with my graduation project is slowing down. I chose to emphasize the power of eco couture, natural resources and the power of slow fashion, which I believe is the future. Natural fibres, herbs and sunken wood are my collection’s three key elements. My tools are old natural techniques such as; eco printing, natural dyeing, weaving, wet felting, crochet, hand stitching, etc. Combining tools I focused on creating pieces that speak about an individual’s power and their importance. The importance of worshipping inner and outer nature through thoughtful wearable pieces.
Margarita Dalit
Roaring volcanoes, monolithic glaciers, icy mountains and deep fjords are my inspiration, which I found in the spiritual Mecca, the land of natural Northern beauty- Iceland. Its lonely, yet varied landscape, where the contrast is dominated by the powerful energy of the ocean and the dormant volcanoes forever stirring my naturalistic senses because of the diabolical smell of sulfur, called me to discover the natural secrets of Scandinavia. Have you ever seen anything more amazing than a sprawling ice "shield" that miraculously generates a stormy and foaming waterfall? Did you feel the unique wonder of Icelandic nature, the valley of virgin silver-green moss? Did you know that there is more fire on the island than snow? Active volcanoes and geysers are found everywhere here! And thanks to the warm current of the Gulf stream, it is not so cold here, however, the weather changes several times a day.
Fields of black ash from crumbling pumice, where here and there grow luxuriant bushes of purple lupines once hosted Vikings, those who were able to adapt to the land with harsh winds and dark winters, organizing their settlements there. Even then, the tribe thought about clothes that would allow them to survive in such conditions, while today a man focuses on the unapproachable natural beauty, wearing a technological and multifunctional outdoor garment that warms him from the fierce wind and icy water. Such clothing creates a balance between the experience of previous Scandinavian generations and modern technologies, rewarding a person with the harmony of his soul and body, merging with the splendours of nature. Even during that time, they knew that Iceland is an “ice country”. This name was given by the Norwegian Viking Floki, who first reached its shores. However, when he saw icebergs near the water, he mistakenly identified it as ice.
Laura Pérez Guarro
Atila was born from the exhaustive search for the definition of the self in a moment of loss. Eight stages and unexpected discoveries that makeup and give meaning to this collection and to the cycle of each human life.
Highlighting two concepts that coalesce throughout the personal process, Buddhism as a means of seeing the way, and spiders in the form of mimicry, reincarnation and de-personification. A vindication against the standards acquired since childhood, which define us but limit us in equal parts, a line that seeks the balance between male and female aesthetics to create a neutral silhouette that frees us from sex roles, passing through those stigmas in the fashion that classifies us.
Finding Buddhism as a philosophical reference to carry out my personal introspection process, an inspiration for the garments and accessories of the collection, creating a contrast between oversized garments and simple crosses with the details and weight of the clothing of the early twentieth-century western man-woman, where the first feminist demands arise. The messy lines of the cobwebs cause a sensation of feeling trapped, creating visuals that transport us to these mystical animals. The knitted knitted fabrics also lead us to the organic beauty of its precious filaments.
This collection is about reincarnation, the importance of liberation and the elimination of the ego. To capture these concepts, it becomes a collection of sustainable intention, using discarded fabrics as raw materials and creating fabrics and trimmings from its remains. This appears in the form of manipulation of the union of tissues that draws lines that transport us to the cobwebs and their filaments and turns this project into a collection of waste 0. The fabric and recycled materials become the main material, eliminating metal fittings and chemicals.
Lara Zarco Salmerón
“WHERE DO WE GO? De-dramatization of death” is a work of personal reflection on what the concept of death means in our society and how I have developed, from a young age, and thanks to personal experiences, a different point of view on this subject.
From a very young age, the subject of death has been openly discussed in my family due to the work of my father, who works in the funeral sector. This helped me normalize a topic that is taboo for most of the people with whom I interact in my daily life, and that is surprised by the way I speak without fear of this kind of thing. So I took what I felt and thought about it and transformed it somehow into something more tangible and visual, to try to convey my personal judgment and make it closer for other people.
So I thought it would be a good idea to experiment with the subject and relate it to the world of fashion, mostly in a metaphorical way, with the help of symbology, which suggests this topic: choosing clothes in the colours black and white to symbolize life and death; the use of objects such as funeral urns to make artistic still lifes; organize fashion editorials in cemeteries but in a way that is neither dark nor scary, etc., and with all of this, try to make a matter as heavy as death a little closer and understandable with the help of art and fashion styling in this case. In summary, with my thesis I wanted to offer another valid point of view on this very delicate subject and especially in the very moment that we are living, in the midst of a global pandemic, and make people understand that the fact that something as painful as death exists, and keeping it in mind, should make us understand and value life more, to give it more importance and take advantage of everything we can from it.
Gabriel Silva Barros
Humans have been covering their skins since the Genesis of Shame. In doing so, we began to suppress our true self. To socially conform. We presented a self that while akin to our true nature, was often completely opposite to who we really are. Through playing these roles, embellishing and enhancing ourselves, we create a skin that is heard and respected by others. In socially conforming, humans have forgotten their nature, their true identity, their true self. Seen as primaeval driven by instinctive urges and societies’ mortal enemy. Fashion birthed of shame and society taught us to fear these urges and be ashamed of them, denying our freedom to express. Risus Purgatory is the genesis of this shame on earth. Symbolising the versions of ourselves we create and adapt each day. Risus is Latin for laugh. One that laughs at social norms, but in doing so accepts us for who we really are.
Representing our anarchic ways of living, driven by the art of seduction and begins the process of healing this shame we carry in our short-lived bodies of flesh and blood. Purgatory symbolises the in-between state we are living in. Of constant shame between who we are and what we have become. A state of unresolved awfulness. Named Risus Purgatory because it aptly describes the patterns we are taught to follow and the centuries of collective trauma we experience in this unresolved awfulness. I am enlightening the queerness and grotesque that our society seems to suppress. My collection is an autopsy of our ancestors and the genesis of our new skin. A metamorphosis of these traditional garments we all wear, the suit, the white shirt or pencil skirt. Decomposition of these traditional garments to allow a new silhouette to emerge.
Carla Corpas
Each being is a cog that is part of a great machine, the industry, which is constantly creating at an unsustainable rate envisioning a future where the artificial makes its way and the artisan is forgotten. It is necessary to reconstruct our point of view on fashion. The future can be linked to the past, enriching it even more and thus making production a sustainable, efficient and ethical activity.
Kooyaniskatsi is an explosion of all the sensations that the wild man feels during his exodus from the countryside to the city, the artisan claiming his place, his ever-present land has left a mark on his being. Traditional female silhouettes that carve bodies that feel subjected to constant stress, volumes that suffocate and that suddenly burst into a cry for freedom. Nature is the beginning of everything and therefore we must return to it, to eco-printing, to natural fibres, to reusing, etc. Tapestries, braiding, brocade, embroidery, etc. Original artisan processes are replaced by machines. My goal is to demonstrate that a step back can be a step forward.
Aleix Diaz
The Arcadia Circles is an ode to sport and a city that has seen me grow, Barcelona. A concept divided into 4 fictional stories that narrate my evolution as a person and at the same time the evolution of the city. The development of the collection, like the concept, follows a non-linear structure. Sometimes you have to know the past and the future well, to be able to advance in the present. The collection combines brushstrokes of sportswear, tech-wear and streetwear, with super oversize volumes, and cuts inspired by the architecture of the city. It also highlights the contrast between technical fabrics, knitted leather and knit. I also introduce fabrics that are out of the ordinary in fashion, like canvas and 3D fabrics.
For the finishes, I have used technical and industrial elements, such as aluminium chains, Thermo retractable tubes, waterproof zippers, vinyl, snap buttons, among many others. The collection is dominated by a range of blacks and greys, which I mix with derivatives of the colour palette of the Olympic rings: red, blue, green and yellow. You can also perceive a series of patterns and graphics made by me inspired by the 90's aesthetic, my favourite time. In the prints, you can glimpse Cobi, the mascot of the Barcelona'92 Olympic Games. I have inserted into my garments logos inspired by the clothing worn by athletes both on and off the track. The result of this combination of elements is a contemporary and avant-garde collection, with a parallel universe behind, where you can see symbolism and references to the four stories. Welcome to the Arcadia circles.
To learn more about IED Barcelona, click here.