by Stephanie Frig

Steph was the 2nd person I ever interviewed...here's what she's been up to (c'est très cool, no?)

My Major Design Project [MDP] explores my passions to create a contemporary demi-couture women’s wear collection that reconciles my love for fashion with environmental responsible design. My inspiration is drawn from nature through their abstract forms and contrasting textures. I developed a design practice that follows Slow Fashion, which is a shift from quantity to quality-based design evoking the core principle that reconnects designers, producers and consumers with the value of fashion. My garments heavily focus on the concept of deconstruction, which involves sourcing second hand materials and fabrics, then using them in an experimental and tactile way. These materials and fabrics include re-using second-hand vintage garments, up-cycling antique crochet lace from table cloths as well as off cuts from fabric stores. This has allowed me to express high quality experimental designs that hopefully can be classified as avant- garde fashion. I want to show people that even though the cliché definition of being sustainable means having restrictive choices on fabrication such as only using organic and recycled materials, this doesn’t mean ones design style and artistic expression has to be stifled. I believe that having limitations often brings about more creative and innovative solutions, which in the end can produce equally exciting fashion competing against non-eco fashion. Designers such as Rodarte has influenced my designs through their innovative and experimental use of contrasting textures as well as how their garments approach more art than fashion, through collaging fabric pieces into a form of fashion sculpture.

- Stefanie Frig