Photography by Naimar Ramírez
by Mariana Ortiz-Reyes
Featured Today! Nasheli Juliana collection inspired by the September 11 attacks.
A few days ago we published our interview with fashion designer Nasheli Juliana. Today we share with you all the details of her collection and the beautiful photography by our collaborator Naimar Ramírez.
CHECK OUT the photo gallery below.
At her thesis show, back in May, Nasheli Juliana presented the latest collection from her student work at SCAD's School of Fashion. The show was at a gallery space atop a restaurant in the busiest part of town, which she shared with two other fashion designers with interestingly contrasting styles. The opening night was packed with friends, classmates and professors who got to explore the result of her design process inspired by the September 11 attacks.
"My thesis work addresses how fashion is affected by politics and war. For visual inspiration I used the September 11 attacks, specifically the tragedy at the World Trade Center. I used the metal structure to resemble the ruins and the texture resembles the rubble of the buildings. I also wanted to use clean lines, just as the rest of New York City is and as the World Trade Center was, serious and quadrate."
Nasheli Juliana watched the 9/11 tragedy unfold on television, a traumatic experience many of us also felt while watching it around the world. The collection is her visualization of the tragedy and with every piece she tells the story of the different instances of what happened. An asymmetric dress with orange lining which shows a half naked body only covered with metallic structure is the instant of the explosion.
Many details in the collection correspond to facts and feelings about the tragedy that she has translated into design gestures. The use of metaphor about the truth translates to the neckpieces that partially hide the face, "because we really don't know the truth behind it all". The use of shear not only corresponds to the building's windows, but also corresponds to a play of transparencies that she relates to the missing pieces of information from the tragedy. Every piece of the collection is black, as homage to the victims.
Nasheli Juliana's creative process starts with a problem: how to relate this real-life story she wants to tell to wearable clothing. The key is the silhouette of the dress, which for her is translating story and the visualization of it into a piece to wear. Ideating, sketching, and a lot of testing were involved in the making of the collection. Two of her biggest challenges were the use of metal and the making of textures, an evolution from her usual minimalistic design style, which she conquered with persistence while giving herself opportunity for trial and error.
PHOTO GALLERY BELOW!
The collection was also featured in SCAD’s 2013 Fashion Show, where seniors from the Atlanta and Savannah campuses showed to the fashion community their talent. Nasheli Juliana was the only graduate student to get the call to show her work at the show, so needless to say it was an exciting and unique experience. She also got to show her work in Atlanta, where she met her dream employer, American fashion designer Ralph Rucci.
