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.Palvinder
Nangla |
Palvinder Nangla is a 26-year-old British based
designer who recently graduated from London’s
RCA. He is the first ever winner of the Chairman’s
Textile Prize and is proclaimed as one of the
brightest new designers to emerge from London.
His unique unisex collections see high quality
fabrics transformed into distressed textures with
stunning collage embellishments compiled from
trinkets and badges. Successfully bridging the
gap between couture and art, Palvinder is a talent
to watch and will no doubt be hitting the catwalks
soon.
You’ve recently graduated from Royal College
of Arts and already you are receiving praise for
your work. What’s next for the label?
My short-term plan is to produce a catwalk collection.
I am also working on a line of unisex accessories.
I am in the initial stages of negotiations with
manufacturers. The idea is to test them and see
if they are capable of producing garments with
the same one-off level, with the same authenticity
as they would be if produced by myself. This is
particularly tricky when it comes to embroidery.
As qualified as they are to produce traditional
work, when it comes to my ideas, they don’t
seem to know what to make of it. I understand
that it is difficult to capture the spontaneity
of my placements and the apparent randomness of
objects used, but hopefully I will find the right
people for the job.
You’re the first ever
winner of the Chairman’s Textile Prize.
How did it feel to win this?
Fabulous! Especially because of the selection
process. Basically, I was chosen as the favourite
designer out of the 24 ‘stars’ by
those who attended Texprint 2006. |
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How
would you define the concept of your label?
Fresh, cutting edge and one-off, keeping to an organic
kind of aesthetic. There are many meanings to the
word ‘fashion’. I would like here to
make a distinction between fashion as an art form,
examples of this being the work of people like Galliano
or Hussein, and ‘street fashion’, something
that can be worn every day, on every occasion. My
aim is to produce garments that combine the two
– my idea is to bring couture and ‘fashion-as-art’
down to the streets.
Will you stick to one style
or mix casual with couture?
Couture brought down-to-earth. I would always mix
casual with couture.
Your work values the concepts of recycling and treating
fabrics with patchworks and embroideries, amongst
other methods.
Why is this important to your work?
Recycling is largely a matter of principle, of taking
responsibility, especially for the fashion industry.
The idea behind the patchwork and embroidery is
to turn something undesirable into something desirable.
The final result works a bit like a collage, where
layers of different fabrics, text, print, imagery,
colour, weave, are strategically stitched together
so as to produce a piece of fabric, rich in both
appearance and meaning. |
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Where
do you source your fabrics? What are you usually
looking for?
I normally use high quality fabrics. These are then
distressed so as to give them a sense of timelessness.
What I also do is use fabrics for purposes other
than that which they were originally meant for –
kitchen cloths may turn into shirts, carpet underlay
may turn into a coat, two light materials may be
blend together so as to give them more consistency
and then turn into trousers and so on. As a surface
designer my philosophy is that the texture and the
feel of the fabric dictates the final product
How difficult is it to resurrect helpless fabrics
into impeccable classics?
I don’t really do that. In fact I almost do
the opposite. The recycling is not so much about
the fabrics as it is about the objects used in embroidery.
One thing is customization and the other is creation
of garments from scratch – I might pick up
some piece of fabric or garment in which I find
potential and customize it, and this is a recycling
process or, again, I will get some high quality
fabric and use that as a basis.
To place orders, drop Palvinder an email at: palvinder.nangla@alumni.rca.ac.uk.
You can view more of his work at NOISEfestival.com |
Interview
by Eden Araya |
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