Rhea Ellen Blanch Fowler in Profile

Rhea Ellen Blanch Fowler is a 23 year old up and coming textile designer based in Bournemouth and a recent graduated from Winchester School of Art – Southampton University.

Work & Design Experience: Paris Essex – Knitwear / Fashion Garment Company – London

Favourite Place to Shop & Why: Barcelona – A diverse range of individual & unique styles of design, products, fashion. A combination of markets; departments stores; individual stores; designer stores; vintage; curios; artists arts. A cosmopolitan dynamic setting, with narrow lanes and majestic boulevards incorporating the modernist art of Gaudi.

Favorite Designer & Why: Comme Des Garcons – A distinctly individual & unique use of tailoring, cloth and design originating in Conceptual Art.

What is Set to be the Hottest Trend for Fall & Why: Longer length skirts, accentuating the waist. The return to the craft of tailoring producing structure and shape. The return to the woman, away from the baby doll.

If You Could Choose a Celebrity to be Your Muse Who would they Be: Dita Von Teese – The epitome of woman, she inspires a true sense of the power of the female in both the avant garde and the conventional. Her styles, clothing, performance exudes sex and power whilst retaining and capturing femininity. A real expression of female liberation & equality.

What Item should every Girl have in her Wardrobe & Why: A versatile timeless dress which will endure through any occasion – in day through to evening. This may be identified as the LBD.

If You had to describe Yourself in One Word what would it Be: Inventive

Worst Trend to Emerge in the Last Year: Nu Wave Rave –  Blocks of flouro colours do not translate into the mainstream fashion, they are unwearable to the majority consumers. Away fro the catwalk, they translate into cheap, naff, highstreet ugliness.

Who is Your Style Icon & Why: This question is challenging to respond to. I have so many influences yet, contrary to this I believe myself to be original. One choice would be Grace Jones, equally for her musical talent and presence as her style.

Designs for Sale: My designs, Garments & Accessories, are available through enquiry.

As a Textile Designer, I encompass everything into my inspiration & design & production, including the natural world; landscapes; travel; culture; faiths; anthropological origins and importantly my own life experiences which a diverse and unconventional.

The Collection:  

WORKING THE LAND – AN ORGANIC EVOLUTION

This Collection recognises two distinct yet converging areas of inspiration. My inspiration is sought from organic and sculptural forms; looking specifically looking at botanical forms and shapes.

My initial ideas originate from a visit to Royal Kew Botanical Gardens. The plants from the tropics – orchids, ferns, cactus etc., informed my design concepts of detailed 3D and exaggerated forms and shapes of knitted fabrics.

Peasant lifestyles and farming landscapes is the other area of inspiration. A series of antique black and white and sepia photographs of groups of farming families and peasants informed both design concepts and the palette of yarns.

The organic evolution which occurred was the combination and convergence of the botanic structural forms with the organic colours and tones of agricultural landscapes. The complimentary aspects of the earth, landscape, nature and culture.

The organic, natural themes extended to my choices of yarns and in some instances techniques. Cashmere, silk, wool and natural fibres created a Collection that is both luxurious and simple. I worked with a palette of neutral and earthy tones to develop garments that are simple in line yet complex in cut with oversized, texture and movement. Working within my socialism of Knitwear Design I experimented with a range of techniques and crafts including CAD; Dubei Knit; Hand Knit; Domestic Knit; Plaiting; Leatherwork.

This is a Conceptual Collection. The concept of Organic Evolution is integral to every step of its development. It begins with the raw material – a single thread to develop in idea, inspiration, colour, design, knit, shape, construction and delivery. To arrive on the catwalk as a collection of beautiful wearable designs.

The strength of the collection is retained as a whole and this has been recognised in much positive feedback. To choose one favourite garment is therefore difficult. If one must be identified it would be the mink cashmere / silk playsuit, because it has leather belt and I enjoyed working with yet another organic fabric – skin / leather. Importantly to myself, I visualised the design of this garment and my satisfaction was derived from its completed form being exactly as I had envisaged.

This Collection could be identified as organic and this one word typifies the point for all my inspiration – in my beliefs; in my lifestyle; in my life experience.

Photographs: Chris Booth