Central Saint Martins BA Collection

In Larissa von Planta’s 2016 Central Saint Martins BA Womenswear Final Collection she seeks to understand the value of nostalgic attachments in inherited family garments and textiles; objects which continue to age, fade and disintegrate. By up-cycling her grandmother’s and great-grandmother’s dresses and other refined collected fabrics, she considers the person who used to wear them, how they were valued and why they were kept. Making distinctive, personal alterations, Larissa’s distinctive destructive restorative process shows the value of the old in the new as well as identity and heritage in the development of a personal style.

The process is akin to the life cycle of a star. As a star absorbs dust and gas from outer space, so does Larissa’s collection gather ancient materials and align their emotional values. Then, the Star begins to fuel itself by consuming the energy within. Nostalgia in Larissa’s designs served as this this energy: “I felt a nostalgia when handling these objects that was emotionally draining and constrained my creativity.”

But eventually the Star’s own energy runs out and it explodes. A radical and at times uncomfortable cut-away from the past becomes a reviving way of processing, and detachment. Finally, the Star decays. “I realised the values attributed to the objects were not my own and although I respected them, I had to evolve and see how I could design and revive the objects in a completely personal and contemporary way.”

A new formation begins to absorb the old Star’s dust and gas and the cycle begins anew.