The World Turned Upside Down

Thinking through Making

Tamar Kikoria

The World Turned Upside Down:

Thinking through Making

Tamar Kikoria

UK / Georgia

The biggest challenge designer-makers face today is creating something that is worthwhile and which has lasting value. Central to my process is the symbiosis between intellectual and practical research: this has involved archival research, shape-making and toiling, technological experimentation and re-conceptualisation; using handcraft techniques that are coherent and intuitive. The starting point for this work was recognition of the influx of information that we are exposed to daily and the impact that this has had on identity crisis in society, as a result of rapid change. I wanted to slow down the processes associated with fashion design and fashion making; to imagine another way. Thinking through making (Ingold, 2013) provides design vision and purpose, resulting in garments that aim to be meaningful to their wearers.

My work is led by this core Why and, as such, offers a critique of conventional practice. I believe that sustainability shouldn’t be a differentiator for garment making but rather a given: my viewpoint is that unless an item is of good quality, emotionally and physically durable and meaningful to various communities, its production cannot be justified. For me, this is ensured by adopting a slow mindset that looks at the product’s whole cycle over the long term (Minney, 2016); therefore, slow fashion is closely tied to sustainable fashion. In addition to lifecycle-extending practices, a slow collection also suggests an anti-fashion position and a limited range: timeless quality over quantity.

Design for longevity means disengaging from seasonal trends or forecasts; creating versatile garments that are adaptable to their wearers. For example, my practice includes removable or add-able pieces, and changeable shape using hip pads and boning. Longevity is vital for a slow fashion garment, be it material or emotional. Materials I use are solely natural or organic, natural in colouring or low in bleach use, as is the case of denim. The material development involves manipulating existing natural fabrics using traditional craftwork and more recent technology such as laser cutting, 3D printing with biomaterials, and digital printing.

The use of technology for digitisation of craft is one of the core aspects of my practice-led design process. ‘Digital crafting’ represents the correlation between digital design and its iterations within the craft tradition. In order to digitize any kind of handwork, it is essential to understand the tradition of the craft itself (Yelavich, Adams, 2014). The idea is not to have a technology-driven design but rather a technology complemented and enhanced craftwork. My own practice-based research has shown me that even though modern technology can eventually replace many processes, it will never replace the human intellect behind the decisions on when to use it in a meaningful way.

References

Ingold, T. (2013). Making: Anthropology, archaeology, art and architecture. Routledge.

Minney, S. (2016). Slow Fashion: aesthetics meets ethics. New internationalist.

Yelavich, S., & Adams, B. (Eds.). (2014). Design as future-making. Bloomsbury Publishing.

Bio: Tamar Kikoria

website: TAMARKIKORIA.COM

mail: Takokikoria@gmail.com

instagram: @tamarakikoria

Fashion Designer based in London, UK. Originally from Tbilisi, Georgia.
Tamar has a multidisciplinary approach to design with strong focus on research development and craft design. Her work is inspired by historical dress and human craftsmanship around the world. Keen interest in technological innovations and their application to design.

MA in Fashion design at Istituto Marangoni London 
BA in Business administration at IE University Madrid, Spain.
One year Intensive Fashion Design Istituto Marangoni Milan (Cum Laude)
Summer Intensive Fashion Design Parsons Paris