‘Fashion Beyond Trends’ is an exhibition by Namibian Fashion Designer, Cynthia Schimming. She is a visual storyteller… she dreams, creates and inspires.
This exhibition is not about fashion, style, trends and fads. It is about past, future and current designs.
As a fashion designer, clothing technologist, lecturer, and a strong believer of life-long learning, she exists in these four worlds navigating between these four environments allows her to push the boundaries of each profession by letting each activity interact freely with the other. This process, or state of mind, opened up new creativity alleys to reveal in the end new esthetics and a new expression of designs.
Her approach has become a dialogue between, the old and the new, the basic pattern drafting and draping, the complicated method of transformational reconstruction and origami-inspired designs.
The aim is to inspire seamstresses, tailors and the up and coming designers who are familiar with basic pattern drafting, pattern manipulation, toile and the fundamentals of dart manipulation to integrate all of those into a complex final form.
“By merging all this, it was a natural choice to showcase my work to the public without any restrictions. The neutral and intimate space of Art galleries and Museums provide the opportunity to all kind of visitors to look at the exhibition under their own terms and pace, with no time restraints nor distraction” – Schimming
This is a profound and personal way of starting a dialogue regarding design and a different way of sharing ideas, which she embraced. The exhibition is live until 9 November at the National Art Gallery.
