Austrian-Slovenian textile and fashion designer Timna Weber presents ‘Unfinished’ at the Droog in Amsterdam on the 5th of October. With the launch of her label, Timna proposes a new design system, challenging the wasteful approach that is the norm today. Seeing clothing as starting points rather than finished products, she seeks to create garments that can continuously transform with the wearer and remain open for design alterations during the use phase.‘With this alternative design system, I wish to bring back the value to our clothing and connect the wearer closer to their garment. I believe that the first step for this is if clothes could change and evolve together with the wearer. Ideally, this would result in a longer lifespan of garments I create. Personalizing and changing garments to the wearer’s needs also offers a more individual way of experiencing fashion.’During her MA in Design at the Sandberg Instituut in Amsterdam, Timna’s research focused on sustainable and durable design systems. In her graduation collection ‘Organica - Garments as companions’, she’s already explored the concept of clothing as something transformable and how this is connected to a garment’s longevity. This helped to spark the idea to launch her label and the first collection under the title ‘Unfinished’. ‘As long as I can remember, my mother used to transform garments that she didn’t like anymore. It’s strange to see how today’s clothes are very finished when we buy or acquire them. To me, that is the moment where their true life is just about to begin. Current garments are also constructed in a too complete way, leaving little space for transformation and limiting the chance to become a long-term piece of clothing for the wearer.’For the past two years, Timna has been researching and specializing in design techniques that enable continuous design alterations and allow for easy transformation into new shapes: few seams, fewer pieces, abstract shapes and fabric that can be cut without fringing. Apart from finding new technical solutions, an alternative system is also needed. In this system, the designer, garment, and wearer enter in a symbiosis, constantly transforming the garments when change is wanted by the user.Timna’s first collection will include a series of hand-dyed, hand-knitted jumpers and trousers which are all made of natural, high-quality materials. On display will also be three conceptual jumpers which have been worn by three different creatives. Each wore and lived with one personal jumper for a month, documenting their journey in the form of an audio-diary. These jumpers were then transformed to their wearer’s wishes and give an example of Timna’s personalized garments and design concept.Timna received her MA in Design (Fashion Matters) from the Sandberg Instituut in Amsterdam and has previously studied fashion and textile design at the ESAA Duperré and Atelier Chardon Savard in Paris. Developing her craft in different design studios, from the Icelandic radical Mundi Vondi to the more established Sonia Rykiel in Paris, Timna has found her passion in not just design, but the design system as a whole. Seeing the fashion industries waste creation and pollution, she’s come to work in a more sustainable and slow-paced way by starting her label. Timna incorporates a design system that goes beyond sustainable production and additionally considers a sustainable use phase.
.jpg)
