Sommersemester 2008, Projektarchiv Mode

Diplom Michael Sontag

PROTRASTS AND CONCESSES

At the beginning there´s the dressform and a piece of fabric.

I start by searching for forms and lines on the body. Forms that go with the body and surrround it. borders disappear. There´s no front and back, no top or bottom.

In search of as yet uncertain shapes at the start of the working process, ideas develop slowly.

Certain moulds, like pleats or seams reappear and generate a picture.

To give the fabric the chance to have its very own life on the body I give it space. Therefore I try to cut in the fabric as little as possible and keep it as one piece. I respect the run of the thread and wherever possible I use an angle of 90 or 45 degrees. This whole process results in my very own design vocabulary.

Silk may fall loosely and wool is wrapped around the body to keep it warm.

I´m always searching for high quality fabrics.

I prefer the use of natural fabrics like silk, wool or cotton that feel soft and comfortable.

especially the lining and the parts of the garment that have directly skin contact;

I intend to be gentle to the body.

Surfaces of textiles may be slightly structured and should tempt the viewer to want to touch it.

I like it when all senses are affected, like when a dry silk makes noise and I appreciate the sweet smell of a heavy wool.

The garment comunicates and makes contact with its environment.

Another component of my working process is the research in special techniques of workmanship.

In this work I´m experimenting with 3-D-printing. The casket that I send with, is the first result of working with this technique. I like the structure of the printed material, which is why I left the outside of the casket “unfinished.

I find it interesting to see, what the machine is giving to me and try to use that.

A similar effect interests me in the broach that I made of ceramics. I took a real leave of a tree and drowned it in fluid ceramics. During the burning process the leave split and changed its form. I like to see how things go the way they have to and I like to play with it.

I like the raw and primal apearence of the accessoires, which paraphrases and, at the same time juxtaposes, the emotional state of the clothes.

The manipulation of doubleface is a tchnique that I already worked on during my Diploma. The characteristic of doubleface makes it possible to have a propper inside and outside without any lining.

The colour palette emerges as intuitively as the silhouettes. It starts with one colour that I absolutely want to use and then I add other colours that fit to this particular one step by step.

Every ornamental appeal is dued to the construction of the garment exept the accessoires, which are ornaments per se.I´m avoiding the use of appliqued ornamentry, to allow the fabric to stand out for its own qualitys.

Trends are of no importance to my way of working. My intention is to change things just slightly. It is not necessary to force development, it is a natural phenomenon that things move forward. My whole work is always a work in progress. I try to articulate a visual language of my own. A grammar that has been developed in the working process. Each form depends on other pre- existing forms. I don´t know where it began and there´s no end in sight. So what you see here is not a finalized collection, just a stage of a bigger whole.

My personal approach is to leave room for the unaccustomed. I try to resist the impuls of manipulating things that I find strange right away.

This is about being cool enough to be instinctive.