Courtesy of Patrick Mcgreal for StyleMeRomy.com
Hi Natalia, it's my pleasure to have you on the [Un]Discovers today! I have prepared some questions for you and now, let's start with the simple one: What was the main reason why you wanted to study fashion?
It’s just something that naturally came about – my mind and instinct have led me here. I take interest in various design fields, but I find the fashion process to be quite hands on which I like. I love creating beautiful and interesting bodies of work and I want that to be accessible to people. Fashion fulfils me!
Courtesy of Natalia Grzybowski
I am glad you decided to do fashion as I am deeply in love with the clothes you have designed so far! So, do you have any designers you look up to? If so, what kind of things have you learnt from them?
At the moment I couldn’t name anyone specific – I look up to any designer that’s passionate in creating great pieces that women (and men) want to wear. I think I’m yet to learn great things, because I haven’t actually worked with anyone in the field yet. Everything I have learned so far has been through my own design process so I’m really looking forward to meeting and working with experienced people in the field – I think that’s where my education will really begin.
Courtesy of Natalia Grzybowski
I am pretty sure you will learn a lot after you start working with the people in the industry and I cannot wait the evolution of your brand in the future. Now let's get back to your current collection. How did you come up with the concept of the Hybrid collection? I know there are 2 series in this collection (Hybrid White & Print), why did you choose to do that?
Our final year started off with a mandatory dissertation, on which we were to base our final body of work, so whatever topic we were to choose needed to have a theoretical/visual link to our collection. I knew I liked modernity and minimalism and I was 100% sure I wanted to make my own textiles, even though I had never done it before. At the time I was watching a lot of Japanese movies and looking through beautiful old books with the most amazing illustrations. And it just hit me. I read a lot about our current perception of a cyborg and the impact technology has had on the representation of the female body – and I really wanted to play with these current perceptions, because I found them to be false and in many cases degrading to women. So it was important for me to create a collection that was beautiful and appealing to women, whilst simultaneously representing the positive aspects of technology and the cyborg woman. I decided to create a collection that utilised technology to reconnect the woman with nature. I wanted to reinvent how we currently view a cyborg woman. I took a concept that recurs in the fashion world and decided to reinvent it to create something new – the floral print. I became obsessed with this woman as a flower – so working on the silhouettes I always kept in mind the form of a flower.
I consider myself a minimalist yet I love dramatic, bold prints. I decided to develop the silhouettes first. Stark white not only worked beautifully with the shapes, showing off the structure of the pleats and flounces, it also meant that it had to be perfectly tailored with a flawless finish, since everything is so visible in white. Working in white meant I had no distraction, so I was able to fully concentrate on the silhouettes before moving onto the prints. The white collection then stood on its own, and I used it as canvas, engineering the prints to the body and structures already created. So although the two collections really contrast each other, they’re a true collaboration.
Courtesy of Natalia Grzybowski
I have to admit I rarely see designers do 2 series for the collection but this is just a brilliant idea to show your impeccable craftsmanship and I enjoy both series a lot! After showing your Hybrid collection to my friends and peers, a lot of them have been asking: Where can I get a piece from the collection? Also, will you plan to work on a capsule menswear collection in the future?
At the moment because of time limitations and receiving the amazing scholarship funded by AINYFF, the collection won’t be going into production and for sale. I just wasn’t expecting for it to be such a hit! With such high demand for the garments though, it is something I will be working on and definitely have plans to release a capsule collection for sale based on hybrid in the near future – we’ll see how it goes. In regards to menswear it’s something that I would love to do. I think I need to establish myself in womenswear first before I start to branch out. I’m definitely keeping an open mind.
Courtesy of Natalia Grzybowski
If you are going to produce menswear in the near future, please do let me know as I want to wear something cool from you in the near future! Well, I know you have won the Australians in New York Fashion Foundation Scholarship and will have a chance to intern for a designer in New York. Do you have a particular designer in mind you want to intern for?
Yep – I’ll be interning with Calvin Klein.
Courtesy of Natalia Grzybowski
Calvin Klein, that's amazing! I am sure you will learn a lot from the team and I cannot wait to see how this experience will enhance your future collections! Last but not least, what's the future with your namesake brand? Are you working on a new collection already?
I’ll be dedicating all of my time to CK so ill be putting my own label on hold for the moment. Me and my business partner will be slowly putting together a business plan in our free time so we’ll see how that pans out. There won’t be a fall/winter collection this year, however I do have a few ideas for a new collection – my work isn’t really trend based so I think they’ll last!
Courtesy of Chealse Vo
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It's time for some fun trivia questions!Roses or Lilacs?
Lilacs
Alexander McQueen or Marc Jacobs?
Alexander McQueen
Purple or Red?
Red
Summer or Winter?
Both
Comedy or Action Movies?
Comedy
Courtesy of Natalia Grzybowski
Ski or Snowboard?
Ski
New York or London?
Both again!
Circles or Squares?
Circles
13 or 777?
777
Silk or Cotton?
Hard one. Silk
Thanks to Natalia for spending some time to answer my questions and I wish her all the best in the future! I hope she will have a great time interning at Calvin Klein! If you want to view Natalia's complete Hybrid collection, you can click here.
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