Rejina Pyo was one of six designers chosen by Cathy Edwards from the Central Saint Martins MA show for our Exclusive story, The Masters. A look from her collection was styled by Edwards and photographed by Ben Toms, and here the designer spoke to
Rejina Pyo was one of six standout designers chosen by Cathy Edwards from the Central Saint Martins MA show for our Exclusive story, The Masters. A look from her collection was styled by Edwards and photographed by Ben Toms, and here the designer reveals ideas behind her inaugural collection.
There was a strong structural element to your collection what inspired this?
I think the structural element came from my passion for abstract sculptures, fine art and modern art. Paintings by Ellsworth Kelly from the 50s were a great source of inspiration. The simple, primitive aesthetic and block colours of this artist, and others like him, is what drove my collection. Isamu Noguchi's sculptures inspired the wood pieces. I loved the idea of my models wearing timelessly elegant dresses that are wearable as standalone garments and then as if by accident, they just happen to be carrying wooden sculptures in their hands. Although I wanted the garments in my collection to be effortless and unrestricted, I knew they would need something to support them in some way. In the end, it was the wooden pieces that did this, providing a structure and backbone for my garments.
What made you work with wood as a medium?
It was a slow and gradual decision, I didn't start out thinking I must use wood. During the research stage I was taken with the unusual shapes and materials used by the sculptor Isamu Noguchi, and as my design work progressed I began playing with different ways of incorporating these shapes into my collection. I experimented with stiff fabric and also with strips of metal, but they never really achieved the kind of look and feeling I was after. Finally I made cardboard cut outs of shapes and held them in front of the garments, it looked quite weird, but somehow it worked. It gave it that pagan minimalist feel that I admired in my research. I wanted to use wood to make the shapes as the rest of the materials in my collection were quite raw and organic – washed linen and silk – and I felt the natural grain of wood would work well with them. I also wanted my collection to feel like it had a history and a story to tell and wood is the ultimate material for this, the grain and texture is so atmospheric. I decided to burn the wood, as the texture became even more pronounced and the charred blackened colour was a great contrast in colour to the bright silk and linen.
Up close the wood has an aged driftwood quality where was it sourced?
I started out with a variety of wood called Matika, a light wood, as I knew the models would not be able to carry it otherwise. I had the opportunity to work with Jaehyo Lee, a wonderfully talented Korean artist, who helped me cut, burn and char the wood to give it that aged, rough appearance. It was a very difficult process as Matika remains quite smooth when it is burnt, so we had to sculpt the wood before burning it with molten hot coals and a blow torch. It was worth it in the end though as it was a great contrast in colour and texture to the bright silk and linen and it helped give the collection that cultish, pagan atmosphere that I had admired in the artists I had researched. The other advantage of burning the surface of the wood is you don't look at it and immediately see wood, instead the eye is drawn to the shape first and the form second.
See all the designers chosen for our Exclusive, The Masters here.
