I found inspiration from an unexpected place during my spring break trip to my home state of Colorado that has prompted a re-imagining of my next steps. As planned, I will finish my Spring 2012 collection next month. But instead of turning to Fall 2012, I have decided to produce a Spring/Summer 2013 collection for release this September, which will bring me apace of New York Fashion Week. This is exciting news. The new cycle will make it easier to be seen by the fashion world, should they choose to take notice; and it will force me to keep the rigorous editorial eye of high fashion in mind as I work.
The clue to my inspiration for Spring/Summer 2013 is in the photos below. In going through boxes of old belongings at my mother’s house in Colorado, I found my sketchbook of drawings from an independent study I conducted in Costa Rica during my senior year of college abroad. I was stationed in a little known tract of forest, called the sub-montane tropical moist forest, near the biological station at Volcan Cacao in the Guanacaste region. The goal of my path of study, which allowed me to combine my three favorite subjects of biology, art, and writing, was to draw and document unfamiliar plant species and ultimately produce a visitor’s guidebook to the forest flora. I produced a total of 42 original drawings of plant species, some of which as far as we knew had never been identified. Although I don’t yet know whether I will use the drawings as prints, or simply use the lines and shapes to inform the silhouettes of the collection, I am very excited to have found this work, which I thought was probably lost. It will be the perfect inspiration and motivation to keep me working this summer.
Apocynaceae Tabernaemontana longipes
Olacaceae Heisteria acuminata
Rubiaceae Psychotria elata
Sabiaceae Meliosma idiopoda
Rubiaceae Psychotria valeriana
