Sourcing the Muse

TRANSCRIPT OF INTERVIEW WITH MICHELLE JANK
FASHION LABEL: MICHELLE JANK

My absolute fascination is with handmade things. And with working on a couture scale so that everything is mainly handmade with what I do. And I'm really really fascinated by antiquity at the moment, so that's something that I'm incorporating with my handwork. Looking at the skills of a bygone era and trying to bring it into something modern - that's my intention.

I guess I'm just fascinated by ornate things and beautiful things and captivating things, so, as somewhat of a collector, I'm drawn towards things and I manage to put them all to some sort of strange use. I like using things in odd applications, I suppose, so it's wonderful to work with these - in particular, the dress I'm working on, the 1920s beadwork, and some of the metal fabrics that I'm working on. It's really quite exciting to put that in a different context.

It's interesting when you look downstairs in the archives because you can see how closely linked fashion is with society at the time. So if you look at where we are at the moment, I suppose we are becoming so globalised as a world now, things aren't specifically derivative of a certain area. People take references from everywhere. Yeah, just working on ideas, colour combinations, putting things together. Garment reference from the Paris fleamarkets.

Usually my inspiration source starts from my diary - that becomes and is always an integral part of my life. So ideas and elements sort of start appearing I suppose, and then probably I cross-reference from a certain point which I suppose I'm finding inspiring at the moment so perhaps it's Chinese textiles. So I'll take that as a reference point, draw textiles in my diary, look up Internet pieces of interest that are connected to that. I will perhaps have the honour of going downstairs into the Powerhouse Museum and having a look around. Basically just diverge from an idea and branch out into many, many aspects, you know, as many aspects as possible. And I think that probably, once that's totally exhausted and I think I've found enough photocopies, I usually make collage boards. Once that's all up there for my reference, I usually start designing from there.

So in the dress that I'm working on, I'm working typically on the mannequin, and I sort of hand place things onto the dress and work with the body's contours which I find quite lovely. I like working with the female form and creating shapes that sort of complement the body. I think I'm essentially really a textural person. So I find working with texture is my number one element in my design. Possibly for the moment I've been working predominantly with vintage and special things I've found along the way. So I suppose it's quite collaged in effect. That's it really, isn't it? It's collaged. That's about it. I can't think of anything else to describe it. I guess it's collaged, mad, eclectic things, yeah.

- Michelle Jank