‘The Modern Goddess’ collection is inspired by the depiction of the ideal woman in the 21st century. Within many historical contexts, specifically Greek mythology, women have been depicted as sensual, supple and deli-cate. This has been created using male representations of fear, submission and impotence within art, such as the statue ‘Crouching Venus’, where Aphrodite hides her naked body, playing on male voyeurism. Depictions of women created by men often display them through their perverse ideal, and the power men have held over women runs throughout Greek mythology.
‘The Judgement of Paris’ myth discusses the desire Greek Goddesses Athena, Aphrodite and Hera held to be named the most beautiful, yet these Goddesses resonate with powerful connotations in other aspects of their rep-resentations. Athena is the Goddess of war, Aphrodite is the goddess of love, and Hera is the Goddess of marriage. Men aim to degrade women of their powers by assessing appearance over all else. Artistic depictions created by men of these Goddesses, including Rembrandt and Botticelli, encompassed these representations. The collections’ colour palette reflects the art, using burnt umber against soft sage to create the juxtaposition found in these depictions.
The boundaries men created for women formed the main objective for this collection. The signature throughout the collection focused on ‘The Knot’, which holds metaphorical links to ‘The Gordian Knot’, a Greek myth en-tailing a knot created by a man that can never be untied. This metaphorically links to the idea that men have bound women to feminine ideals for both their bodies and clothing. The knot featured within the collection is created using innovative pattern cutting, which cannot be untied in some garments, but can in others, in order to regain power over this imagery. This production created a middle-ground between traditional tailoring and avant-garde, included the use of horsehair chest canvas, bespoke collar creation and high-end hand-finishings of prick-stitched edges and hand-felled linings. The use of quality fabrics and fastenings such as cashmere wool blends, silk and horn buttons heighten the garments’ quality. The use of these techniques and resources enabled the narrative to follow along from the boundaries within womenswear and borrow attributes found within menswear fashion, which relates to the 1970’s-80’s when women began to wear more masculine silhouettes. These silhouettes have been translated into my collection, with large shoulder pads and diversely pattern cut suit trousers. When initiating this collection, I created Hellenic-style dresses as this was the solemn depiction I found of Greek goddesses. However, I transformed the collection as it developed into a representation of female power whilst paying homage to the Hellenic dress style.
The collection is size inclusive, as this resonates with the understanding that the female form is ideal no matter your size. CHARD ATELIER has achieved both size inclusivity and exciting pattern cutting, and the future of this brand will aim to further explore this concept of ‘The Knot’ to create more explorative designs, with larger and smaller sizes to enable more people to wear CHARD ATELIER.
Caitlin O’Connor | Fashion
