“Does a garment influence our identity? Can we create an identity by wearing some special kind of garment? Is there an essence of a textile? Or does it just exist based on the interrelation with the body? What if this relation does not exist? If there is some essence of a textile, does it also exist after using it? What happens to a textile if it loses its characteristics? What can we see if we look at an empty used garment? Does it still procure some idea of the identity of the absent wearer?”
- Nadine Goepert, WHEREARETHETEXTILES

There are instances when clothing is not merely clothing. Under the influence, guidance, and construction of a certain designers concepts and forms, they become a piece of art. They paint the canvas–the body– as an open situation, blank and docile to the fabric, textile, and design, with which a range of feelings are created, leading the wearer to transform, standing alone as a piece of art.

Nadine Goepert, a Berlin based textile designer, (and wunderkid), is one such person with the creative ability to mold pieces of clothing into installations of art, both wearable and abstract. Thus she is not a ‘fashion’, but a textile designer. It is not the final end product– for instance the notion of a garment–that her designs are centered around, but the blank surface of the textile for which purpose and processing is decided later in the design process.

And from the beginnings of Goepert’s work, many blank and plain surfaces; yarn, fabric, foam, imagery and varnish, offer possibilities for her unique transformations. Her process is dependent on research and experimentation, leaving leeway for developments or mistakes to make imprints on her pieces. From concepts of melting, to preservation and conservation, to the philosophy behind the relationship between wearer and garment, every angle of Goepert’s work is considered and thought through.

The latter however certainly takes the most prominent precedence in her approach to textile and garment construction, and is one of the main aspects of her latest collection, The Garments May Vary. The brief description noted by Goepfert about this collection is that it “emerged against the backdrop of the subject of conservation, the related techniques, purposes and the associated idea of capturing a certain condition or moment of a naturally changing object. The combination of a textiles ability to frequently change its form and the possibility of capturing moments and traces through the process of wearing it is the core of this project.”

Thus the garments included in this collection are not only flute or worn out, but actually change their form, structure, volume, motif, and colour with ordinary usage. The project investigates the daily usage of apparel and the associated movements of the person wearing it, with the garments temporarily or permanently capturing the traces, movements and behaviour patterns of the wearer. Undoubtedly then, Goepfert’s approach is unique and her work definitely makes you question the unconscious and unapparent connotations, prospects, and clothing habits we place upon the idea of “wearing”.

I could say more, but you truly need to take a look at her work and begin questioning.

Words / Jamie-Maree Shipton

http://nadinegoepfert.com

Photography / Sanna Helena Berger
Graphic Design / Hellome, Till Wiedeck
Patterns / in collaboration with Lisa Hagg
Hair and Makeup / Maike Bokma
Models / Alma Reuter (VIVA), Lisa (IZAIO), Kristin Keil (VIVA)