Mode Design (B.A.)

AMALGAMARE

A collaboration between fine art, fashion design and technology

Profil Chelsea Jean Lamm

2022

This collection is based on the idea that by uniting two people’s dreams, fantasies and ideas, a new dimension of insurmountable opportunities arises: By merging the individual visions of a fine artist and an upcoming fashion designer, the world of AMALGAMARE was created.

Inspirations were drawn from the fantastical creatures, beasts and monsters, found within bestiaries of the Middle Ages and the works of Hieronymus Bosch, such as „The garden of earthly delights“ (1490 – 1500). By analysing these mythical creatures, trying to imagine the world they might inhabit and what experiencing a serendipitous meeting with them could be like, the designer began to create futuristic animal creatures that are similar to modern cyborgs, yet envision the fusion of the human, the machine and the animal. Within this trinity the human poses as a creator and dreamer, the machine helps to turn human visions into reality and the animal acts as the protagonist within the utopian place named Amalgamare. The title, which has it’s roots in chemistry, translates as fusion and describes the process of combining and uniting two different elements, in this case contemporary art and fashion.

Within a collaboration with her sister and artist Ashley Elizabeth Lamm, two analog paper collages made out of elements of discarded magazines or second hand books were created, which were later digitalised, manipulated and shaped into six wearable sculptures. Within the collages accumulations of paper cuttings deconstruct social hierarchies by creating female goddesses and warriors that unsettle and alter the definition of the historical male hero. Collage as a form of transplantation from one papery surface to the next is their way of forming a demand for a more diverse and intense representation of female voices and stories.

Throughout this bachelor thesis, the following questions arose: What can be defined as the significance of collaboration as a practice in creative processes? How can medieval representations of imaginary creatures in abstracted form be transferred onto the female body as a carrier medium? Lastly, in which way do innovative technologies support the realisation of three-dimensional designs and how can they help to reduce the material consumption?

AMALGAMARE is emblematic of the merging of fine art and wearable fashion, showing how analog manufacturing processes benefit from innovative, machine-based technologies and how humans as makers act as the connecting link between industrial machinery and craft. In this way, endless new possibilities can be revealed to the entire design process.
Furthermore, this collection embodies the principle of collaboration and illustrates how important it is to connect different disciplines from a variety of fields, in order to identify innovative solutions and overcome challenges within a collective partnership.

Chelsea Jean Lamm, an upcoming fashion designer from Munich with South African roots, focuses on finding new possibilities within the design process by using innovative technologies and materials. By fusing elements of fine art and fashion design she aspires to make fashion more accessible to a wider audience of both art and fashion. She strongly believes that in order for clothing to truly become sustainable, fashion items should be seen as art forms as opposed to discardable objects.

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