13 June 2016
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The Swiss fashion designer Vera Roggli was born and raised in Bern. She completed her studies in Fashion Design at “ArtEZ hogeschool voor Kunsten” in Arnhem. From there, she moved to Antwerp to join Christian Wijnants – for whom she is still working – as creative assistant.
It was the fascination for a work glove, with its thin interior layer of rubber, which was the starting point for her current collection. It led to the development of her own textiles, combined with a study of the “A-line” silhouette. The objective was to find a new way to connect fabrics. Instead of using conventional seams, rubber is used to join them.
Experimenting with the material UR3440, which is mainly used industrially for the production of rubber boots, proved to be a suitable fastening agent for fabric and other materials. This prompted Vera to collage fabric and leather together. Leopard print is combined with stripes; different-coloured satin-silk fabrics are combined to create large striped patterns, the result of which are dresses and skirts, which can be worn over one another.
The material UR3440 was also used in the creation of the accessoires for the collection. The shoes and bags were designed by only using two components – fabric leather and rubber. There are no stitched seams, but instead, it is the rubber that binds the fabric leather together. In collaboration with Studio Roderick Pieters Vera developed a small collection of shoes, consisting of a sandal and a slip-in shoe. Together with the bags they complete the collection.
How relevant is the notion of UTOPIA within your practice, approaches and strategies?
For me Utopia is the reason to create. Utopia for me is defined by different dreams and visions. My utopia changes constantly, it is rather a feeling and a longing than a concrete idea. In the end I always long for a better and peaceful world. Utopia: the need of creating new things, a constant hunger to surprise myself and create things which one never might have thought of to be possible.
Utopia for me is the reason to create. Without Utopia no creation.
Utopia is defined as the imagination of an ideal system or pattern of a civil organisation. How do you see the role of creative practice within this concept? Or otherwise, can design change society – referring to a common utopian aspiration to create a new society through design?
Design in all its ways has social and environmental responsibility. As a designer, I am aware of the influence I have on the world around me. I want to use this influence as good as possible to create simply a better world. To not think in problems but in solutions is the biggest gift creatives have within their thinking.
Are there any other manifestos, publications or thinkers that have influenced your work or mindset?
Patti Smith, Just Kids
VIP, A Guidebook for Innovators, Paul Hekkert & Matthijs van Dijk
Olafur Eliasson, playing with space and light
Nina Simone on „an artists duty“.
More about Vera Roggli here.
