Megan Andrews
A self-contained landscape of white, the striking marble quarries of Carrara, Italy are their own isolated world: severe, bizarre and beautiful. My Final Major Project is centred around the view at the precipice, dynamically and conceptually exploring various visual, cultural and historical concepts, to produce a diverse outcome of menswear garments. At the core, my collection is deeply driven by texture, fabric, colour, detail and silhouette, collectively capturing an air of careful sensiblity and simplicity. With high levels of attention to detail, the garments have a sense of archival utility, referencing historical research surrounding Carrara and its quarrymen. Colours and materials feel refined and essential, sitting between practical and luxury, offering a sense of durability and longevity.
My final major project is driven by the mood of the concept, which occupies a space somewhere between melancholy sensitivity and Italian working-class grit; depicting a Romantic story of the centuries-old relationship between man and the earth. The deconstructed, desolate, yet dynamic visual aesthetics of the marble quarries was something I was deeply impacted by and it provided me with a wealth of initial imagery that catalysed an exhaustive investigation into the history of the region. Further research unearthed the cross-generational, niche knowledge necessary to successfully extract the stone, highlighting the sometimes-overlooked craft and skill of the quarry-worker; an ideology close to mine - the artisan at work, relying on craftsmanship and dexterity to reveal the end product's material beauty.