School
of Fashion
Alexandria Halim
Alexandria is a textiles designer who conveys conversations of people and the little nuances that paint their stories.
Work
de facto
Society has always had an obsession with good and evil. We subconsciously compartmentalise everything in our lives this way, and scrutinise what we cannot identify. I have chosen anti-heroines to demonstrate this dilemma. Women in film and arts have always had to maintain an immaculate moral compass acompanied with the best intentions and only recently have anti-heroines emerged in pop culture.
I have chosen Empress Dowager Cixi and Dominika from the movie Red Sparrow as case studies of this project as they both encompass the archetype of the anti-heroine – having good intentions but with a less than immaculate moral compass. Through her reign, the empress dowager murdered countless court members to remain in power. Dominika had to engage in sexpionage training and missions to entrap a CIA agent, but primarily to aid her ailing mother. That their intentions are often misunderstood and misjudged is something I often experience myself.
Inspired by the empress dowager’s intense superstition and heavy use of symbolism in her everyday life to manifest her long reign of power and Dominika’s sexpionage works, I have juxtaposed their intentions and actions, and incorporated surrealism as an overarching theme with the help of symbols and the signified. Through a range of techniques expressed through a textiles collection with five themes: Symbolism, Innuendos, Body and Heritage, the essence of antiheroines come to life.
