Victoria Rowley

BA (Hons) Fashion Design Technology: Surface Textiles

Copyright © 2013 Victoria Rowley An energetic and open-minded print designer who obsesses over experimental applications and illustrative drawing. With a trademark delicate hand, exotic subjects are florid and evocative. 8=========D My recent work, in a rather farcical and juvenile manner, set out to explore themes of fleshy surfaces and sexuality. The influence of imagery from the photography of Pierre et Gilles, and film such as Henri-Georges Clouzot’s L’Enfer, and that of the German Expressionist genre, led me to respond to the graphic compositions and carnal imagery using harsh contrasts of colour; over-saturated and suffused. Abstract interpretations with screen printing using devore, discharge and procion techniques onto silk velvet and organzas, intended to replicate the real sensuality and lustre of the skin. Using alternative methods in response to my findings, enlarged and distorted images of glitter and wax as an initial layer to the composition, was adopted in keeping to the uncanny as a regular motif. Interacting more exaggerated motifs of pearlescent lemon and lavender colours, with dark harmonious earth shades to make the smooth textures advance, and to radiate in a hypnotic quality. Such frivolity having integrated into print development, seeming to convey a very stylistic aesthetic, I wanted further exploration to circulate around a discussion on taste. It was all the more enticing to use figurative, hand-rendered applications to fully utilize the provoking combinations of imagery I was sourcing. As a reaction against notions of good taste, bad taste is fully explored through archetypical motifs of the grotesque and the beautiful, with the writings of Umberto Eco being of key influence. The outraged Eco’s humorously dry take on objects of American ‘Hyper-real’, (almost perfectly fake ornamental replicas of icons in European arts/culture), inspired me to juxtapose the crude imagery with more traditional academic art. Florid pencil drawings of botanics and genitalia with leafy foliage have evolved into monstrous print placements. Ref. to the Cockasaurus below: cock·a·saurus [cok-a-sawr-us] n (Earth Sciences / Palaeontology) any large carnivorous bipedal dinosaur of the genus Cockasaurus, common in North America in upper Jurassic and Cretaceous times: suborder Theropoda (theropods) chracteristics: the body of a tyrannosaurus rex and the head of a penis. [from New Latin, from Greek cockannos tyrant + sauros lizard] ------------------------------ EDUCATION: 8==D University of the Arts London: 2013 London College of Fashion BA Fashion Design and Technology: Surface Textiles: Print 8==D University of the Arts London: 2010 Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design Foundation Studies Art and Design 8==D British Institute of Florence: Summer 2009 Charles H Cecil Studios Life and Cast Drawing: Short course ------------------------------ INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE: 8==D Peter Pilotto: Pattern Cutting Intern: January-February 2012. 8==D Hermione De Paula: Print Design Assistant: August-October 2010. ------------------------------ ACHIEVEMENTS: 8===D LCF School of Design and Technology Annual 2013 for the BFC 8===D LCF School of Design and Technology Illustration Annual 2013 
8===D Selected as a participant for Fauna and Flora project 2013 8=D Producing T-shirt design entries for the Royal Horticultural Society
. 8=D Digital placement prints for a collaborative photo shoot with womenswear designers, Emily Bishop (dress) and Daniel Service (headpiece). 8===D 
 Selected as participant for Illustration 2013
 8=D Shortlisted for the "Nina de Yorke Illustration Award“ 2013. 8===D LCF Press Show, Collaboration with womenswear designer, Christina Tiran, July 2013 8===D Nominated for 'Texprint 2013' 8===D Collaboration work with Christina Tiran shown at the Textile Institute's 'Design Means Business' exhibition, Foreign & Commonwealth Office ----------------------------- SKILLS: 8=D 
 Adobe Creative Suite, CAD: Colour Matters, Ethos software for laser cutting, pattern scanner. 8==D 
 Technical drawing 8===D 
 Strong hand drawing and Illustration skills, experienced with life drawing 
8====D 
 Specialized in print techniques/equipment: including screen printing (Acid, Discharge, Devore, Procion, Polychromatic), digital printing, Sublimation, fabric dying. 8=====D 
 
Basic knowledge of flat pattern cutting and industrial sample machining. 8======D 
 
Knitting: hand and (domestic) machine knitting 8=======D 
 Embroidery: hand and machine (irish, cornely, tanaka) ------------------------------ PRESS: 8=======D 
 Showstudio: http://showstudio.com/blog/post/lcf_presents_their_2013_ba_graduate_show Vogue: http://www.vogue.co.uk/news/2013/07/02/london-college-of-fashion-ba-graduate-show Vogue: http://www.vogue.co.uk/fashion/spring-summer-2014/ready-to-wear/london-college-of-fashion-ba/full-length-photos/gallery/1004296 MyDaily UK: http://www.mydaily.co.uk/2013/07/02/london-college-of-fashion-ba-show-2013_n_3532173.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false ------------------------------ FULL CREDITS: 8==============D FAUNA & FLORA; #1,2 Womenswear by Emily Bishop FdA Fashion Design Technology (Designer Pattern Cutter) http://showtime.arts.ac.uk/emilyjayne Headwear by Daniel Service BA (Hons) Womenswear and Technology http://showtime.arts.ac.uk/danielservice Prints by Victoria Rowley Photographer: Kasia Wozniak Creative Direction: Rob Phillips Nail Art: Lauren Michelle Pires Beauty: Pace Chen Model: Sophia at Select HYPER-REAL; #3-7 Photographer: GMGP Beauty: Pace Chen Model: Sophie at Profile Models #8 CHRISTINA TIRAN & VICTORIA ROWLEY Womenswear by Christina Tiran BA (Hons) Womenswear and Technology http://showtime.arts.ac.uk/christinatiran Prints by Victoria Rowley Photography by James Rees Creative Direction, Rob Phillips Beauty, Pace Chen Model, Laura O’Grady at Select Model Management (Verve)  CATWALK IMAGES LOOKS 1-8: vogue.com LOOK 2 DETAIL: blog.arts.ac.uk