A Seat at the Table

Josefine Fredrica

A Seat at the Table is the BFA Fashion Design degree work by Josefine Neumann. It is investigating nostalgia and the social and environmental sustainable aspects of upcycling. It aims to explore nostalgia as a progressive design tool, through storytelling, by means of upcycling materials and memories.
It is developed by using creative writing methods with trigger words, translated to a visual fashion design process. To gain understanding and depth in the storytelling, different memory triggers have been introduced in each example.
It suggests a multidimensional take on nostalgia and highlights its importance in everyday life, as well as in the design and art fields, and how storytelling can actively be used in a fashion design process. It also looks at communication in dress and the relationship between the private and the public identity.
The importance of this investigation has been to look beyond today’s upcycling field of fashion, in order to develop it further and broaden the perspectives of the field.
With the theme of ’the act of eating’, this degree work is seen as an abstract comment to the fashion industry’s influence on bodies and eating habits.

The Tradition
based on dinner with relatives

The Public
based on lunch in school cafeteria

The Private
based on hungry dreaming about untasty food

The Confrontration
based on washing up unused dishes

The Frustration
based on venting processes

The Attention
based on mother’s wedding dress

Exhibited at

EXIT21 / Textile Fashion Center, Sweden [2021-22]

EXIT21 / London Fashion Week, UK [2021]

EXIT21 / Stockholm Fashion Week, Sweden [2021]

EXIT21 / Nordiska Kompaniet, Sweden [2021]

EXIT21 / The Swedish School of Textiles, Sweden [2021]

Recognitions

Rewarded from Robert A:son Byttner’s Scholarship Fund / Sweden [2021]