___The Collection
For her graduate collection, Annie was inspired by the relationship between religious dress and modern architecture. Researching ecclesiastical architecture of the 1960s, she became interested in how the design of churches and sacred spaces has evolved and modernised in the past century to adapt to a more agnostic, spiritual society while still expressing core concepts of faith
. Inspired by the use of natural light by architects Tadao Ando and Le Corbusier, as well as the mastery of Dutch Golden Age painters such as Rembrandt and Vermeer, Annie developed a collection exploring the passage of light through different spaces and surfaces – translated in her pieces through sharp, architectural silhouettes and the use of sheer fabrics and plastic materials. Interpretations of religious habit within the collection reflect the ritualistic nature of Catholicism, and represent a contemporary uniform for the laywoman, simultaneously evoking restraint and enlightenment in a secular, sartorial context. The collection is named "Elevation", a word which has both religious and architectural meaning; in liturgy it represents the lifting of consecrated bread and wine, as well as the spiritual connotations of people feeling "lifted up" by their faith. In architecture, elevations are the technical drawings used to illustrate various perspectives and views of a building design. This dichotomy of the spiritual and practical - the ethereal and the physical – inspires an exploration of other contrasting concepts such as light and dark, structure and movement, chastity and sensuality.
