Brecht van Bussel

Nature plays a central role in my vision as a designer. My aim is to combine traditional craftmanship with new technologies while using natural materials. I like to have a personal connection with my designs, because I believe that it can enhance the value of a product a lot. In the garment presented at this fashion show I used wool from the Kempische Heide sheep, like the sheep of my brother who is a shepherd at the Strabrechtse Heide, close to my hometown. This is typical for my way of working because I always seek this personal connection between the product, material and user. The NATURE’S HUG top is made of needle felted wool. The panels of the garment are made from leftover material from DieKees which is an innovative wool flowerpot project. The top is decorated by a number of curved lines, which are self avoiding. The curves are generated by an algorithm in which an initial simple curve, consisting of segments, is deformed by expanding segment lengths under specific conditions. The conditions are to keep the total spring energy minimal and specified minimal distance between all segments and points. The pattern is laser engraved and then needle felted on the top. For that natural dyed wool was used. Dyeing was done with red cabbage, beetroot, turmeric, and nettles. Many self avoiding curves can be found in nature. A few examples are meandering rivers, wrinkling cheese crusts. I prefer to use these nature like curves over the more regular curves such as the well-known Hilbert curve and Peano curve. I acknowledge the algorithm described by Gediminas Kirdeikis (How to: Simple Growth Simulation, Grasshopper) on his YouTube channel which I used for this project. Furthermore I thank Minne Zeijdner for letting us use her left-over wool material from DieKees and Strijdom Landschapsbeheer for the raw wool from their sheeps. At last I acknowledge the Fashion Tech Farm for the help and support.