Vlaanderen. Kunsttijdschrift. Jaargang 63

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Virginia Burlina

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I'm usually inspired by really feminine themes, such as a feminist manifesto in a video from the artist Kiki Smith about a collective of women living in a fake prehistorical period, dressed with contemporary clothes, but wrapped around them as savages would do. For my master collection, I was inspired by the story of a female Art Brut artist, Sir Marguerite, who turned crazy after being abandoned at the altar the day of her wedding. While she was interned in a psychiatric hospital, she made herself a wedding dress out of threads she would pull out of bed sheets. With this romantic and naive vision of the drama of love in mind, I looked at the art of other Art Brut artists and took inspiration from the poems of Alda Merini, an Italian poetess who also was interned in a psychiatric hospital.

I always dreamed of studying fashion, but never too seriously. After graduating in law, I had the urge to do something creative and fashion was the field in which I could express myself in the most natural and spontaneous way. This, and the fact that fashion itself allows you to use the most different techniques of expression, influenced my decision. I looked with admiration at the work of people that studied in the Antwerp Academy and I found the Antwerp approach the most suitable to my own vision of fashion, since the freedom they give you is not to be found in other schools. This is the most characterizing feature of this Academy. Having finished my studies, I would like to gather more real life experience in an established house of an established brand and learn the most I can. Hopefully I can find a job designing as a designer afterwards.

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