Cristina Racheru
Five years ago, due to an accident that forced me into a wheelchair for months, my life came to a standstill. At least that was what I believed at the time. It was a period where acceptance and battle simultaneous confronted me.
Accepting that you cannot control every moment in your life and at the same time battling your mind. Not being used to stand still, only wanting to move forward and not accepting the moment.
From this experience I learned that connecting your mind and body in the present moment is the key that leads to acceptance, joy and peace. Life in itself is simple, but our minds tend to create chaos.
We live in a world that is constantly moving around the clock, we are used having control in everything we do. And when we cannot, our minds bother us with the difficulty of acceptance.
We have been raised to think ahead, plan ahead, continuously running to be the best, rushing to be something or become someone. However, running towards the future to reach our goals which we believe are the essence of life, makes us become detached from our innermost being.
Our minds are used to either be in the future or to dwell to our past, without realising the mental pressure that can come with it. We tend to focus more on our thoughts rather than being, resulting in absence and disconnection with the present moment.
“Let it Emerge” are the words that inspired me during this project. As a maker partially I want to give away the control to the wearer. I did not want to create something that is definitive, but rather transitory that is manifested by the person who is wearing my clothes.
It is important to realise that life is not a race and that you are not in competition with anyone but yourself.
The essence of life is being, when we become aware to connect more with the present moment, we reach a state of peace that can quiet the mind.
In my work I looked for elements that represent “the present moment” by playing but keeping the simplicity of a regular pattern before sewing, such as sleeves, trousers, front top, collar and gloves, fusing it with an extensive use of fabric like the robes of Buddhist monks.
The pieces can be worn differently, re-shaped in various ways by the use of magnets, which represents both the chaos of the mind as well as the struggle for acceptance and connection with the present moment.
Photographer : Olga Simonenko Modells: Georgina Sommer ; Alina Voskuil Muah: Malika
Every moment is impermanent. By using different smart inks, such as crystal ink, duo chrome pearlscent ink and glow in the dark ink, I incorporated the transit nature of the moment.
Making the garments not only did I use machine craft but also manual labor like hand sewing, bringing the several parts of fabric together.
The fabrics are all hand painted to add the human touch to the clothes.
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