Written by Cassell Ferere

In a “Phygital” universe where fashion is subject to the confines of social distancing and quarantining, fashion brands have been devising alternative ways to bring fashion to the masses. The obvious choice has been the digital experience; streaming fashion week events, IG live, zoom meetings, 3D fashion shows, and many other ploys to present the fantasy of fashion. E-commerce has always been the primary global extension of presenting fashion globally since the early 2000s.

Fortunately, Mathilde Rougier, the Central Saint Martins 2020 graduate, is producing fashion inspired by the digital realm. Rougier’s “Modular Augmented Capsule” is a fierce depiction of the 3D, digital era that fashion is experiencing. This timely representation addresses the "damaged data" of the digital matrix. What looks like pixelated images, this collection takes form and restoration through a mixed media perspective. The technique is building visual forms through pixelation, as well as reflecting 3D scanning and Artificial Intelligence. 

Mathilde learned a great deal about pre-consumer waste during her internships at Louis Vuitton and Christopher Kane. Rougier was exposed to the processes and found her inspiration for the “Modular Augmented Capsule.” Along with an interest in technology, she is using augmented reality to counter waste through sustainability.

Born in France and living abroad most of her life,  Rougier is upcycling materials, like leather, while recycling LDPE plastic packaging. These materials make for leggings that look like artistic cut-outs and conjoined leather pieces to form jackets and tops. Mathilde has found techniques that use a restoration procedure to construct forms.

There is a tessellation of the leather, manipulated into forms piece by piece for maximum material usage. Melting and re-melting of the LDPE plastic packaging into a thin stripped form that goes on over your legs.

Rougier is reworking these materials into a surreal state that in itself, is capable of being reworked. Mathilde's design gives the idea of the digital metamorphosis in our 3-dimensional world. Without sewing these materials the “Modulated Augmented Capsule” are “garments built for disassembly and recyclable as material unity is conserved.”

A third process of creating fashion by Mathilde involves upcycling 100% cotton hotel sheets. These garments are sewed using the thread which conserves material unity and is dyed with China ink. A final process uses augmented reality to track the garment to evolve its shape on a digital plane.

Recycling materials is a conundrum of the fashion industry and is an issue of waste management. Mathilde has developed a process that resolves the waste issue by approaching the materials as potential pixels that make up images on digital screens.

“The collection uses modular processes of addition inspired by digital systems and applied to analog methods to address the waste issue in garment construction and production.” 

Rougier is hoping to continue her sustainability progress as she has been involved since the beginning of her degree studies. She is out to find different solutions for repurposing pre-consumer and post-consumer waste. Mathilde acknowledges the lockdown as a prime influence on digital attraction. For her, this provides an incentive to create a no-waste solution within the medium.

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