Nataly Sokolik - BA (Hons) Fashion
My Underwater Garden
“My underwater garden” is a womenswear collection inspired by my father’s childhood in Ukraine, my mother’s garden in our home and my deep love for the ocean. Through combining these elements, I aimed to craft an escapist reality where every child can feel warmth, happiness and most importantly, safety.
Growing up in Bat Yam, Israel, a town whose name translates to “daughter of the sea”, meant I spent much of my childhood by the ocean. The sea was my main playground where hours were spent playing and observing the movements of waves in the turquoise ocean. My muses are therefore those Bat Yam mermaids - girls who love the sea, swim and travel. Girls who crave the warm feeling of sun on their skin and daydream of the salty air and freshwater engulfing their skin. Through my clothes, I capture the vibrancy and joy of summer days, allowing them to evoke those feelings all year round, even in the rainy and cold Manchester.
My Ukrainian heritage deeply influences my knitwear and print techniques within this collection. In Ukrainian embroidery different patterns hold distinct meanings; for example, plants and florals, symbolise the purity and prosperity of the family. Therefore, from objects like baskets and florals in my mother's garden I developed my own floral motifs that repeat throughout the collection.
Knitwear has been my main focus throughout this course., I enjoy combining different coloured and textured yarns on various machines such as Shima, Dubied and domestic knitting machines to create fabrics that are unique to me. I strive to reimagine knitwear beyond the traditional “knitted jumper”. For me, it is about creating knitwear that one would want to wear in the summer months, making one feel elegant and ethereal in.
