About Me
Hey, I'm Edvânia and I studied Fashion Knitwear at NTU.
I am of Angolan decent born in Portugal who grew up in South Africa, my life is scattered all over the place. Growing up I have always had an interest in the arts to the point where my drawings were at every inch of the house. Evently it lead me to fashion and my mother bought me my first sewing machine and as soon as I got it all I wanted to do was sew.
I was constantly finding a new project to do and staying up late till it was complete. As soon as I started sewing I knew that this was the path that I wanted to take. After high school I applied to a Fashion Design course which I did for a year and then switched to Fashion Knitwear where I expanded and perfected my set of skills. Even though lot of my skills are self taught there was still more I could learn. I am a person who is very curios and always wants to know how to thing work and are made. Knowledge is power after all and I take pride in that. Knowledge is never ending journey.
INSPIRATION
It all begins at the crown, where you find everything about one's self.
My Crown is my hair, my roots, my heritage. It is who I am, who I was and who I will be. My hair is a big part of my identity and, like every black girl, there was a time in my life where I didn't like my hair and a lot of it came from lack of representation. Most of the time the only people I could relate to were my family members but grewing up I wasn't with them at all times, school took up most of my days. When it came to getting my hair done it was a long process that took hours.
Hours that I wanted to spend playing around and watching cartoons. As I grew up the more patient I became with my hair and how my love for my hair grew. I started paying more attention to protective hairstyles and that helped my crown grown stronger and healthier, undoing the damage I cause when I neglected my hair and didn't show the proper care and love it deserves. Each hairstyle has a story, it comes from somewhere. It's history, my history
MY WORK
PORTFOLIOS
Initial concept images
Color proportion research
Color proportion images 1
Color proportion images 2
Hair samples based on mark makings and images
Color board
Paper manipulations images
Paper manipulations patterns
Development page 1
Development page 2
Draping
Context images
Knit design planning
Crochet sample development
Knit design development 1
Knit design development 2
Products line up
Final samples line up
Final product photoshoot
DETAIL
I designed and knitted a 3.6m long fabric inspired on black hair and protective hairstyles.
I began my designs with black hair textures and the hair styling process. I focused on what products and equipment I used on my hair and applied it to my designing process. A few words I used to begin my designs were: silk, smooth, tangled, twisted, wrapped. These are words I associate with black hair and kept refering to them throughout the project. This product is about translating black hair and culture into knitwear. I see it as a knitwear version of traditional African fabrics. It is a genderless wrap garment that can be worn in various ways. Besides from being a garment it can also be used as a wall peice, table cloth, blanket or anything that fits the situations. It is a vesatile product which links back to the fact that black hair can be styled in various ways as well. It was all done on a 7 gauge dubied knitting machine and the fabric is made up of 3 panels, 2 of the 3 being exactly the same and 1 being the inverted version of the other panels. I made it on a 7 gauge so the focal point of the p
"I'm a Queen crowned in my own curls." - Unknown
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