About Me
Hi! I am Maria, a Fashion Design graduate from Kingston University.
Maria Dorofeeva is a 2024 fashion design graduate from Kingston University specialising in knitwear. With roots in both France and Russia, she relocated to London in 2016. In her work, she combines crochet, hand and machine knitting techniques to create sculptural knitted garments.
With an interest in how technology can ethically and sustainably be implemented in fashion, Maria continually explores new methods in her designs. Her dedication to her craft and her innovative approach have earned her the freedom of the Worshipful Company of Framework Knitters for her contribution to modern knitwear. She has been nominated for the Zandra Rhodes Fashion Textiles Award and The Digital Fashion Award.
INSPIRATION
An exploration of the place of a knitwear designer in a world with generative AI.
My graduate knitwear collection, Crafted in Code, was inspired by my research into generative AI and its exponentially rapid development and popularisation in recent years. The ethical questions surrounding AI such as its potential to replace human labour or the utilisation of people’s work without their consent in the teaching of softwares made me fearful of the impact generative AI could have on creative fields.
As the fashion industry has already started to adopt generative AI, and its further implementation is a likely possibility, I wanted to explore my position as a knitwear designer, in the infancy of my career, in a world with intelligent machines. My intent with this collection was to explore how AI could be integrated into my practice in an ethical way.
MY WORK
PORTFOLIOS
DETAIL
Crafted in Code
Crafted in Code combines the use of cutting-edge technology in the design process with more traditional crafting techniques, focusing on hand knitting and crocheting to create sculptural, futuristic knitwear garments. The use of traditional crafting techniques represents my desire for them to persist in a world with rapidly evolving technology and automation. I used Midjourney’s AI to generate images of garments as starting points for the development of my designs. I explored, reinterpreted and developed the silhouettes and textures in those images using a wide variety of hand knitting and crochet and incorporated the use of foam, neoprene and tulle to achieve the voluminous shapes whilst maintaining the natural drape of the knit. The grey, monochromatic colour scheme, inspired by the generated images, was used to emphasize the diversity of used techniques and intricacy of every stitch.
"Yarn is creation, consolation, and chaos all spun together into one perfect ball " - Clara Parkes
Graduate Fashion Week in partnership with:
