I graduated from Ryerson University's Fashion Design program in 2002. I worked for several years in costuming and for two years ran my own tailoring business. I created Birds of North America in 2007.
Traditionally, fashion students create a collection of clothing for their graduation aimed at the fashion apparel market. I did a collection that was a pure physical expression of what I saw inside my head. I gave myself carte blanche because it was clear that the fashion industry was not the place for me. I didn't shop for new clothes, I didn't follow trends, I didn't like the fashion people, I didn't like the fashion industry. This collection was going to be me exiting the fashion world in an anti-fashion blaze of glory.
Ironically, someone from Holt Renfrew saw the collection and offered me the opportunity to have it displayed in their front window on Bloor Street. My first response was "Who the hell is Holt Renfrew?" I found out pretty fast. The collection was up in their flagship store in Toronto for 5 weeks that summer.
I realized at some point between the ages of 18 and 19 that I was interested in clothing and wanted to know more than I did. In 1998 I applied to Ryerson's Fashion Design program. For most of my youth, my only creative outlet was constructing things out of fabric. I had spent the previous decade in a small and socially isolated private school in Victoria, BC. It had a strictly enforced school uniform and out of necessity I turned my attention to the inside and sought inspiration there.
My life's experiences comprised uniforms, boating paraphernalia, antique furniture that filled our house, the insides of institutions like schools, music conservatories, libraries and hospitals. It was on this frame that my aesthetic was formed.
In designing Birds of North America clothing, my desire is to transform my perceptions and emotions, which are filtered through the uniquely constructed mesh of my aesthetic, into objects that can be experienced by others.
Hayley Gibson,
Birds of North America. |
|
|