The inspiration for my final collection is Virginia Wolf's novel "Orlando" - a parodic biography of a young nobleman in the age of Queen Elizabeth I. Orlando, improbably, lives for centuries and along the way mysteriously shifts gender. One of the key motifs in the book is cross dressing, even after Orlando's actual sex change, he continues to switch between clothes of both genders. This motif functions in the novel to emphasize the similarities between men and women, and when society allows gender freedom, people

will be more free as individuals.

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In addition, I chose the Bloomsbury Group to which Virginia Woolf belonged, as a visual inspiration. The collection is a tailor-made unisex collection that explores gender fluidity, and combines fabrics from the world of masculine and feminine attire: wool, satin and jersey.

Orlando is a parable about true freedom- from the imperatives of nationality, of history, and of class as well as of gender, which take on a deeper meaning at the time we live now.

 

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