ABOUT THE DESIGNER

Viktoria Marchev has been experimenting with creating molded pieces of silicone rubber since 2014, a versatile material that supports her sci-fi ambience concepts. The technology developed and the pieces created besides being visually pleasing, waterproof and enduring are highly eco-friendly, as there is no waste produced during the creative process and keeping them clean hardly needs water and chemicals. Since her first silicone rubber collection S/S2015 ‘CLONES’, she created 5 more collections upgrading the technology with each and every season to come. Her designs have been featured in fashion magazines, International Fashion Weeks, including New York Fashion Week and she was recenlty awarded by the A’Design Prize for her silicone rubber designs.

For more information about the designer visit: www.viktoriamarchev.com

ABOUT THE COLLABORATION

In the framework of a collaboration with MOSF, we requested Viktoria to create a capsule collection, consisting of 3 looks specifically for the museum. Each look was designed to represent 1 important feature of the unique material. Through an interview Viktoria walks you through the specifics of her designs and the making process.

MODEL 1:3D

MOLDED PATTERNS

As the “fabric” itself is created through pouring, the thickness can be individually defined for every piece. I usually make them to a 1/8” (3 mm) thick layer. This thickness provides me with enough flexibility for my skin-tight designs and also allows me to play within the mm-s and create in-depth 3-dimensional patterns. Also I find it important that this thickness will give a nice hold to the garment without wrinkling.

IN-DEPTH EXPERIENCE

For this particular design I used hexagons to create a 3D look. On most of my designs I love to use circles because of the perfection of this shape, however if the molds are created with precision any shape can create a nice in-depth experience.

MODEL 2: WATERPROOF

ON THE SURFACE

Silicone as a type of rubber is a 100% waterproof material, which contributes to the easy maintenance of the garments. Basically the pieces can be cleaned with a shower head and towels for regular use and can be disinfected with alcohol if needed.

BETWEEN THE LAYERS

To further enhance this spectacular quality of the material I injected “water” between layers of silicone, a colored and a transparent layer for better visibility. This is a technology I developed for my S/S2019 collection ‘SPLASH’, which I had the wonderful opportunity to showcase at NYFW in 2018. For this project I upgraded this concept, by adding extra space between the layers, so the water doesn’t have to push the transparent layer and modify the water pocket’s shape, but can freely flow between the layers and stay flat between them.

MODEL 3:INTEGRITY

DIVERSITY WITHIN ONE MATERIAL

Given the fact that any shape, any thickness, any color and pattern can be created because of the nature of the material, the pieces can be diverse yet have integrity at the same time. Different layers of silicone can bond together in perfect harmony without any external accessories needed, as the “connections'“ can be part of the “fabric”.

PERFECT MATCH

As the different parts are created with the same mold, moreover one layer happens to be the mold for the next layer they perfectly click into each other creating a perfectly matching bond. For this particular design I made two layers with different shades of blue, creating a piece whose parts embrace each other.

TWO COMPONENTS AND A RUSH

All the pieces are made of liquid silicone rubber, which after the pouring cures into that soft rubbery substance, which forms the fabric of my garments. The silicone I am using is a two-component material, by mixing them together the process starts and allows me to shape the liquid into the desired form.

This process is time-limited to the pot life of the material. It means that the design and the preparation has to be more labor-intensive as the pouring itself cannot exceed its time limits and is very sensitive to changes in the temperature too.

Usually I have a thermometer with me to know if the room’s temperature is appropriate to benefit from the whole pot life of the silicone I am using at the moment, which can vary by the type, for the one I used the most for this project can be as short as about 10 minutes. Even though the complete curing time is much longer then for how long I have the freedom to shape it. For that reason creating a piece during the summer sometimes can be challenging, as heat accelerates the process. (Obviously it can have its own advantages when we want to speed up the creative process for a large number of orders.)

HAND-MIXED COLORS

The pieces are all colored individually which provides me with a lot of freedom in designing my collections. The colors are hand-mixed and applied to each piece before pouring them into the mold. The color scheme for this project is white, cyber blue and royal blue.

CAREFULLY HANDCRAFTED MOLDS

I use silicone to create the first molds, and I use simple tools and craft my pieces with hand. For this project I created molds with hexagon shapes to emphasize the 3D pattern feature of my garments. This is a back and forth process, creating a 1st set of patterns, then pouring a layer to create a mold and then pouring the actual piece. It requires some patience and attention to details but I feel the results are very rewarding.

REVERSE THINKING

By creating the molds I had to learn to see the inverse of what I want to achieve. Put holes where I want parts to stand out and put excess fabric where I want holes. The variations of the same pattern later on can be beautiful building bricks for new pieces, as they can click into each other seamlessly. This is not only something that provides one piece with integrity but can give a whole collection integrity through the different versions which eventually when translated into 2D are all the same.