The Painting
The concept came about when I studied Memento Mori in History around the same time I played Final Fantasy XII. (Hi my name is Annie; I am a gamer girl and I regret nothing.)
The paintings showcase the concept that life and death exist on earth and beyond. The person buried in the tomb once existed in Arcadia and enjoyed life as any other, before they were claimed by death.
As for the fictional city of Archadia, it is home to an Empire at the forefront of technology, fashion and politics. It was based off New York and the British Empire; a metropolis melting pot of different cultures under the one ruling family. It reminded me of my own city of Melbourne in that it's multicultural and rather British due to our country's English heritage.
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My design style, if anything, is more theatrical than practical. I like to design as if the line between costume and fashion never existed. There are historical tidbits and fictional tidbits in the same piece, influenced by re-imaginings of very ordinary objects, people or places.
The label roughly means 'And in Archadia', which symbolises how each created piece exists in two worlds- the reality of the wearer and the world of their own imagined style.
