“I was born in Romania, and after studying two degrees there, one in Pharmacy and one in Graphic Design I further pursued a Master in Fashion Design at London College of Fashion. After graduating from the Masters I gained experience in the field by working in various sectors of the industry.

I started my own label of luxury baseball caps in parallel with teaching fashion design at undergraduate and postgraduate levels in the UK. Six years ago I relocated to Singapore to join the Fashion Design team at Lasalle College of the Arts, where I lead the BA(Hons) Fashion Design and Textiles programme for the past three years.”

“This is interesting. I followed the response from the public. For my Masters’s graduation collection, I decided to design headpieces and I experimented at home with some sinamay and card masks from the craft store.

This work then brought me to the final of the International Talent Support competition in Italy and from there I continued to focus my practice more towards headwear. I would not call myself a milliner, neither a hatter, as both practices have very clear sets of tools and processes of working.

I like very much to challenge the norms through the mix of techniques and materials that I use, from laser cutting to vacuum forming, digital and 3D printing, and maybe more techniques that the future might bring.

I am interested to approach headpieces as elements that can shape the body, not only accessorise it. I am experimenting with how headwear becomes an integral part of the body. I am also pleased that I passed on my passion for headwear to my students at Lasalle by introducing special workshops on hatmaking.”

“Although ideas could come from anywhere, for me the material or the technique plays a more important role in the creative process. Sometimes ideas come when finding a new way of working with a material, or by learning about a new tool.

I really enjoy exploring and experimenting with materials and methods, combining the traditional with the digital. For example, for the baseball caps line, I combined methods of blocking hats in felt of sinamay with laser cutting acrylic trims.”

“This range actually gathers materials from previous collections which remained unused at the time. As I have always gathered and collected all the leftovers from works I do, the circuit-breaker was a great time for me to revisit all these materials I had, and think about new ways of using them.

I tried to work with most of the materials I had in pink (as that seemed to be the predominant colour across all materials I had) and found patterns and similarities that could bring together the pieces as a narrative, as a collection.”

“With regards to the title, it is related to the collection as a process, as a becoming, rather than trying to illustrate a particular concept. For me, the action of making designed artifacts is a passion, as expressed before.

In the process of making, I would argue that the material becomes somewhat fetishized, and by working from home, my practice became domesticated, like making coffee in the morning and cooking lunch in the afternoon, all in the same space.”

“From designing headpieces for films, collaborating with artists, or with designers to complement their collections of garments, to teaching hat making, I find each experience a great achievement. From all my experience, clear and transparent communication is what makes a work grow beautifully and the collaboration successful.

I continued collaborations also in Singapore. For instance, I collaborated with (drag performer) Becca D’Bus (above) for the Space/Time collection, and in 2017 I worked together with Lee Mun Wai and Bani Haykal for the launching of Shadowear, a fashion performance at the National Museum in Singapore.”