Natasha Searls-Punter

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BA (Hons) Fashion Design Technology: Surface Textiles

The Spring/Summer 2014 season sees the launch of textile designer, Natasha Searls-Punter. Born and educated on the boarders of London and Surrey, she takes an experimental slant on Traditional embroidery techniques to produce innovative textile outcomes. Working with the intension to take the ugly and make it beautiful, she approaches large and difficult subjects such as injury and disease as inspiration for her designs. Being inspired by the natural forms, for the natural form allows the fabrics created to interact with the wearer on multiple levels. This resulted in the success of Natasha’s graduate collection which explores the damage to the victims of hunting though the lens of World War 1. Inspired by the work of the pioneering surgeon Dr Gillies, facial injuries and reconstructive surgical procedures provide distressing yet fascinating imagery which translates into delicate ink work, resulting in a high end ready to wear womenswear collection. Fusing refined beading techniques with raw and torn embellishments, this collection has elegant feel whilst demonstrating the gravitas of the subject. Combining traditional techniques such as Cornley Moss stitching and Tambour bead work with unusual materials such as latex gives the collection a fresh feel. The fascination with destruction of natural forms continues with Tudors vs. 70’s Glam rock: 'Pox me up' which sees the exploration of skin disease as a desirable attribute, inspired by the Tudors and 70’s Glam Rock. Looking to the 70’s as inspiration for the colour palette, like that of a glammed up bruise. The Tudors provides the majority of the visual inspiration, studying small pox, skin ulcers and wounds in particular. Natasha expresses this through surface manipulation in combination with metalwork and traditional embroidery stitching. Again looking to a delicate subject matter, ‘Mortal Fascination’ explores aspects of early 20th century western culture that centers on death, namely trophy hunting and Victorian mourning traditions. Illustration features very heavily in this collection where Natasha has been able to develop her ‘grown out’ technique with the animal heads which dominate the embroidery. By translating these illustrations from flat drawings to stitch and fabric manipulation, she creates unusual juxtapositions of texture and shade. Using white as the canvas to demonstrate these textures the contrast between the delicate, damaged nature of the embroidery and the casual, sporty feel of the garments. Working in collaboration with womenswear designer, Roxanne Leger, these two create a well defined, accessible, high end, womenswear collection for Autumn/Winter 2014 to be shown as part of LCF’s Press Show 2013. This collaboration follows the successful execution of the Flora and Fauna project, as seen in the LCF Annual 2013. Skills: Embroidery Skills Craft Embroidery Machines; Irish, Cornley, Tanaka CAD Embroidery Soft wear, Wilcom and Ethos CAM Amaya Stitch Out Laser Cutting and Engraving Hand Embroidery and Beading Techniques Tambour Beading Smocking Sampling Textiles Skills (Other) Crochet Digital Print Princess Pleater Basic Screen Print Basic Hand Knitting and Domestic Brother Machine Basic womenswear pattern cutting, machine sewing Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator Education: University of the Arts London: London College of Fashion BA (Hons) Fashion Design Technology: Surface Textiles Specialism: Embroidery (2010-2013) University of the Arts London: Chelsea College of Art and Design Foundation Diploma in Art and Design Specialism: Fashion and Textiles (2009-2010) Industry Experience: Jenny Packham- Embroidery Intern (June-August 2012) Erdem- Production Intern (April-June 2012) Phillipa Lepley- Embroidery Intern (March- April 2012) Preen By Thornton Bregazzi- Production and Studio Intern (August-September 2011) Other: 'The Hanging Out Project': 50's Garment Construction Workshop @ The V and A Museum (Jan- Feb 2011) Performance in costume May 2012, Garments On Display May- September 2012 Credits: LCF Press Shoot: Mortal Fascination Womenswear by Roxanne Léger BA (Hons) Fashion Design Technology: Womenswear Textiles by Natasha Searls-Punter BA (Hons) Fashion Design Technology: Surface Textiles Photography by James Rees Creative Direction, Rob Phillips Beauty, Pace Chen Model, Laura O’Grady at Select Model Management (Verve) Flora and Fauna shoot Womenswear by Roxanne Léger BA (Hons) Fashion Design Technology: Womenswear Textiles by Natasha Searls-Punter BA (Hons) Fashion Design Technology: Surface Textiles Headwear by Daniel Service Creative Direction by Rob Phillips Photography by Kasia Wozniak Beauty by Pace Chen Model Katharina at M+P