Alexandra Walker, 21, studied at Massey University, Wellington

Her collection – Between the Lines

“This collection was developed through my addiction to wearing stripes. I have worn stripes nearly every day at Massey for the past four years and it is what I am known for. To detach myself from stripes, I decided to do my final year collection on stripes and the illusion they can create.”

“My comprehensive collection explores distorting the human silhouette and misleading the eye through the use of black and white optical stripes.”

“Bridget Riley, a well-known optical artist, influenced my collection. I developed from her processes of creating optical art and applied it to my own collection to generate optical striped outfits. I wanted to push and expand the feeling created by stripes, an everyday garment that has been worn for centuries, a pattern no one really thinks about, and do something that was not expected.

“To create this effect, I played with the depth, width, size and direction of stripes when placed onto the body looking into layering different types of stripes on top of one another. Using stiff fusing to help constrict and alter body shape, to have garments sitting away from the body creating a new, awkward, deformed silhouette and having skin-tight jumpsuits with stripes going in different directions and different widths misleading the human eye.”