Thom Botwood

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Thom Botwood – 3rd Year Fashion Design Student on the birth of his final year collection

“I use this letter as my focus. It’s so powerful I can’t forget it. It’s beautiful.”

The first time I met Thom Botwood he was eager to talk about the ethos and birth of the ideas behind his first major collection.  He was animated, emphatic and thoroughly engaging. The text above hints at the depth of thought behind this young man’s latest creations.

Thom’s key found objects that became the inspiration for the collection were a battered and worn, but exquisite Victorian umbrella, and a beautiful Victorian tailcoat.

“It’s the essence of the garment that dictates what I create and the essence and influence I pick up in objects. That’s the only way I know how to describe it, it’s felt rather than thought. For me it’s about gratifying the senses before gratifying the intellect – it’s not watching the film but reading the book

Previously worn garments themselves, as much as they are timelines, serve as bread crumb trails for me… a hint at times and lives past and perhaps forgotten. They ignite my imagination. They’re a taster of a time I will never experience myself and I love that they have waited and our paths have crossed to allow me to taste a part of that period. That our lives have met. Like the relationship of lines on a letter, the garments serve like block marks. What I get from the jacket will be totally different from what you might get, but that’s brilliant!

Transferring that to my own creations I’m interested in the beauty of hidden details and a link to previous wearers.  The layering of details indicating a story upon a story.

I’m passionate about details on garments, but not obvious details – ones that come through the clothes through time or wear, ones that aren’t necessarily seen straight away – a sun bleached rever on a jacket, a trompe l’oiel handkerchief in the sleeve, marks that suggest previous wearers. I’m intrigued by the idea of introducing a more sensorial approach to garments – the way they look, the way they feel, the way they sound and even the way they smell.

I want everyone to take something different from my garments.

Thom is currently creating his Thom Botwood AW10/11 Collection