Alice Hampton’s final collection is called ‘Sustainabella- which is a combination of the word -sustainable and ‘bella’ which translates to ‘beautiful’ in Italian. The collection is inspired by Alice‘s relationship with her childhood hobby, ballet, and the Romantic Ballet era. Alice wants to create a collection that anyone can wear, no matter how ‘imperfect’ they think themselves to be. Alice’s main goal is to be as sustainable as possible, by using second-hand ballet garments to embellish her designs and creating zero-waste patterns. The collection will have soft, pale coloured fabrics to reflect the colour palette of traditional ballet garments.

Two of the main sewing techniques Alice is using within her collection are shirring and gathering to create volume and texture within her garments. Alice experimented with combining different weight fabrics together to see how they would react and if they would complement one another. Alice also used ribbons to add texture and dimension to the garment, challenging how much she could use of certain materials.

Here are photographs of the toile Alice created for outfit two in her collection. This garment combined a variety of fabrics together to create a fun but elegant look. Alice used ribbons, tulle, chiffon, organza and crepe fabrics to create this look. The theme of pink that runs through this garment is inspired by Alice’s deep love for the colour which she believes stemmed from having to wear pink ballet garments to dance classes every week as a child.

This is Alice’s final collection line up. Due to the corona virus pandemic, Alice was only allowed to create looks two and five of her collection, but she hopes that she can create the rest of the garments in the summer and create her own fashion show with the entire collection. The fabrics used within the final collection will be chiffon, tulle, duchess satin, ribbons and second-hand pointe shoes, leotards and ballet skirts. Alice used photographs of toiles she had made, digital drawing and collage to create this line up.