Although Caroline Perino’s collection is clearly inspired by art and painting, firstly it found inspiration in the kinetic sculpture field and the movement of machines. The process started by researching pictures that brought inspiration to the designer, and by doing so she realised most of the pictures were sculptures with complex forms or paintings with many elements and objects spread on the canvas. Some of her inspirations included art work made by Alexander Calder, Miró, Picasso and Kandinsky.
When selecting a few of the images she felt were most accurate to what she was looking for, she began the process of exploration of these images, thus doing paper collages with different shapes and colours (which is a very strong element of her signature as a designer). These collages then brought inspiration for designing the garments, so the process of design could actually start. Then it was time to select the right fabrics, and after many attempts she found the perfect fabrics for her collection, a very fine woven crêpe.
Having chosen the fabrics, and while the design process was ongoing, she started developing textiles and imagining embroideries, which is one of Perino's preferred elements for embellishments.
She started drawing on top of some fabrics and this lead to the idea of actually making patterns and creating the textiles with seams and not just print on top. After making the patterns, cutting and sewing the textiles, she then proceeded to embroider them with different beads and crystals, finding some very interesting results in the end.
This process of making textiles lead Caroline to do a textiles portfolio, for her own inspiration, one which was unanimously praised by her tutors and the whole panel of judges that would chose the students to represent Kingston at the MA Fashion show.
Whilst the design process of garments was ongoing, some other materials were incorporated to the collection, like ceramics. The incorporation of ceramics to the collection led the designer to develop her own jewellery for the collection, creating earrings, rings and necklaces.
Another important element of the design process for Perino was the toile making. When the perfect shape for the toile was achieved, she would then start drawing her abstract patterns on top of the toile, to be able to visualise how would it look like when all the patterns were sewn and put together.
After sewing the pieces of fabrics together, then the Swarovski crystals would be perfectly placed on top of the fabric, so they could be ironed (hot fix) or glued with a specific glue for the job. Finally, by reuniting all these elements, the collection could be successfully created.
