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Costume designer Daphne Karstens on showcasing her work in China

By FashionUnited

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While many fashion students can only dream of having their work featured in an exhibition, this is something that has become a reality for Daphne Karstens: a recent alumna of the MA Costume Design for Performance at the London College of Fashion (LCF). Karstens, who obtained her degree at LCF in 2014, recently saw her work featured in an exhibition titled ‘Evolving Design for Performance’. The exhibition was on display at both the Mingyuan Contemporary Arts Museum in Shanghai and at Beijing’s National Centre for Performing Arts.

The exhibition was a collaboration between the University of the Arts London and the Chinese National Centre for the Performing Arts. Intended as a platform to showcase the works from designers from a number of Europe’s most renowned institutes, Karstens said to feel very proud of being a part of the project. The costume which was on display in China, was part of Karstens’ postgraduate project ‘Ping’. She explained: “My final project was based on ‘Ping’ by Samuel Beckett. This text is an abstract piece of prose.” Beckett’s work inspired the LCF alumna as it made her want to create something visual which expressed how a person can struggle in an unknown world. The result was a costume which consists of a semi-transparent white dress, surrounded by knotted metallic wires.

As both exhibitions in China have recently come to an end, Karstens has now set her sights on bringing her work to Australia. In addition to ‘Ping’, the costume designer has also finished a project which is called ‘Marie’ for which she created a custome for the eponymous theatre play. “I am moving to Melbourne in March. I am aiming to show my previous projects ‘Ping’ and ‘Marie’ in Australia, as well as setting up my next costume based performance,” she told in an interview with LCF. She already revealed that for her next project she is intending to create a solar powered costume. “In five years I hope I will be able to make an income fully out of my costume work as an independent designer,” said Karstens. “I want to continue my research on technology in costume and initiate my own projects based on this research.”

Image credit: London College of Fashion

Chinese National Centre for the Performing Arts
Daphne Karstens
Evolving Design for Performance
London College Of Fashion