This is unusual for me but I really need to introduce to you a brilliant young woman, who I hope, will make her own name in a few years… Sonia Zbinden, apart from being a friend of mine is a lingerie design student and a great illustrator. She actually made the new logo of my blog! If you like it, thank her!
I’ve known Utopi for a few years now and what always impressed me with this gal is her sense of freedom and her open-mindedness. As you can see in some of her drawings she is absolutely not limited and if you can easily recognize her signature, she knows how to “make it different”.
Here you can see her “En cordes et en corps” collection, (litteraly “from ropes and body”).
She got inspired by the Japanese art of Shibari, which is an ancient artistic form of rope bondage. Even if this art is really famous on some social media as Tumblr and Instagram, I think a lot of people forget that it is a form of erotic spirituality. This art is all about emphasize the curves of the body with geometric pattern and knots.
I am absolutely in love with the bodysuit, although I don’t think that I could ever wear this piece. The aesthetic is so unusual, wild and delicate at the same time! When I look at it, I think about a mix of cultures. It reminds me of Caribbean and Japan at the same time. It must be weird for those of you who don’t know the Caribbean culture but actually this is a part of my (and Utopi) culture.
On these pictures, she wears samples, and she doesn’t have any brand (yet?) but I think that this collection has a lot of potential.
Sonia’s latest project was designing a collection for the new French brand Osez. She did this partnership for a final school project. This brand goal is to make lingerie (and some other garments) that could fit every size. They hire regular women (no professional models) to feature their products and in top of that they don’t photoshop their models bodies. Of course this brand doesn’t make very complicated lingerie. It is more about cotton panties and simple tops but you can easily imagine that making something that could fit everybody isn’t that simple.
“Ouais, j’pense que j’ai envie de faire de la lingerie atypique et décalée, qui garderait un parti-pris séduisant tout en s’inspirant de l’imagerie scientifique. T’sais, les images ultra colorées de vues microscopiques tout ça, ça me fascine. Ça va être explosif.”
– Collection de lingerie l’Éruptive (Teaser)
Sonia chose to make something unusual using pictures made from microscopy (for example cells pictures 😀 My thing!!). Her project was to make lingerie that would not be binding for the body. Lingerie that would be the same from the smallest to the largest size. A comfortable and beautiful lingerie. This sounds quite impossible but I think that it is a wonderful project and hopefully it will turn out great.
Here’s some pictures of the samples:
” Yeah, I want to create weird and unusual lingerie which could keep a seductive bias and would be inspired by the scientific imagery. You know, extremely colorful pictures of microscopic views, I find that fascinating. It will be HUGE!”
– L’Eruptive lingerie collection (Teaser)
I am very excited about all these people that try to make the lingerie world a little bit more free! Of course there is a lot of room for improvement but I think in a couple of years she could make a very good job!
For more information about Sonia you can find her on these social medias -> Instagram , Tumblr . <3
Lot of love,
Wen.