DFA Nominee 2012: Marga Weimans

She is one of the five designers nominated for a Dutch Fashion Award and Marga Weimans (1978) might just become this year’s big winner. To freshen up everyone’s memory we’ve summarized what her fashion label stands for and asked her a few quick questions…

Fashion label
Marga Weimans (1970), womenswear.

Signature
Sculptural, experimental, fairytale-lile. With her designs Weimans pushes the boundaries of the fashion industry. She is interested in the combination of fashion and architecture. Her collections are very broad: from haute couture to pret a porter, including architectural showpieces and minimalistic dresses. She works with 3D perspectives and her designs include architectural materials like wood, iron and resin. She even creates her own fabrics by mixing fabric with fiberglass.

Short bio
Marga Weimans graduated at the Antwerp Royal Academy of Fine Arts. In 2005 her graduation collection The Power Of My Dreams won an I-D award. With this collection Marga was also nominated for the Design Prize Rotterdam. Since her successful graduation Weimans’ work is purchased by and exhibited at the Groninger Museum. Her collections were presented in two haute couture weeks in Paris and in several Dutch exhibitions.

Quote
“The best thing about designing clothes is coming up with new images and leading a team.”

Collection
Friday night Marga will present pieces from different archive collections. “I will show a selection of important pieces from several previous collections. In that way I want to show what my fashion label stands for. Together these pieces represent the Marga Weimans signature; innovative, ample couture pieces that are almost art and are formed by concepts and experiments”, says Marga.

Distinctiveness
So what has Marga Weimans to offer and why does she deserve one of those Dutch Fashion Awards? Marga: “With my work I try to contribute to the innovation and evolution of fashion. By looking for beauty in things that are usually described as ugly I hope others will see that beauty too. With a unique vision on fashion and a specific aesthetic and work method, by combining fashion with other disciplines like architecture and design, I think I can enrich fashion.”

Plans
And what are Marga’s plans if she indeed wins one of those DFA’s? Marga: “The money price would give a huge boost to our goal of reaching a bigger and more international audience. Besides couture I would love to focus more on prêt-a-porter too. It’s very interesting to investigate how the fashion industry operates and prêt-a-porter is an important part of that. Yet still I want to do this in my own very conceptual way.”

In another interview Marga said: “In ten years from now I would love to be the head of an international company. To achieve that I am now working on increasing my brand awareness en creating more wearable collections.” Let’s see if after Friday night those dreams are already coming a little bit closer for her. Good luck Marga!

Website
www.margaweimans.com