molly-kok-balmer__unknown__ual__2025

Basic

School: RCA
Program:
Year: 2025
Author(s):

Source: https://ualshowcase.arts.ac.uk/project/657946/cover

Materials / Themes / Keywords

Contacts

Files

Images

(no images downloaded yet)

Description (Markdown extracted)

# Project Description

Spinning of the Cosmos

Molly Kok Balmer

Summary

Final work

I am interested in fashion from an anthropological perspective; the historical, social and cultural causes and impacts of the clothes we wear. In particular, how textiles and the design of garments can be used as a form of expression to reflect and challenge the ways in which we live. The ultimate aim of my practise is to spark this curiosity in others; to provoke intrigue and incite people to ask themselves questions about the world around them.

I am strongly inspired by collaborations and conversations and I am always looking for new minds to connect with, so please reach out if desired!

I am interested in fashion from an anthropological perspective; the historical, social and cultur...

College London College of Fashion

Course BA (Hons) Fashion Design and Development

Graduation year 2025

In the loud and chaotic nature of the fashion industry around us, we often rarely stop to question how are clothes are made and what hands worked to put them together?

In Mayan culture, weaving is respected in both material and non-material terms. Mayan weaving roots back to the beginning of time when the moon goddess, Ix Chel, taught the first woman how to weave. Since then, she is believed to sit at her cosmic loom daily weaving the universe anew. As well as being the goddess of weaving, she is also known as the goddess of fertiltity and so this can be seen as a metaphor linking the two in sync. The creation of cloth echoeing the creation of man.

'Spinning of the Cosmos' is a collection inspired by the mutual relationship between humanity and textiles and how one impacts the other in a perpetual cycle; from the conditions in which a person produces a fabric, should that be at a machine or a loom, and how that fabric is used and marked, to how it is disposed, passed onto another or up-cycled into something new.

Through the building of my own looms and weaving with up-cycled fabrics that my friends helped me cut into strips, this collection is a celebration of craft and its power in uniting communities, as well as giving a sense of self to the individual. This is particularly important to me living in a mass consumerist and capitalist society, where we feel so detached from the clothes on our backs that they are easily disposed of following the decline of a trend. By embracing a slower approach to fashion, I hope to demonstrate the spiritual fulfilment that craft can bring to the creator and the consumer- if we're willing to take the time to engage with it. Ultimately, I want to encourage people to remember how their clothes are made and who makes them, in order to regain the value and joy in them and in each other.

I would like to dedicate this body of work to my late father, Ricky Kok and my boyfriend and best friend, Freddy Forbes Adam, both of whom taught me so much about the world and how to embrace it with open arms.

Final work

View Gallery

View Gallery

View Gallery

View Gallery

View Gallery

View Gallery

Photo by: Tommy Broomfield

Photo by: Tommy Broomfield

Research and process

View Gallery

View Gallery

View Gallery

View Gallery

View Gallery

View Gallery

Share this project

In the loud and chaotic nature of the fashion industry around us, we often rarely stop to question how are clothes are made and what hands worked to put them together? In Mayan culture, weaving is respected in both material and non-material terms. ...

A link to this page has been added to your clipboard

Browse related work

Craft & Process

Histories

Materiality

Identity

Story & Myth

Health & Wellbeing

Community

Links (Markdown)

# Links

## Official page
- https://ualshowcase.arts.ac.uk/project/657946/cover

## External
- https://www.instagram.com/_moll.ee
- tel:07828398930
- mailto:mollybalmer@hotmail.co.uk
- https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fualshowcase.arts.ac.uk%2Fproject%2F657946%2Fcover&text=Spinning+of+the+Cosmos
- https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fualshowcase.arts.ac.uk%2Fproject%2F657946%2Fcover&media=https%3A%2F%2Fportfolio-tools.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2025%2F06%2F15211057%2F000009480003_1-3-1.jpg&description=Spinning+of+the+Cosmos