nicol-s-hern-ndez__unknown__ual__2025

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School: RCA
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Year: 2025
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Source: https://ualshowcase.arts.ac.uk/project/656992/cover

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# Project Description

"MAÚRA"

Nicolás Hernández

Summary

Final work

Canarian born, London based fashion designer, studied at Central Saint Martins and London College of Fashion and currently works as a Junior designer at a London-Venician womenswear brand as well as creating his own designs and taking on commissions for bespoke orders.

Canarian born, London based fashion designer, studied at Central Saint Martins and London College...

College London College of Fashion

Course BA (Hons) Fashion Design Technology: Menswear

Graduation year 2025

The collection begins as an ongoing investigation of my design aesthetic, this time around im

approaching this final project as something as personal as possible. I’ve promised myself to

follow my gut and let myself be influenced by everything, “not setting boundaries”.

The core piece of research and concept within the collection is the continuation of a past pro-

ject, “The witches of Anaga” A project in which I began the exploration of what it means to be a

witch. I have labeled it as a personal philosophy or way of identity. It’s ruled by female energy,

it’s the interchange of gender norms and boundaries, it’s about going counter grain, feeling

differently questioning things, acting differently, not fitting in an outside context, but fitting within

yourself. During my entire upbringing I have been surrounded by a hostile social environment,

I was scrutinised for being feminine, for dressing differently than other people, acting differently

than other people, but ultimately being true to myself. I see this as contrasts, myself against

my environment, socially but also physically. The landscape of my home town, Tindaya, is of

extreme dryness, it’s a desert. The sun is strong, the wind blows inconsolably, and there is no

rain making it very difficult for life to form naturally (nature, plants, trees, wildlife). There is flora

and fauna, but its different to the one we are used to.

Femininity and women have saved me, growing up my strongest friendships have always been

with women. We speak the same language, with them I feel safe and supported. This led me

to dive into the figure of “Maga” or “Mauras”.

A Maura is a farmer woman from the Canary Islands. It was and still is a really tough profes-

sion. They where the back bone of the families and the economy of the islands, they kept their

families afloat as well as taking care of all the domestic tasks, something that isn’t considered

a job but is as important if not more than other things. It was not seen as something dignifying

or something to be proud of, a profession that came with shame as it wasn’t “femenine”, it was

brute, you get dirty, you sweat, you are exposed to the sun for hours, it’s physically deman-

ding. Researching I found a documentary that spoke and showcased the testimonies of many

women, both from the past and of current times, how some of them would wear drapes and

massive hats, gloves and completely cover themselves so they wouldn’t get recognised while

doing their job. I see them as muses and people to follow, in a way they are witches.

As part of this collection, I wrote the dissertation “Witches and Queerness: Exploring Identity

and Liberation through the Lens of Canarian women” which is included in this magazine for a

deeper understanding of the project and my design identity.

The collection evolved to incorporate other aspects of myself. I began learning pattern cutting

at 15, which gave me a technical approach to development and experimentation. I became

fascinated with Gazar, a silk fabric created by Cristóbal Balenciaga in collaboration with Abra-

ham textiles. Light with a satin finish, it’s soft to touch yet performs uniquely—bouncy and gra-

cefully shape-holding. Given its high cost, I experimented with tailoring canvas as an alternative.

This fabric, incorporating horsehair, creates that same bouncy roundness of Gazar. Tailoring

strongly influences the entire collection—hand stitching, canvas, wool, exposed basting thread.

These elements create clothes that feel artisanal while maintaining high-standard execution and

finishing—made-to-measure clothing that molds to one specific body.

Final work

"MAÚRA" NH2 SS25

Research and process

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The collection begins as an ongoing investigation of my design aesthetic, this time around imapproaching this final project as something as personal as possible. I’ve promised myself tofollow my gut and let myself be influenced by everything, “not setting boundar...

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Links (Markdown)

# Links

## Official page
- https://ualshowcase.arts.ac.uk/project/656992/cover

## External
- https://www.instagram.com/nh2spain
- tel:07552642563
- mailto:nh2spain@gmail.com
- https://portfolio-tools.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/11010420/LOOKBOOK-CONTENT-digital.pdf
- https://portfolio-tools.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/11005652/TINDAYA-MAGAZINE-digital-1.pdf
- https://portfolio-tools.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/11004806/DEVELOPMENT-digital-version-double-page-1.pdf
- https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fualshowcase.arts.ac.uk%2Fproject%2F656992%2Fcover&text=%22MA%C3%9ARA%22
- https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fualshowcase.arts.ac.uk%2Fproject%2F656992%2Fcover&media=https%3A%2F%2Fportfolio-tools.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2025%2F06%2F11011824%2FNH2-IMAGE-TAGS-rotated.jpg&description=%22MA%C3%9ARA%22