She dyes fabric with avocado stones and then embroiders her dresses with Czech seed beads. Andrea Vytlačilová, a talented student at Central Saint Martins in London, has returned to her Czech roots and traditions in her clothing collection.
Andrea, a native of Bohemia, is a clothing designer and a final year student at the most prestigious fashion school in the world, Central Saint Martins in London, where John Galliano, Alexander McQueen or Stella McCartney also studied in the past.
As part of her studies, Andrea has prepared her own final "Bohemia" collection of dresses drawing from Czech folklore, sustainability and upcycling. Part of this collection also includes beads and seed beads from the PRECIOSA Traditional Czech Beads™ brand and Preciosa crystals.
According to Andrea, the basic prerequisite for the sustainability of the fashion world lies in a return to local production. Andrea has journeyed back with her collection. Back to her roots and the traditions associated with the countryside of East Bohemia, a former significant textile producer, where she comes from and which serves her as a source of infinite inspiration. The concept for the final collection is mainly based in the use of rejected or previously used materials, products with a tradition, which Czech seed beads undoubtedly have, and furthermore the use of natural processes in fabric dying. The clothing is distinguished by a powdery or even dreamy color pallet acquired from using dyes from avocado seeds acquired in a public collection in the Czech Republic and in London or from petals from the garden of Andrea's parents and adornments consisting of detailed hand embroidery, preserved dried flowers or PRECIOSA seed beads or crystals. "Dying with avocado invokes red clouds.“ says Andrea. Therefore, she has chosen imitation pearls, fire polished beads and seed beads in the color shades of sunrise and sunset, such as white, off white and ivory and also ranging from delicate red through to rich scarlet.
Andrea Vytlačilová is also a talented illustrator and she established her own brand while still at school, under which she makes silk scarves with her own original prints. She has acquired work experience in the design teams of such fashion houses as Acne Studio in Stockholm, Marc Jacobs in New York or Kenzo in Paris. This talented and inspiring young woman also cooperates with the Balenciaga, Versace and Swarovski brands. No wonder that Andrea was selected for this year's 30under30 list in the Czech version of Forbes magazine.
The creation of the collection and the themes associated with it initiated the realisation of a project in cooperation with the renowned Czech photographer and director Lucie Desmond, who has created a Czech-English time-lapse film documentary from many environments called My Bohemian Tale. The documentary tells the story of the journey of this girl from the Czech countryside to a prestigious fashion school in London. It is a story of diligence, craft, creativity, tradition, sustainability and a return to one's roots. Lucie Desmond follows Andrea Vytlačilová in the last year of her studies along the road to her naturally dyed final clothing collection that was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of the creation of the My Bohemian Tale documentary, Andrea and Lucie visited Czech workshops and companies perpetuating craft traditions – this also included a visit to the glass seed bead production at Preciosa Ornela.
The notional acme of the entire project was the official unveiling on Wednesday 16 September 2020 in the baroque Artiseme garden in Prague. The "Bohemian Garden" launch event gave visitors the opportunity to experience the entire Bohemian tale – in the form of an unconventional fashion show with models from Andrea's latest collection, the premiere of the trailer of the documentary supplemented by a musical screening by the group Vesna and a picnic with purely Czech products. The poster for the documentary was also displayed at the event for the first time. It is dominated by a trio of talented Czech women, the violoncellist Terezie Kovalová, the actress Tereza Srbová and the moderator Naomi Adachi, dressed in pieces from Andrea's collection.
Links:
Andrea Vytlačilová
Lucie Desmond
TV Prima
My Bohemian Tale
The trailer for the documentary
Forbes
