MEET FASHION DESIGNER MEGAN VAN ENGELEN WINNER OF THE EPSON DESIGN AWARDS
Winning the SureColor SC-F500 dye sublimation printer will enable her to produce her own printed fabrics in house.
With the printer now installed in her studio, we asked her what’s next? “I'm super excited to start working with it. It gives me more space to experiment. One thing I really missed leaving school was the Epson printer because I've worked with it a lot - I was the workshop a lot. Having the printer now at home is so exciting, I'm already thinking creatively.”
Supporting the design community Epson and fashion innovator LABELEDBY. have once again collaborated to present the Epson Design Awards.
The project now in its second year, and was held during the GLOW Festival in Eindhoven.
The renown GLOW festival is a light art festival held every November in the Dutch city of Eindhoven, where the city is illuminated by pattern and light. Artists and designers from home and abroad present light art and design applications by using new media technologies, such as computers, sensors, animations, and innovative projection techniques. As such, the festival presented the perfect backdrop for the Epson Design Awards, the award show in which talented designers can show their creativity to a larger audience. The Fashion show was once again an astounding success bringing together the design community to celebrate the talented Dutch fashion community in support of emerging designers.
"The first edition of the Epson Design Awards was so successful that we decided to take an even bigger approach this year," says Emile Schmeits, marketing manager at Epson Netherlands.
"The awards are intended to help young, enthusiastic designers get their work to the attention of a larger audience. We saw last year how well that worked. At the same time, we want to introduce the next generation of fashion designers to a sustainable, small-scale and on-demand way of printing fabrics." The award winner will receive an Epson SureColor SC-F500 dye sublimation printer as a gift enabling them to take control of their own creativity and to explore printed production in-house and grow their design brand organically.
This year’s winner was Megan van Englelen a talented designer and passionate creative.
Sophie Wantia the chairman of the jury and last year’s winner commented on Megans fashion collection: "Megan tells an emotional story in a light-hearted, absurd way that creates a strong relationship between print, story and form. Well thought out and technically well executed. She translated her story into a graphic print and then used the sublimated fabrics in a way that created creative powerful silhouettes”.
Artist’s statement:
“Personal stories with an absurdist twist are the main focus in Megan’s work. With that aspect, she uses fashion and film to bring her vision to life. She brings back the narrative in fashion film through extravagant outfits and performance. Her work often falls under themes such as mental health by addressing traumas and taboos from her daily life.
Megan seeks the emotional limits and translates these into a unique appearance. A view on fashion to push the boundaries of physical appearance with personal stories. By displaying her story and her fascination for the subject, she creates space for more people to feel at ease with themselves. She achieves this by directing the clothing into film with an abstract storytelling.
She finds her expression through a combination of the art of clothes and moving images”.
In collaboration with graphic designer James Whistler, Megan created the textile prints for the Epson Design Awards. This was their second collaboration and gifts a powerful demonstration of how the next generation seek to work together to combine their skills and creativity. Megan also collaborated with Iris Zegwaard, who helped make the outfits.
We interviewed Megan to find out more about her work, what inspires her, and how she intends to use the gifted Epson SureColor SC-F500 dye sublimation printer to further her creative vision.
We asked Megan when and why did you choose a creative career in fashion?
“I think that really started early on because my mom is really creative and there was always a sense of creativity in the household. The first moment I set foot in middle school, I decided that was my passion, I was going to be a fashion designer. I guess I was 14 years old.”
Megan takes a practical approach to her work and seeks to understand the technical process of creation. Studying tailoring first, and then moving onto fashion design. Inspired by her final degree collection, during which she took an internship with a film maker, she successfully crowdfunded a film project. Bringing together a team, to produce a video to support her final collection. Her next study path will be film, a media that she intends to explore further and use to express (and expand) her creativity and printed fashion collections.
Seeking inspiration from personal stories is integral to Megans creativity, we asked her to explain the source of her inspiration for the Epson Design Awards: “It's really my personal story that I translate into a garment first, so I started digging into something that's really important for me at the moment.
For my for Epson submission, the inspiration was the blackberry bush in my mom's garden. She moved last year, and the blackberry bush didn't survive, but it was there throughout my youth.”
Working with Epson printing technology at university, Megan is no stranger to the benefits and creativity that dye sublimation offers.
Winning the SureColor SC-F500 dye sublimation printer will enable her to produce her own printed fabrics in house. With the printer now installed in her studio, we asked her what’s next? “I'm super excited to start working with it. It gives me more space to experiment. One thing I really missed leaving school was the Epson printer because I've worked with it a lot - I was the workshop a lot. Having the printer now at home is so exciting, I'm already thinking creatively. I can perhaps explore double-sided (duplex print) and I can then embroider on it for example”.
Sustainability is a focus for Megan and her fashion creations she explained:
“I really want to tell my story and I think that's more important than saying that the world is dying, because at this point, we need to show people how we can offer solutions and I think that's what designers are for, and that we show people how we can be more sustainable”.
Looking to her future Megan added: “High fashion is definitely one of my greatest loves, but I think that's its old fashioned. Creating shows with like 50 looks, that's so out of context at this point of where we are. For me, it's really important that for every garment that I make, that there's a story and I tell my story, and I use my trauma to help people open up the conversation. I think that's one of the most important things because that's what we're lacking at this moment in our society”.
The GLOW festival presented the perfect backdrop for the Epson Design Awards, the award show in which talented designers can show their creativity to a larger audience.
The Fashion show was once again an astounding success bringing together the design community to celebrate the talented Dutch fashion community in support of emerging designers.
