Dutch Designer Creates Sustainable Fashion Range Inspired by Scottish Nature

Scotland’s natural beauty is the inspiration behind a sustainable fashion range by an aspiring Dutch designer studying at Robert Gordon University’s (RGU), Gray’s School of Art.
Lisa van Nuland, 28, originally from Eindhoven, the Netherlands, moved to Aberdeen in 2012 to begin a course in Fashion and Textiles, looking for a future that combined her love of the outdoors with her flair for craft and design.
She couldn’t have chosen a better place than the scenic and emotive Scottish landscape with which she immediately fell in love and used for inspiration in her university work.
“I had always liked making stuff but I wasn’t quite sure, specifically, what type of stuff I would like to focus my efforts on,” Lisa said regarding her work, “The things I was making were always quite conceptual.”
She has always been into 3D design – not necessary in a functional way: “I didn’t want the things I made to end up in a museum.”
Rather, she wanted her creations to be part of people’s everyday life, so she ended up doing fashion design.
Lisa has spent a lot of time travelling, most recently visiting some of the most picturesque locations in Scotland such as Skye’s Cuillin Mountains, the Cairngorms and Loch Lomond.
Her current work is inspired by the woods around Loch Lomond, the rugged, jagged mountains in Skye and geometric patterns within the Cairngorm National Park.
“When I get out into nature, it is very emotive and for me,” she said, “when I’m out in nature, there is a sense of being able to let go and what I am trying to do with this collection is elicit the same emotional response through textures in the fabric.”
After having just finished exhibiting her work at the Gray’s Interim Show, Lisa is now working towards the Degree Show in June, where she will display three outfits.
Her current work consists on textile manipulation and how she can use textile to create textures and colours to mirror an emotion which comes along with the geometries of nature.
“I am really into the sustainability of the work I am involved in and I feel that nature has instilled this in me,” Lisa said.
All the fabrics she is using are sustainable, sourced from companies she has researched.
Lisa is now working on her dissertation which will look at the influence the clothes we wear can have on our happiness and wellbeing: “The things we wear, we do so for most hours of the day and currently we just consider the comfort factor, and how it might represent their personality.
“However, I believe there is a much wider scope which hasn’t been looked at and this is something I would really like to concentrate my research on – to see how we can get emotive responses out of the things we wear and how this can help people.”
Lisa’s work will be on display at the Gray’s School of Art Degree Show in Aberdeen and the New Designers Exhibition in London in June.
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