Please introduce yourself.
Megan Alice Bouwer, a multidisciplinary visual artist specialising in oil portraiture and still life. My pursuits extend to fashion design which I explore with equal ardour. Having studied fashion design I have gone on to work within fashion and visual merchandising.
As someone who studied fashion design and merchandising, how do you think this background has influenced or supported your art?
As a child I nurtured a love for painting, drawing and sewing. In my Fashion studies, I would say that the artistic styles and movements that I appreciate and was exploring within my art, seemed to influence my design sense.
Now, however, this seems to be reversed. I feel like my background in fashion informs my approach to the preliminary, conceptual stages of a work. Fashion and art hold a very symbiotic relationship for me.
What influences have significantly shaped your current artistic taste?
I grew up in a household with a father who loved antiques, he would bring home curious old furniture and objects he had found by one way or another. So I’ve always appreciated the history and storytelling behind objects.
My grandparents were also both artistically inclined, days spent with them always involved drawing and sewing with Granny or hearing about the Old Master painters and watching Grandpa paint the clouds. Art came first for me, this cultivated a strong love for historical aesthetics that influences my fashion taste as well as the stylistic manner in which I paint.
Why do you prefer avant-garde artisan brands?
My artistic sensibilities inform my interest in artisanal fashion. It is all about the design for me, I just find that these designers resonate with me on a deeper level. The craftsmanship involved and artisanal approach to making a piece to be lived in is so beautiful.
From a sustainability standpoint, investing in artisanal fashion is advantageous as well. I find I am a much more conscious consumer, I buy less and of a higher quality. I also find there is a different kind of respect for the garment, when an object or garment is coveted and truly valued. This is the antithesis of the throw away mentality that many have towards their clothes and something I feel passionately about.
What is the most recent purchase you are pleased with, and why do you like it?
A beautiful Paul Harnden charcoal tweed wool blazer I purchased a few months ago, I can tell that this is going to be a staple for me once I’m shivering through winter in London. I love how the pocket bags are cut to be extra long so that they bunch up inside, creating this gorgeous fullness around the hips.
Where do you primarily get your fashion inspiration?
For the most part I am inspired by garment’s fabrication. I am drawn to beautiful, natural fabrics and begin creating a fabric story from there. I love looking at fashion history, film and folklore and playing around with creating a story or mood.
The designers that I love, I also appreciate because they have their own romance and aesthetic, so It’s fun to play into those aesthetics and experiment with mixing them for a crossover of worlds.
Could you tell us about the brands that have influenced your fashion taste up to now?
As a fashion student, I was very excited by Japanese designers such as Yohji and Comme and Japanese archival fashion. I loved how they manipulated fabric and disrupted silhouette.
I was also very much drawn to Ann Demeulemeester. Discovering her work was my first real foray into fashion that I really connected with. The depth of storytelling in her collections and how she was inspired by poetry and folklore drew me in.
I adored Marc le Bihan and Elena Dawson for their decorative and whimsical qualities and they very much inspired my experimentation with a more feminine and romantic silhouette, which I still enjoy. I’ve found that I feel most comfortable in Paul Harnden and John Alexander Skelton. For me they feel very authentic and I identify with the ethos and approach they take towards design
