Connection and creativity are at the heart of Bianca Spender designs. There is a radiating pulse and innate energetic response within the clothes that looks to hold the wearer. 

Coming to the fore throughout the Spring collection, our creative collaboration with Contemporary Artist, Indivi Sutton explores the relationship between art, colour and design.

 Tune in to the second episode of our series, THE WHY, a conversation between Indivi Sutton and Bianca Spender, exploring creative expression.

IS: I’m curious as to when you were thinking about this show, what was it about the collaboration that pulled you in? 
 

 BS: It was the energy behind your work. This season I wanted to have a collection that was inspired by energy and not about a period of time or details. It was very much something that I felt this idea of softness, ease and creating positive energy for women in a time where there are lots of anxieties and pressures that people are feeling. 

I can’t change the state of world politics but what can I do? And your artwork and your pieces have such an energy that they radiate that drew me in.

IS: How do you decide what gets cut, and what do you break apart? 

BS: I’m known to be someone who needs to digest, and I was so excited about the collaboration. I got the fabric and I think it was three or four weeks before I felt like I could cut it. It was so magnificent that I didn’t want to break it, so if I cut it, it had to be done in a really purposeful way that transformed and made it even more magical.

 I’m wearing the pants that were the first piece that I made in the collection. I wanted to give people something they could throw on with this idea of a masculine pant. In my mind, I imagined walking through a low river or stream that kind of had the yellows seeping up from the ground. 

The idea of bringing athleticism or mansiness into such a romantic world really excited me.

IS: What drew you to the blue we got to in the end? 
 

BS: The collection was inspired by this idea of softness and I really wanted to bring us back to the earth. For me, nature is always so inspiring so having something that really started in those earthy hues and we built this whole collection around it. We wanted to bring in a pure colour to offset the earthiness and grounding nature of the palette created. We wanted to reflect this idea of earth meets sky. 

I’m a person who looks up daily at the sky and watches clouds pass overhead, and this is what we wanted to capture with the blues. It really was a true collaboration because you started something that lead me on a journey, and then I asked you to pull another world into that – it was a real exchange.

IS: I think what’s so special about the colours is that they are seamlessly intertwined 
 

BS: At the heart of this collaboration is the felt sense in the body and you have such a felt sense of how the work connects to you and how you want it to connect to people. For this collection, I wanted to create a feeling and you gave me more courage to think about what I could create from a feeling. It was really inspiring – I feel very lucky to collaborate with you! 

IS: When people look at my work I want them to go to a place within. To have the works on the fabrics, was that a different thing for you? 
 

BS: The roll of fabric tells you a story of how it wants to fall. I explored gathers and asymmetry, but there was something quite powerful about how the prints wanted to be expressed in quite a clean way. There’s a modernity to the cleanliness of the lines that really amplifies the impression of the work. 

It’s a very physical and energetic interaction with the work, and I always hope that people feel that hand and that felt sense when they put the garments on.