24-year-old student Alžběta Drcmánková from the Academy of Fine Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague studies textile design. Her project challenges conventional ideas about outdoor clothing – clothing that is intended for spending time in nature, but often harms the very environment it is supposed to interact with.
By reusing fabric scraps from local Czech production facilities and integrating second-hand outdoor clothing, she explores more sustainable alternatives to conventional functional clothing.
She combines classic sportswear with elements of traditional Czech folk clothing – garments that were originally inspired by nature – thus reinterpreting both our relationship to outdoor fashion and our cultural connection to the natural world.
“My research is based on two archives: the rich visual heritage of Czech folk costumes and my personal archive – photos of myself at folk festivals in my hometown, as well as paper dolls illustrated by my grandmother. I also studied the meaning of colors and the various floral folk ornaments.”
In the later phase of the project, with the support of her friends Klára Vinklárková and Tereza Fagulcová, she created metal buttons and a silver daffodil that can serve both as a secret hiding place and as a weapon, as the flower’s petals are very sharp. This idea is inspired by an old Slavic belief that the daffodil is a symbol of strength and power. “Through the reinterpretation of collective memory, I propose new possibilities. I reflect on the theme of folklore—a motif increasingly appropriated by nationalist groups—and visualize its future as a shared, democratic, and ideology-free cultural memory.
I delve into my past to imagine a new future. In this way, I tell a new story: that of a young woman who grew up in the hills and is now making her way through the concrete jungle.”
