Aisha Bah

BA (Hons) Fashion Design

This collection is part of a maternity wear line with the aim of creating styles that challenge the idea that maternity wear needs to be functional over fashionable, and instead, allowing women to choose both. The pieces created, are angled toward the longevity side of sustainability in fashion, making garments that are trans-situational and well-made, allowing women pregnant, nursing and not, to be able to wear these clothes and feel empowered, strong, and elegant. I draw upon my own experience as a young mother who did not want to forgo fashion in the name of comfort while breastfeeding, and whose body had undergone profound changes after having a baby. While designing these garments I was thinking about the mothers who do not want to give up their identity to become mothers, but to have their role be an aspect of their life. I created these looks to cater to those who want to still be themselves and feel confident and comfortable in what they wear. I want to highlight the mother, as an individual with an identity outside of children and with her own desires and a right to indulge in them if they are not harmful to herself and her child(ren).

My aesthetic as a designer draws on renaissance aspects as well as those of my own culture, as a west African. The pinching of the sleeves is what the silhouettes in the collection are based around, complimenting the fullness and of the sleeves as well as the details.


Mae’r casgliad yn cynnwys dillad ar gyfer merched beichiog gyda’r bwriad o greu steiliau sy’n herio’r syniad fod angen i ddillad o’r fath fod yn swyddogaethol yn fwy na ffasiynol, ac yn lle hynny, rhoi’r cyfle i ferched ddewis y ddau. Mae’r darnau sydd wedi’u creu, yn anelu at ochr hirhoedlog cynaliadwyedd mewn ffasiwn, gan greu dillad sy’n draws-sefyllfaol ac o wneuthuriad da, gan alluogi merched beichiog, p’un a ydynt yn bwydo ar y fron neu beidio, i wisgo’r dillad yma a theimlo’n awdurdodedig, cryf, ac urddasol. Rwy’n tynnu ar fy mhrofiad fy hun fel mam ifanc nad oedd am hepgor ffasiwn yn enw cysur wrth fwydo ar y fron, ac a wynebodd newidiadau sylweddol i’w chorff wedi cael babi. Wrth ddylunio’r dillad yma roeddwn i’n meddwl am y mamau hynny nad ydynt am roi’r gorau i’w hunaniaeth i fod yn famau, ond cael eu rôl fel agwedd ar eu bywydau. Fe wnes i greu’r edrychiadau yma ar gyfer y rhai sydd eisiau bod yn nhw eu hunain o hyd ac yn teimlo’n hyderus ac yn gyfforddus yn yr hyn y maent yn ei wisgo. Rwyf eisiau rhoi pwyslais ar y fam, fel unigolyn â hunaniaeth y tu hwnt i’w phlant gyda’i dyheadau ei hun a’r hawl i ymgolli ynddynt os nad ydynt yn niweidiol iddi hi a’i phlentyn/phlant.

Ysbrydolir fy estheteg fel dylunydd gan agweddau dadeni yn ogystal â’r rhai o’m diwylliant fy hun, sef gorllewin Affrica. Seilir silwetau’r casgliad ar y pinsio ar y llewys, gan weddu â llawnder y llewys yn ogystal â’r manylion.


• http://modepsyche.home.blog
• https://www.instagram.com/x_made_by_aisha_x

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