SOUL OF THINGS 物の魂

The Soul of Things (物の魂 Mono no Tamashi) explores our fundamental relationship with clothes, remembering a time when clothing was believed to be magical, endowed with the ability to protect the wearer.

Clothing has the ability to embody our histories, cultures, and identities. They constantly intersect with our environment and as such shape our worldly experience from moment to moment.

The origin of clothing begins with a rectangular piece of cloth. In order to tap into her subconscious connection with clothes, each garment is created from a rectangular piece of cloth that is 3D pattern cut on the stand. This method allows Lilia to respond directly to the cloth in front of her at each moment in time as she is cutting.

The Soul of Things explores the merging of Eastern traditional clothing forms with modern sensibilities. This combines flat and form cutting techniques while constructing spatial and temporal meanings in relation to the body and its identity.

Each garment is ethically made in Lilia’s studio, using organic hemp/cotton, British-milled wools, organic Italian wools with attention paid to minimum waste cutting and finishing techniques, and low energy hand-printed techniques. We experiment with non-toxic chemical dyes on organicallly sourced cotton calico to create creased textures, so our red fabrics would not be classified as organic.

This travelling exhibition has seen various collaborative iterations in Japan, Iceland, Singapore, Spain and Italy.

Each iteration taking a different form and focus, engaging with local communities to create their own interpretation of the Soul of Things.