V de Vinster

Virginie de Vinster is atypical. She didn’t go to fashion design school. Nor did she go to the big fashion houses. Her university was in Africa, where she worked for 15 years. Her apprenticeship, travels through the Sahel, Côte d’Ivoire, Benin, Togo and Ghana.

Her watchwords: simplicity of form, respect for materials, the poetry of an outfit that has been dyed, knitted or sewn in a remote village in Peru or Rajasthan. Her challenge is to create garments using ancestral materials and processes, such as Tie and Dye or block prints on long silk dresses, thread and pearl embroidery on the cuffs of balloon sleeves, Himalayan pashmînâ blouses, Ikat fabrics, another dyeing and knotting process…