When Chloe Smith is not watching birds, she makes things. She is concerned with identity and is interested in how people express and portray their personalities through clothing and textiles.
'Bird Identification' is a collection of contemporary textiles for fashion, through which she performs a study of how personality and plumage combine to create the identity of three Irish bird species. The use of colour is an important element of Chloe’s practice, and this collection combines rich jewel tones with bold and zingy brights to create gradient effects and surprise contrasts.
Birds are energetic and seldom stay still, hence the fabrics in this collection are three-dimensional, have playful movement, and are fun to fiddle with. The feathery plumage of the birds is recreated using a combination of yarn qualities including soft, fluffy, mohair yarns to imitate the delicate, downy feathers that insulate the bird and crisp, shimmery mercerised cotton to replicate the structural flight feathers. Chloe believes that recently a lot of people have found great solace and pleasure in exploring local nature, and it is her hope that Bird Identification will bring others the same joy and escapism from the world that watching birds gives her.
Bird Yarn Wraps
Blue Tit
Bullfinch
Final Collection
Kingfisher
Textile close up
Textile close up
Research
Blue Tit. Research
Bullfinch. Research
Kingfisher. Research