Dilara Astam (born February 3, 1997) is a Dutch Fashion Designer, Textile Designer Visual artist. Astam was born in the Netherlands. She graduated from the ArtEZ University of the Arts in Arn-hem in 2021 and interned at Peter Pilotto & Christopher De Vos and Sharon Wauchob in London before launching her own label in 2021 right after she graduates. The Dutch designer debuted her first solo show last year in Prague.
Astam’s designs exists out of garments that are time taking the past, bringing it to the present and making it become something that is like the next Haute Couture garment of the future. In her perception, it’s a form of art. She thinks couture is the art of fashion. It’s innovative and it’s col-laborative. The artist has an unlimited curiosity about every layer of life and is not scared to move from one disciple into another. She never limits herself by defining herself.
That’s why she likes to experiment in different areas in art, fashion, science and technology. She has a multidisciplinary approach to creation and starts her creative process always with creating an artwork.
The paintings, animations and sculptures are actually the beginning process of her design process before creating the actual design. The artist wants to share her creative process with public. De paintings for example they are the beginning of a print research for her collection. The artist treats the canvas like a fabric and the frame like a human body. The draping’s and folding’s are coming to life with her own way of using acrylic and spray paint on the canvas.
This gives the two-dimensional surface a three-dimensional, sculptural feeling. Similar like how she is treating a plane fabric and starts draping with it and creates a sculptural design. Designing directly from the material and being guided by the drape of the fabric and how the fabric moves when you walk is very important for the designer. The same technic is the designer using for her paintings. Except for one difference she is freezing the movements and shapes eternally into a painting/prints.