Marine Puumala

Marine Puumala’s MA graduate collection, I Have Lost My Marbles, examines the intricate intersections and societal links between creativity, the Western construct of womanhood, and mental health. With a title that nods to the idiomatic expression of perceived madness, the collection serves not as a literal interpretation, but as a poetic inquiry into the fragmented nature of reality and the emotional architecture and psychology of the creative process. Rooted in an intimate dialogue with the self, Puumala’s collection emerges from a desire to confront creative blocks and understand the emotional terrain that surrounds them. Her design process is marked by intentional disorientation: allowing instinct and curiosity to override logic. My favourite thing is being immersed in making something with no predetermined end goal, just a play of perception and possibility, stepping back, and seeing something surprising that feels nonsensical in some way. Kind of like a narrative glitch. Utilising deadstock materials and existing garments, the designer combines intuitive crafting of sculptural elements, draping and dressing with deconstructing and distorting existing garments. "The doughnut shapes became a sort of psychological bumper and offered something other than the body to relate to and to dress.", Puumala explains. Trompe-l’oeil prints of deconstructed garments capture impossible drapes where the technical properties of different parts of the mockup couldn’t coexist functionally. As a designer, Puumala constructs a narrative that refuses resolution. Instead, I Have Lost My Marbles dwells in the liminal space where madness meets method, where the creative process mirrors the destabilising experience of questioning one’s perception of reality.